The Consummate Coach

This is a phrase that Donna Steinhorn and I came up with the other day and I've been thinking about it ever since. It has a nice ring, but what does it mean, really? What would make a coach a consummate coach? What accomplishments would such a coach have under his/her belt?

For that matter, what would constitute an "accomplished coach"? I like both of these phrases and think they might describe useful benchmarks for those of us who are committed to excellence. You know, there's the "being" aspect of excellence, but there's the "doing" part, too. I think benchmarks are useful in measuring how we're doing.

I think Consummate Coach includes Accomplished Coach, so I'm going to throw out some ideas for what I think it might mean to be accomplished. I'm curious if you agree...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

Constructive Dissatisfaction

Hey, I'm way overdue posting to this site. My apologies! A lot has happened, though, since my last post. Donna and I hosted our first ACE Live Event in NYC, which was a great success. Plus, I moved to Missouri. (Talk about a change of venue!)

Some things are still the same, though: like my subscription to FastCompany. In a recent article, Michael Eskew, CEO of UPS mentioned the importance of "constructive dissatisfaction" in running a successful company. He says complacency is the enemy...Read entire article at the Coaching Blog. 

What Does Coaching Excellence Mean to You?

ACE is ramping up with some cool developments for October. We plan our site launch and first live event in NYC next month. We're making the case for coaching excellence. For me,

Excellence = Success.

Maybe it's not quite that simple, but when you take all the skills a successful coach has, from coaching skills to marketing skills, you find that the more excellent the skills, the more success the coach is likely to enjoy.

Yes, I know, even a mediocre coach with great marketing skills can be successful. But an excellent coach with great marketing skills will trump the mediocre coach in the long haul...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

Now What?

On August 28th, I posted an optimistic message about the opportunities that are opening up as a result of the chaos at CoachVille. I'm able to be optimistic, because I accepted months ago that CoachVille might very well go belly up. ("I feel so much better, now that I've given up hope!") When unrealistic hope is gone, we can focus on what reality really can bring us!

Now that it seems to be happening, I have good days and I have sad days. (And sometimes I have pissed-off days!) I can imagine how it feels to people who are just beginning to realize what's happening. Fear, outrage, confusion, etc., are swirling about the coaching community.

This past week, as I watched the mass evacuation of New Orleans, that beautiful city where CV had its last annual conference, I couldn't help thinking of how ironic it is that CV seems to be drowning and people are escaping from it, too. It sure puts into perspective how small a problem CV is. We certainly haven't lost everything the way the citizens of NOLA have.

Never-the-less, I think it's time for Confabers to talk. So that's our subject in the Confab later today.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 www.coachingconfab.com

Donna Steinhorn Leaving CoachVille

Now that Donna Steinhorn, Executive VP of CV and Dean of SOC has sent her farewell email to the CV Team, I expect a major shake up at CV. Donna has been the engine that drove CV for two years and for most of us, the glue that kept us loyal. People like me have already quit, discouraged by the chaos of the company.

I'm proud to be partnering with Donna, Heidi Costas and others on ACE: The Association for Coaching Excellence. You can sign up for information at www.acecoachdirectory.com. Donna's other projects are here: http://www.coachingtosuccess.com/projects.html

I'm curious to hear reactions/responses on Donna's leaving from members of this blog...

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

I thrive on change. And for that reason, I have a special fondness for transitional periods (a.k.a. chaos). It's one of those things that I've learned not to overindulge in, like caffeine and alcohol, because it's so draining, but I must say I do enjoy it, now and then!

The coaching industry seems to be in a transitional period, right now. Rumors are flying and alliances are forming. I can't remember a week when I've had so many coaches call me up or email me just to say "'zup?"

The thing I like about transition is that it's ripe with opportunity. If you're a quick mover with a creative eye for the future, this is your time...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

The Biology of Success

If you're a member of CoachV-L, you may have already read this post. Most others in this blog have never appeared anywhere else.

