Start Strong, Stay Flexible & Coach With Integrity
Key Insights
Leverage Your Existing Strengths First
When starting out, new coaches should identify and use the skills they already have instead of trying to master everything at once.
Prioritise Proper Training and Ongoing Support
The speaker strongly recommends investing in a reputable, accredited coach training program and having a supervisor early on.
Don’t Rush to Pick a Niche
New coaches often make the mistake of niching too early before they’ve had enough experience actually coaching people.
The Interview
Talk to me about you how did you become a coach? Where did your coaching journey start?
I was right at the beginning of a career in the telecoms in the telecoms industry and it I had a good career ahead of me. I could see the next steps. I was just going from being a relationship manager to doing a project management course and I was going to go through that and I hated it. I was like, "This is so boring." My colleagues were lovely, but it was just not the life I wanted for myself.
And I'm thinking, what's important to me? I know I want to settle down. I want to have a family, but I want to be at home, but I don't want to only be at home. I want to have a business that I can do as well. And I didn't know what that was to begin with, but that was how it all started.
When it comes to running your business, what has surprised you the most?
I knew what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. I think what surprised me the most, which isn't really about running the business so much, but it was how inundated my inbox on LinkedIn and Instagram was with people trying to sell me things.
But also trying to do everything else that it takes to run a coaching business. For example, finding clients has been difficult and I imagine that it goes in waves. I didn't find it difficult to begin with because when I started coaching was back before reels existed on Instagram. I did a lot of my marketing on Instagram and people would actually read the captions below your posts. And then suddenly I had a massive drop off the reach and I had to find different ways to market myself.
What has been the easiest thing for you when it comes to running your business? What comes naturally to you and how can others learn from that?
Anything to do with writing has come very easily for me and that was like my initial degree was in English. So that’s a skill that I already had. I had a lot of practice writing and like figuring out what my voice was and used that on Instagram. I’m now returning to working after maternity leave and restarting my blog and starting a newsletter.
What advice to have for new coaches just starting out?
I would say when you're starting a coaching business to work out what your skills already are and leverage those whilst you're learning all these other skills that you you need to know. Use them to balance things out–for example, if you’re not good at networking (like me), harness the other areas in which you’re really strong and then slowly get comfortable with the things that don’t come naturally to you.
As a coach, there are so many things you that people tell you you should start off with. But I just think in your business you should be doing whatever feels right for you.
What do you think that someone who is thinking about becoming a coach should not do without?
I would say having coach training that is a proper coach training is right up there as #1. Not completing a free course on the internet, but something that is accredited by one of the big bodies.
I don't necessarily think it's important to be accredited by one of those massive bodies, but by being a member, you are aligning to a code of ethics, and that is incredibly important as a coach.
And then I think you should have a supervisor. So that your coaching is the best it can be. You've got some form of accountability which means that you're doing the good work for your clients. But you also have the support for yourself as a coach.
What would you say the biggest mistake is that new coaches make?
Niching before you've done much coaching, I think. You can make it work but I would say it's easier to work out what your niche should be when you've coached people and you work out what you like doing. And sometimes what you assume you're going to be good at or enjoy doing isn't what you end up doing or enjoying.
And you can always change your mind–starting with one niche doesn’t mean you have to stay there. The beauty of having your own business is that you don't have to get stuck in doing something that you don't enjoy doing.
