Would you advise coaches to pursue certification?
I did as soon as I could, through I haven’t surveyed my clients to see if my certification influenced their hiring me. I think with the number of people who are calling themselves coaches with questionable experience and training that the public will eventually look for certified coaches.
I recommend certifying as soon as you can and I think the ICF has the most credible independent coach certification credential.
Are there any particular schools you would recommend?
The Coaches Training Institute is where I did my primary training, from my connections to other coaches over the years, I would also recommend (in alphabetical order) Academy for Coach Training, Coach For Life, The Newfield Network, and Success Unlimited Network.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Leza Danly in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
My top three methods were:
- Magic
- Referrals
- Public Speaking
I am not joking when I saw magic was my primary enrollment method. In fact, it was really important to me that I create my practice magically, meaning that I visualized it, I programmed for it, I spent time regularly in meditation imagining my full practice and seeing myself happily coaching a full practice. I made a schedule of where my client appointments were going to be and I absolutely allowed myself to desire it, imagine and expect it to happen.
Then I would delight as the phone rang and people called and I would set up sample sessions. I got so excited about the opportunities for growth for the people who called. I think I held an authentic space of possibility in such a way that they could more clearly see who they were becoming. Then I imagined people saying yes to coaching, and they did.
Again, I want to be clear I am not talking about a child’s magic that is about wishful thinking and looking the other way. I’m talking about the true, adult magic of consciously creating reality.
Once I started getting clients, then they referred other people. Also, even though I don’t recommend coaching friends and family, I did give them sample sessions so they would know more first-hand what I was doing and they were more likely to refer people.
Later, I began training coaches and speaking at conferences, which is another way for people to see you and get the power of your presence. But I didn’t do any public speaking in the first wave of practice-building.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Ginger Cockerham in 10 Super Coaches.
What words of advice would you give to a coach starting out?
Coach as soon as possible so that you experience the coaching process really works for others. The shift that comes from hearing someone introduce you with “This is my coach” changes everything. Knowing that by showing up and being a partner with your clients and personally staying out of the way so they can fly is wonderful.
Invest in the best training for you. Investigate and trust that you will find the right training. Learn to be a business person as well as a coach. Develop a network of advocates so that you don’t have to create your business alone.
For me the key has been the expanding and deepening of my relationships with clients and colleagues that have become any advocates in my networking circles. They refer me, support and inspire me. My connections with other people have resulted in meaningful relationships and an abundance of opportunities in my business. It is so much fun to create business within a vibrant network of terrific people.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Ernest F. Oriente in 10 Super Coaches.
What was perhaps the biggest mistake you made in practice building?
The greatest mistake was I thought about subscribers one at a time, I set a daily goal of twenty and I only worked four days a week, so it’s twenty times four which was eighty or three hundred and twenty a month. That was very, very slow, so the greatest mistake we made was building our subscribers very slowly.
Looking back I would have done it with writing articles in trade publications, I would have built alliances, I would have done some of the things that we know today accelerate our velocity and the exposure almost immediately.
What’s the answer? Simple…
You have to build a relationship with your web visitor.
And how do you do that? While there are many ways, the simplest and most effective is to email them somewhere BETWEEN FIVE AND ONE HUNDRED TIMES!
Offer valuable monthly tips. Or a daily quote. Or a couple of free cyber consultations. Send a number of useful articles or links to web sites. It doesn’t matter what – just make sure it’s of value, and get creative!
This puts you in front of your target market on a consistent basis. After they’ve received and read say, ten emails from you, you have some semblance of a relationship, and perhaps enough to warrant a purchase.
EXERCISE:
Start jotting down nuggets of information that would be useful to your target market. Things that could add up to a series of emails, even e-courses.
This is what you will send them to build a relationship with them. Along the way they may hire you as a client!
So, when I talked before about 50 trial sessions in 50 days, I saw some strange looks – it was really funny. Right, but can you now get to see that when we reframe it so that it’s an exploration instead of an “I have to have you as a client”, you can get your one-liner, so you get connected again to really why you want to coach. It’s not all about you. And when you start finding a reason, for the people in your life, to call them and actually say “Let’s do a session” then this starts to look a lot easier. And for you it might be a hundred days instead of fifty, or you might say “I’m going to do twenty-five sessions”.
There’s something else I wanted to say – you don’t have to call your friends and coach them. And you don’t have to call your colleagues and coach them. You can set up web sites. You can go and do public speaking. You can try advertising. There’s a number of things you can do. But I have found time and time again the quickest way to get your confidence is to use your network and coach them. I’m not even talking about referrals yet. Just talking about getting your confidence in your practice. That’s why we’re talking so much about this approach.
