Coaching Blog

Personal Development? Busted!

Posted by Julia Stewart

Ah personal development can be soooo exhausting! And personal developers (Like us: Coaches, no?) can be sooooo full of it! :-)

Nic Askew (Monday9AM Films) has busted us. If you're just dog tired of the whole thing, take a break here:

http://www.monday9am.tv/archive/intro/48

Topics: personal development

Coaching 2007: The Industry Is Headed In Completely the Wrong Direction

Posted by Julia Stewart

OK, my coach put me up to this. But it's true.

The Coaching Industry is headed the wrong way. Not coaching, mind you, the industry.

It blows my mind that coaches who should know better don't get this. Maybe it's time I let you in on it!

Coaches like to think they're all on the leading edge, that they know stuff the rest of the world doesn't get, yet. We're oh, so precious about what we do.

Don't get me wrong. Great coaching is incredible. That's why it's so surprising that so many coaches don't see what has happened.

Hello?? We've had an impact. We've been coaching world leaders for 20 years and our clients influence a lot of people. A large chunk of the world does get it and they're quietly passing us by. We've done such a great job of coaching that non-coaches have picked up the banner and they're running with it!

I know a coach who is training 10,000 employees of the City of Seattle to coach each other. I know another coach who's helping her husband write a Broadway play about coaching that will soon open in NYC.

Meanwhile, the majority of coaches are still obsessing about how to get enough clients. No wonder they're missing the boat! Coaches think too small.

Most coaches are still hung up on the entrepreneurial model of coaching, thinking they have to get enough clients to make that work. If you've been a coach for more than a few years and you've never had a full practice, maybe you're just not cut out for that. Maybe you're a coach, but you're not a coach-preneur.

I just did a job search at www.indeed.com. 76,771 jobs that require coaching skills came up. That's more jobs than there are coaches. These days, even engineers are required to coach and they're the most left-brained people on the planet!

If people can get coaching from their managers and team members, what do they need to hire you for?

Coaches are still waiting for coaching to go mainstream, as if that will make it easier to have a coaching business. No, that just means you'll have a lot more competition.

Coaching already went mainstream and now everyone is trying to coach everyone else. Most of them aren't doing it well, but that will change soon enough.

The biggest advances in coaching are currently going on outside the industry and that's a great thing. Imagine what the world will be like when coaching is the default communication skill, when every child grows up being coached by their parents and teachers, when employees are coaching and getting coached everyday on the job? How will people evolve then?

Pretty cool, huh?

I just met a coach who works for a suburban school system. Every student's family in that system gets up to three coaching sessions per year to optimize that child's development. This is a tradition-bound school system. They didn't go looking for a coach. She developed the program herself and her results are very impressive.

Coaching is showing up everywhere: in banks, the military, the government; but the people doing it aren't always called coaches. They're called financial advisors, chefs, principals, HR directors.

Coaching didn't just go mainstream, the mainstream is now coaching!

Okay, I'm inspired and I know what I'm going to do about this. The real question is: What are you going to do about it in 2007??

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
www.yourlifepart2.com

Featured in Blogwild!

Posted by Julia Stewart

Hey! I got this little graphic from Andy Wibbels, today. Cool. He used my blog testimony in his newly released Blogging Bible, BLOGWILD! Basically, I talked about how this blog attracts new coaching clients to my business. (Very cool. Check it out on page 138.) Nice to attract business by doing something I like anyway. Yet another example of the old Attraction Principle, "Add value just for the joy of it." Something very attractive about that. That's also partly why Andy's work is so attractive (and successful): He gives cool stuff away. (And he happens to be very, very good at what he does!)

He's a great example of "Giving is the new marketing." The web makes it possible. Consciousness makes it inevitable. (More on "The Power of Giving" in April 18th's Confab with special guest, Kathryn Gotshall English. If you still haven't joined, go here:www.coachingconfab.com)

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2006
www.yourlifepart2.com.com

Topics: Attraction Principles, IAC

Is the Media Helping You Find Coaching Clients?

Posted by Julia Stewart

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show We often fall under the delusion that we have to do everything ourselves, if we want to be successful. But that's never true. We need to do A LOT ourselves, but never all of it.

An example? Well a nice upbeat article on Life Coaching came out in the March 26, 2006 Sunday New York Times and suddenly, one coach that I know got called by a potential client who read the article and hired him on the spot! And other coaches that I know are also suddenly hearing from more potential clients. One article can have a big rapid ripple effects.

