The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
Your question implies that I had lots of clients my first 2 years. I did not. I had about 5-6 per month generally, though they stayed with me for years.
My top method, at first, was asking friends and family because I didn’t have a ready-made network and position at my disposal. It wasn’t pretty. I felt needy and desperate with an overlay of optimism. And of course, it was all quite unconscious. What I was aware of was that I was a new coach in a new coaching industry. I had to do a lot of educating.
My second method was to attend networking events, especially Chamber of Commerce. This too felt dry. I was a fish out of water. I did my best to live up to some measure of success defined as “number of paying clients” and felt miserable about my lack of success.
My third method was asking for referrals, handing out brochures and business cards, public speaking and building a website on a shoe string budget, all with little success. Everything I read, everything I was told indicated that this was how it was done. I thought, “there must be something wrong with me”.
What were the biggest doubts you had in your early months?
Doubt and fear are my physical reactions to change. They don’t depict reality. But I get pulled in hook, line and sinker every time I make a big change. And creating a new career is one big change. My biggest doubt was that I would find a position of visibility. We doubt what we can’t control.
I was aware that preparation plus opportunity equals position. I had preparation mastered, but opportunity was up to the Universe. My worrying about it only got in my way.
I overcame the worry by surrendering to what was. I accepted my situation and recognized…right now I am preparing to give to the Universe my coaching…right now I’m working hard and not making much money…right now I’m playing a smaller game. I didn’t like it. But that was the truth of my situation. And in my heart, I believed, without a doubt and without the need for evidence that… as I was preparing something big for the Universe, the Universe was preparing something big for me.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
Are there any particular school(s) you would recommend?
I have a few biases about coaching schools. Go to any school you like. Ask yourself, “What is easy to integrate into my lifestyle, what fits with the values I want to enhance in my life? What makes my pocketbook feel respected?” Go there. And then finish your training at The Schools of Coaching (SOC).
Your training (and here comes a bias) will never be complete if you don’t finish it at the Schools of Coaching. My formal training for coaching began at the University of Maine with a BA in psychology in 1972. It took me through all kinds of other trainings including Coach U. And because SOC promises a lifetime of training, I plan to live the remainder of my days taking the latest and greatest classes as a student of SOC. You could just start there too – they have beginner and intermediate training. The choice is yours. In my opinion, if you aren’t learning throughout your life, you aren’t living all of your life.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
Would you advice coaches to pursue certification?
Yes and no. If you have no other forms of credibility to the public, pursue certification immediately.
The thing that makes pursuing the International Association of Coaches’ certification most attractive to me is the sophistication and progressiveness of the 15 proficiencies that the exam is based on.
The IAC doesn’t care how many hours of classes you’ve taken or different clients who will attest to your competence. They rely on real world demonstration of your skills and knowledge with the world’s most highly researched set of proficiencies for advanced communicating and relating. No hoops to jump. Just “show us what you’ve INTEGRATED in your life in a rigorous written and oral exam”.
On the other hand, if you’ve already integrated the high level of relating that is illustrated in the 15 proficiencies, along with knowing how to listen for a couple hundred different things and you’ve ripened your ego to such a level that most people would say you don’t have one… You definitely don’t need any other designations. You are a powerful facilitator of human evolution and a magnet for what you want in life.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?
Most exciting thing for me about practice development was learning this truth:
Self-awareness + interdependence on others + supportive environments = Successful Practice Development.
I am indebted to my own long-term coaches over the years who inspired me to soar with my strengths and reach farther than I believed I could. They are truly gifted coaches and mentors and include Craig Carr (PCC), Steve Davis, Jennifer Anderson (MCC) and Phil Karl.
What was perhaps the biggest mistake you made in practice building?
Not jumping into interdependent mode sooner. I never do anything important by myself anymore.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
What was most disheartening for you while building your practice?
Marketing was disheartening. I’m not a traditional sales person. In my day, the law of attraction was addressed but there was no hand-holding through the steps of marketing with authenticity. I bought and read all the power and guerrilla networking materials. I tried a bunch of them. They only blocked my natural flow. So I set out to write my own workbook and teleclass on marketing that focused on authentic affiliations and partnering. I eliminated anything that seemed phony to me. I was interested in soaring with strengths and delegating weaknesses to affiliations and partners who were strong in the areas of our weakness.
