I received an email yesterday about my coach certification from the IAC. It said in part...
"We have some exciting news to share with you!
It’s no secret that achieving the IAC certification designation requires a very high level of coaching skill. We’ve heard it referred to as the “gold standard” in coaching and we have to agree. After much deliberation, the IAC has decided to honor those who have previously met these standards by calling IAC coaches what they truly are: Master Certified Coaches. Effective immediately, IAC-CC’s are now considered MCC’s, or Master Certified Coaches..."
The email goes on to say that based on an internal review, plus input from members and licensees, they've decided to create a new level of certification that recognizes a deep understanding of, and a skilled use of, the IAC Coaching Masteries(tm). Evidently this will become the new IAC Certified Coach designation.
That's good news. I've raised concerns before that the current certification seemed to be getting harder to pass. And while I'm all for high standards, I was concerned that too few coaches pass it. Most either get too busy with their businesses and forget about certification, or give up before they reach it, or get impatient and turn in their coaching recordings too soon and fail. Only 25% of applicants pass.
The truth is, you can be a very good coach and still not pass this extremely difficult certification (now called the MCC). So why not have another certification that recognizes that your skill level is higher than most other coaches (the new CC)?
I made a similar change to School of Coaching Mastery's coach certification a while back. Coaches who possess superior skills deserve to be recognized for that level of achievement.
There's a huge gap between competent coaching and masterful coaching. And that intermediate level of coaching, which I call the proficient level, deserves its own coach designation. Also, potential coaching clients deserve to know if they're working with a high-quality coach. The ICF has had three levels of coach certification for years.
If I understood an email from the new IAC President, Susan Meyer, the IAC may be reviewing previous coaching submissions to see if they pass requirements for the new designation. If so, that could put smiles on the faces of some deserving coaches.
I'm glad the IAC is making this move and as my friend, Mattison Grey, said about getting the new MCC designation (on Twitter): "Instant upgrade. I'll take it!"
Want to learn more about the IAC and its coach certifications?
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, where everything always looked as it should, if you hired a life coach, s/he was most likely older than you. Prevailing wisdom said more experience meant greater wisdom and that's what you want in your life coach, right? Maybe.
In the world I live in, life coaches come in all ages and aren't necessarily all sages. Does that even matter?
At left is Life Coach Katie O'Brien, one of the many under-forty coaches who study at School of Coaching Mastery. They hold their own with most of us older coaches. Apparently, that's surprising to a lot of people, including some coaches.
For instance, yesterday, the New York Times ran an article called, Should a Life Coach Have a Life First? about the growing trend toward younger coaches in this profession. I found the online comments on this article more interesting than the article, itself. They're loaded with misconceptions and skepticism from folks who aren't sure what life coaching is but suspect they don't like it, plus the occasional plug by an actual life coach that tends to seem self-serving. So I thought I would try to help clear up the confusion. Here goes...
1. One reason younger coaches do well is that life experience is only a fraction of what life coaches offer. As I tell my students, advice is the least of the deliverables you have to offer your clients. Coaching is far more than that. Author, David Rock, says life coaches help people think better. That might not sound like much, but if you need to make life-changing decisions, having someone help you think better is priceless. And that pretty much explains why coaches command such high fees when everyone knows that advice is free.
2. Another reason is that experience is relative. Clients hire life coaches who are on a similar path, but further along. If you just graduated from college, for instance, and want a coach who can help you make that enormous transition from student to full-fledged adult in today's world (that's a big need), it makes sense to hire a coach who's a few years older than you, rather than someone your grandma's age.
3. A third reason younger coaches do well is that experience has a short shelf life in today's world. Maybe you have awesome experience on how to climb the corporate ladder from the 1960's through the 1990's, but you struggle with social media, smart phones, apps and tablets. If so, then you may not understand the culture, much less have the skills needed by today's workers, who are intra-preneurial and know that there's no gold watch, nor life-long pension waiting for them.
Let's face it, young coaching clients are an ever-renewing potential source of business for life coaches and some of them want young coaches who they can relate to.