Here are a few thoughts on who become successful coaches and who don't. There doesn't seem to be a formula. We all do it differently, just as we all define success differently.

The real difference may lie in our relationship to success. In fact, intriguingly, the difference may be biological AND your environment influences it!

Research shows that both humans and animals conserve their energy according to their life conditions. If resources are short, many animals go into hibernation. If they're losing in the pecking order wars, they become more docile, resigned to their lot.

Meanwhile, animals who experience an abundance of resources or who have experienced some success, when competing with their peers, become more energetic and assertive. Their bodies are flooded by hormones that literally change their brains!

This is Neo-Darwinism, how the fittest survive. Turns out that the term, "fittest" is relative.

This happens among humans, too. It has its negative side in politics when revolutionaries become the new oppressors, but there are positive results, too.

One positive example might be the exuberance of Thomas Leonard. As his success grew, he became progressively more productive.

Here's another possible downside. I think many coaches, as they try to grow their businesses, become overwhelmed, then discouraged, then resigned. That process literally and biologically reduces the energy available to them to do whatever it takes to become successful on their own terms.

Those coaches who maintain a high level of focus, encouragement and optimism, also maintain the hormonal levels that give them the energy they need to keep going while they grow their businesses.

What makes the difference? Well, since we're human, we can choose to create the difference.

Here's how your environment can help. You can design it so that it's full of people who can give you this kind of energy, by giving you a sense of abundance and accomplishment, who can help you access the abundance of resources available to all coaches and who will champion you and challenge you to keep going.

You can see where I'm going with this: Make sure you're getting great coaching. Coaching businesses are extremely difficult to build and yet, many coaches, who are no better equipped than you are successful. Give yourself the environment that you need.

You become who you hang out with. Hang out with people who are successful. Get coached by a genuinely successful coach, who knows how to get there. Keep your day job, so you don't fall into scarcity thinking. You get the idea.

I heard Thomas say, at a Certified Coach Intensive, that not every coach would be able to have a full practice. I also heard attributed to him, at Coach U, a draconian formula: Ten in, one out. Meaning, of every ten people who entered Coach U, only one became a real coach.

I think coach training and mentoring have improved since then and that the odds are getting better. In the meantime, though, I recommend that you decide to be one of the coaches who makes it.

Commit yourself to success; do what it takes to surround yourself with an environment that will evolve you into a successful coach!

My students and mentees know how much I emphasize championing as a mark of an excellent coach. (And still most of you don't champion enough!) Great coaches literally help clients transform into successful people.

Copyright, 2005, Julia Stewart www.coachingconfab.com

Jealousy With a Halo

There's a great quote by H. G. Wells that you may have heard before. I came across it again, recently:

"Moral indignation is just jealousy with a halo."

Boy, is that ever true and have I been guilty of it, sometimes! Actually, it's something that most coaches are guilty of on frequent occasions, especially when it comes to each other.

Coaches know that everyone is doing their best (Or, as they say at CTI, "Nobody gets to be wrong.") and we usually remember this when we're with our clients, but we can be a bit judgmental when it comes to other coaches.

Especially if we're feeling slighted or overlooked, while someone else is out there basking in the limelight.

Here's the phrase that I most often hear: "So-n-so is so out of integrity!" That's coach-ese for, "I'm passing judgment on this person, but I want to sound enlightened while I do it."

We're the community that believes that integrity always comes first. Unfortunately, we tend to remember that most when it comes to other coaches. What we forget is that it's our own integrity that we need to mind, not someone else's.

I have to admit that I've used this phrase, myself, so I'm not exactly guilt-free. (Ouch! I hate it when I'm flawed!)

But like most negative energy, it's easier for us to feel it when it's aimed us. When we're the ones doing the aiming, it actually feels pretty good!

