Chloe Mackey PCC shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Chloe, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Right now, I juggle my coaching responsibilities, which are absolutely my pride and joy, alongside a unique opportunity I’ve been hand-selected for by startup founders. I support them with operations and building out their AI coaching assistant to enhance leadership development through technology.
It’s fascinating balancing these two worlds because creating AI-powered coaching experiences is remarkably different from human-to-human coaching. While they serve similar goals, the approaches are distinct, and I’m learning so much about this emerging technology while being part of an innovative startup environment.
My typical day starts with a slow morning routine… enjoying tea with my cats, Mrs. Norris and Linus (often in my garden), then reviewing my calendar and priorities. I always look forward most to my direct coaching calls with clients, but I also dedicate focused time to my work with the AI startup and other corporate partnerships.
After work, I prioritize unwinding completely. I’m currently obsessed with audiobooks and what some call “cozy video games.” I’ve also become an avid gardener, particularly passionate about my pollinator garden project. Living in Ocala, Florida, gives me incredible access to natural springs and rivers, so weekends often find me exploring the area’s natural beauty. It’s a great balance to my professional focus.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Of course, hi! I’m Chloe Mackey, an ICF-certified Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with a background in education and corporate learning and development. My true passion lies in personal and professional development… helping people achieve what I like to call “work-life magic” for themselves.
I consider myself an entrepreneur, freelancer, and jack-of-all-trades. The majority of my clients are high-performing people pleasers who struggle to advocate for themselves at work. Despite being fantastic at their jobs, they’re burnt out and not receiving the recognition they deserve. I help them navigate the corporate landscape, manage difficult relationships, and most importantly, create lives they truly love.
The magic happens when people zoom out beyond just work and focus on the bigger picture of what life they want to create. This can feel daunting… especially in a culture that makes it hard not to prioritize work above everything else. I help people build careers they feel in control of and confident about, so work doesn’t consume all their energy and mental headspace, leaving room to enjoy their passions and community.
While my private coaching practice is my main pride and joy, I also work with various organizations on career and leadership-focused coaching. Through these contracts, I’ve coached over 400 people from all walks of life! This includes leaders at Fortune 100 companies, big tech firms, startups, and industries ranging from coffee shops to veterinary practices to military personnel. This exposure across diverse industries has given me a unique perspective on navigating the working world.
My most fascinating current project is working with an AI startup to develop an AI coach and mentor. We’re infusing coaching behaviors into our AI product while integrating learning and development frameworks to provide managers with immediate, actionable development insights. It goes much deeper than that, but at a high level, that’s how I’d describe this interesting project. It’s not a pure ICF-approved coach, but it’s an exciting exploration of how technology can enhance leadership development and best practices in the corporate world.
At my core, I currently focus a lot on professional development, but I’m most energized by clients who embrace personal development too! Those who are ready to create a fuller, more integrated version of themselves are always my absolute favorite clients.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
The person who clearly saw me before I could see myself was my first coach, Joanna Davis, who eventually became my mentor, trainer, and the catalyst for embracing this career path. She was a dedicated life coach at the company I worked for. Which was remarkable, by the way, because having a designated life coach solely focused on supporting employees’ evolution was rare then and remains uncommon today. At least that’s my impression… it seems like a lot of companies I work with today work with third parties (some of which I have contracts with) to provide their employees coaching support. It’s rare to have a dedicated in-house coach…
Anyways. I took advantage of this opportunity after transitioning from my teaching career into the corporate learning world. That period was truly a coming-home moment for me… A time of rediscovering who I was. And Joanna guided me through it beautifully. Her support helped me gain traction quickly in the corporate environment. I earned four promotions in five years simply because my self-awareness was coming online in entirely new ways.
She consistently saw skills and talents in me that I couldn’t recognize myself. More importantly, she could see how my own thoughts, inner voice, and limiting stories were preventing me from using my abilities to their fullest potential in creative, innovative ways.
For years, she told me I would make an excellent coach, presenting compelling evidence to support her belief. But caught up in old stories and outdated definitions of who I was, I felt completely unconfident about pursuing that path. Through persistent, patient work with me, she helped me take the plunge! I’m incredibly grateful because being a coach is truly a humbling privilege. It is so wonderful to be able to do that same service for others – helping people learn their own skills and talents and come home to themselves is one of the coolest things I could possibly do.
Learning an entirely new methodology for active listening, asking powerful questions, and supporting others without an agenda has been radically eye-opening for me. None of this transformation would have happened if I hadn’t said yes to this journey, and that all started by deciding to try out coaching sessions with Joanna.
She saw what I was capable of and recognized that I could thrive in this space. She’s now the legacy business holder for Coach for Life Education, the coaching school where I got my start. It was a deeply touching experience, and I believe the training is valuable for any leader or person wanting to become a more authentic support figure in others’ lives. Here’s their website if you want to check out Coach for Life – https://coachforlifeeducation.com/
I’ve combined that CFL certification with my educational and corporate learning experience to create a career and life I truly love. I’m super grateful that she saw me before I saw myself and helped me move in a direction I never originally imagined because I couldn’t be happier about the life I am consistently working to build and maintain for myself today.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Geez, this is a really big question. First, I think the most important lesson suffering taught me is that you first have to be willing to learn from it. My past self (and sometimes my present self… plus many of my clients today) carried such high expectations based on what society, family, or others taught us about who we should be and how we should handle difficulties.