Then again, Baby Boomers are still asking themselves questions like, "What do I want to be when my children grow up?" And in some cases, older coaches are the ones who can help middles-aged clients make better choices that lead to happier lives (another big need).
The real issue isn't how old your life coach is, but how much 1) personal development, and 2) coaching skill, they have under their belts. Too little personal development and their egos and issues will get in the client's way. Too little coaching skill and their clients' thinking and behavior won't be impacted enough to make a difference in their lives.
Rather than choose your coach based on age, I'd suggest you ask the following two questions:
1. Did someone you know and trust highly recommend a life coach who helped them achieve something that you want? Don't hire a coach just because his/her age is appropriate or marketing is convincing. Look for outside evidence of results.
2. Does your life coach have substantial coach-specific training (not just a related degree) and/or a certification from the IAC or ICF? Unless your coach has been at it for 15-20 years, they need to be well trained and the IAC and ICF continue to have the most-reliable coach certifications.
A good coach doesn't have to have both of the above, but they probably have at least one.
Here's my last thought on age and coaching, for whatever it's worth. In my twenties, I personally, would have made a lousy coach. I was too immature and had too many issues to work out. Not everyone improves with age, but I suspect that, like me, many coaches do.
What do you think? Should your life coach be older or younger?
I finally have an answer for you to the age-old question: Which is more effective, coaching by telephone or coaching in person?
The coaches who prefer coaching in person, invariably assume their way is better. Those of us who prefer to coach by telephone sheepishly counter that coaching by phone seems to work just as well.
But is telephone coaching really just as good as coaching face-to-face?
After all, we've all read the scientific estimates that up to 90% of the information we receive in a face-to-face conversation is visual, not verbal. So how can telephone coaching possibly work as well as face-to-face coaching?
And from another perspective, face-to-face coaches often brag that they make more money per hour, but do they really? Yes, telephone coaches charge their clients on average slightly less per contact hour, but they also spend less time in non-contact hours.
I'll explain: while I don't recommend scheduling your clients back-to-back (a 15 minute break helps you refocus), I've done it and I know lots of other phone coaches who do it and I can tell you that a few hours, earning $300/hour, from my home office on a snowy Monday sure beats traffic jams, commuter trains, crowded elevators and cafeteria lunches, ad nauseum, by a mile. And when you add up the extra time spent in transit, plus tolls, tickets, parking, gas, wardrobe, wear and tear on your car, eating out, not to mention all of the above which also has to be spent on in-person client attraction, versus attracting clients via the internet, I'm willing to bet telephone coaches make more per hour and enjoy more of their working hours with less stress.
But here's why telephone coaching is actually more effective than face-to-face coaching:
Remember how up to 90% of information taken in during a face-to-face conversation is visual? That should make face-to-face coaching 10 times more effective than telephone coaching, but it doesn't. Why? Because nearly all of that visual information is unconscious, meaning the coach isn't even aware of it.
It gets worse. Many assume that our brains absorb continuous information, like video cameras making a movie, but they don't. Not even close. Your brain takes a couple of snapshots of visual information and fills in (nearly all) the rest with your expectations, assumptions, beliefs, shadows, biases and prejudices. In short, while you're talking to that person, you're taking in some new information from them, but you're unconsciously adding 80-90 times as much information from your past.
And you don't even know it.
With telephone coaching, if you're well-trained, you learn to consciously hear more. And if you practice those hearing skills in hundreds of coaching sessions, you develop the kind of hearing - at least for conversations - that usually only the blind possess, meaning you hear far more than most of us ever thought possible. And you do it without adding tons of info from your past.
Are telephone coaches completely free of their past assumptions? No of course not; no one is. But a strong case can be made that, because telephone coaching is a skill that's consciously learned from the ground up, the coach is aware of a larger percentage of incoming information, which helps them interface more fully with the present and the uniqueness of their client and the client's situation.
Here's an example: I've lost track over the years of the number of clients I've coached who were of a different race, socio-economic background, or sexual orientation, and I didn't know it. I'd like to think that wouldn't make any difference (unless it was pertinent to the topic of the coaching), but I've seen the studies on that and know how unlikely it is that anyone is completely free of biases.
