How you look at coaching can make or break your business.
In my book Coaching Millions I define coaching as a “methodology–a strategy used by thousands of eople worldwide to inspire, motivate, and evoke positive change in he lives of others.”
While this is true conceptually, in practical business terms, coaching is an extension of your expertise.
Whatever you’re an expert in, that’s what you should offer coaching on. If your expertise is not specific or narrow enough, define it better.
Most coaches look at coaching as a stand-alone service and in their mind they’re starting a brand new business from ground zero. And THAT’S the #1 reason building a coaching business is like pulling teeth - constant struggle, never-ending networking to get clients, and complete and total frustration about lack of results.
So, as you look at your coaching business today, is coaching an extension of what you already good at? Or something completely independent of everything you’ve accomplished previously?
Would love your comments.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I am not a coach, but some of my best friends are!
June 16th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Milana
These two definitions are brilliant. I have had a methodology to help people resolve interpersonal conflict and stop the internal “Drama” that keeps them stuck. I have been speaking on this and offering training for corporations but have struggled with the concept of coaching versus training and development.
I’m constantly using this information to teach people new ways to break through resistance but I have never viewed it as coaching, Now I know why my husband used to say to me “You need to be charging for this stuff.” I didn’t see it as coaching but just as you said, “an extension of my expertise, and something that was extremely easy for me.”
Thanks for opening my eyes.
Marlene Chism
June 16th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
While I understand and even appreciate the way in which you define coaching for the obvious reasons; making it easier to market a product or a service, however this definition really does lack something far more important.
Just because a person achieved success in a particular area of, let’s say, business, does not mean that they have the abilities to help someone do the same. This inferrers a one size fits all approach. While this may be helpful to the coach, it is not always helpful to the client. The concept that my mess has become my mission is a good one, however it must be tailored to client specific needs.
While many consumers don’t realize this, many have bought programs, cd’s, dvd’s etc and still have not reached their goals. The reason that this is so has more to do with them and not any info product or program, which will ultimately be of little use to them.
Coaching is about expertise in coaching and a fundamental belief in human potential and achievement. It’s goal is to create a context in which clients can discover, uncover and recover their talents, skills, abilities, resources and gifts. It is a special context marked by a very special dialog that supports a person on their journey.
This is just my opinion.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Coaching would be an off-shoot of what I have done for years in different forms. I think like a psychologist (which is what I have trained in previously) and this is not compatible with the type of approach that coaching seems to require.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
My coaching business is absolutely an extension of my areas of expertise. It is only one in a constellation of services my partner and I provide. In fact, we are considered by our clients as trusted advisors and a resource for fresh, out of the box thinking for whatever challenges or opportunities they may be facing.
We also consult with our clients in helping them solve problems they in fact do not have the answers or solutions for (consulting) and we help them design the relationships (personal or professional) and future they want and hold them accountable for doing what they say they are going to do to step into their desired reality.
We also employ a variety of tools and techniques to help them quickly clear the mental/emotional/energetic blocks that sabotage their success.
Of course, my partner and I have been doing this for over 30 years, so we have a strong positive reputation and public identity (brand) in our domains of expertise. And we created it very intentionally from the very beginning.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
My coaching is an extension of what I have be involved in for the last 22 years health and fitness.
My challenge was narrowing it down to weight loss coaching.
Just earlier today I was speaking with a coaching colleague who does business coaching and she is having to take on a 3 day a week part-time job to bring in the cash.
As I spoke with her I could here your words of wisdom. Here’s why she tells me that she has over 50 different courses she can run but has never really specialised. She has run each course and had excellent feedback, but she is still struggling. It was at this point I could hear you saying ‘you need to specialise and go after a target audience’
If funny because I have fallen into the same trap as my colleague, but hopefully I realised in time and I’m now putting my efforts into my weight loss coaching business.
Must say though my personality likes the variety of different courses so it’s a real challenge staying with the one thing.
