The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.
1. Pick a goal that excites you – not something you think you SHOULD have.
2. Would you choose this if you only had 12 months to live? Reassess your priorities.
3. Make it real by being specific: by when will you have it? How many, what colour? How will you feel?
4. Will this goal fulfil you, or just be another thing to have? Is it thing related, or people related? Spiritual? Something which expresses who you really are?
5. What are the key milestones to achieve along the way. Again, be specific.
6. Work out how to make it fun – be creative. e.g. a picture of the dream body you will become on your wall.
7. Broadcast it. Commit to this by telling three key people you will do this, announcing it via email, and putting a display up on your wall. (If you’re concerned about failure or how you’ll look, work with a coach).
8. Don’t play Lone Ranger. Write your list of what who and what you have access to which could help you.
9. Write your list of what needs to be done to achieve the first milestone.
10. Put your support structures in place to help you achieve this (e.g. a buddy doing the same thing, a coach, diarised action steps at specific times)
I got an email last week from a woman in London and this was – I get about a hundred emails a day – the most amazing email I’ve ever received in my life. It started off by saying “Dear David, in April of 2000 you sat next to my husband on a plane”. She went on “You may not remember so here’s some details and here’s a photo.” So I brought up the photo, and I called my partner Bronwyn in and I said “Read this – you know, this is amazing, I think I remember this guy, I met him on a plane. It was a lot of fun.”
The email went on to say that this woman had had a really big life experience and now she wanted to contribute to the world, and she wondered if my training school could help her to make that contribution. The next line said “My husband Simon was hosting a conference at the World Trade Center in the Windows of the World Restaurant on September 11th 2001 and his body was never recovered.” She then went on to say she was seven months pregnant at the time and two months later she gave birth to their son. So firstly we were happily reading the email and then we got to this, and what amazed me – after I’d grieved for this guy whom I’d only met for five hours – was, this woman is extraordinary. What she wants to do with her experience is help people around the world move through grief using coaching.
Now we all know that grief is a therapy issue, normally, but she found that coaching helped her to take control of her life and to work out what she wanted, and that’s what moved her. So she’s got a charity set up, she’s got trustees and that’s what she wants to do for the planet. So what I got present to, although I don’t even want to give it a name, (and there are so many words we can give it, – you’ve heard of ‘the spirit of coaching’ and so on) is that the good stuff in coaching is really about people wanting to make an impact on the planet. Yes, no? – are you a bit stunned? I was.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Bob Davies in 10 Super Coaches.
Roughly how much capital/money did you spend in the first 6-12 months, and on what?
Spent several thousand dollars in my certification program and other education, but most of my capital is geared towards marketing for the paid speaking engagements.
What did you charge your initial clients?
Now you’re bringing back memories. My first fee was $300 per month for four 30-minute calls plus an intake call of 90 minutes for an additional $300. Now my fee is $3,000 for the first month of coaching including the intake call followed by a fee of $1,500 per month for three 45-minute calls per month (non negotiable).
When did you first increase your fee, to what did you increase it, and why?
My fee increases all were linked to exposure and demands on my schedule. I first went from $300 to $350, then $450, then the big jump to my current fees over a period of about three years. I have the attitude that I want to be near the top of fees for coaching and that I never need a client but always want one.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Earnest F. Oriente in 10 Super Coaches.
What words of advice would you give to a coach starting out?
Have fun in your business, enjoy the clients you’re working with, and quite frankly, be the very best coach that you can be, because people in your hands are giving you their lives and they’re asking for your help. So be very respectful, always, of the work you’re doing.
Be clear on your passion. Have a passion for the work you’re doing. Recognize you’re touching the lives of people that you’re working with. Be clear on the work that you’re doing, that it’s fun, that it’s joyful, that you love the particular clients that you’re working with.
But never lose sight – this is sort of Covey’s principle ‘focus with the end in mind’. As you look to the horizon what’s the next step?
If I were looking at the horizon, initially: I needed to replace my income from my corporate days. But really from there it was, number one: subscribers. Number two, more subscribers. Number three, now I want to be in the magazines, the same magazines read by those subscribers. That was the next step. Then the next step, I wanted to have some alliances and even more exposure, speak at upcoming conferences. And then there was the next step, writing a book to tie it all together. I’ve always been able to look over the horizon twelve, fifteen miles in front of me and say ‘what does the next parade look like?’.
So I would encourage those coaches who are thinking about their business to work both in their business, but don’t forget to work on your business. Have a vision for what the bigger game is. Have a vision for what the next parade is.
The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.
Instead of floundering around, you’re actually working on some exciting, inspiring goals. So, you start with what do you want, and help them. Some questions you can ask that might help elicit that are things like, ‘What’s one thing you’d love to change?’ ‘Is there anything in your life that you hate?’ ‘Is there anything in your life that you’d really love to have more of?’ Another good one is, ‘If there was a goal that might be even too big for you to achieve – but if you could have anything in the world, you’d probably go for it – what would that be?
Client: OK, yeah.
David: OK, now another way to break that down when people are having trouble, is to ask them about different areas of their life and go through the standard areas; relationships, finances, health, career. Go through that and just ask them to maybe score each one out of ten. That will tell you pretty quickly if the client is saying, ‘Oh, I just have no idea what I’d work on with a coach.’ That will tell you pretty quickly which area is not so hot.
Client: Yeah.
David: Then you can work with them on creating a goal. Now a lot of people can tell you what they don’t want. Part of your job is to spin it around. Haven them tell you what they do want that could replace that. So, no negative goals – no, ‘Oh, I want to get rid of my partner, or my relationship.’ You want to turn that around…
The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.
1. Make eye contact twice as often as you normally do.
2. Say “hello” to people on the street.
3. Introduce yourself ~first~ (don’t wait for them – they might be waiting for you!)
4. Hang out where the types of people you want to meet hang out.
5. Hang out with people who have lots of friends and associates!
6. Find out about them, not the other way around (OK, it’s obvious, but….)
7. Get their contact details, not the other way around.
8. If you want to build a relationship (business or personal), follow up with a call or email!
9. Organise get-togethers for your neighbours and friends
10. Remember, if you do get what looks like a negative reaction, it’s their stuff – it’s not about you!