That's how I became aware of the phrase, "So-n-so is so out of integrity!" because occasionally, that phrase gets aimed at me! Do you hear the moral indignation in it? When it happened I thought, "Well that's pretty judgmental!" Which, of course is just another judgment, but it gave me the opportunity to feel right, again.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through life wearing a "jealousy halo". The problem is that the line between discernment, which is vital and judgment, which just keeps us stuck in our egos, is so faint that we often cross it before we've realized it.

It has to be in order for us to continue going around in that fog called, I'm-right-and-they're-wrong, which clouds our reality but feels oh so comfy to our egos.

So the answer is, no doubt, to get our egos out of the way, but that's easier to say than to do.

They've been trying that in the field of psychology for decades, but have you ever noticed the number of pejorative terms that have filtered from psychology into modern usage? Terms that originally had the neutral tone of professionalism, like moron and idiot, have become common playground insults.

And then there's the ever popular, "So-n-so is so neurotic!" Yep, I've used that one, too.

And some folks have created rules that can help get the ego out of the way like, focus on the action, not on the person. In Christianity that translates into "Love the person, hate the sin."

I think regardless of the rules and words we use, egotistical judgments can easily creep into our comments and the people we're aiming them at will notice it before we do.

Judging others comes out of feeling bad. It's a way of off-loading our bad feelings and it creates a nice little fiction for us: "I'm just fine, but So-n-so has problems!" We feel better and make up a story to support why we feel better.

So if we don't dump those feelings on others, what do we do with them?

We can acknowledge our feelings. And experience them. It feels bad to be left out, just like it feels bad to be judged. End of story.

That's discernment. It has integrity and it is enlightened.

When your true feelings have fully registered with you, they will move on. And the information that you receive from your true feelings will help you create a life you really want.

Copyright, 2005, Julia Stewart www.coachingconfab.com

Eyes Wide Open

It occurs to me that someone might read into some of my posts and get the idea that I have regrets about working for CoachVille. Nothing could be less true!

I mentioned to one of my friends recently that now that I'm no longer at CoachVille, with what I know and who I know, I'm poised to do my best work in the coming years. It's a delicious place to be and I'm so happy to be where I am, right now!

I went into CoachVille with my eyes wide open and I considered all my options. I checked in with my intuition and I followed it. Things didn't always work out the way that I hoped, but the benefits were tremendous, anyway. I'm well known, now and I have a healthy following. (Chances are, you wouldn't be reading this, if you didn't know me through CoachVille.) I have some very important-sounding Grand Pooh-bah titles and, yes I leverage them all I can! Last but not least, I'm a far better coach, mentor, teacher, certifier and business person, because of what I learned at CoachVille.

I think of working at CoachVille like advanced training. It's kind of like a post-grad internship! You don't do those things for money.

The reason I sometimes mention my ups and downs at CoachVille is because: A. Up until a few weeks ago, they were a major part of my life. B. Coaches learn from each other's experiences.

I'm honored to have worked with so many great people at CoachVille and I'm excited about moving on!

The Ways of Memes and Genes

All the hoopla over a small article in a recent Coaching Insider is kind of amusing. The article quotes a memo from an un-named source from the Tom Stone camp as saying something that implies that Tom Stone won his lawsuit against CoachVille over who owns the Core Dynamics.

As an "insider" at CoachVille, the story I heard was very different! Not surprising. People tend to put their own spin on stories to save face. Most of us never really hear the truth.

CoachVille recognized that Tom Stone was a major contributor to the Core Dynamics. No question about that. And the Core Dynamics is unquestionably a work of collaboration. There are elements of Thomas Leonard's "Absence of" work, as well as completely new language crafted by Dave Buck and the CoachVille R&D Team. As a contributing member of that team, I attended the calls that developed much of it. The resulting Venn Diagram, which sums up the entire philosophy in an elegantly simple graphic, has CoachVille's stamp all over it. You can still find it on the Core Dynamics Coaching homepage, here.

And of course, it was Kerul Kassel who actually developed the Core Dynamics into a coach training program with teleclasses and learning guides.

