We had the good fortune of connecting with Dina Grishin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dina, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I never really thought about taking risks in my business/ career until I did an end of year reflection exercise. I got a journal ready for the new year, and it started with reflections on the year gone. It had the questions like ‘what was your highlight/lowlight?’ but then it asked me ‘What was the biggest risk you took this year?’
This question stumped me! I looked back at the year and realised I hadn’t taken any risks. I had pushed…or rather, nudged, myself outside my comfort zone by volunteering to speak at our monthly company meetings, but I hadn’t taken any risk.
And so my year of risk began.
The first risk I took was the biggest one of my entire career and it wasn’t planned. At the time I had landed a dream role as Head of Coaching at a career accelerator start-up. I had planned to stay there for 5 years, gain confidence and experience in coaching and then leave to face my fears and fulfil my dream of becoming self-employed.

That plan got scrapped when our company went into administration after only 2 years of me being there. My 5 year plan got brought forward. I didn’t have more time to grow into feeling ready to be self-employed. I had to decide – Do I give into my money anxieties and go find another 9-5 job, or do I take the risk give my dreams a shot?

I thought I’d only last a year, but 4 years later, I’m still here and absolutely loving being self-employed.

What people don’t realise is that risk gives you a super power. You don’t have time for procrastination or wasting time sitting in indecision. You become an action-taking machine. And the adrenalin you get from finally overcoming your fears and taking a bet on you, makes you want take even more risk and play even bigger. That year I launched my first group program, which made me confront my fears of rejection and it taught me that I could actually sell! For years, I thought I wasn’t blessed with sales skills. I didn’t know that all you needed to do was get out there and just do it. I approached brands to do talks and had to get over any public speaking nerves I had. It was a wild and exciting year, and it was the year I grew exponentially.
So now, every year, I make sure I take risks because it’s the best way to discover what you’re really made of.

What should our readers know about your business?
I’m a life and career coach and I specialise in helping stuck professionals get clear on what they should do next in their career. I started off coaching those going through a Quarter Life Crisis (QLC) because I had just experienced my own QLC and knew I could help others get out of the misery of being in jobs they didn’t like. My talk on ‘How to navigate a Quarter Life Crisis’ is still one of my most popular workshops and I think it really resonates for people because it’s an honest story of all my career failures and woes. But it’s also tangible and positive! People always reach out to me after to tell me that it helped them articulate their problem and it reassured them they weren’t the only ones going through this.
So I still love delivering that workshop, but my coaching business has grown as I’ve grown. It had to!
I now coach those in their 30s and early 40s and I help them with career change if they want to leave their jobs or career development if they want to stay in their jobs but grow professionally.
I’m really proud of the course I developed – The Career Clarity Program – and the signature method I created that lives inside the program called The Meaningful Change Method. Ironically, it took me a good few years to get clarity for myself on what my process was and how it can be distilled into a simple step-by-step method. I had the same problem my clients have – I was too close to my work to see the woods for the trees. They, and I, needed someone else looking into our lives, pulling out our strengths and telling us what our USP was. Because it’s hard to see for yourself.
But now it’s done, I’m super proud of my course because it’s such an empowering process to go through! Clients come to me feeling lost, overwhelmed and unsure of themselves, and they leave feeling confident, focused and driven. It’s so lovely to see!
The journey here was not easy because I had just started being self-employed a year before the pandemic! So I had to navigate that, but I feel much stronger because of it. Luckily, I was coaching on Zoom before it was a thing, so switching online wasn’t a problem. The challenging thing was how massively the world was shifting year on year. One year people weren’t buying one-on-ones, but they were enjoying webinars and group programs, then the next year one-on-one coaching was selling like hotcakes and I had a waiting list, then the next year it wasn’t and so I focused on corporate wellbeing. I had to stay very agile in the pandemic years, but those times provided me with the skills and tools to weather any market, and it’s given me insight into what I really like doing.
One of the biggest lessons I learnt along the way was the need to practice creative constraint. I kept creating new offers because I had so many ideas and they’re so exciting when they’re all shiny and new. But I have learnt to let go of them and focus on my main niche and program.
Now I’m really excited about my main mission which is to empower people to take control of their careers wherever they are in their career journeys and whatever they’re doing. I want them to know they don’t have to wait for the economy to change or wait for the perfect job to land on their laps, they can start to create meaningful change now!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m based in London. Ok let’s start with brunch at Ottelenghi’s in Islington then we jump on an electric bike to King’s Cross.
Then we have a cheeky little cocktail at one of the gorgeous hotels – The Standard or the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel – before we take a walk along the canal through Camden all the way to Primrose Hill.
There we climb the little hill whilst cooing at the cute dogs and get to the top to enjoy the view.
Next, cab into town and we have a lightish lunch at Dehesa (tapas) before walking to the embankment. There we hop on a clipper which is a water bus and that gives us views of the city from the river. Who doesn’t want that?
We do a little loop, and then get off to head back to Soho for drinks.
I love a hotel drink so I would take us to Berner’s Tavern because the decor is that of a townhouse – pictures all over the walls!
Next, we head to Brasserie Zedel where you feel like you’ve entered another world. It’s all 1920s and glam. We grab dinner at the Brasserie, and then a show next door.
Job done!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people I want to shout out to! The head of the coaching masters degree I did, Christian van Nieuwerburgh, who encouraged me to enrol and who was one of the most inspiring teachers.
Lindsay Foreman, my first coach who showed me what life changing coaching was like. She pushed me outside my comfort zone!
Alexandra Wall, my accountability buddy and business bestie, whose business is very different to mine (fashion membership for sewists), but who is similar in ambition and integrity and who is always there to challenge and support me.
Gemma Went, for creating Elevate Collective, a mentorship mastermind program that helped me with the business (and spiritual) side of being self-employed.
Book-wise, I have loved Make it Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, Time to Think by Nancy Kline and the Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallway (which is about mindset and coaching more than it is about tennis).

Website: www.dinagrishin.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinagrishin/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-grishin-90585259

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.