Telephone coaching doesn't eliminate all assumptions and biases, but it narrows them down and makes it less likely that a bias or shadow can lurk undiscovered.
Here's another reason coaching by phone is more powerful: When using the telephone (or Skype), you can coach with anyone in the world. That means that out of over 7 billion people worldwide, you can match up with your ideal clients and be their perfect coach. Coaching in person is almost always constrained by distance and travel, forcing people to coach with whomever they can find in their home city.
You'd think with the ease and low cost of talking via online video, that video coaching would catch on quickly, but it hasn't so far. I'm guessing it's because video tends to highlight the visual in a way that makes it even harder to listen and really hear - and raises the likelihood that unconscious visual information is triggering a conditioned response. I find video coaching more distracting than anything.
Last but not least, from the client's perspective, lower prices for telephone coaching, plus higher quality coaching, means a greater ROI (return on investment) for clients. Who doesn't like that?
In short: phone coaching is not only just as good as in-person coaching, it's actually better. Do you agree?
The Sherpa Executive Coaching Summary, a large-scale annual survey on the state of executive, life and business coaching, was just released yesterday, with a startling statistic that 10% of all coaching schools worldwide go out of business every year - every year.
I've heard this statistic tossed about in reference to specific years, but now it's becoming an annual trend? This flies in the face of an old coaching myth, that the real money is in coach training, not coaching. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Why are coaching schools going out of business when the profession of coaching is still growing?
1. One theory is that there are too many coaching schools. As Donna Steinhorn mentioned in her recent The Truth About Coach Training post, 10-12 years ago, there were only a few coach training schools, but now there are well over 100 coaching schools, worldwide. Sherpa says there are actually over 300 coach training schools in the world. In fact, peer.ca, which tries to compile all the coach training schools worldwide, lists 508, as of today.
That means around 50 coaching schools will go out of business this year. Will one of them be yours?
2. Another theory is that many professional coaches, believing the myth that 'the real money is in coach training', started coaching schools when their businesses were challenged recently during Depression 2.0. If that's the case, I'm guessing most of them have/will go out of business, because it is actually much more expensive and time-consuming to run a quality coach training business than it is to run a coaching business.
Personally, I made more money per hour as 'just a coach' than I do running School of Coaching Mastery. Education, done well, is labor-intensive and labor is expensive.
Why do I do it? SCM is a labor of love for me. I have a vision of one million master coaches worldwide and I'm just getting started.
3. Another theory of why 10% of coach training schools go out of business, is that coach training has become a commodity. There is so much competition that schools are competing on price, rather that value. This was further supported by the incredibly high unemployment rates of the past few years, when people were desperately trying to start coaching businesses with little or no money.
When money is extremely tight, unlikely promises, such as the promise of one coaching school mentioned by Sherpa, that you can 'Become a Certified Professional Life Coach in Just 16 Hours' for $397 or $497, or whatever the price du jour is, become alluringly tempting. If such a school also brags about their 3000 successful graduates, you have to wonder about their criteria for 'success'. I've talked to quite a few 'graduates' of these 2-week wonders (because eventually they realize they need more training and contact me) and not one of them has told me they ever got a single paying client.
So in the race to the bottom, some schools, even the huge schools that were founded in the mid-nineties, have become less profitable. And if you're not in it for love, you'll get out if there's not much profit.
School of Coaching Mastery is about to turn five years old in March. We've weathered Depression 2.0 and our international Ultimate Coach Training coach-students are spreading their masterful coaching skills to thousands of grateful (paying) clients. And thousands of would-be coaches are trying out our Free Coach Training program.
I wouldn't close this coaching school for anything. I've got too much work to do to get those one million master coaches out there changing the world for the better.
What do you think? Do 10% of all coach training schools really go out of business each year? Why or why not? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section, below.
A month ago, I posted to this blog with questions about conversations that coaches dread and I mentioned that best-selling author, Deborah Brown-Volkman, and I are working on a related project...