The judge who presided over this case didn't rule on it. I generally avoid repeating hearsay in my blog, but I want to share what the judge supposedly said to Tom and Dave with you, because it delightfully relishes the reality of this situation:

"You two are going to have to work out an agreement between you, because no jury is ever going to understand what this stuff is about!"

Neither side "won."

So what's my point here? Stories are just stories. Our egos love them. They give us a chance to judge who's right and who's wrong. (Usually, we're right and "they're" wrong.) And they certainly are entertaining. Without them, what would we think about? Whether you believe my version or someone else's really doesn't matter.

I think the larger meaning here is about greatness vs. smallness and, in an intriguing way, the dynamics of genes and memes.

The collaboration that produced the Core Dynamics was an act of greatness that required cooperation and synergy from the minds of numerous individuals. Each contribution added a crucial element, without which the perfection of this theory, one of the most sophisticated in the coaching industry, could not have been possible. This is an example, I believe, of what Andrew Cohen would call "Supermind".

Greatness happens in the communication of ideas. We can't hoard them and be great. And once you share your ideas the Universe will do what it will with them.

Here's where genes and memes come in. Most folks know about genes. They carry our DNA and replicate and evolve the human race and all other life on this planet. They are an extraordinarily powerful force!

Their conceptual equivalent are memes. (Find out more about genes and memes in Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle. It's a great read.)

A meme is like an idea. It could be a melody or Marxism. Once it's released into the world it replicates and evolves on it's own. The originator has no control over it. And in fact, given that all ideas evolve from previous ideas, there is really no such thing as an original idea, anyway. This is how culture evolves. Ultimately, all memes belong to the human race.

In fact, the idea of ownership of a meme is a little like Casanova trying to control his sperm after having sex with a thousand women. Who should get pregnant? Who's genetic material gets to mingle and replicate with Casanova' genes? He can't control that. All he really can do is keep his pants zipped!

I think Intellectual Property laws are a little like Casanova trying to control his sperm. They give the illusion of ownership and control. (Hmm, the "illusion of control", isn't that idea somewhere in the Core Dynamics?) But they really are an artificial form of control. What would happen if we didn't have those laws? I don't know, perhaps memetic chaos. Then again, perhaps we would have more opportunities for the kind of greatness that results from a collaborative supermind!

The Core Dynamics is a meme with input from many sources. But IP law says that "authors" can claim ownership. Because there was no clear agreement between Tom Stone and CoachVille on what each side could do with the Core Dynamics, the lawsuit pulled both parties down into a petty disagreement. Greatness became small.

The people who were teaching the Core Dynamics at CoachVille, including me, received letters from Tom's lawyers threatening to sue us, also. Since we were on the profit sharing plan at CoachVille, the expense of defending CoachVille's right to use the Core Dynamics came out of our pay.

Unless you're as big as Disney, IP lawsuits cost more than they gain. I wrote Tom's lawyer and told him I thought Tom was making a big mistake. My guess is he realizes that, now.

So I must admit, I'm ambivalent about IP laws. That said, I will dutifully put my "Copyright" at the bottom of this page, just in case! (In case of what? So I can sue somebody?!)

That leads me to one more amusement, that the Insider is printing stories about somebody suing CoachVille! ;-)

Copyright, 2005, Julia Stewart www.coachingconfab.com

Sparkling Fresh

I've been listening to some great coaching, lately! And it seems to be getting better and better! In both my Seven Secrets of Certification and Coaching Improv classes, as well as my Triad Mentor Coaching groups, coaches are stepping up courageously and coaching with brilliance and generosity.

I mentioned to my friend, Barbra Sundquist, the other day, that when I was a student coach, I used to hope that I would be able to coach one day at the level of my mentors. Now, just a few years later, my students and mentees are coaching at that level!

I always believed in Thomas Leonard's Proficiencies, but I didn't expect them to change the quality of coaching this fast!

