A coach ... with a coach?! Part three of my story.
Whack-a-mole.
What a terribly stressful game.
Every time I stumbled across this game as a child, I genuinely wondered what the point of it was. I’m supposed to pay money to smack a plastic gopher - just to have it pop up again?
The stress of it all. I’d much rather pay money to have the small animal stay in its hole.
Problem solved!
All jokes aside…
Overcoming a massive obstacle only to have a new obstacle pop up a few feet away is not a great feeling. Especially when it happens again and again and again.
Yet, this is the exact cycle I see a lot of coaches trudging through in the first couple years of their career. Time and time again, I was hearing different versions of the same story - and I couldn’t figure out why:
That person who invested in a coaching certification program and now had no idea how to actually get clients to pay them.
That person who invested in marketing programs yet didn’t know how to have an actual enrollment call.
That person who successfully enrolled their first client but had no idea what to do with them long term.
Not only could I not figure out why this was becoming such a common problem, I also felt ashamed. I had somehow avoided this cycle in my own development as a coach…and I didn’t know why.
Until one day, I figured it out.
All of the issues presented above stem from a lack of holistic support. But, more than that, all of the issues presented above stem from a lack of awareness that holistic support is beneficial - or even what it looks like.
I had been lucky in my own early days as a coach because the support I received served all parts of my growth as a coach simultaneously. I had no idea at the time, but what it afforded me was the ability to contextualize my journey into a larger picture from the beginning.
I was learning about coaching skills, marketing skills, enrollment skills, and business skills simultaneously all while doing my own inner work.
Plus, I was learning all of these skills from a wide variety of people. This helped me to reenforce the idea that there was no “right way” to do things - that I was ultimately endeavoring to grow into the best version of myself.
Below, I’m going to share about the team that helped to support me in my first year of development as a professional coach.
It’s worth acknowledging up front - there are aspects of luck and privilege in this story. Some of the people on my team demanded high fees, and for a variety of reasons, I was given low-cost or free access to some of them for many months. I can’t change my own story, but it does not negate the point I’m trying to make about the power of awareness.
When we know the full picture of what we need, we can often find accessible resources to fill in that full picture - at any price point. However, when we aren’t aware the big picture, we are more inclined to put all of our eggs in one basket… and find ourself stuck on the other end.
My Coaching Skills Support Team
While every ounce of coaching support I received gave me access to a wide variety of coaching skills, I also had a unique opportunity in my own development. I grew into my role as a coach while working at a company owned by two women who had decades of experience coaching. Not only were they my very first coaching colleagues and support system, they also were my real time teachers.
I learned coaching by listening to them coach their paying clients. I refined my skills by having them listen to me coach my paying clients. Outside of the calls, I was able to prepare and reflect with them.
So often, coaches endeavor to apply skills that they witness or read about, but don’t have real time support while putting those skills to practice. This is, in my opinion, a mistake. Coaching is unpredictable because people are unpredictable - so the hands-on guidance of a more experienced coach can significantly expedite a newbie’s growth.
My Enrollment Skills Support Team
One of the most invaluable experiences of my development was participating in a group program focused on the art of enrollment. Not the art of marketing. Not the art of coaching (though that was also covered). The art of leading prospective clients through the process of discovering if you would like to work together or not.
And it is an art.
Comfort and confidence in the enrollment process directly correlates to sustainability and fulfillment wishing your coaching practice. And yet, many programs for coaches are focused on visibility and marketing OR coaching skills, and approach enrollment like it’s copy and paste formula. This often leaves new coaches feeling lost as they have a large following, and have highly developed coaching skills - yet can’t seem to turn a profit.
This group was also helpful because it gave me access to a) multiple high-level coaches who worked with the participants intensively throughout a span of 6 months, and b) a community of coaches, many of whom I would lean on for support in the years to come.
