The following is an excerpt from David’s independent report on coaching training and certification.
Let’s summarize your choices:
A. Forget about accreditation until you have 1,000 hours of paid coaching under your belt (by which time you may not care if you’re accredited or not).
B. Pick a school whose training inspires you and get their accreditation
-If they are rubber-stamped by the IFC – great! At the end of the day you should end up with both certifications.
-If you choose Coachville, then no ICF accreditation (at least yet), but you’ll have a CV accreditation, and an IAC accreditation. (Is this IAC accreditation worth anything? More in the next chapter.)
C. Go the other way around, and set your heart on the ICF accreditation, and pick a school accredited by the ICF – and whose training inspires you – to end up with a school accreditation AND ICF accreditation.
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.
What do you think new coaches need to be reminded of?
New coaches starting out may forget that once they’ve done fifty sessions, they’re going to be a lot more confident. And once they’ve got ten clients and they’ve got several testimonials under their belt and some really grateful clients, your confidence does increase a lot.
The other thing that I think helps is realizing that you don’t have to be a guru. You really don’t have to be any kind of incredible mystic that has the answers to everything, you’re simply there for support and to coach them as best you know how. It’s up to the client what they do with that.
That’s a major, major shift and all coaches go through it, or need to go through it, at some point.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Philip Cohen in 10 Super Coaches.
What method did you find most effective in getting your initial clients, and what advice would you give to coaches trying this method?
Use your database. However, one important lesson I had to learn was to not prejudge the people I contacted. People who I thought couldn’t afford coaching, found a way to pay for it. “Ask and ye shall receive.” If you don’t ask, you have said “no” for the other person.
Did you coach your friends and colleagues? If so, what invitation did you use that worked best and felt good for you?
I had no problem coaching colleagues. However, I made a distinction between friends and acquaintances. I don’t like coaching friends because it’s too easy to have the relationships blend into one. I didn’t want to take the chance of losing both a client and a friend. My current coach is a close friend, however, we’ve both been coaching for a lot of years and know how to set up the relationship so there’s no problem.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
What training, experience and qualifications did you have when you started coaching?
The most important qualifications to coach masterfully are self-awareness and advanced communicating skills. There are many ways to obtain them. I chose transpersonal/spiritual psychology training, world myth and religion and family life. I obtained a PhD in clinical psychology. I worked in mental hospitals, outward-bound programs, Jungian psychology training schools and private practice. I was an executive director of a non-profit educational institution, a wife and a mom. Life teaches self-awareness and communicating skills to the ready learner in all kinds of environments.
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
What can you offer the speaker-seeker? (e.g., free talk, talk with a money back guarantee, talk in exchange for a testimonial, workshop, keynote for conferences?) Most talks in the beginning are free to service groups, associations and such.
Also offer to supply an article or a series of articles, for the organisation or company newsletter. What a great way to consistently get in front of an audience — and for free! It also gives the audience a chance to warm up to you before you speak to them.