I feel proud and humble, at the same time. Proud, because I'm one of the teachers/mentors/certifiers who have learned how to help coaches master their skills. Humble, because it's a huge honor to work with such talented people.

Barbra and I have been working on a project for some time, which we call SparklingFresh: The Sound of Great Coaching. It's function will to be to give you a chance to hear how masterful coaches do what they do and to learn their techniques. We're pretty excited about it!

If you'd like to know more, you may want to volunteer to be one of our beta testers in the near future. As a beta tester, you'll be one of the first to find out how to become a SparlkingFresh Coach, which we think will be quite a distinction! Our website is in progress, but if you'd like to take a sneak peek, go to: http://www.sparklingfresh.com To apply as a beta tester, send an email to support@sparklingfresh.com with "Beta Tester" in the subject line.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 www.yourlifepart2.com

The Servant Entrepreneur

Most coaches are attracted to coaching because they want to help make the world a better place. They love people, want to help people have better lives and often see their coaching work as a kind of spiritual practice. It's a way of giving and receiving, all at once. Very fulfilling.

Do you believe coaching is a spiritual practice?

Something else that makes coaching particularly attractive, is that it promises to be a lucrative career. Most of us are thrilled to discover that there is a profession where we can be the givers that we like to be and still make a six-figure income. Or seven figures, even!

Giving, helping, spiritual fulfillment, plus lots of money; that's an intoxicating combination! It's even a little addictive...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog. 

The Truth Will Set You Free

Phew! Back from a week's vacation and everything looks brighter and more exciting!

People have been asking me why I left CoachVille at the end of last month. A few have mentioned that I was one of their favorite teleclass leaders and that they'll miss me. And a lot have signed up for my mailing lists. Really gratifying. And touching.

As for why I left, it was a slow, tough decision, but definitely the right one for me, right now. And the reasons are varied and complex. I'll just mention the main ones, here.

If I had to distill it down to energy management or money management, I'd have to say energy management is the real reason I left. One thing I've learned, for sure, from designing the Fully Alive Community for CV, is that energy management is one of my prime objectives in life. Managing my own and teaching others how to manage theirs. It's called Radical Care.

That said, you can't ignore money in life (and especially in business) and money was definitely a deciding factor for me.

When CoachVille Communities launched last year, a team of of intensely loyal CoachVille employees and members, including me, set about to "save" CoachVille, which had suffered some terrible financial blows in the interim between Thomas' ownership of the company and Dave's. The Pioneer Coaches, who launched the communities and taught the classes, agreed to work for a percentage of the profits, which were slim at the time, but which we were confident, would rise eventually.

It was a huge job. We had to recreate the website practically from the ground up. I was putting in 30-40 hours per week on CoachVille and a similar amount on my own business, which was what was supporting me. Not surprisingly, a lot of mistakes were made. I still cringe when I think about it! Obviously, that couldn't continue for long, so we started bringing in Assistant Community Coaches, volunteers, who could help us. And our work load became far more sane.

I was so enthusiastic (or crazy) in the beginning, that I worked on five different communities in the first six months before I settled on the CoachVille Coaching System and Fully Alive. (The others were Core Dynamics, Personal Environments, and Teleclass Leaders.)

I must say, working so hard has a way of forcing you to grow - fast! I wouldn't know what I know now any other way and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity. But hard work leads to burn out, too.

Making radical changes in a company is dangerous. You run the risk of alienating your loyal customers and you don't know if new customers will like you, either. It usually takes time to know whether the changes you made are going to be a success or a disaster. During that time, you may not be profitable.

CoachVille really had no choice but to change for a variety of reasons (I'm not going to go into them here). The jury is still out on whether the new CoachVille will be the huge success most of us think it could be. We've doubled the membership and the number of daily hits to the website. Plus, the company has had some recent financial successes and those may signal a turning point toward success, but suffice it to say, so far the profits have been disappointing.