On the plus side though due to sticking specialising in weight loss coaching I have just take up the position as weight loss coach and trainer in the top health and fitness club in my area. I will be taking a pay cut on my hourly rate and will also need to work more than your recommended 10 hours per week initially more like 20 - 25 hours. But I will be using my ‘Coach Me Slim & Trim’ weight loss programme which means ‘ll be building more credibility for the programme as well as myself.
In addition to the health club I have also managed to gain some work within the National Health Service (NHS) UK England, as a weight loss coach.
Hope these comments make sense to somebody out there?
Yours in Health & Fitness
Erak Simsson, Weight Loss Coach & Trainer
June 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I am an executive coach. I help presidents of foreign companies to develop their EQ to manage their Japanese staff in Tokyo. My tater is very specific and the purpose of my coaching as well. I am targeting more precisely the fashion industry. I believe in networking and self-branding.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Milana,
This is a very good question. My coaching is definitely an extension of what I have been through personally, namely to have an international life and career. At least, that is how I started my journey 15 years ago. I wanted to study, live and work abroad and found ways to do that.
Over the years, I have studied, worked and lived in 5 countries. I have also gained experience in what it means to be an expat spouse (trailing spouse and trailblazing spouse), an expat entrepreneur, an expat coach and expat mom of bicultural kids. I have 15 years of expat experience which is relevant to many expats, especially female expats who want a FULFILLING international life and career - whereve their journeys take them.
Apart from the expat experience however, I think the most important thing I have learned in my 15 years of living and working in different cultures is who I really am, what I’m meant to do and who I am meant to serve. My internal journey of self-discovery has paralled my external journey of discovering the world. My internal journey has helped me discover my authentic self - the real me, my processes, my passions, my values.
And that process has led me to yet another tier of what having an international life and career means - namely by having the mission to develop more global citizens, I am aligned with my authentic purpose and naturally step out into the world as a role model and leader.
Becoming a life coach has opened the way to creating a holistic life that I LOVE. By serving global citizens who want to live authentic lives wherever their journeys take them, my intention is that my coaching business creates the awareness, especially among global-minded Americans, that being a global citizen is really about BEING AUTHENTIC, being globally connected and ultimately about living a purposeful and fulfilling life by making your unique and positive impact in the world.
In sum, although the term ‘global citizen’ may be general and vague in some people’s minds, I think it does inspire certain types of open-minded and globally-oriented people to feel that being a global citizen is something that they aspire to, even without fully knowing (before coaching with me) what that fully entails.
Thank you for allowing me the space to explore my own answer!
Best wishes,
Elizabeth Kruempelmann
www.the-global-citizen.com
June 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Milana:
I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking after reading your ebook. I want to express my appreciation, first of all, for your willingness to “keep it real” about this service.
I have taken some of your ideas and put them to work and getting more value from my advertising as a result of making a few changes.
Thanks again for your insights into coaching. There is a ton of coaching talent out there, but I suspect that our best coaches are hidden and invisible.
Best regards,
–Don
June 16th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Absolutely an extension of previous work…I feel like my 15 years in recruiting makes me an expert at how job hunting works from the inside, so I offer that in coaching, classes and products…I’ve thought about general coaching, but feel like I’ll be a much better resource and have a specific marketing and sales focus if I use what I know and learn how to brand it and sell it well.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Milana,
Thanks for bringing something out of the closet that calls to see the light of day!
As a business identity designer and marketing consultant to psychotherapists and massage therapists before I was a coach, I made an easy entry into coaching because I simply added marketing coaching to my services offered.
Then I got lulled into the “pure coaching stupor” and struggled for several years because I quit offering marketing consulting and logo development to therapists and massage therapists. I offered coaching to way too broad of a market - anyone starting a business. I finally came to my senses and started Thriving Coaches three years ago: based on my strengths, my expertise and specifically helping one group, coaches.
I am now in the process of starting another business, The Spirited Living Center, with three other women based on the strengths and expertise of each of us. I am so excited to be creating a new business around my spiritual passion since I was 15!!! And, I already see how quickly the Spirited Living Center is growing - even before we’ve officially opened the doors because the whole business is based on our strengths and our unique contributions.