Well, I'm ready to tell you about the 1st step in the related project: It's a series of 4 interactive webinars, hosted by Deborah and me on 4 types of conversations that coaches tend to dread and how to handle them.
You see, Deborah and I are both constantly asked by stressed-out coaches who are unprepared for tricky communication issues that come up all the time and we knew somebody needed to address this stuff, like...
- Clients who lie or don't follow through on fieldwork
- Potential clients who say they 'can't afford' you
- Clients who don't pay on time
- How to fix it when you've said the wrong thing
These issues aren't just embarrassing and stressful; the fear and confusion that come from not knowing what to say or how to handle tough situations like these can bring your success to a screeching halt!
So here's what we're doing to help: In these 4 one-hour Q&A webinars, Deborah and I will offer advice on how to handle the most-oft asked questions, but we won't stop there: You can ask your biggest questions and we'll answer on the spot.
Think of it as an injection of clarity that brings you the ease and confidence you want for yourself and your business - and we're doing it at a price that any savvy coach can handle:
Take one class or all four and get the answers you need on 4 Mondays, January 23rd to February 13th, 2-3 PM EST (GMT-5). They're just $30 per class...but if you act quickly you can save up to $40!
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How to Have Have Tough Conversations With Potential Coaching Clients
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How to Deal With Renegade Coaching Clients
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How to Create Ideal Coaching Clients With Advanced Communication Skills
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How to Have Conversations That Create Your Ideal Coaching Business
Here's a secret to all of these questions: The are all best handled proactively. But how can you set up yourself for success if you don't know what to expect? Easy. Ask your questions and listen to the questions and answers that other coaches share on these value-packed calls. Deborah and I know a lot and we're ready to share!
Seating is limited and classes are filling up. But if you act fast (a.k.a. proactively), you can save $10 on each class that you sign up for. How?
Register by January 20th and get each class for $20: Add the discount code below when you register online. Click 'Apply' and the cost of each class will be lowered to just $20. But you must use the discount code no later than 5 PM EST this Friday, January 20th.
Discount Code: Early20
Click below to register now:
In 2008 Donna Steinhorn and Julia Stewart led a teleclass series on The Big Fat Lies That Coaches Cling To. The following article, written by Donna, is an adaptation from one of those teleclasses...
When Julia and I started out coaching, it was pretty easy to decide about coaching schools since there were only a few to choose from. And for the most part, the handful of coach training schools were all ICF accredited and the only certification in town was the ICFs. So basically the decision came down to live training or teleclass training.
But times have changed. Today there are over 100 coaching programs. 6 month programs and two year programs. Accredited programs and programs without accreditation. Certification programs through universities. Live training, Teleclass training, hybrid versions, CD versions. There are programs specifically for therapists transitioning to coaching, Christian Coaches. Peer coaches. Corporate coaching training, business coach training, life coaching training….and the list goes on. The same is true for certifications. There are the “independent” credentialing bodies of the IAC and the ICF. The schools who credential their coaches…the certification courses.
Lie: I need to have a coaching certification….Having letters of certification after my name assures potential clients of my expertise.
Truth: Clients have no idea what any of the letters after coaches' names are. Unlike JD or MD, or PhD, there are hundreds of different designations and other than coaches, not many clients know what an ACC, PCC, MCC or IAC-CC are. Nor for the most part do they care. Now that is beginning to change as our profession matures, and a few universities have begun to create degreed curriculum in coaching. But for now, most of the university programs are certificate programs, and even the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at Penn State is not actually a university accredited program.
On the other hand, there are increasingly more corporations and companies that are looking for credentialed coaches. Some don’t really care what kind of certification that is, while others do actually seek an ICF credentialed coach, so if you are a corporate coach, you will want a credential.
And the truth is, as the coaching profession continues to mature, I believe credentials will become increasingly more important. The question remains, which credential will that be? Right now, the ICF has been around longer, but there are some who point to the fact that in order to become an ICF credentialed coach, you have to attend an ICF accredited school, and be mentored by an ICF credentialed coach. They question how truly independent that makes the ICF.