For the past several months, CoachVille hasn't been able to pay its instructors and loyal as I am, I need to work for a living. I love what I do and I don't mind putting in a lot of hours, but it's not a hobby.

Actually, my objection to working for free for CoachVille goes deeper than that. I have a problem with a for-profit company whose employees (most of them) are working for free, especially when that company is trying to teach other professionals how to have profitable businesses. CoachVille just isn't walking its talk at the moment. I know they're trying their best, but there's still a disconnect.

I think that so many Community Coaches working for free for more than a short time just allows CoachVille to play small. I'd like to see the company borrow money or bring in investors to help it meet its shortfall, while it's on the road to becoming sustainably profitable, again. That would give the management team the breathing space to focusing on long-term success instead of short-term profits.

Feeling as I do has caused CoachVille to become an emotional drain for me. I needed to disconnect to protect my energy. I'm still a Certifier (and I get paid for that!), but other than that, I'm free to concentrate on my own projects and that's really exciting!

Well, this is a pretty revealing post! CoachVille may not appreciate my telling its business, but it's my business, too. Plus, coaches are asking and I think they deserve to know.

I launched the Confab last Spring with the challenge, to myself and members, to be "relentlessly constructive". For me, being open and honest is a big part of that. Not as a weapon, but as a tool for creating the world we want to live in. As Dave Buck once said, "The truth will set you free, but it may piss you off in the meantime!"

Another thing that I learned from Dave is that I'm a Manifestor, someone who is highly creative and productive and who is likely to insert my big foot in my big mouth from time to time. If I've done that today, my apologies!

(Update, 7-19-05: I just received an email from the CV accountant indicating that I will be paid for March thrugh June. Don't know what happened and I'm not going to speculate, but I'm glad to hear it!)

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.coachingconfab.com

Starved for Inspiration?

OK, I'm re-inspired to the max.

Just attended a one-day seminar with the EnlightenmentNext people in NYC with Andrew Cohen, their founder, and Dr. Don Beck, the world's expert on Spiral Dynamics. This, following a 5-day intensive certification program with Dr. Beck in Boston, at Andrew's center, there.

I've been checking these guys out for a while and every time I go deeper and come out even more excited about what they're doing...Read the entire post on the Coaching Blog.

You Gotta Have Faith

It's a common fact that people who pursue their dreams often lie awake at night worrying about their finances, so instead of experiencing bliss they experience extreme anxiety.

People who follow more practical pursuits by pursuing a profession that pays well for instance, even if they don't love it, often have fewer financial worries, but less satisfaction. Ironically, they don't experience security either, just dependence on the company or system that employs them.

Neither group is free.

The Dreamers have a lack of financial freedom and the Practical People have a lack of personal freedom. Both problems are the result of mistaking ourselves as the providers of success in our own lives...Read the entire post at the Coaching Blog. 

Did Coaching Go Mainstream Without You?

I've been at odds with all the experts on this one for years and I read it again in Andrea Lee's book, Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, recently (which I recommend, btw).

Everybody who knows anything about coaching knows that coaching hasn't gone mainstream, yet, but when it does, it'll be really BIG. Have you heard that one?

Guess what? Coaching already went mainstream!

How do I know? Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.

Got Biz?

I think one of the toughest businesses in the would to build is a coaching business. I know this flies in the face of what your coach training school may have told you, before you signed up. I know that the story that I was told was that coaching businesses are easy to start and inexpensive to maintain, that you can name your own hours and make a six-figure income while working part-time. That you get to model "life balance" for your clients and you can fill your practice in as little as three months. ("Cool!" I thought.)

Actually, all of the leading coaches that I currently know about are working 12-16 hours per day, sometimes, seven days a week! Is that crazy, or what?

Why is it so hard to build a successful coaching business? Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.

REALL Marketing for Coaches

Well, our Confab meeting with guest mentor coach, Barbra Sundquist, on "Do Coaches Need to Get Real?", was very high energy! There are a lot of smart coaches on the calls and they're not shy about sharing. Barbra didn't get to talk as much as we expected, but gracious as she is, she recognized that it was a great call, anyway! (If you're not a member, yet, go here: http://www.coachingconfab.com. You can also access the free recording of the call and previous calls, there.)

