The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?
There are a few events along the way that I found very exciting. Firstly I’ll say it’s very exciting when you have a client make a big life change and they’re absolutely thrilled by it and they say “Thank you so much! I wouldn’t have done that if you weren’t my coach” That’s always wonderful.
But some of the really exciting things were when I got an opportunity to coach for television, I don’t think it had been done before and I was very excited about being on TV. And recently I got a chance to go to New York and audition for a television show over there, so I think there’s a lot of scope once you start getting known in the coaching community to do radio interviews, to do some television stuff, to do some magazine articles which is a lot of fun.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
What did you charge your initial clients?
My first ever paying client I charged Australian $25 a week. If you were going to translate that to US dollars it would be pretty similar, you might charge US $20 dollars a week or even $25. (I’m not talking about straight conversion, but I think that would be appropriate).
Then I started saying that my regular fee was $250 a month, and the first couple of people that came in, I said, “Look, this is what I charge, but I’d be happy to do you for half of that fee” and they were thrilled to be working with me for what they saw as half price.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
Would you advise coaches to pursue certification?
Choose a school/training that you admire and respect. And do it to become a better coach. Or do it for the thrill of learning and the good of the profession. But don’t let the ‘piece of paper’ run you. It’s a common myth that a certification will get you more clients. In my experience, it’s simply not true. Try to get certified so you can feel confidend is not the smartest reason.
I got my formal PCC certificatin through the International Coach Federation and I found that it actually wasn’t important at all. I think I may have been asked once in the whole first three years of my coaching what qualification I had, and in that case it was by a magazine that wanted to do a story on me.
I would say to coaches starting out, don’t be panicked or worried by the fact that you may not have a formal certification. Build up your testimonials from clients and let that speak for you.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
What words of advice would you give to a coach starting out?
I would say, make sure you’ve got some good guidance. Whether that’s through a school or through a mentor coach or a good circle of support around you that also has good business sense.
And, you need to coach. You can’t just wait for it to happen, you can’t just wait to get confident and you can’t just wait for people to float through your door at $300 or $400 a month.
You need to coach fifty people, I’d say, even if it’s just one session, so that you can develop some confidence as a coach and that’s when your career can really take off. When you know that you’ve got the skills, when you know that people are getting results, that’s what’s got to happen and it won’t happen until you actually coach.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
The first thing I did was use my current network. I called people I knew who might have an issue or that I wanted to work with, or who I thought might just do a session we me because they were a friend of mine. That was very important.
Another method that I used was public speaking, and I worked with a mentor coach, Christine McDougall. She helped me put together my speech and I went out to Rotary and I did the free speaking circuit and I actually got quite a few clients out of that, so I definitely thing that’s a very powerful way to go.
The third thing that I did was I developed my website and I spent a lot of time studying the search engines and working out how that all works and trying to get more and more traffic. I love playing with my website, and I get 95% of my business now through the web.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
When you started out did you coach face to face, or by telephone?
I did both. Initially I thought it had to be face to face, then I moved to phone coaching because I got a client in Melbourne and I was in Sydney at the time.
Now what I’ve found is that I actually prefer phone coaching. I do quite leveraged sessions, I work for twenty five minutes a week with people and I think if I was going to coach face to face it would probably be more appropriate to do forty minutes, maybe longer.
I’ve moved more and more towards voice only, over the phone. Also, if you do expand to a national practice or an international practice you’re going to have to do a lot of phone coaching, it’s just the only way to do it.
I say to new coaches, do what feels good.
