It’s amazing how many coaching programs get this wrong and waste time in learning ways to categorize people into “blues” or “reds” or “planner” or “creator,” rather than learning how to help them!  Complication in Coaching is as common as spaghetti sauce is in spaghetti!  No wonder so many coaches are wondering how to coach…even after having completed an 8 month, or a year long course and completing an additional 2,500 hour “added value” training.  Is this insane?  Coaching should be simple, not complicated.  Join the discussion and add your two cents!At the time of this blog posting we are beginning to discuss this question on our LinkedIn Group.  Check out: http://www.linkedin.com/home?myGroups=&trk=hb_side_mygrps to join and develop your coaching ability!

There is one word that summerizes how to give perspective.  Do you know what it is?  Well, we’re going to explore many ideas on this topic in our discussion.  On the first week of June we’ll come back to this question and reveal the “one word,” which could be just the answer your coaching practice was searching for!

We’re just about to wrap up our 10 week online Certified Master Coach Practitioner training course!  This course is only offered to CCF graduates who have successfully completed our Level 1 live training program.  Here are some comments:

“I would highly recommend taking Derrick’s Master Coaching class. This class has taught me the importance of marketing and given me the tools to become a thought leader and how to be market savvy. Marketing has always caused frustration for me but I now feel confident putting myself out there. Derrick is an engaging instructor and his warmth and personality create a wonderful arena of learning and belief in one’s ability to be all they dreamed. Thank you so much Derrick, it has been an absolute pleasure.” 

Michelle Warkentin, CCP (Calgary, Alberta)

“I loved the passion Derrick demonstrates for coaching.  His knowledge, experience and sense of humor made this class AWESOME! I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to improve their coaching skills in a fun, interesting and informative way.”  Maggie Ridge, CCP (Floyd Knobs, Indiana)

The next class starts in June.  To learn more about this course please call us at 866-455-2155.

I just got back from teaching back-to-back classes in Los Angeles and Toronto, and I’m amazed how many people are deciding to become Life Coaches.  This profession is gaining popularity and is rapidly becoming accepted as a valuable tool to help people achieve their goals and remove the roadblocks that once prevented goals from being acheived.

Knowing how to coach is one thing, knowing how to find clients and keep clients is quite another thing.  Because the barrier to entry in this profession is relatively low there  are a lot people becoming Life Coaches.  The Coaches who are enjoying successful careers have taken, and continue to take, daily action steps to reach out to their potential clients.

They have newsletters, nice websites, blogs, and they’re using “the right social media” to connect with like-minded people.  They’re building products that offer solutions that compliment their coaching practice, like books, podcasts, and seminars; all of which contribute to the value of their brand as an expert on the topic they are building their practice on.

To learn more about becoming a successful Life Coach please visit:http://www.certifiedcoachesfederation.com/becomeamastercoach.html

In just two weeks we begin our second Certified Master Coach Practitioner Course.  It’s a 10 week advanced coaching course offered exclusively to CCF graduates who have successfully completed our Level 1 Program.  For more information on this program please visit: http://www.certifiedcoachesfederation.com/becomeamastercoach.html

In February and March we will be featuring interviews with successful coaches who will be sharing their insights about the business of coaching.   The biggest challenge for full time coaches hasn’t been coaching itself, it’s been the ongoing exercise of building their practices.  Our goal during the next two months is to shed some light on what works and what doesn’t.  Stay tuned!

Belinda Fuchs is a successful coach and is enjoying a very successful career by using her years of experience as an accountant to help her clients take control of their financial future.  Belinda took our course in the Spring of 2007 and in just a few years  has built a thriving coaching practice.  One of the biggest reasons why so many coaches fail to build a thriving coaching practice is because they haven’t figured out how to promote their business.  Belinda has achieved the level of success she has because she is a great coach and a caring person who offers great programs.  She has also learned how to promote her practice, and it’s paid off.  In the last few years Belinda’s media appearances included:

TV

• WCVB (ABC) Evening News
• WWLP (NBC) Morning News
• Television show host “Money On Your Mind”, appearing on Somerville Community Access TV, Cambridge Community Television, and Boston.com

Radio

• WBIX AM 1060 The Business Station Prosperity Radio
• Wellness Experience Radio
• WKXL 1450 Concord, NH
• Career Life Balance Radio, WNRI 1380AM Woonsocket, RI
• Aspire Abundance Radio “Own Your Money” segments

In the marketing section of our course we teach coaches how to promote, market and sell their coaching solutions.   Belinda is living proof that our course gets results!