Several callers mentioned my recent post, "No Wonder Clients Aren't Buying", so the call became a discussion on marketing; what works, what doesn't, and what's just plain repugnant. I'm getting lots of feedback on that post and on the Confab meeting. We've really struck a nerve in the coaching community! Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

No Wonder Clients Aren't Buying

I still watch 60 Minutes every Sunday night, if I can catch it. Last night, they had a feature called, "BS Rules". It was tough, because they couldn't actually say the word in the title.

"BS Rules" was inspired by an unexpected bestseller by, Harry G. Frankfurt, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Princeton University. ON BULLSHIT is a serious philosophical work that normally would only sell a few hundred copies, but the title has struck a chord with so many that it's selling hundreds of thousands.

Hey, it struck a chord with me, too!

I've specifically thought about this in regards to coaching. (Well I do sort of have a one-track mind.)

I've been meaning to write about this subject since the first day of the CoachVille Annual Conference, when Dave Buck got up and asked, What's wrong with coaching?

Without stopping to think, I spontaneously wrote in my notes:

The hype has separated us from our souls.

I stared at that for a few seconds and forgot to listen to Dave, anymore. The hype is killing us, quite simply.

What hype? Marketing hype! Branding hype! Advertisements disquised as newsletters! Products that will make coaches money! Yadyadayada!!

Geeze! I'm so sick of hype, I'm choking on it. And hype goes deeper than that, too. It shows up in promises that aren't kept, even though you meant well. It shows up in products that are designed according to what the market is buying, not what people want. It shows in compromised integrity. It shows up when you strive to get people to buy, rather than attract them, because you have something they really want. In other words, hype is BS.

Coaches mean well. They're just not thinking at a high enough level to attract clients. No wonder people aren't buying!

We're operating at a paradigm level that's no higher than (or even lower than) most of our potential clients. The materialistic/entrepreneurial/corporate mindset that has dominated American culture for decades is in decline. Corporate refugees, victims of downsizing, burned consumers; those people don't want more of the same. They've had it. Coaches need to be operating at a higher paradigm then that, in order to help them shift to a new way of thinking. That's what coaches are for! Not to insert them in our product funnels and squeeze more and bigger dollars out of them.

Why should people trust us with their lives, their dreams and their futures if they feel like our first motive is to make money from them? Most people live in such a climate of mistrust that if they sniff even the slightest bit of an agenda, they become suspicious. Not a good place for our coaching clients to be coming from!

So how did we get here and what do we need to do about it? Well, Thomas stretched out thinking. Remember that? And coaching was growing, then. Then we lost Thomas. Since then, lots of coaches have tried to step into his shoes, but none of them are thinking like Thomas, yet. They're striving, instead of attracting and they're becoming less attractive, as a result.

It wouldn't hurt to go back to some of the old Thomas material, like Irresistable Attraction and place our faith in that. Only let's don't stop there. The world is still moving forward and Thomas can't keep leading us. Look for new voices and new ways of thinking. Look outside the coaching industry for inspiration. Watch what's going on in the world and notice where it's heading and where it's been. Coach the present and future, not the past. Start leading, yourself.

And stop trying so hard!

Most coaches come into the profession, because they're not BS artists. They care about truth and other values. How silly to train them to BS their potential clients.

If you want to actually attract clients, Fresh Thinking Rules.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com

Under-Capitalized

This is a problem that can be so painful, that coaches don't like to talk about it.

Under-capitalization.

Fancy term for, "You don't have enough money to make it." Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.

The Most Saturated Market in the World

Yesterday, one of my mentees commented that there seem to be an awful lot of certifications and programs for coaches, out there, and that it's hard for a coach to know which are really important to pursue and which aren't.