The IAC is still in it’s infancy, but since they do not accredit schools, they have a greater degree of independence when it comes to their credentialing process. And of course, as the universities build out their coaching curriculum, there is always the possibility that a uniform credential will come out of that, but only time will tell.
Next, let’s address a very popular lie...
Lie: You need to finish your coach training and be certified before you can coach
Truth: Not only do you not have to be certified before you begin coaching, but in the case of the ICF, you must verify hours coaching in order to achieve any of the certifications, and in the case of the IAC, you're more likely to pass if you have had a good deal of coaching experience.
Now I’m not saying that with no coach training you should hang out your shingle as a coach. It’s best to have some core training under your belt, to have experienced coaching yourself with a qualified coach --not a buddy coach --(I’m always astonished at people who want to be coaches but don’t see the value of coaching for themselves??) and to have had some practicum experience, coaching and being coached while be observed by a credible mentor coach.
By way of illustration, I’ve taught and mentored hundreds of coaches, and talked with hundreds more. I’ve conducted practicums, certified coaches, and listened to hundreds or hours of coaches coaching. And I have to tell you, there’s good coaching, great coaching, and quite a bit of bad coaching out there. And more often than not the bad coaching came from folks who have not taken any coach training nor experienced coaching themselves.
Lie: I don't need coach training to pass IAC certification.
Truth: Although it's true that a tiny percentage of applicants have passed one or both steps for IAC certification with little or no training, the vast majority of IAC certified coaches have had extensive training or mentoring that enabled them to get certification.
The question of whether or not you need coach training also comes up in another way…
Lie: If I have an allied degree, in counseling or social work, or organization development, I don't need coach training.
Truth: You may or you may not. Coaching, while using some of the skills you may already have, is a different skill set, and taking specific coach training is the best way to ensure that you are providing coaching and not something else. I have had several clients who were helping professionals who were transitioning into coaching. They could tell you that there was a definite distinction between coaching and therapy or counseling, and until they took coach training, they often strayed between the two.
Lie: All coach training is created equal.
Truth: Of course, that's not the case. It's important to check the reputation of the program you want to attend. To know what the curriculum will cover; who will be doing the teaching; whether the school focuses on skills, marketing, spirituality, business or more; how the coursework is delivered, and what is expected of you? Whether the school philosophy is aligned with your own.
And while we are talking about schools, let’s address a lie that I’m often asked when people are looking at coach training, and particularly looking to find a cheaper alternative to a coaching school….
Lie: You can learn everything you need from recorded or written coach training materials.
Truth: You can learn a great deal from recordings and written materials, but ultimately it's live coaching skills practice and classes where you interact with the teachers and students who can ask the questions you didn't know to ask, that will benefit you the most.
Coaching is a profession. The definition of a profession is: "A paid occupation, esp. one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification." If we are to continue to grow and become part of the mainstream of helping professionals, we must align ourselves with that definition.
Recently a new member of School of Coaching Mastery's Ultimate Coach Training Program membership asked what the difference is between her new program and our Free Coach Training program.
It's an understandable question, because it's hard to convey with a website what you experience when you join the Ultimate Coach Training program, but the difference is huge. And each month that you remain in the program, we add more value, features and benefits, so it just keeps getting better...
So I created a very simple table to show some of the most obvious difference in the features of these two programs. To keep it simple, I just compared the first month of the Ultimate Coach Training Program. See below...
It's probably not the features that matter to you, though. It's what the features do for you, like:
- Become a professional life or business coach faster
- Get higher-paying clients sooner
- Organize your new business with less stress and confusion
- Avoid flunking certification tests
- Enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded coaches, while you experience this huge personal and professional transformation
- Become a master coach
- Get the life and business you really want
I could go on. But here's the table that compares just the first month of our Ultimate Coach Training Program Membership with the Free Coach Training program. With 60 hours of training for just $377, you can't beat the value anywhere:
Which coach training program is right for you? Answer the following questions and click the links below:
My colleague and friend, Deborah Brown-Volkman, and I are planning a coaching communications project that moves beyond, ‘Which coaching questions should I ask?’ and covers the trickiest and stickiest conversations that professional coaches must have, but often dread.
