Tara Alvarez Garcia spent years building something comfortable at Play'n GO. She had the job, the systems, the reputation. Then her sister asked a question that changed everything: "What have you done and failed at?" The honest answer was nothing. Not because of exceptional talent, but because she'd never actually risked anything. That realisation sparked a career pivot that would transform her from marketing executive to founder of TYS Coaching, a business now serving senior leaders across multiple organisations internationally.

The Unexpected Path to Coaching

Alvarez Garcia didn't set out to become a coach. The opportunity found her at Play'n GO when the company offered a generous training budget and recommended she work with one. She was expecting fitness coaching. What she got instead was business coaching with Kelly McSherry, and that first session delivered something she didn't anticipate: she wanted his job.

Looking back, she recognised the pattern had already been there. When tasked with building a video and design team from scratch at Play'n GO, she lacked the technical expertise to direct them. So she did what many reluctant leaders don't: she asked questions, listened, and helped them think. The same approach rippled across different teams and skill sets. She was coaching without calling it that.

The iGaming industry itself proved invaluable preparation. Frankly, the sector's relentless pace exposed her to high-pressure environments and rapid advancement. She watched people climb from junior roles to senior leadership within years. When she eventually sits with CEOs discussing their challenges, she doesn't need to imagine the pressure. She's lived it.

The Gap Between Knowing and Doing

Understanding that coaching was her path and actually taking it are entirely different propositions. Alvarez Garcia remained at Play'n GO for four more years after that first coaching revelation. She hired Kelly repeatedly, had her entire team coached, even gifted coaching sessions to her husband for Christmas. Yet she stayed, comfortable and safe.

The death of her mother in 2022 shifted everything. Grief has a way of cutting through pretence, forcing clarity about what actually matters. It made the unavoidable question impossible to ignore: if not now, when?

In 2024, she handed in her resignation. The transition from orchestrating major industry events to sitting in a home office with no clients and no income was jarring. Those early months tested her in ways she hadn't anticipated. Imposter syndrome struck hard. The pipeline was empty. No reputation or track record to lean on.

Earning Belief Through Action

Two years on, TYS Coaching is stable and growing. Alvarez Garcia works with senior leaders across multiple organisations, delivers workshops internationally, and most of her work now arrives through referrals. The discomfort of those early days never completely vanished. It evolved into something more durable instead: confidence built through actual results.

What surprised her most wasn't the business growth itself. It was the person she became in the process. For years she'd accepted her own narrative: organised, structured, risk-averse Type A personality. The kind of person who packs her bag days before travel and maintains immaculate systems.

Taking perhaps the least Type A risk possible shattered that self-image. She discovered she wasn't fundamentally different from who she thought she was. She simply stopped hiding behind the comfortable version of herself. The Type A traits that made her excellent at Play'n GO made her disciplined and reliable as a coach too. The difference was direction and authenticity.

For anyone considering a significant career change, particularly in the demanding iGaming sector, her core advice is deceptively simple: be brave enough to suck at something new. The terror of returning to beginner status keeps many in place. It's easier to drift than to swim against the current. But as Alvarez Garcia's journey demonstrates, the person you become on the other side often matters far more than the comfort you leave behind.