As you may have noticed with our Free Coach Training announcement, and our Manifesto, School of Coaching Mastery is shaking things up a bit.
One more change that we're making is that from now on, our regular students, once they're certified by us, will be licensedat no extra charge, to teach our coaching curriculum to whomever they want.
Why are we doing this? It's part of our mission to spread the value of quality coaching and coach training. We believe the days of huge coach training schools are coming to an end. In the future, people will seek out specialty coach training from coaches they admire, or they will be trained via universities or employers. Our Certified Coaches will be among those teaching coaching.
Plus, I won't be training coaches forever. I have other projects that I'd love to have more time for. I see my students picking up where I leave off to continue expanding the quality and value of coaching worldwide.
Are we licensing all our materials to our Certified Coaches? Pretty much, yes. However, we can't relicense the IAC Coaching Masteries(tm), so we are going to remove specific mentions of them from our teaching materials and will not renew that license when it comes due in December 2010. As you may know, we have philosophical differences with the IAC over the license, itself, anyway.
I had a school-wide conversation with my students before we launched the Free Coach Training Program and they feel fine about this change. Not all of them are interested in IAC Certification and dropping our license won't hurt those who do want it. We expect to continue to be a leader in prepping coaches who go on to become IAC Certified, even without the license.
This means that many of our Certified Coach Training Program modules will not be available after December 2010. If you've been thinking you want to work with us to become an IAC Certified Coach, you need to do it now. We have both recorded and live courses that specifically prep for IAC Certification. Watch for announcements about what's available.
I also will be doing just one more Certification Bootcamp weekend this Fall. If you missed the one we did in June, be sure to join this last one. It's for advanced coaches who are ready to step up and get certified, now.
Oh and speaking of certifications, we're adding an optional Certified Coach Trainer program to our Full Coach Training Program. It'll be just one path that will propel our 'graduate level' coaches toward leadership in the coach training profession. But whether they choose to take the CCT program, they will still receive the no-cost license to teach when they become certified by us. More on that later.
By the way, given that we're adding so much value to our coach training, we've decided to change the name to the Ultimate Coach Training Program. ;-)
If you're one of the many coaches who view coach certification as an critical goal in 2009, this will interest you.
We were planning one of our advanced coach certification weekends this October, but coaches told us they want something else. I invite you to tell us what you want, too, in the survey called, 'Certification in a Weekend?' The survey closes this Thursday. So far, over 50 coaches have told us what they want and how much they want to pay for it. We have every single bit of it, too!
We're offering a special preview recording of 'Master Coach Demos', a new product that we're producing, to everyone who participates in the survey. We'll also provide you with customized recommendations, so you get the certification support you need, not just a pre-packaged product that may not fit your unique requirements.
Take the quick 2-page Certification survey right now
Most of the coaches I talk to fit the following description:
Coaching, But Not Actually Open for Business
They think they're in business, but they're not. Confusion is holding them back. Confusion turns away coaching clients, just like the business in this picture turns away customers.
The reason I know this is that unlike most coaching schools, I (or someone else at SCM) actually talk to the coaches who visit our site. We listen to what they are up to and help them find the resources they need. It's a labor-intensive process that average coach training schools skip. But we're not average.
Our Enrollment Advisor, Donna Miller, commented on this to me the other day. Most coaches are either coaching, but have no business, or they've started a business, but they're not sure how to coach. Those are bad combinations. They send the same mixed message as the business pictured above. The open sign is on, but the security gate is closed.
If your coaching business is struggling, ask yourself if you're actually open for business.
Here's My Stand:
There is (or should be) an enormous difference between amateurs who coach and professional coaches. If you want a successful coaching business, you need to be coaching a whole lot better than your client's best friend, next door neighbor and office mate, because those folks are all "coaching" too (and a most of them are coaching for free).
A good coaching school will give you clarity and clarity creates success. It's not magic, but it feels like magic. Mixed signals will keep you stuck. If you are stuck, get the clarity you need.