One article can spawn more media mentions. My partner at ACE, Donna Steinhorn, was just called by someone who is looking for coaches to be guests on her radio show. Donna's scouting that for our ACE members.

Can we attribute all of this new interest in coaching to just one article? Well, maybe. Don't underestimate the power of the media to help you create coaching success.

And don't sit on your hands while opportunity knocks. One Coach 100 ECPer went out right away and posted coaching flyers in all the apartment buildings in her neighborhood after the NY Times article appeared. Will she immediately get new clients? Who knows? Sometimes people pull off numbers, carry them in their wallets for a year and then call. I've had that happen lots of times.

That's why you need to be consistently doing things that will bring attention to your business and patiently waiting for those things to pay off AND you need to be prepared to act fast when there's a genuine opportunity - like when a big article or TV spot on coaching comes out in your city.

  • What are you doing on a day-to-day basis to bring yourself more clients?
  • And what are some creative ways that you can leverage media mentions?

By the way, as coaching becomes a household word, you see more jokes being made about it. Did you see what the Daily Show with Jon Stewart did to us? Don't worry, all media coverage is good coverage. This is just another sign that the mainstream public knows about us. (Jokes about lawyers haven't exactly ruined that profession. Rather, they offer feedback to reputable attorneys about how not to practice law.)

Here's a link to the NY Times article on life coaching

And the link for the Daily Show piece on life coaching

Your challenge: How can you leverage these pieces to create more success for yourself (and your potential new clients)?

More on this subject in Coach 100 class #18, Where Are Your Next Clients Hiding?

If you're not already a member of the Coach 100 and you don't already have a full practice, then you might want to check it out.

Topics: coaching clients, Life Coaching

The Evolution of Coach Certification

Posted by Julia Stewart

Certified Coach LogoThe Certification Preparation course at the University of Houston's Executive Coaching Institute last weekend was a transformative event - not just for the participants, but for Mattison and me! Twelve coaches spent 24 hours together over three days, teasing out the meaning of "great coaching" and courageously stepped up to the plate again and again. It takes heart to do that and when you bring together fearlessness, generocity and a love of coaching, you get magic.

Mattison and I are recovering from our writer's cramp and are just now fully realizing how big an impact this event has had on us. It's still just sinking in.

A minor downer is an email I just received from a former client who is an absolutely brilliant coach. She just got her certification results back from IAC and they didn't pass her. She scored above 80% on both sessions, but too low on one Proficiency. Bummer! She'll have to submit one more recording.

The thing that bugs me is that I know another fantastic coach who had the same experience recently - and same Proficiency! I asked to listen to her two recordings and from what I heard, I would have been thrilled to pass her. The sessions weren't flawless, but they were truly masterful.

Whoa! Is the IAC raising the bar? Fortunately, Mattison and I knew they were taking a pretty strict view of this Proficiency. and we coached our participants around it. About half the sessions passed our standards. It'll be interesting to see what the IAC does with them.

After spending a long weekend with the Proficiencies and new Masteries, I'm more blown away than ever at the power of great coaching to transform both the coach and client and literally create a new world. I'm so thankful that the IAC exists, because it gives coaches a wonderful incentive to become the best they can be. Here's what one coach, whose two sessions passed the IAC, wrote:

"Anyone who is committed to his or her own greatness as a coach needs to take this course. The profession will be enhanced immeasurably as a result and the way this would effect humanity is awe-inspiring!" - Kristi Arndt, IAC-CC

I've listened to a lot of coaching sessions since I did the "Lead Certifier" thing in 2004-5. Coaches are getting better and that's a very good thing!

Here's what I'm curious about: Is the IAC raising the bar because the quality of the applicants has improved? Some time ago, they revealed that they only pass about 25%. Is that still true?

Coaches adapt pretty quickly, so I don't have a problem with the IAC raising the standard, as long as they don't narrow down the style of coaching that is acceptable. I'm all for high standards, which reflect well on all of us, but narrow standards could reduce the number of clients who can be helped.

And of course, all of this is subjective. Nobody's right or wrong. The perfection is in what we learn from each other.

As long as we're all free to be ourselves, while practicing our brilliance to transform the lives of others, coaching will grow as a force for positive change. I hope the IAC will fully communicate with us on any changes in their standard. ;-)

Here's my favorite testimonial from last weekend:

"Go do it! It will change your life & those you work with! Hold on to your pants and shoot for the stars :)" - Jan O'Brien [Update: Jan is now an IAC-CC]

The question we're getting is when will we do another Certification Prep? We honestly don't know, but we're thinking about it.

