The Successful Coach

Insider Secrets to Becoming a Top Coach

Terri Levine, Larina Kase, Joe Vitale

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780471789963
• eBook ISBN: 9780470893777
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

"The power of positive ACTION! The authors not only share their secrets to building a highly successful practice, but also provide readers with practical, everyday action steps to fill their practice, generate more referrals, and find more clients fast by taking positive actions."
—Stephen Fairley, MA, RCC President & Business Coach, Today's Leadership Coaching, Inc coauthor of Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching

"The Successful Coach is terrific-practical, friendly, and very helpful. Instead of fearfully wondering, 'Can I make it as a coach?' aspiring coaches can shift and confidently ask, 'What kind of difference do I want to make with people?' and 'What wonderful life will I have when I am a wildly successful coach?'"
—Marilee Adams, PHD author of Change Your Questions, Change Your Life

An easy-to-follow blueprint for developing a successful coaching practice

If you are a coach, or want to become one, this book will help you resolve self-limiting beliefs and give you the know-how to build a successful practice.

Everything you need to know to be a top coach is set forth in this book. The first half helps you overcome obstacles that hold you back so you can soar to the pinnacle of the profession. You will learn valuable concepts and techniques to improve your coaching skills, including conquering excuses that stand in your path, thinking like a top coach, and tapping into the power of self-motivation.

The second half of the book gives you marketing strategies to gain clients and build your business. You will learn how to build a unique niche that fully leverages your own unique competencies and skills. Moreover, the authors help you identify and conquer fears and insecurities that may be preventing you from implementing the marketing and sales tactics that will make your business take off.

The authors-two highly successful coaches and one bestselling marketing guru-draw on their own experiences to help you uncover and exploit the unique blend of skills and knowledge that you possess to be a top coach.

PART 1

Getting Ready to Become a Top Coach

1

I Don’t Know! Do I Want to Be a Coach or Something?

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.

—Anonymous

“Coaching? It Sounds Great . . . but What Is It? Is It for Me?”

It’s the fastest growing business in the world today. It’s quite possible you’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a full- or part-time coach or consultant of some kind, or you’ve already completed your training and are daunted by the task of actually building a successful business. Or maybe you have already begun and want to know how to make business boom. Unlike other home-based businesses, this one is very rewarding, and we’re not just talking about financially, although it certainly is that, too!

So, are you wondering if the coaching business is right for you? Unsure what it takes to start a coaching business? Then let’s see if we can remove the mystery for you.

A coach, by Terri Levine’s definition, is a person who is a guide and supports other people on their life and work journeys to create more of what they are wanting. That doesn’t mean we give answers or advice, and it doesn’t mean we teach or lead. It means we act as partners with our clients to discover what they want and how best to achieve it. It isn’t about the coach having all the answers; it is about the coach helping the client tap into the answers.

Coaches aren’t magical, and we aren’t all necessarily brilliant. We simply have a drive to help others achieve more, and we have a strong desire to do this work.

The fact is, today, in most states, anyone can call themselves a coach. There are business coaches, wellness coaches, relationship coaches, life coaches, executive coaches, and fitness coaches. What sets coaches apart is their training and their specialty. So, before you make any decisions about if you should be a coach or whom you should coach or what training you need, let’s help you find your passion and see if you are cut out for coaching. If you are, let’s find out what’s holding you back from becoming a top one.

Check Your Passion

There is nothing more important in starting a new business than being sure that business is right for you and that you have a desire to be in that business. If you can’t imagine being on the phone, or in person, with individuals or groups for much of the time, then this profession isn’t a fit. If you get excited about speaking with people for most of the day and want to be self-employed, setting your own hours and your own fees, then coaching might be the right opportunity for you.

The most important thing is to be sure you feel a passion for doing this work. That you are so excited about the coaching business, owning your own business, and doing this work that you are willing to do the marketing (yes, marketing) that will allow you to share your passion with others.