I cannot state strongly enough how important our strengths and unique experiences blend to create a specific expertise that only we can fulfill - making a highly-successful, highly-impactful business . . .
June 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
As you said, coaching HAS to be an extension of what you do. That is, IF you hope to be successful. I teach that you should do what is already EASY for you because you are pre-wired to be doing just this thing. It just flows. When someone feels like they are fighting an uphill battle, then they are either doing the wrong thing or have the wrong timing… Usually for former.
Keep up the great work Milana!
June 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I define coaching is a way of life. It is not business. Once you incorporate the principles of coaching and adopt them to your life minute by minute and if you are in a position to make every conversation a coaching conversation whether someone swipes his credit card or not - I am sure the business will follow.
I request you to kindly go through the coach world June Issue of the ICF, you will find our thoughts on challenges of coaching in India. We are infants as far as coaching is concerned and there is a lot for the ICF and coaches from the North to support India in a large scale to overcome our dilemmas from a coaching language. Culturally we are different, language barrier is there, spiritual differences are there. Aganist all this how do we move forward
June 16th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Milana — good point/question. My coaching definitely started as an extension of what I was doing — very well and it’s continued to expand to reflect what I’m doing/good at now.
In 2003 I started a pet-care company after leaving the corporate confines of the DC metro area. My combo of business and animal sense led me to a successful and well-recognized company in a relatively short period of time. Others wanting to start a pet-care company or wanting help with their existing company sought out my advice. Thus my coaching was born (after more than 12 years of being told that I should be coaching for my career).
As my business expanded, my life awareness did as well. I was constantly looking for ways to be more authentically available to serve others — especially those in service-based businesses. My business coach sent me to a professional hand analyst. That sent me on a deeper quest for ways to incorporate my purpose into everything I do. I learned how to read hands from that same hand analyst and have incorporated that skill set, and the spiritual components I’m exploring into my own brand of coaching — for entrepreneurial women who are over acheivers and trying to find a way to incorporate their life purpose into their everyday lives.
So yes, as I learn so I coach.
Best to you.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Coaching is neither an art or a science and in all honesty there doesn’t appear to be an agreed upon definitely of what it actually is - many people I know see it as quasi-consulting. Everyone takes a different approach, some coaches are ‘experts’ (whatever that means), others just like telling people what to do and others are actually very intuitive in bringing out the best in people. Until the coaching profession and associations specifically better define what they actually stand for (with exception of sports coaching for example where it is more science based) and clarifies the qualifications and skills required to be a coach the term ‘expert’ means little to me.
Coaching in an area in which you have worked for years will assist in your coaching business simply because you should have the networks and contacts. Sure it’s easier to start the business but doesn’t mean you’ll be any good.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I have been coaching for over 6 years. After losing 70 pounds and keeping a consistent weight since 1995, I can identify with people who are struggling with food issues. I support my clients in Getting Off the Diet Merry-Go-Round and creating the life they always wanted.
By specializing and supporting my clients with food issues I can identify with their struggles and assist them in creating new behaviors and habits. As they say been there and done that. I think it is beneficial for my clients and myself to specialize instead of coach all different issues.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Like Erak, truly an extension of my “work” but a bit different. Being in the fitness industry for over 26 years…..that’s what I do, and that’s who I am. But on the coaching side, I saw that many (female) entrepreneurs and professionals were great at their business, and finding ways to make it all work. However, when it came to themselves….not good.
I’d even had some tell me they weren’t “comfortable in” their bodies when they would make presentations or speak up in meetings. Hmmmm.
So, I’ve taken my expertise of being a fitness and wellness expert, put that together with my experience of making myself very comfortable in my body in front of people, together with my coaching skills, and tah-dah! I work with professionals and entrepreneurs to help them discover a lifestyle they can live (without myths and hype) so they can present their passion in the body of their dreams.
It’s all about systems and programs right? I mean, that’s what we do in business. That’s what makes us successful…a proven plan, implementation, consistency, accountability and success.