In the meantime, the Seven Secrets of Certification practicums are going strong. they are basically the same thing, but in virtual form. A new group will start next month.

Topics: Coach Certification, Kristi Arndt, Mattison Grey, Certification Practicum, IAC, Certification Prep

Koans to Live By If You're Thomas Leonard

Posted by Julia Stewart

Thomas LeonardThe Zen of Attraction

by Thomas J. Leonard

I developed these 14 koans to help me get more space so that I could better apply the 28 Attraction Principles and Practices of the Attraction Operating System. Note: You can take these literally, figuratively or as a place to come from in your dealings. They are simply what works for me.

1. Promise nothing.
Just do what you most enjoy doing.

2. Sign nothing.
Just do what doesn't require a signature of any kind.

3. Offer nothing.
Just share what you have with those who express an interest.

4. Expect nothing.
Just enjoy what you already have; it's plenty.

5. Need nothing.
Just build up your reserves and your needs will disappear.

6. Create nothing.
Just respond well to what comes to you.
7. Seduce no one.
Just enjoy them.

8. Adrenalize nothing.
Just add value and get excited about that.

9. Hype nothing.
Just let quality sell by itself.

10. Fix nothing.
Just heal yourself.

11. Plan nothing.
Just take the path of least resistance.

12. Learn nothing.
Just let your body absorb it all on your behalf.

13. Become no one.
Just be more of yourself.

14. Change nothing.
Just tell the truth and things will change by themselves.

Copyright 1997 by Thomas J. Leonard. All rights reserved.

(Used with permission) 

Topics: Thomas Leonard, Attraction Principles, Zen of Attraction

The Secret to Coaching Success: Servant Entrepreneurs Unite!

Posted by Julia Stewart

Thomas LeonardI've been playing with the concept of the Servant Entrepreneur, a phrase that I coined when looking for the entrepreneurial equivalent of Servant Leader (http://www.greenleaf.org/). I'll be speaking about it at a new seminar titled, THE SERVANT ENTREPRENEUR: How to Become Irresistibly Attractive to Money, Opportunities and People.

In a previous post in the Coaching Blog, I wrote that the Servant Entrepreneur was probably the only business model that will bring sustainable success to coaches.

What is the Servant Entrepreneur business model?


1. Do service for others.
2. Leverage that service (and everything else) to grow your business and create value for your clients, yourself and the world.

In that order.

Simple, huh? Maybe you're already doing it. But maybe not.

Most coaches start out with this as their purpose, more or less, but it gets lost, easily. Especially while you're getting hyped by marketing programs that tell you how to make lots of money as a coach.

Are you making lots of money, yet?

If you're not, then you may be focusing on the wrong step. Most coaches either focus on doing service and leave out the leveraging piece, or they focus on the leveraging piece and only do service as an after thought, which comes across as manipulative to savvy potential clients. Or they flip back and forth, which doesn't work, either. Do you see yourself in here?

How do you consistently do service first and leverage second and become enormously successful (like say, Oprah Winfrey or Thomas Leonard)?

I don't pretend to have all the answers and yet, I've seen it in action and it works and I've seen coaches who don't get it, even "top" coaches, crash and burn.

Here's the tricky part: The Ego and the Greater Self need to kiss and make up.

If you've done your personal development, you know what I'm talking about. (If not, get to work!)

However, most PD programs encourage you to live only from the greater self and get the ego out of the picture. The ego is what has driven humankind for tens of thousands of years. Now some folks are giving it the boot; calling it "pathological" or "dysfunctional". Maybe it's neither. Maybe the greater self is just an upgrade, like from DOS to WindowsXP.

Ego is a source of energy, expensive energy maybe, like foreign oil, but useful at least for now. The Self runs cleaner, but it can use a boost in order to get things done in the temporal world - the one where business occurs. The ego can be placed in service of the greater self and visa versa, kind of like hybrid cars use two different energy sources and produce cleaner running cars. You're probably already doing that to some degree: It feels better to come from the Self and the ego likes to feel good, so it's willing to go there, right? That's why doing service feels good.

Why not let the Self support the ego, too? Having a greater voice in the world, having the power and money to do great good - wouldn't that serve the Self? So why not let the ego succeed at the things it wants, when those things can also serve the Self? For example, why not let the ego have all the money and success that it craves - as long as it's doing service?