You know the coaching conversations that give you sweaty palms:
- How do you handle the client who doesn’t pay you on time?
- How do you tell your client that you really can’t give them an extra 20-30 minutes every week?
- How do you tell your client that s/he needs therapy instead of coaching?
- What do you say to the client who ‘can’t afford’ you?
- How do you raise your fees without losing your clients?
- [insert your dreaded client conversation question here]
My students and mentees ask me these questions everyday, but Deborah and I are creating a new resource to give you answers and ideas that are right at your fingertips.
The truth is, as a coach, you need advanced communication skills. And if you don’t have them, your peace of mind will suffer and so will your coaching.
“Success in life is directly proportional to the number of awkward conversations you’re willing to have.” - AnonymousDo you worry about how to handle touchy conversations with your coaching clients? Then please share which conversations keep you up at night in our comments section, below.
Tell us some of the hardest or most difficult conversations you've had or don't want to have. Your questions about communication best practices for coaches will help shape this project greatly - and will help us to better help you.
Please share your questions below. We’ll be happy to offer answers or methods for finding your own best answers, so you never have to dread having another uncomfortable conversation again. And if you have a great story about how you handled a tough conversation, we’d love to hear it - and you might just help a fellow coach get a good night’s sleep tonight!
[UPDATE: Deborah and I are hosting 4 low-cost live, interactive tele-webinars on how to have the toughest coaching conversations of your career. Click below for more info...]
Ask your questions about dreaded coaching conversations, below...
You've probably heard that group coaching is a must-have for your coaching business, but you may never have thought about becoming a Certified Group Coach.
In my opinion, you don't have to offer group coaching, but if you're ready to branch out from just one-to-one coaching clients, group coaching is the next logical place to go. Yes, information products are great, but dollar for dollar and hour for hour, you'll make more from group coaching, especially if you don't already have a mailing list of thousands.
There are probably hundreds of good reasons to add group coaching to your business, but I've highlighted ten from my own experience below, just to give you an idea.
Group coaching is an advanced skill set, combining many of the skills of one-to-one coaching with group facilitation and more. I thought it would be easy for me, because I was a very good one-to-one coach with 15 years of experience as a college professor. In the beginning, it was a lot harder than I thought! But if you think group coaching is something you want to learn more about and if you'd like to become a Certified Group Coach, skip to the bottom of this blog post and check out an upcoming opportunity.
Top Ten Reasons to Become a Certified Group Coach:
1. Make more money
In 2003, my first coaching groups were focused on a hot new certification from the IAC, which used Thomas Leonard's Proficiencies. I was teaching the Proficiencies at the time, so offering a mentor group to help coaches master them, was a natural for me. I filled my first group up with 10 people and had to open a second one quickly, because even more people wanted to join. It kicked up my income very nicely, even though the groups themselves were a bargain to join.
2. Charge less to your clients
As I said, I charged bargain fees to my clients for those first groups, only $75 per month, per person. But with 20 new clients, that was $1,500 more income per month and about $250 per contact hour. Nice pay ~ and very affordable for my clients! Actually, you can charge much more for group coaching, depending on your market. Generally, groups meet for three to six hours per month, with group sizes ranging from 3 to 10 clients. And most coaching groups cost $150 to $350 per month, per person. Do the math. Group coaching saves money for the client and makes more money for you.
3. Grow your fan base faster
I mentioned your email marketing list earlier, because your True Fans are a vitally important element in your coaching success. Building that list with just one-to-one clients can be murder. Coaching groups with 3 to 10 members each, will help you build that list 3 to 10 times faster.
It's an incredible amount of work to design ebooks, white papers and other information products to attract new people to your list, but coaching is customized in the moment, so there is far less upfront work, while far more value is delivered - and at a higher price that clients gladly pay. People simply view in-person, customized service as more valuable than pre-designed, canned content - because it's far more effective.
