Although I don't care much about certifications (see last week's episode), I believe strongly in the benefit of supported practice for coaches. We can elevate individual coaches and the whole coaching community by creating spaces and times in which coaches practice, correct, discuss, and support each other.

Twenty years now since I started doing money stuff online, and the urge to create a course still creeps up on me. Let's talk about it, and let's make sure to work in some Prince Bride references.

There are good reasons and bad reasons to pursue certification(s) as a coach -- up to and including becoming a licensed therapist.

I realize the episode title is a corny bumper sticker. But people, including coaches, are not being nice to themselves. It's getting in the way of the growth and progress that brought us to coaching in the first place.

I like last week's episode but it didn't feel quite right. Today's episode rounds out some of my ideas/suggestions/hypotheses for how group coaching could go from being a good thing to a great thing. Enjoy. 

A few of my thoughts on the kind "group coaching" I'm accustomed to seeing in my coaching community. I'm not strongly against it; I'm not strongly for it; and I think what we call group coaching would be better delivered separately as either one on one coaching, group facilitation, or classroom teaching.

Coaching is a totally unregulated industry...which is exactly how we like it. With no governing body to create or police our interactions with our clients, it's up to us to define and adhere to a set of ethics that support our clients' safety and progress. In this episode I describe my own simple framework for feeling like I'm running my practice with integrity.

Coaches can feel trapped in the way of being they learned in training -- especially if they were trained in a dogmatic community. My friend Chantel is an example of a "rule follower" and a "striver" who started her practice doing everything by the book. As she realized the tools she learned first were good but not perfect, she kept learning, kept evolving and, in her words, "falling apart" as she pursued the best approach for her and her clients.

You can find Chantel at her website.

This is the story of a teen in pain receiving support from a great coach. By itself, this is wonderful. This episode explains how a chain of relationships introduced the teen to the coach, even though some of the people in the chain didn't know the teen, and others didn't know the coach. Mutual trust and relationships built over time brought these coach and client together. This is the magic that matters.

If the coach is the product, personal development is the most important business strategy. This should come as a huge relief.