Our lifestyle is no different, and I’m not just talking about exercise and nutrition. It’s making it all work (synergy) for good. That’s where true coaching comes in.
Do I believe it’s necessary to have “been there, done that?” Not really. But if it’s something you’re already passionate about, it certainly helps the process move a lot faster.
Deni
June 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Wow, thank you so much for all your feedback, so many points of views!
I’d like to respond to Eric G. Schneider’s post. Specifically, to these comments:
“While many consumers don’t realize this, many have bought programs, cd’s, dvd’s etc and still have not reached their goals. The reason that this is so has more to do with them and not any info product or program, which will ultimately be of little use to them.”
1. That’s the point of a “funnel” - offer different pricing points of your solutions, and coaching comes as the last thing in your product funnel. This way you will end up working only with people who are willing and able to commit to being coached and reaching their goal.
2. In my experience, even working with a mediocre coach you still go faster and are more likely to succeed than without a coach. That is because you choose to focus on your goals and your success more with a coach.
“The concept that my mess has become my mission is a good one, however it must be tailored to client specific needs.”
Good point, but may become irrelevant depending on how you look at it. For example, there are 100,000+ coaches - trained formally and informally - right now in the world, estimated. Most of them can create customized coaching programs for their clients. Most of them have coaching tools they can use.
So why would anyone hire YOU vs. any other coach?
It’s your personal story, your background, your experience…beyond what coach training has taught you. So if you turn your mess into your mission (love this expression, Eric! I heard another - “turn your mess into your message”)
This way when a client is “coach shopping” she can clearly connect to a specific coach based on their style, experience, but mostly on their “behind-the-scenes” story. At least, that’s what makes a coach unique from others.
Most importantly, however, is I see that it works in the real world. Coaches who use their previous experiences and expertise are able to deepen and enhance their products and programs, and ultimately become much more valuable to the client. Otherwise, coaches end up coaching on “abundance” while struggling financially themselves.
My 2 cents
Milana
June 16th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
What you have suggested is just plain common (business) sense but thanks for articulating that perspective. It is what is called playing [coaching] according to one’s strengths. I am a wholistic lifestyle coach and I love what I have to offer.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Great discussion and great posts!!!
In my opinion, it definitely helps to coach in the area of a person’s expertise. HOWEVER, when you “coach” someone toward something that you have expertise in, is basically MENTORING, not coaching.
I do realize that football and other sports coaches coach in their area of expertise; but I’d say that’s a totally different type of coaching.
If, for example, you are a Performance Coach, I don’t think that you’d need to have the expertise in the area of your client. Let’s say the client wants to double his company’s production - and you have zero experience with production-based companies - you’ll still be able to help the client by simply asking the right (empowering) questions that will lead the client to come up with the right answer.
In my coaching experience (5+ years) I encountered two types of clients:
1. the client that has all the answers but does not have the discipline or the organizational skills to follow through with their plans… in which case they need me to hold them accountable to their commitments, help them stay focused, and ask questions that will help them come up with empowering answers
and
2. the client who is a “newbie” - let’s say at internet marketing or developing a web-presence - in which case I hold their hands / show them exactly how to do it. But again, this is not pure coaching - this is more MENTORING than coaching.
Fact is that many people out there slam the title of “Coach” under their name and they “practice coaching” the way they imagine that coaching would be. I used to be one of those people… then later I decided to get certified - it was the best decission that I brought. NOw I am a real coach - not because of my paper that says so, but because of the coaching techniques that I learned and because of the training I got on how to ask powerful questions that elicit powerful answers from the client. After all, the client’s answers - and the change they bring - can be only as powerful as the questions asked. And that’s true coaching.
Many coaches I met and witnessed their “coaching style” were not coaching at all - they were either mentoring, inspiring or motivating, or unfortunately some were even attempting to provide therapy type counseling…
Conclussion: Expertise in the area of coaching definitely helps, but it is not a must
Expertise in a related area - or at least in the coaching process is a definite must, however. And… can’t coach specialty areas - ussually highly paid, such as executive coaching - unless you DO have expertise in that area.