Contrary to what you may have heard, coaching clients don't need to buy cheap products from you before they hire you to be their coach. For most of them, you being a credible coach who is in the right place at the right time, with an appealing specialty or niche, is all it takes.
4. Give more value to your clients
Here's where it gets interesting: your group clients will actually get a lot more value from each other than they would from you alone, so a group of ten will multiply value by ten. Why? Groups are organized around commonalities between the members of the group and their mutual goals. So guess what? They have experiences, know-how and resources that you don't have and they tend to share them generously - so long as you know how to set up a bonded synchronous group, which is one of those advanced skill sets I mentioned.
5. Upsell to one-to-one coaching
It's natural to balance group coaching with one-to-one coaching, because sometimes your clients need you to drill down deeper with an issue than you have time for during the group meeting. This is an important value add for your clients, which gives them the benefits of one-to-one coaching plus group coaching. You can easily add an option for each group member to have one or two individual coaching sessions per month with you and of course, you can charge extra for that.
6. Increase your credibility
As you become known for certain specialties or niches in your coaching groups, you'll become known for those specialties and niches in all your coaching. Once I offered the Get Certified Coaching Groups, which I mentioned above, I became known as a mentor coach who helps coaches get certified. This became an important part of my one-to-one coaching practice for several years, as well - until I leveraged my reputation and what I had learned to start School of Coaching Mastery. You see, over the years, I became an expert on this type of coaching and potential clients saw me as someone they wanted to work with on this. In other words, I developed the credibility to do well with this niche and specialty.
Back then, there was very little training in group coaching, so I had to teach myself and it took years of trial and error. There were no group coaching certifications, but if there had been, I'd have gotten one. Credibility is everything when you're in business for yourself.
7. Decrease your work hours
You can work day and night on a membership site, on information products and live events - or you can just coach. Group coaching pays you even more per hour than one-to-one coaching, so if a short work week is a goal for you, then group coaching needs to be a specialty of yours.
8. Add additional income streams
As you organize your coaching groups, you'll find yourself writing more, because it'll be an easy way to communicate with groups. The nice thing about that is that once you've written something, it can be re-purposed.
Remember how I mentioned that it's a lot of work creating information products? If you've already created something for a high-paying coaching group, you've been well-paid for your time. If you take that written piece and sell it as a free-standing product at a lower price, whatever you make from it will be profit. That's the easier, more profitable way to do it.
Also, working with groups of people will give you a good idea what kinds of solutions they're looking for. That may spark great ideas when you're ready to do live events or create products.
9. Upsell from information products
Remember how I said that clients don't have to try inexpensive products from you in order to be willing to hire you to coach them? Well that's true. And sometimes you'll attract people who were just looking for that inexpensive ebook that tells them how to do something, but upon reading it they'll realize what they really want is a coach. If you have both group coaching and one-to-one coaching options, you'll be able to reach more people in exactly the format they want.
10. Learn where your next opportunities are
Just as I mentioned in #8 above, working intensively with clients will give you ideas about what they really want and need next - even when they, themselves, can't tell you what that is. So group coaching is perhaps the most valuable form of R&D possible, because you get to know your coaching clients inside and out. For me, that took me from coach, to mentor coach, to founding my own coaching school. I knew what my clients wanted and needed because I had gotten to know them so well.
Where will group coaching take you and your business? Where ever it is, you'll get there much faster if you don't have to learn it all from the ground up. That's why we're offering the 8-hour Master Group Coaching Success module, which ends with a Group Coaching Certificate. You'll learn how to organize, market and facilitate successful coaching groups in these live tele-webinars, which come with written materials and more.
What to become a Certified Group Coach? Take Master Group Coaching Success, described above, and then join the upcoming Certified Group Coach Mentor Group. I'll personally mentor you as you learn to lead your own groups and get started with your very first group. You must attend both the learning module and the mentor group in order to become a Certified Group Coach.
Last week, I interviewed my friend and colleague, Donna Steinhorn, IAC-CC, ICF PCC, on the difference between ICF and IAC life coach certification.
The interview was for the membership of the IAC North American Virtual Chapter. Unfortunately, the recording was no good, which is one of the of the many reasons that attending live is always the best policy (Membership in the chapter is free).
