The following is an excerpt from David’s independent report on coaching training and certification.
A breed of training company has emerged which provides your initial training at a discount, in exchange for a percentage of your future coaching revenue. This ongoing payment pays for certain support structures such as business cards, client referrals, ongoing training, and a license to continue using the technology.
By contrast, most non-franchise companies will still provide you with training, and a lifetime license to use their technology, forms, and client programs, for an up front fee.
Be wary of franchises that require a percentage of your income or a high annual fee. Some of them even charge twice as much as ICF certified training programs. You should not go into one of these companies unless they can put you in touch with several coaches who have gone through their program, and earning a good income – and who don’t have a financial interest in you joining!
The following is an excerpt from David’s Independent Report on Coaching Training and Certification.
You don’t actually require a certification from your school to get your ICF certification. For example I (David) didn’t. I did 50% of a course, and then resigned so I could build my own training school. I then added up the training hours I had done, and combined those with the hours I had done with Landmark Education (not their normal courses, but actually training to be a coach with them), and submitted it to the ICF accompanied with a barrage of documents. In other words, it’s possible to piece together your training from different schools, as long as it’s coach specific, and you clock up enough hours.
The following is taken from David’s Independent Report on Coaching Training and Certification.
OK – suppose you’ve decided you want to be an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) or a PCC (Professional Certified Coach). How is it done?
The ICF accreditation for Associate Certified Coach (ACC) requires the following:
- 60 coach-specific training hours. Training must be aligned with the 11 ICF competencies, and at least 48 hours must be interactive with the trainer – either live, or via telephone.
- 250 coaching hours, of which 225 hours must be paid.
- Letters of reference from 5 clients.
- Two letters of reference from ICF accredited coaches who have heard you coach.
- Passing of an oral examination.
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 an excerpt from David’s speech regarding FirstFiftyClients.com.
Now, when I stopped saying “I help people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be” which is accurate, but boring for me, and I started saying “I help women who are not ecstatic in their relationships to get everything they’ve ever wanted in their relationship” then I wanted to get on the phone and tell people about it. And a funny thing happened: when I did, when I got on the phone and I told them that, they could think of names.
When I said “I help people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be’ they went ‘mmmm…okay”, but when I said “women who are not ecstatic in their relationship who are ready to have everything they’ve ever wanted”, they would say “Well, Julie would be great for that, and you could call Betty, and Rhonda, yeah”. So it changed, when I decided I was going to say, (because it changes for me, you know, what I say to people) “I work with people so that when they’re eighty lying on their deathbed they have zero regrets”, I had fun with that. And then people go “Huh? Really? What do you mean?” and I say “Well, if you died tomorrow, what’s one thing you’d regret?” and all of a sudden they know what I do.
The following is an exercise from FirstFiftyClients.com.
When you’re ready to do LOTS of trial sessions, to share the value of coaching with people, you’ll need people! This [exercise] will help you develop your lists of people to approach. And, it will help you decide which approach to use for different groups of people. When calling, it helps to do at least 10 in a row so you generate momentum.
Now, write down anyone you can think of who even comes close to the following criteria.
Write down how you will invite each list of people to do a session. For example, with people you feel very connected to, you might be excited to call them straight away, and chat on the phone or arrange lunch.
List A: Anyone who might really enjoy having a coach for 1-6 months (e.g. they read self-help books, attend courses, or are generally willing to take input).
List B: Anyone who might enjoy a quick one off session to see what coaching is all about.
List C: Anyone who you know has a challenge, and you feel you would like to contribute to.
List D: Anyone you would simply love to work with/coach.
List E: Anyone who might know of someone who might be interested in a coaching session.
OK – I think you get the picture. If everyone you know is not on one of these lists, then go back and put them on one of these lists.
