I'm Mersh. I coach founders, leaders and professionals who are facing a decision they can't think their way out of alone — and who suspect the obvious explanation isn't the real one.
Almost everyone arrives with the same opening line: "I want to change jobs — the pay isn't enough." I never argue with that. Low pay is a real problem, not an excuse. But before we go anywhere, I remove the obstacle and see what's left standing.
It sounds simple. What it does is take away the place to hide. When money and interest are both solved, there is nowhere left to point. In my experience almost nobody answers "nothing." There's a pause — and then a sentence that surprises the person saying it.
That sentence is the real work.
Three situations come up more than any others.
The role is good, the title is good, and you'd struggle to explain the problem to anyone. But you know something is off, and you've stopped being able to name it.
You've changed the job, the city, the habit, the routine — and after a few months you're standing somewhere that feels remarkably familiar. The pattern is travelling with you.
Every option is defensible and none of them feels right. You've made the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet didn't help. This is usually a values problem wearing a logic costume.
No frameworks pushed on you, no advice you didn't ask for, no homework for its own sake.
The messy version is more useful than the tidy one. Most of what matters is in the part people edit out before they speak.
Some of what's making your life harder is genuinely outside your control — the market, your manager, the economy. Pretending otherwise just exhausts you. Coaching works on the part that is actually yours to move.
This is the part that changes things, and it's rarely comfortable. It's also the reason people leave a session with something they can act on rather than a list of options they already had.
A coach who tells you what to do has stopped coaching and started consulting. My job is to make sure that when you decide, you're deciding about the right thing.
I trained through an ICF-accredited program at both ACC and PCC competency levels. My certification is in progress, and I'd rather tell you that plainly than round it up.
Coaching is not therapy. A therapist works on past patterns, diagnosis and treatment. I work on what's in front of you and the decisions ahead. If what I see in a session sits outside my scope — clinical anxiety, depression, trauma — I say so, in the first session, and point you toward the right professional. That boundary is part of the work, not a limitation of it.
Most of my published work is in Persian. If you read it, there's a lot here for free.
Almost everyone names the salary first. Why that is rarely the real problem, what age actually changes, and four checks to run before you resign.
A lot of people calling themselves business coaches are doing consulting work under a more marketable name. Here's the real difference, and how to tell which one you're hiring.
122,974 people worldwide now call themselves professional coaches. The title is unregulated. The ICF standard behind it, and the exact questions to ask before you hire one.
Only 14% of small business owners can fully disconnect on vacation. Why founder dependency happens, what it costs, and how coaching breaks the loop.
Each episode takes a book as the opening for a coaching conversation — habits and identity, growth mindset, what to do with four thousand weeks.
Each one includes a section the book doesn't have: what this idea looks like inside an actual coaching session. Free, no signup.
Short, free assessments on work values, attachment style, communication style, decision-making and more. A useful place to start before a first session.
Yes. Sessions are available in English and in Persian. Most of the written material on this site is in Persian — the coaching itself is not.
Yes. I'm based in Dubai and work online with clients in other time zones. In-person sessions in Dubai are possible by arrangement.
A consultant gives you an answer from their expertise. A therapist works on past patterns, with diagnosis and treatment. A coach helps you ask a better question about what's in front of you now. Confusing the three is how people end up in the wrong room for years.
It's free and there's nothing to sign. You bring the situation you're stuck in, and we find out together whether coaching is the right tool for it. If it isn't, I'll tell you — that's a useful outcome too.
It depends on what we find. Some people need three sessions to unstick one decision. Others work with me over months on something structural. I don't sell packages you have to commit to before we've met.
Bring the thing you've been going around in circles on. One hour, no cost, nothing to sign, and no obligation to continue.
Thanks for taking the time. I'll reach out on WhatsApp to schedule the session.
Persian speaker? The full site — articles, the podcast, 25 book summaries and the free assessments — is in Persian. به نسخهی فارسی سایت بروید ←