The feedback from coaches who attended the interview has been awesome. So I'm going to add a few highlights here, in case you missed it.
The two organizations, themselves, are of course, the ultimate authorities on what they do and they change their policies from time to time. So if you're looking for highly detailed info, visit their respective web sites. The ICF's is coachfederation.org and the IAC's is certifiedcoach.org.
Donna has been deeply involved in coach training and certification for many years and is one of only a handful of coaches who have both ICF and IAC coach certifications, which is why I chose her for this interview ~ that, and the fact that Donna is fun to talk with.
Both Donna and I have been on the coach training and certification bandwagon for eternity (Donna is a member of SCM's Board of Advisers) - and we're both rebels, so we have a shared skepticism, as well as support of these two leading professional organizations and their respective credentialing processes.
We began our conversation by noting that there are limitations to both ICF and IAC coach certifications. Each has its own coaching competencies (or masteries, as the IAC calls theirs). Each definitely has its own coaching style, which you need to be able to demonstrate. Neither style encompasses every possible way to coach brilliantly; they're just doing the best they can.
So why are there two professional coaching organizations and certifications? Actually, there are zillions of them - some completely bogus - but these currently are the most respected. Oddly, the same man, Thomas J. Leonard, the 'Father of Professional Coaching', founded both the IAC and ICF. Thomas founded the ICF in 1995 and later, the IAC in 2003, just before he passed away.
ICF credentialing, as it's called, emphasizes coach training, mentoring and experience, as well as an online test and demonstration of coaching skill. Thomas sought to streamline the process of certification with the IAC, which emphasizes the results of coach training, mentoring and experience, rather than the documentation of it. This makes the IAC certification process a bit simpler, but it's by no means easier, because coaches need to demonstrate masterful coaching skills. Only about 25% of coaches who apply for IAC Coach Certification pass on the first try. (I'm proud that SCM students have a much higher pass rate.)
The ICF has three levels of coaching credentials: The Associate Credentialed Coach (ACC), The Professional Credentialed Coach (PCC), and the Master Credentialed Coach (MCC). The IAC currently has only one certification, the Certified Coach (IAC-CC), but from what I've observed, the level of coaching skill required by the IAC is roughly comparable to the ICF MCC. (There are rumors that the IAC is considering another 'intermediate' level of certification, as well.)
Finally, the ICF has two pathways for credentialing: The portfolio route allows you to get your coach training anywhere and the accreditation path requires you to study at an ICF accredited coach training school. The IAC doesn't require demonstration of coach training, just the results of it: masterful coaching skills. I know most IAC Certified Coaches and I believe all of them have had substantial coach training and/or mentor coaching. Donna says there may have been one coach who passed without being trained.
I asked Donna if there were any hidden costs to getting certified by either organization. She mentioned the mentor coaching requirement by the ICF, which would cost you about $350 - 400 per month, but Donna doesn't consider that a hidden cost, since all coaches need to have their own coaches at all times. Personally, I don't think anyone needs a coach every minute of their life, but coaches are foolish if they don't work with successful coaches of their own. I worked with two excellent mentor coaches while I prepared for IAC Coach Certification.
What, in Donna's opinion, is the best benefit of getting certified? She considers the coach directory on the ICF website, which only lists ICF credentialed coaches, to be by far the best benefit, because it brings her a steady stream of potential clients. We agreed that the IAC would do well to offer such a benefit to its own membership.
Finally, which coaches need certification most? Donna says corporate coaches and perhaps executive coaches, since companies usually want to see credentials. She doesn't believe life coaches need to be certified, but I've seen anecdotal evidence that clients are screening life coaches more carefully than they used to. Even new life coaches are telling me that potential clients ask about training and certification.
School of Coaching Mastery is the first coach training school to be licensed by the IAC and we're in the process of adding the ICF option for our Ultimate Coach Training Program members, so they have additional options.
So there you have the Readers Digest version of the ICF Credentialing vs. IAC Life Coach Certification interview. Join the chapter below.