There are many types of coaching, so the question is really loaded and can’t be answered in a short few paragraphs: I’d say Life Coaching is the one that needs the least expertise - in this case the right questions can bring about the right answers. But than again, the coach has to be trained to ask the right questions.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I think one of the meta-issues here is the professional identity of those who would be coaches. Lurking behind the discussion are competing images - that of the educated professional of high stature (like a doctor) and that of the snake-oil salesman. The doctor’s head is full of knowledge that he or she applies to patients. The snake oil salesman fills a bottle with nothing and makes money from people’s misery.
What you propose is a third way, a coach who can legitimately claim: “I’ve figured out HOW, and I have the skills either to show you HOW or to help guide your learning process as you figure it out, too.” That would be a “method.”
The confident coach who believes the method is real, honest, and actually helps people can get over the fear of becoming a snake oil salesman. The confident coach is also able to take pleasure and pride from helping people — and from having a thriving business — without the added (and costly) stature of being a capital-P “Professional”, the possessor of the secrets of the esoteric art/science called “coaching.”
June 16th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
what if we are not on a time line of life, starting and stopping each time to learn a new model and shed the old one, merely “getting through” from one point to another. what if we are standing on the foundation of the cumulative sum of our experiences? what if the value we bring to the world is the value we find in our experiences and relationships? the thing things we learn, develop, apply, discover, nurture, and grow into stengths?
so that like a spiral stair case, the foundation is equally important to our stability as the next rung, and that we have always been ourselves, in the same place, just growing dynamic better versions of ourselves?
working with students to embrace the transitions from college to career, this model of dynamic growth based on education, experiences, and relationships feeding purpose, practice, and passion…well, it’s amazing the ease of transitions and pace of growth when a person embraces their success and strengths, building on them relentlessly!
June 16th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Like many of the other people posting on this blog, my coaching is definitely an extension of my expertise. I have learned (and continue to learn) that no past experience, career or volunteer, is useless.
The difference is learning how to leverage this expertise into a paying entity. My thinking has changed radically about how I do what I do. (Thank you, Milana!!) Having alternatives to 1 to 1 coaching gives me the opportunity to reach more entrepreneurs.
As for what coaching is, my take on this is that it includes a partnership between coaching and client using a methodology that keep goals focused and action-oriented. With all of the different types of coaching as well as coach training programs, the details of the methodology vary.
Also, it has got to be the most fun I’ve ever had at work! It stretches me as a person and I get to be instrumental in how people show up in their work.
Keep challenging us, Milana!
Best,
Elli
Entrepreneurial Coach
June 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hi Milana,
A lot has been said before now on the questions you raised so it is impossible to touch on them all, but I will try to give succinct thoughts of my own:
1. it was easy for me to see Coaching as my calling because even from age 18, without having the tools or experience, what I am doing now is how I felt I should be working with people and I went the route of teaching, training, psychology before landing here when all the while I was actually coaching.
2. As a teacher when I veered off strict classroom teaching to ask deeper questions, students groaned
3. Now, I am not fearful at all about ‘coaching’ because I am bringing my knowledge, all my expertise and experience to bear even if I am not actually teaching or training, and just listening.
4. I am a wiser writer for writing from a coaching perspective
5. In other words, I agree with your basic tenet about bringing who you are into the exercise of coaching
6. Two other important things are:
a) in coach training, coaches should not be led to believe they should just coach and not attempt to continuously develop themselves mentally, spiritually and otherwise. Just marketing and getting more clients does not make a better coach.
b) the other is that I am eager to contribute to more earnest dialogue, or to initiate dialogue where it does not yet exist on the ‘cross-cultural aspects of coaching’. We cannot live in such a global world and think that coaching can remain in the same frame and framework as stipulated by one set of people. Coaching has to more than ever address the changing cultural demands, in more ways than one, to be relevant. I hope to offer papers and eBooks on that subject soon. Coaching is a great vocation in which to do this and other fields of work will benefit from such enlightenment.