One place you can get clarity is in our "How to Become..." free mini-course series. The next one is on How to Become a Certified Coach.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of telling SCM coach/student, Brick Saunderson (Dr. Brick), that he's the first ever SCM Certified Mastery Coach!
I'm not sure which of us was more excited! Brick joined the SCM Certified Coach Training Program about a year ago. With decades of experience as Clinical Counselling-Hypnotherapist (RCCH) and Registered Counsellor on Vancouver Island, BA, Canada, Brick already had loads of skill working one-on-one with clients. In fact, he has his own school where he teaches other counsellors how to use hypnotherapy and is clearly is a long-time master in helping others create the lives they desire.
Regardless, Brick says becoming a certified coach is a huge milestone for him!
SCM, on the other hand, is a pretty new coaching school (founded, 2007) and the Certified Mastery Coach designation was only designed a couple of months ago, so we are super excited to have our first certified coach, especially since several more of our coach/students have demonstrated coaching mastery and will be following in Brick's footsteps and getting certified by us and/or the IAC very shortly.
You can visit Brick's coaching site, www.dreamfacilitators.net
And you can visit Brick Certified Mastery Coach page here.
Brick shared some gems about his journey with me in a 19 minute recorded interview right here. If you're wondering about going into coaching or becoming certified and you'd like to hear from someone (unedited) who's just been through the process, maybe this will be helpful to you:
If you'd like more secrets about becoming a certified coach, download the free Seven Secrets of Certification eBook.
Four years ago, I wrote an ebook based on what I had learned from training, mentoring and certifying hundreds of coaches.
Since then, hundreds more coaches have downloaded that ebook and many have used it to become certified, themselves. It's called the Seven Secrets of Certification, because it's about the seven things that I noticed that some coaches were doing, but others were not.
Those seven things are important, because they make the difference between masterful coaching and mediocre coaching AND they make the difference between passing an elite skills-based certification, like the IAC's or SCM's.
Today, I'm re-releasing that ebook. The original sold for $21. The new one is FREE. Version 3.1 includes language that makes it easier to understand when reviewing the IAC Coaching Masteries(tm). In fact, we have links to all nine IAC Coaching Masteries(tm) learning guides, which you normally have to pay to see.
Oh, and we've included a $100 coupon, good for a discount off any SCM Coach Training Program or module.
Are you ready for coaching mastery and an elite coach certification? This ebook will help you answer that question. And if you want to get there faster, we have proven programs to help you, whether you are a brand-new coach or a veteran professional.
Go here to learn about our Fast Track to Coach Certification and to download the free Seven Secrets of Certification eBook
You know you're hearing great coaching in class when the both coach and client are so intrigued that they can't wait to set up another coaching call! It's happening a lot on the SCM Module calls. Each mastery is covered in four two-hour eClasses. Each class covers an one aspect of that Mastery with a Coaching Guide, discussion and demonstration by the instructor, followed by the coaches dividing up into triads for an hour of practice and observation, with the instructor dropping in to each triad for additional feedback. All of it is recorded for review and each Module gets its own web page with graphics for the students to follow in class.
After eight hours on a Module, they know that Mastery!
We've just finished Either/Or Questions, followed by Distinctions and the Ad Hoc Advisors are jumping in to help me create SCM's own "distinctionary" for future reference! Next we're onto Zeroing In On What's Really Going On, a path of inquiry that uncovers what's important, followed by Taking It Deeper, looking at trends, dynamics and patterns.
I think I throw them sometimes, because I expect them all to fully participate and some of them are used to taking sleepy teleclasses while they read their email! This is the School of Coaching Mastery, afterall, not just another school on coaching. Of course I expect more! That's why the classes are small and we have so much practice ~ So people actually know how to coach when they get done!
Join Ad Hoc Advisors hereCopyright, Julia Stewart, 2007