If you ever visited thomasleonard.com while he was still alive (You can still go there by going to www.waybackmachine.org and typing in thomasleonard.com and choose the dates that you want to look at. Currently his URL just goes to a memorial site.), you know that his tagline was, "Ego is good." Ever wonder what he meant by that? He'd already discovered that ego can place the Self in service of the world. Without it, you may as well retire to your cave and meditate for the rest of your life. Not a bad thing, but if you're an entrepreneur, it's not your thing.

Thomas made SE work.

How can you start putting SE to work for you (and the world)?

Topics: coaching success, Thomas Leonard, Servant Entrepreneur

Marketing and Sales: Nice Girls Don’t (Nice Coaches Don’t, Either)

Posted by Julia Stewart

Nice girl?If there's one thing that makes some coaches (OK, a lotta coaches, especially new ones) feel kinda squeamish, icky, or dirty; it's marketing and sales. Makes you feel like you did when those snotty, dirty boys pulled your dress up on the playground. You're not that kinda girl!

Okay, I'm being a little silly here, but if that's how you feel, it can get in the way of your success, Big Time. Unless of course, someone else is signing your clients on for you! So let's see if you can shift your perspective, here.

Gosh, where to begin with this issue? Let's look at why coaches feel this way to begin with. So what are all the reasons you've ever felt funny about selling? Please reflect on that. Make a list. Here are some I've heard about:

  • You were raised to be modest
  • You don't want to look pushy
  • You don't want to seem self-serving
  • You don't want to have an agenda
  • You don't want to be greedy

Hmm...notice the word all those phrases begin with?

YOU.

Yeah, ouch! There you go, worrying about yourself instead of focusing on the client! Oddly enough, when you're busy worrying about your modesty, you're ego is getting in your way. (And don't bother re-writing your list of reasons. Regardless of how you worded them, I can virtually guarantee that your objections to selling are ego-based, unless you honestly believe coaching is sleazy, in which case, why are you coaching?)

Your ego doesn't belong in a coaching call.

You probably already knew that, but how do you get your focus off yourself, onto the client, and still make a sale? Well, it's easy, once you get it AND until you get it, it's impossible!

Let's look at why you became a coach, in the first place. You may want to make another list. Here are some possible reasons:

  • You want to help people
  • You have a gift in this area
  • You've done a lot of work on yourself and you want to share it
  • You want to change the world

Well, these are pretty noble reasons and you may have noticed that there's a lot of "You" in there, again. But, what if you took "You" out?

  • Help people
  • Share gifts
  • Change the world

The noble stuff is still there and the phrases get more active. And your stuff is gone. If you're not in the picture, then your modesty, how you want to look and be, don't even matter anymore. The focus is off you and onto the action. Now you're ready to take action and make it all about the client.

I'm not just playing word games here; this is real.

If "you" didn't exist in a selling conversation, who would the conversation be about? The client, of course. Whose needs would matter? Whose finances, etc.? Does this person need a coach? Maybe. Do they want one for free? Probably not, because healthy, well-functioning people - the kind who make good clients - don't want handouts. They might even feel uncomfortable and say "No" if you insisted on coaching them for free. (The client, by the way, gets to show up to the session with all their ego stuff. It's you who needs to park it.)

Most clients will feel better about coaching with you if you let them pay you what coaching is worth to them. So that's the money thing.

And then there's the rejection thing. If you're worried about it, then it's your ego again. Strangely enough, clients worry about rejection, too. That's why making an invitation is so important. If you're doing a complimentary session with someone who sounds like your ideal client, park your fear of rejection and make an offer. Otherwise, you may be denying the other person a beautiful opportunity to grow and have a new life. Get yourself out of the way and find out if they're ready to take a chance. Often, all they need is an invitation from you.

Good coach marketing and selling is just clean above-board communication and relationship building.

Think about it. Part of being authentic is communicating honestly about who you are. That's integrity. If coaching is in integrity with your authentic self, then communicating about the gifts you have to offer the world as a coach, is part of your authenticity. If you're refusing to market and and unwilling to make a sale, a.k.a. communicate honestly and make invitations, then you're out of integrity. Your ego is in the way. Nobody is served.

So if you feel uncomfortable with marketing and sales, I have a tongue-in-cheek suggestion for you: Stop thinking dirty. Start taking actions that help more people experience the benefits of coaching. In other words, fill up your coaching practice!

Come on! You'll still respect yourself in the morning!

This is a theme we visit again and again in Coach 100, but especially in C100 classes #5 &6, "Successful Complimentary Sessions, Part I & II", and class #11, "I Hate to Market!"