By the way, I am a Life Transitions Coach, focusing on mid-life and pre-retirement challenges for women.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Interesting concept, yes I agree to grow your coaching business organically it needs to come from the heart and from experience. I know what I am good at and have been attracting clients based on this, all my clients have similar challenges that I can relate to and have overcome to some extent. After all our model of the world is unique as our thumb prints, so as a coach we are subjective as we see it through our filters. I see coaching as truly a selfish profession, as we need to get a grip on ‘our stuff’ to be able to walk the talk. Otherwise how on earth will your client climb mountains towards their goals if you haven’t?
Just my ramblings, thanks for the outlet
Paola
June 18th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Milana,
Coaching has to be an extension of what you are already good at and have experience in, at least in the early stages, to strengthen credibility with clients. Although it is possible to coach anybody on anything, expertise and a track record in specific areas is of great benefit. I have worked as a consultant with large companies and an adviser to small businesses including start-ups. This has helped to bring large business practices to small companies. I can understand the issues faced by small companies and can help them to focus on appropriate goals. At the same time I ask suitable coaching questions for the client’s situation to generate alternative courses of action so that the client thinks of the options and is then committed to them.
Best wishes
Tony
June 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Yes, Milana
I totally agree with you on this. The one huge reason it its essential to have experience with your client’s problem, is that it not only increases your credibility with them, but it allows you to identify with and understand their needs. This develops rapport. In this way, you be abe to help them better. Also, because you have most likely overcome their kinds of problems, as a living example you’ll be able to demonstrate this. As a result, solutions become more real for them. It shows them the possibilities which can be a tremendous motivator just of itself.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:14 am
Milana, once again you have found the right words, explaining that coaching is “a methodology” and that it should be “an extension of your expertise”. I wish every coach would read this blog who thinks that the coaching itself is an expertise, and who try to propose their services to almost everybody that they happen to meet, mostly through free introductory sessions which, in my mind, damage the coaching market enormously - all this without having identified for themselves what their expertise is. I am wondering all the time how these coaches can help other people succeed!
I also love the formula in your book: “target audience + speciality = niche”. I am just wondering if this formula is perhaps working at best for coaches in North America, with a huge market of people who are open to coaching, future- and result-oriented, and used to hiring a specialist for almost every area of their life. In Europe, for example in France and Switzerland, the population is smaller and therefore also the number of potential clients smaller, and most people don’t know what coaching really is - and on top of that, the cost of living is so high compared to the US that the potential number of people who can afford to hire a personal coach is extremely small.
Of course, the problem can be solved by proposing group coaching and teleclass programs in your specific niche, where it is easier to explain to people what the benefits are and which problems you help them solve. But my experience is that it is difficult to market to a public that you have to educate from A to Z - about coaching, group coaching, teleclasses, the advantages of doing so through a bridge line (which is in the US!) etc. In terms of marketing, we have here the most difficult situation, because we have to educate a market that is small, about the advantages of totally new services - and to create the services and the demand at the same time.
Pascale Cotton
http://expat-coaching.blogspot.com
http://expat-entrepreneurs.blogspot.com
July 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Pascale, thank you for your thoughtful feedback…
Basically what I am saying is, stop selling coaching! Stop talking about coaching! (I am addressing all my readers here
I think we’re so focused on making people understand and appreciate coaching, we’re missing the whole point. Coaching is a way to solve a problem. What problem ARE you solving?
Nobody cares what method you use to help them, as long as it’s effective. If you use coaching effectively, then wonderful - use it! But don’t try to sell coaching as a stand-alone service. Sell a solution, then use coaching in delivering that solution.
So it’s really irrelevant where you’re located - people have problems all over the world.
I hope this makes sense? It’s late night and I was just compelled to respond
Have a wonderful week!
Milana
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
What a terrific discussion. Milana–not sure how we became part of your list but are really glad to know about you! Here’s the Catch-22 for conscientious coaches: they take the time to learn the core competencies, but when that training becomes the main core of their expertise, they’re inevitably stuck in a general, client-hours focused biz, working to convince the market of the need for their skills and techniques.
Patricia