Tips/Observations/Opinions/Experiences on Adding Coaching to Your Business

1. Remember, you are not restricted as to where you can practice as a Coach
2. I earned several certificates in Coaching, none of which were really worth a d***, to be honest. I would still get one, just to have one, and possibly even learn something you did not know. I did NOT get the ICF credential, which I bet is the most robust one, because it takes a million years, and I already have 7 years of grad school behind me, and choose not to do that, especially as, as you already know, you need no credential to be a Coach (for better or worse.)
3. A woman named Grodzki wrote two books related to a Therapist introducing Coaching sensibilities into their practice. I would recommend them.
4. A book by a guy named Tony Stoltzfus, called “Coaching Questions; A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills” is a nice little $15 resource you might want to check out
5. I have a pretty well developed, if not entirely focused, web site, where I post a lot of blog posts. I find people ACTUALLY read some of them. Clients WANT to know who you are, and therapists are notorious for not having much about themselves online, I am told by many clients. The typical blah blah blah on Psych Today profiles typically does not say diddly. Read ten of them in a row, and see what you think.
6. Blogging really allows you to put your Point of View out into the world. This vets clients like crazy. I have zero doubt that a lot of people read my web page and blog and say “I would NEVER go see that guy!”, and that is perfect. I don’t want to see them either. Conversely, many clients, therapy and coaching, come to me exactly because they read my blog posts.
7. Have a Point of View. You do not have to be all wishy-washy so that nobody finds you the least bit controversial.
8. “Safe” will not make you stand out as a Coach.
9. I have found Instagram Ads very helpful, personally. I use simple photos that I take (often ocean, or sunset) with a little text I add using the app Word Swag. Easy as pie…
10. Think deeply about who you want to work with, not just who you would be WILLING to work with, or would TOLERATE working with if the payday were big enough. You are more likely to shine if you are really in your element, and if you are NOT working with issues you do not really want to work with
11. I have pricing published (for Coaching) for 1 Hour, 1.5 Hours, and 2 Hour sessions. People actually like the latter two enough for me to leave them up there
12. Psych Today works for Coaches as well as Therapists. It is a good idea, in my experience.
13. Who Are You? Be who you are out loud, and offer some ideas about who would or could be helped by you and why.
14. Be an Inspiration at whatever that thing is that you are…
15. Examples of stuff that helps me stand out, in my Therapy/Coaching Practice
    1. I am old as hell, and older people tend to want to talk to older people, and middle age people often want to talk to an Elder, an Older Brother, a Father I Never Had, a Male Figure Who Doesn’t Judge Me. I love all those roles, and welcome them. Occasionally they are explicit in the working relationship, and very often not. I am not a Psychodynamic Guy but Transference is real, and can be really helpful in Coaching as well as Therapy.
    2. I find the Law Of Attraction literature very interesting and helpful (to me it runs right parallel to CBT, Solution-Focused, Narrative Therapy and others, and it has a decidedly metaphysical dimension (multiple lifetimes, no reliance on what I consider to be the incredibly limited and limiting world of “Evidence-Based” work.) A LOT of therapists hate this stuff, and that is great for me, because a very high percentage of my clients want to work with Law of Attraction sensibilities in their work.
    3. Being OF the credentialed world of Psychology, but still very open to and reasonably conversant with Paranormal, Metaphysical, Spiritual and such dimensions of human experience has been helpful, to say the least. Being completely comfortable with clients’ ghosts, guides, angels, spirit friends, Transcendent Masters, and past lives goes a long way with clients who have NOT found much acceptance for those dimensions of their lives. It has been really important.
    4. Not by intention, but working with a cancer client led to working with a bunch of cancer clients. I have no previous, or medical expertise in that area (though I now have a fair amount of anecdotal stuff, and stuff from books.) Also being willing to hang in with difficult convos about death, and do you really want to stay on the planet, and why, and do you believe in Radical Remission, and on and on also goes a long way.
    5. Anyway, you get the idea—You have your OWN life experiences that I cannot touch, so you should do them, for sure…..

I hope that is helpful to some of you out there. I choose not to engage the conversation about whether Coaching is or is not a radically different phenomenon from Therapy, or whether you need two different web pages, and two different insurance policies, and two different surf boards, the one you use as a Therapist and the one you use as a Coach. You can find plenty of those conversations all over the place, and I am not interested much in them.

Onward through the fog!!!

Warmly,

jim

505-699-7616 for Texting

For my Spotify page, come listen to a few songs…  https://open.spotify.com/album/11uNyNoh7x7XM3FrbDVRCV

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