If you can’t see yourself being a coach and sharing the fact you are a coach with others, then you might be a great coach who never gets to work with clients. You must be willing either to do the marketing (or share your coaching passion with prospective clients) or to pay someone to do this for you. This doesn’t mean that marketing has to be a dirty word or scary or manipulative. There are many resources to help you make this more fun—this book being one of those resources to help you.

Proper Training

If you still feel you have the passion for coaching and a willingness to find fun, easy, effortless ways to market coaching, then keep going. Now it is time to find out how and where you can learn coaching skills and, most importantly, to understand how you learn. Some adults like to take home-study programs, others online courses, some prefer to read books, others do well with in-person training, some do well by mentoring, and others by telephone group classes. Get clear about how you prefer to learn.

To be an effective coach, you will need coach training by other experienced, successful coaches who provide your training using the method in which you learn best and who can help you select your coaching niche and areas of expertise.

You don’t have to get your coach training in a standard way, nor do you have to belong to any coach lobbying organization or one of the various coaching associations or organizations to be an extraordinary coach.

You do need to have training that is fun, easy, and joyful for you, in which you really learn and can apply your learning, and in which you receive information and ideas that support you in your coaching business. Without the proper training, you will fall short of client expectations, you will have low self-confidence, and your chances of success will be much smaller.

Give yourself an advantage; find a training program to learn the skills you need. Do it for you and for your clients.

What Coaches Do

We think it is very important for you to really see and feel what coaches do with their clients and what it is like to have a coaching business. We suggest to all new coaches that they speak with people doing coaching and get a feel for what they like about coaching, what their days are like, and what to expect. You wouldn’t open a business without a clear picture, right?

When you have a vision for your coaching business, you will be able to achieve it. If you don’t, your chances of succeeding are much lower. Having a clear vision for your coaching business is like driving a car with a crystal clear windshield. You probably remember a time when you drove along with a clear windshield and noticed all of the beautiful scenery and colors in the environment. Not having a vision is like driving with a dirty windshield; not only will it be less enjoyable, but you will be likely to wind up lost, take a wrong turn, or miss important signs. A great quote by Yogi Berra to illustrate this idea is: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up somewhere else.”

When Terri received her master’s degree in speech-language pathology many decades ago, she had no clear idea of what she was to do all day long in that profession. After spending lots of money, time, and energy to get that degree, she soon discovered that this profession was somewhat boring. Rather than you also discovering something like this later, do some research right now.

Why Coaching Is Booming!

Coaching is a rapidly growing profession, both for personal coaches and professional coaches, because people are realizing, as are companies, that they need help. They have tried self-help books and tapes. They have brought consultants and trainers into their companies. But nothing has stuck, because once the book is read or the consultant leaves, we go back to our old ways.

The use of executive coaching is widely reported to be growing rapidly. A recent study published in Jeffrey E. Auerbach’s Seeing the Light: What Organizations Need to Know about Executive Coaching: The 2005 State of the Coaching Industry Report provides hard data to show the increased utilization of executive coaching. The College of Executive Coaching and Jeffrey E. Auerbach surveyed 101 organizations, and 58 percent of respondents said coaching utilization increased in their organizations in the past year, and 95 percent said coaching increased in the past five years. None reported a decline in coaching utilization. This impressive finding suggests that organizations that have utilized coaching find it so valuable that they continually increase its usage, even though executive coaching can be an initially expensive service (Auerbach, 2005). Companies are getting a great return on their investment!

The reason this profession is one of the fastest-growing professions in the world is simple. Individuals and businesses have come to the same conclusion: They want help, and they want results that last. Coaching does this; the results last and the outcomes are measurable.

Why Would People Hire Me to Coach Them?

Many coaches we have worked with ask why they would be hired. It is natural to wonder whether you will be truly successful and to doubt your own competencies. In this book, we will help you resolve some of the limiting beliefs about why people need to hire you.