Copyright, 2005, 2006, Julia Stewart

Photo by Skirt Girl Monica at Flickr Commons

Topics: Coach 100, marketing and sales, ego, coaching call, communication

This Prevents Coaching Success: Are You Suffering From the Kiss of Death?

Posted by Julia Stewart

death Should you get coach certification or fill your practice, first?

I get asked this question a lot by coaches that I'm mentoring, because these are two of my mentor coach specialties (the other is advanced personal development).

I'm a little mystified by this question. Why does it have to be either/or?

Most coaches aren't independantly wealthy, so getting clients quickly is important to them. On the other hand, they know that getting certified is important, too. Not so much because it's important to clients - most potential clients won't even ask if you're certified. The real reason certification helps coaches be successful is because it helps them get past feeling insecure, like frauds, like people who don't quite know what they're doing, yet.

That's the Kiss of Death for coaches who are trying to sell their coaching services!

So, the stamp of approval that certifcation brings is important to the coach, not the client.

However, coach certification can take years of hard work. How do you survive in the process? Well, fill your coachng practice, of course. But hold on! How do you fill your practice if you're still suffering from the Kiss of Death??

That's why the Coach 100 Program is designed the way that it is. To make it easy to sign on clients, even though you're new to coaching. There's something about being part of a program and having made a commitment to coach 100 people that makes it easy to ask people to help you out by letting you give them complimentary sessions. Each session you give is priceless practice for your coaching skills and your selling skills. Long before you finish coaching 100 people, you'll be excellent at both and getting clients and certifications will be a piece of cake. 

Not only that, but you'll get the Certified Experienced Coach designation, too. With 100 clients under your belt, you'll have strong skills and certification, too. No more Kiss of Death!

Hmm, Kiss of Death or Piece of Cake? That's an easy one.

If you don't know the Coach 100 techniques to invite people to complimentary sessions, take Coach 100 classes #1 through #4. (a.k.a. C100 Module 1)

Find out more about the Coach 100 Business Success Program.

Topics: coaching business, coach training, Coach 100, coaching clients, Coaching 100, coaching success, Coach Certification, certified coach

The Consummate Coach

Posted by Julia Stewart

This is a phrase that Donna Steinhorn and I came up with the other day and I've been thinking about it ever since. It has a nice ring, but what does it mean, really? What would make a coach a consummate coach? What accomplishments would such a coach have under his/her belt?

For that matter, what would constitute an "accomplished coach"? I like both of these phrases and think they might describe useful benchmarks for those of us who are committed to excellence. You know, there's the "being" aspect if excellence, but there's the "doing" part, too. I think benchmarks are useful in measuring how we're doing.

I think Consummate Coach includes Accomplished Coach, so I'm going to throw out some ideas for what I think it might mean to be accomplished. I'm curious if you agree.

I think an Accomplished Coach probably has graduated from a coach training school. Not just a short program, but a full accredited program. They usually take about two years. 

They probably have at least one coach certification.

They're experienced. But how experienced? Maybe they've coached 100 people, like the folks who take the experienced coach program.www.experiencedcoach.com 

Or maybe we measure their experience in hours of coaching, like the ICF. Does it have to be 2500 hours? Does 500 hours make a coach accomplished?

What if it's both hours and # of people coached? 100/500?

Do they have a full practice? I think so. Or is it how much they make? Six figures (USD)?

Have they written a book? Become internationally famous? Appeared on Oprah? What other accomplishments do you think are important before you can call yourself an Accomplished Coach? What benchmarks (goals) have you currently created for yourself? Are there steps along the way?

How many of the above benchmarks have you already accomplished? Do you think of yourself as an accomplished coach?

OK, back to Consummate Coach then. What separates a Consummate Coach from a coach who is merely accomplished? I'm thinking we all can become accomplished coaches, but can we all be consummate coaches?

Perhaps Consummate Coach brings us back to the "being" state, again. It's a superlative state, but may not be as easy to measure. Perhaps we can't define it, but we know it when we see it? Hmm, I'm not sure.

What would distinguish a Consummate Coach from an Accomplished Coach? Do you know any coaches who you believe deserve to be called "consummate"? Who would they be? What do they have in common? Or are they uniquely different from one another?

That's what I want to talk in Tuesday's Confab. If you're not on the new mailing list, go to www.coachingconfab.com and register to receive announcements and bridgelines.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005
www.yourlifepart2.com

Topics: Coaching, coach, Donna Steinhorn

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