CoachingStrength with

By Molly Milroy

AnnaNelson has a drive and a heart for helping others achieve their goals and live out their lives in the fullest way possible. Last year, she turned that drive into a business, one that motivates, guides, inspires and challenges others to succeed.

Nelson grew up in Duluth and graduated from Duluth East High School in 1996, followed by University Minnesota Duluth. During her senior year of college, her father had taken a year-long sabbatical in Boston to further his own educational goals. She flew out to attend the graduation ceremony.

“My grandpa suggested I consider staying out in Boston … he bought me a one-way plane ticket and said he’d buy me a one-way plane ticket back if I didn’t like it out there after one year,” Nelson said.

Not only did she like it, she ended up living in Boston for 10 years, working in financial and retail industries. While working, she decided to pursue her education further and obtained her Master of Business Administration from Simmons University in 2007. Education has always played an important role in Nelson’s life.

“It adds skills and knowledge to one’s toolkit,” she said, “and more tools equals more opportunities.”

In 2010, she decided to move back to Minnesota and settled in the Twin Cities where she worked in marketing before returning to Duluth in 2018.

“I moved back to Duluth to get my bearings after the loss of my marriage,” Nelson explained. “When one dream ends it’s incredibly difficult to imagine that other dreams can still happen and new dreams birthed.”

Her drive and positive attitude carried her home and motivated her to help others through life coaching.

Using one’s strengths

Coaching came naturally to Nelson.

“When I found out there was an entire industry devoted to inspiring people to leverage what they’re naturally good at doing in business and in life, I realized that I had been doing that my entire life,” she said.

Her motivation to help others continues to push her forward.

“People’s life trajectories literally change for the better,” she said. “I can have one session with someone, never see them again, then hear from them months later that what we talked about changed their life. It’s both a huge responsibility and a huge reward.”

One reason Nelson decided to go into coaching was because she knew firsthand how powerful it can be.

“Some of the most life-changing times have been because I had a coach,” Nelson said. “I ran a marathon having never run more than 3 miles before I started training. I swam the 1.2-mile swim portion of the Superior Man Triathlon because I had a coach. I was stretched faster and further because I had a coach.”

Laurie Bodisch, a client of Nelson’s, said: “The experience was truly eyeopening and as a result I’m able to create stronger relationships and improve processes in my business and everyday life. I was so impressed that immediately following our coaching session I signed-up my college senior to work with Anna, too.”

Even as a coach now, Anna has her own coach that helps her with her business goals.

“A coach provides a fresh perspective and can be the catalyst to get you to take action. Action is the only way anyone can move forward in any part of life,” Nelson explained. “Regardless of who you are, regardless of the life or career position you’re in, regardless of your past, you need to take action and sometimes taking that big leap requires someone climbing that big hill with you.”

Education with purpose

One way Nelson inspires her clients is through encouraging them to find a path that is of interest to them.

“It’s never too late to change your life trajectory,” Nelson said.

She knows that education is an important tool and can be used to further pursue one’s goals, but she encourages her clients to figure out what they are interested in first.

“Before you go back to school or declare a major, pay really close attention to what you enjoy doing,” she explained. “We live in a society where we think the thing we struggle with is the thing we should go back to school for or people close to us in our lives pressure us to get education in something they wish they had done. Be strong and enhance what you’re good at. Get education in the area that you have an aptitude for.”

Nelson is a Gallup Certified Strengths coach and received International Coach Federation accredited coach training from the Center for Coaching Excellence.

“I went all in with additional training as a coach and created a business doing exactly what I’ve always been doing,” she said.

She has found the training to be useful for her clients, and in her own life as well.

“Anna walked me through the results of my Gallup Strengths test,” said Bodisch, “and helped me not only identify what my natural strengths are, but actually understand why I’m good at the things I’m good at.”

Drawing on her Gallup Strengths training, she encourages others to realize their top strengths and then build upon those strengths.

“Education in something that leverages what you’re already good at is a game changer and allows you to more fully live out of your strengths,” Nelson said.

Her own life serves as a testimony to this.

“My coaching education is the education that was the most perfect fit for me,” she said.

Living it out

Coming from two large cities, Nelson is happy to be back in her hometown, where she especially enjoys the outdoors and lack of traffic.

“Every time I go walking on Park Point, I’m grateful for the wide-open space and natural beauty and can’t believe I’m walking on the shores of the largest lake in the world,” she said.

When she is not coaching people on their dreams and business goals, she spends time reading at the beach in the summer, traveling when the opportunity arises to places like France and Italy, and partaking in knitting projects.

Since coming back to Duluth and starting her business, she has created the future that she envisioned. And now she inspires others to do the same.

“And that’s what I love about coaching,” Nelson said. “Seeing my clients have their ‘a-ha’ and pivotal moments when they can literally point to a moment in time and say, ‘That’s what moved the needle forward.’”

Find out more about Nelson and her business at annaynelson.com, on Instagram at instagram.com/ annaynelson and on Facebook at facebook.com/ annaynelson. D