I agree. There are so many coach trainings, marketing programs and certifications on the market, that coaches aren't just overwhelmed, they're confused - and broke!

And still more products for coaches to buy are rolled out practically everyday.

This points to one of the biggest bad habits in the coaching industry, right now: the tendency to market to other coaches. The cause is pretty simple: we know what matters to us and we know how to communicate with each other. It's a natural! The problem is, most coaches don't have thriving businesses, yet, and buying more products tends to keep them in the financial red.

This produces the proverbial snake that swallows its tail. Not a sustainable industry practice!

And I'm a mentor coach, so I'm guilty!

I sometimes wonder if this hybrid of professional/entrepreneur doesn't just present a massive integrity problem for coaches. Coaches aren't supposed to be experts, the client is the expert, right? And yet, we present ourselves as experts in our marketing materials. This confuses everybody - including us.

Slippery integrity kills coaching. And it could kill the coaching industry, too.

When you're presented witht the next great program that's going to finally make you a successful coach, ask yourself if that's really true? Do you really need it and how can you find out? And always bear this in mind: Coaching businesses are businesses. They create products to make profits. Is the program you're about to buy designed to make you successful or make the seller money?

The best ones will do both.

You need to be able to make a clear assessment of what you need at every step along the way to your ideal coaching practice, so you know what you need to buy.

And you need to ask a lot of questions about the programs you buy, like: What is their track record? Do they have success stories? Do they have statistics on the success rate of people, like you, who buy? What's the reputation of the seller? Is it sterling? Don't just rely on a big name; ask people what their experiences have been.

If the program is just based on a cool new theory, it may still be worth checking out, but expect to pay less, if you're an early adopter.

This is a tough challenge for me. I want to be part of the solution, not just be adding to the problem. I've considered getting out of the mentor coach biz, because it's such a depressed market, but this seems to be my calling.

I don't have all the answers, yet, but I'm willing to name the problem. My goal is to find ways that help coaches get from the tourist stage, where they just want to buy and experience all the cool stuff out there for coaches, and help them to have their own thriving businesses. That's the only way coaching will survive.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com

How to Create Programs that Rock!

Hey - If you missed the 1st or 2nd Confab meetings, the recordings will be posted on my website in the very near future. http://www.coachingconfab.com Watch for an announcement, when they're ready. In the meantime, I want to thank Heidi Costas for sharing her wisdom with us, yesterday. We talked about why some programs sell and others don't and what the market seems to want, right now. Click on "comments" at the end of this post to see Heidi's Five Key Points for Programs that Rock. ;-) Julia http://www.yourlifepart2.com

Are You Stuck in the Green Meme?

I've been fascinated by Spiral Dynamics, lately. It's a theory of human development that helps to explain people's paradigms, both individually and culturally. (You can read a brief synopsis of it in Ken Wilber's A Theory of Everything, or the whole enchilada in Spiral Dynamics by Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan.)

This theory neatly explains why people think what they do and why there is so much disagreement about values in today's world - and it's weirdly color coded...Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog. 

Inspiration is for Amateurs

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up." I heard Chuck Close say this the other night on a PBS interview. It pricked my ears, because inspiration is a big part of what I do as a coach. It's for amateurs? But the more he talked, the more I agreed with him. Listening to Close took me back to my years of training in the arts... Read the whole article at the Coaching Blog.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com

Don't Stop to Play Tiddlywinks 'til You've Finished Up in the Birthing Room

Great conversation in our first Confab! It left me with lots to think about ever since. I'm honored at the amazing group of coaches who have subscribed, so far, and can't wait to get back together with you! I already feel like twice a month isn't often enough, so I decided to set up a blog, so I'd have somewhere to go when the mood strikes. Originally, I'd planned a newsletter for this group, but a blog fits the conversational style far better. With a group of coaches this experienced and talented, the posts are bound to be mind-bending...Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.

Congratulations!

Looking forward to some way cool confab conversations here!

Heidi