So who gets hired? Coaches get hired because of their past experience in life and work and their skills and talents and because they have specialty coach training.

You will have clients hire you because of the jobs you’ve had, the education and experience you’ve had at work, what your values are, your natural skills, and the talents that you probably take for granted.

And, of course, they need to know about you to hire you. For this reason, we will dedicate several chapters to marketing your coaching business. Marketing works best when you build a niche around your own unique competencies and skills.

Terri knows a coach, a friend, whom she considers to be very organized. When this friend was looking for a coaching niche and deciding what types of clients to attract, Terri helped her see that one of the talents she took for granted—being organized—is in high demand and that many clients would hire a coach for this. She is now one of the top organizational coaches.

So, make a list of your life and work experiences. Go back, year by year, decade by decade. Where did you work? What are your skills, talents, abilities, and so forth? Where did you excel and shine?

The Top Coaching Niches Now

You can be a coach in almost any specialty area and be successful. Of course, it is best to create a specific niche for yourself. These are the general niches that are thriving today:

1. Health/wellness/weight-loss coaching. Let’s face it, the health industry and the weight-loss industry have been growing for years. With more people focused on self-care and alternative health practices, there is a huge demand for coaching in these areas. Larina Kase runs a program called STRENGTH Weight Loss & Wellness™ that certifies other professionals in weight-loss coaching (http://www.StrengthWeightLoss.com), and Terri has an extensive program at http://www.createyouridealbody.com.

2. Sales coaching. In the United States alone, there are more than 17 million people who sell. Coaches with this specialty are in demand and command top incomes. Learn more about this niche at http://www.bestsalescoachtraining.com.

3. Career coaching. This recession-proof niche is the largest coaching niche. When times are good, people change jobs or start their own businesses and hire career coaches. When things are tough and companies lay off people, people hire coaches to find a job or phase into a new career. Coaches in this niche will always be in demand. See more about this niche at http://www.terrilevine.com/workyourselfhappy.htm.

4. Corporate and executive coaching. Companies and their managers want to be more successful and want their businesses to make a profit. They also want their teams and leaders to possess more coaching skills. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review estimated that approximately $1 billion is spent annually on executive coaching in the United States (Sherman & Freas, 2004). Executive coaching is becoming prevalent in today’s businesses, and there are excellent opportunities for executive coaches.

5. Business coaching. Small-business and entrepreneurship coaching are hot areas! There are dozens of specific niche areas, and you can choose a couple or even several within business coaching. Terri is a professional business coach who works with large corporate teams as well as individual entrepreneurs. To see how Terri and Larina integrate multiple niches within business coaching, see http://www.TerriLevine.com and http://www.PAScoaching.com.

6. Personal coaching. With all of us having more demands placed on our time and wondering about our life purpose, more people each year hire coaches to help them create better lives. Coaches working with individuals to get more out of life have many clients, as this is a very popular form of coaching. Learn more about this niche at http://www.coachinstitute.com/coachinginstituteorientation.htm.

7. Parent coaching. Family dynamics have changed. People are asking, “What’s wrong with kids today?” Families are described as dysfunctional. Drug use, suicide, increased teenage pregnancies, school dropouts, runaways, crime, confusion—it’s all here and it’s not a Hollywood movie. It’s real. Children do not come with a guidebook, and what worked 10 to 20 years ago does not work today. Parents do not know what to do or how to cope, and with their busy lifestyles—and usually both parents work—they need ongoing support to learn and carry through new parenting skills designed for today’s family! Learn more about this niche at http://www.certifiedparentcoach.com.

What the Best Coaches Have in Common

The most successful and highly regarded coaches have the following skills and traits in c...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART 1 - Getting Ready to Become a Top Coach
• PART 2 - Marketing Secrets of Top Coaches in Action
• Recommended Resources
• Gifts to Help You Become a Successful Coach
• Index