Most people try to grit their teeth and push through suffering, downplaying it or treating it as something to overcome quickly. But that approach actually shuts us down from learning through it. This is bad for a whole litany of reasons (just Google the impact that prolonged stress or unaddressed stress has on your mind, body, and overall health), but the real growth happens when we slow down, acknowledge the suffering, and make space for it. I think that’s where the profound lessons live.
Becoming a coach and being coached by powerful professionals taught me skills for self-management and reflection. I finally learned to ask questions like, “What, if anything, is in this moment for me? What do I need to acknowledge? How can I adjust how I’m showing up to be balanced, authentic, and most importantly fair to myself?”
I’ve been no stranger to suffering, having been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease as a child, with multiple hospital stays and surgeries throughout my life. But I’ve noticed a dramatic difference in my mental health in recent years based on how I speak to myself and show up for myself during flare-ups and unexpected physical health events that are just part of the gig when you’re a chronically ill person. For example, last year alone, I experienced two back-to-back miscarriages and had to navigate that grief while still showing up for work and clients. Life/the world doesn’t stop just because you’re crumbling on the inside. Unfortunately, right now at least, miscarriages are very stigmatized and no one ever talks about them! That left me feeling very “on my own” as I navigated this situation, even with my therapist on speed dial.
There’s a healthy way to navigate the truly traumatic curveballs we are thrown and an unhealthy way. Past me would have brute-forced through it, gaslighting myself and showing up in ways that weren’t sustainable long-term. But the coaching skills I’ve developed (both as a practitioner and client) allowed me to walk through those difficult chapters (especially my most recent one) with patience, grace, and levels of self-compassion that previously seemed laughably unattainable. When I removed pressure from myself, I ironically showed up more powerfully. When I became flexible with my expectations and allowed myself to pause and assess more frequently rather than brute-forcing through life, the success I generated felt more authentic, rewarding, and sustainable.
It didn’t feel meaningless, and it wasn’t overshadowed/diminished by lingering health symptoms I’d ignored while pushing toward some finish line. Suffering taught me that sustainable success requires self-compassion, authentic pacing, and the courage to honor what my body and soul actually need in each moment. It’s a constant flex and evolving. White-knuckling your plan and ignoring problems in the face of suffering will ultimately lead to a breakdown. And trust me, I’ve definitely been there, too, but I promise being flexible and kind is a way better way of moving forward, (and you can indeed still kick ass and accomplish your goals).
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
You know, I’m gonna say yes to this question. For the most part, I’m very much a “what you see is what you get” kind of person. I’m naturally opinionated and expressive, which means my mouth has definitely gotten me into trouble sometimes. I laugh now when I think about some of the ways I’ve put my foot in my mouth previously (at least usually… I’ve had way more than my fair share of cringeworthy and painful moments… most of which I can laugh at, some of which I am still working to forgive myself for).
Those experiences have taught me to be more selective about what I say and how I say it, which realistically is probably a good thing (I’m sure several people who knew me in past lives would say “Thank God she’s slowing her mouth down!” if they saw me saying such things, haha). But by and large, there are no significant differences between my private self and my public persona. My core thoughts, beliefs, and values remain consistent whether you encounter me in person, in professional settings, or in public statements like this interview.
That said, I do have strong opinions, and if you’re a close client or someone I’m in a deeply trusting relationship with, you’re much more likely to hear my more pointed or cheeky perspectives than what I might share publicly. At the end of the day, I (for better or worse) have to be mindful not to alienate the organizations I contract with. I have very strong opinions about corporate America and how many aspects of the system are broken. But regardless of context, what remains constant is my passion for helping people survive, thrive, and create lives they love. That mission is always genuine and something I consistently return to.
So yes, I try to be my most authentic self in all spaces. I just make sure I’m not putting my livelihood at risk in the process (because how can I support people if I don’t have lights, food, and internet?). I guess it’s about finding the balance between authenticity and professional wisdom.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I always feel a little bashful answering questions this because I don’t want to put words in my clients’ mouths or assume I know what they’re thinking. But if I had to guess, I’d say many of my clients are people trying to survive the day-to-day chaos of working at fast-moving companies in today’s corporate world.
So much of what happens in our sessions involves providing a safe space for them to work out their next best step in environments where things are constantly evolving. Sometimes this requires completely rethinking their goals and vision in new ways. Losing that consistent support system could leave people feeling stuck when they need a life-saver or a “something” to hold onto the most.
What I hope my clients would miss most of course is the genuine connection we share and my ability to validate their unique experiences. I’m often telling my peeps things like, “Hey, you’re not crazy. You’re not alone in this. I see people experiencing similar challenges throughout the corporate world… it’s not just you. This world is crazy, but you are strong and skilled, and we can figure out next steps together.”
Then we take a moment to slow down and create a game plan together. I ask them questions about what they truly need and desire, and we continuously tweak our approach session by session so they keep moving forward in a way that feels authentic and sustainable, and aligned with them as a unique human being, regardless of what’s being thrown at them.
All my clients are incredibly smart and capable people, so I know they’d ultimately be fine without me. But I hope they would miss the sacred space we create together; that consistent place where they can do the deep work and that allows them to focus on creating genuine work-life magic for themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.coachingbychloe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chlothecoach/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloe-b-mackey/