To learn more about Belinda Fuchs please visit: www.ownyourmoney.com.

Earlier this month we commented on how long some other coach certification programs are and discussed why CCF has chosen to edit our course down to just two days.  Derrick Sweet, CCF Founder, researched coaching between 2004-2006 and was flabbergasted with the amount of basic information offered in so many of the courses that took several months to complete.   Basic coaching curriculum includes related information that is non-essential to the coaching process.  Derrick discovered many training programs were including topics in their curriculum like Basic Time Management Strategies or Sensitivity Awareness Training.  The CCF philosophy is that the people who should be coaching should have considerable life experience and should have a certain mastery in basic things like managing their own calendar, and listening skills.   

When people contact CCF to inquire about our Life Coaching Courses or Business Coaching Program, usually one of the first things we say to our potential students is, “this course is not for everyone.”  In fact, we tell people that our course is suited for more mature people who already have developed a certain expertise and confidence in something that they can develop into a coaching practice.  As a result of our screening process our average coaching student is 48-60 years old.  They may already have earned a Masters or a Ph.D., or have had a long and successful career in business.  They don’t need to spend time hearing someone with far less experience than they do explain things they already know.  Our students are a little wiser and have their suspicions about the value of the more time consuming, not to mention, more expensive programs…so they do their due diligence and they call us.

Once we determine a potential student is qualified to take our course we explain what the course offers and what it doesn’t and then we recommend that they interview the Master Coach Trainer who will be teaching the live course in their city, so they can get a feel for the kind of person that they will be spending two days with.  Most people spend a few hours on our website and perhaps another hour or two speaking with a CCF Master Coach Trainer before they realize that our course is just what they’re looking for.

Our clients love our course and rave about it.  If you need more proof watch and listen to some of these comments. 

I was recently looking at some coaching programs (the competition) and researching their certification requirements.  One program required coaches to log in 750 hours before earning their certification title!  The Certified Coaches Federation only requires successful completion of our 2 day course…that’s it!  How can there be such a gap? The coaching process is simple.  The more complicated a coaching curriculum, the more diluted the coaching process becomes.  Many people in the “education” world have been conditioned (mistakenly) to equate time and cost with value.  This is a mistake.  With coaching the only thing that counts is clarity of process.  The more simple and direct the process, the easier it becomes for the client to achieve their goals.  We’ve been in the coach certification business since 2006 and, in just 4 short years, we’ve become the leading coach certification company in the world.  Why?  Because people like you have figured it out…you can do this in 2 days. 

In 2004 when we first started investigating the “business” of coaching, we were intrigued to see how much potential coaching had, yet how few solutions were being taught in the typical coaching programs we reviewed.  Coaching is a business and your time is the commodity you sell.  This commodity should be presented in the form of some kind of solution that your potential client is seeking.  And before the coaching process begins your potential client must first see you as an “expert” or “authority” on the topic that potentially could help them solve their problem, or achieve their goal.  In our 2 day course we walk all new CCF Coaches through this process. 

In our 2 day course we teach people both how to coach and how to build a practice as a coach.  The majority of our program is focused on the process of coaching…helping your client go from point A to point B with the shortest possible line.  This is a very simple process once you learn how to remove all the clutter that often holds our clients back from achieving their goals.  Once you learn this amazing process the focus is then on marketing.  Q) How do you get coaching clients? A) Be seen as an expert and an authority on the topic that you plan on building your practice on by speaking publicly about the topic.  For more on this process please visit our sister company, The Professional Speakers Federation at www.professionalspeakersfederation.com.