My Marketing Skills Support Team
I am personally not a heavy marketer in my own business, so many clients of mine are surprised to discover that I can sketch out a marketing launch plan at the drop of a hat. This is because I’ve had the training! And most of it occurred in my first year of coaching.
For the first year of my coaching development, I was leading marketing launches for the group programs my company was putting out there. One of the owners of the company had already invested a significant amount of time and money into marketing programs and coaching, and spent a fair amount of time offloading and training me up in her knowledge. Additionally, I attended a couple marketing retreats, took a few copywriting courses, and followed reputable online marketing gurus to build my knowledge up in this area.
Learning about the principles of online marketing, and immersing myself in this world that was uncomfortable for me, gave me more confidence as I started to back away from aggressive online marketing.
Why? Well, because I knew the fundamentals of the process, I also knew where I could bend. I knew what I could take and what I could leave. I wasn’t left wondering if I was avoiding online marketing, I knew that I simply was choosing another route.
My Inner Work Support Team
This section could be an entire blog post, but I’ll try to make it succinct.
Nearly the entire time I’ve been a coach, I’ve had an individual coach. We work on all of the above and more. Business, family, friendships, romance, goals - you name it, we cover it.
Why is this important? Well, in the coaching container, it’s just me and my client. The more blindspots I have, the more it impacts my ability to hold a strong space for my client. The more of my own baggage I carry with me, the more likely it is that I will subconsciously avoid major coaching opportunities with my clients out of fear that they may trigger me.
Coaches are in the self-help profession, so it’s imperative that they help themselves. Having an individual coach is the quickest way to accomplish that.
Additionally, my first year of being a coach, I attended three workshops and seminars run by expert coaches. In the most transformational session I attended all year, I experienced a personal breakthrough that led to me supporting my clients on an instantly deeper level.
Finally, I have had the support of an energy worker through my entire journey as a coach.
This is a part of my team that five-year-ago me would have judged significantly. But here’s what I’ve found. Most sustainably successful business people consider their energy management to be a significant part of their company. They typically just don’t shout it from the rooftops.
Also, quite frankly - I don’t care. Consciously working on my energy - through meditation, awareness, cleansing, and energizing - has always led to indisputable results in my business, often instantly. And having a partner in that work is essential for recovering workaholics like me who have a history of reaching a place of depletion more often than is helpful.
Also and finally
The list above is not even the complete list. Through that entire first year of my development, I was also being coached by an executive coach in my brand new CEO role. We were working on shifting company culture - not related to my development as a coach at all. However, the experience definitely made an impact on me.
I spent, and still do spend, hours of my life watching videos, listening to audio recordings, and reading books which inspire me, give me greater insight into the human experience, and serve as resources for my clients.
I had a therapist, who I loved, for most of my first year as a coach.
I surround myself with coaching colleagues who I admire. I surround myself with supportive friends who may not have always understood what I do for a living, but have always encouraged me to follow my instinct, guidance, and passion.
A strong coach is not created in a vacuum.
And a strong coaching practice definitely requires support and growth from many sides. Rising tides raise all ships. When you intentionally line as many of the ships up as possible from the beginning - the more you grow, the more your coaching practice will grow. Plain and simple.
If you are a newish coach you may be reading this and thinking “Well sh*t - I can’t afford all of that! That sounds expensive. I still have a full time job I’m keeping while I start my coaching business.”
As Marie Forleo says - everything is figureoutable. And finding your own specific coaching development “starter pack” is no exception. Nearly everything I listed above is accessible in some way, shape, or form at nearly every level of price and time commitment.
If you don’t know where to start, shoot me an email. I’m happy to point you in some directions. You have definitely got this.
Part 4 of my story will be about the biggest moments of discomfort in my journey.
A biggggggggg shout out to all of the people mentioned in this post who were a part of my OG team, including: Amy Hruby, Carolyn Freyer-Jones, Amber Kryzs, Julia Levitan, Jennifer Rosenfeld, and Cody Engstrom.