You have just finished a personal coaching education and want to leave your mark in a crowded market? It’s easy if you adhere to a couple of rules that I have learned to be massively helpful in my own career.
Make your own mental health the number one priority in your professional life. Work with clients, in both coaching and therapy, can be a strain on your personal mental hygiene. Look after yourself, and when in trouble, ask colleagues for professional supervision. Nuff said.
With your mental health the number one priority, the number two priority is continuing and smart self-education. While this holds true for all professions, the coaching business demands special treatment. Ask a seasoned coach, and he will agree that roughly 90 percent of “new” methods in coaching or therapy are old ones in disguise. Don’t get caught up in me-too-seminars. Be smart, look behind the scenes and filter out what you already know from the never-ending supply of “new” methods. How? Just call the trainer and ask some pointed questions. (Speaking as a trainer, I know how important those questions are to me in order to improve my seminars!) Also, remember that every client is an opportunity for you to learn and improve.
Don’t try to enter the market as “personal coach.” Those are a dime a dozen. Typically, educational programs in personal coaching are quite comprehensive, so if you graduate successfully, you can work with a very, very wide range of clients’ issues. Rather, work on your specific positioning, find your niche and stick to it. If you had strong, constant pain in your wrist, would you go to your GP or a hand specialist?
These are just three points from the top of my head. This list will be continued in future posts. I appreciate your feed-back!
