Start-up Coach – from shilling to shades
by Alain THÉRIAULT

Phase 1: Disillusion

1.0 Everyone is a coach…

Ok, they may not be “certified coaches” but for the moment, coaching certification has little value in the eyes of the prospective customer. It frustrates me so much that I went as far as giving a hard time to an Emploi-Quebec employee for her lack of awareness about “real” coaching.

1.2 Coaching is a tough sell… The corollary of 1.0

I was astonished at the offers of coaching and of seminars offered to coaches without selling skills. The difficulty of marketing coaching services seems quite widespread and a particularly lucrative niche to those who know how to exploit it!

1.5 Free coaching? A sure way to stay poor

With a rather elaborate personal network of contacts considering my networks in the start-up community, my MBA network, my contacts in the academic world, my Peak Potentials network and yet another related to my last job, I convinced myself that with minimum effort I would be able to secure a decent income, while building my reputation as a coach.

I sent a message to my networks.

I offered 2 coaching calls for free.

I coached in two languages, all over North-America.

Result? A failure to turn these training partners into paying clients.

I turned to the Web. I fattened the bank accounts of David Wood to know more on the art of recruiting customers on the WEB; then of Christian Mickelsen on turning free coaching sessions into real customers; and finally Andrea J. Lee’s. Lee, on the other hand, had a very ‘coaching’ approach. (Here’s what you don’t want to know, to hear, to see etc.) Multiple Streams of Coaching Income made me realize that the financial salvation of coaching may not be in the one-to-one.

Despite all of this, my first ‘true’ customer was recruited during a conference on personal growth. She was sitting next to me at a table.

Phase 2: Reality

2.0 There are good coaches without diplomas

As I participated in FICQ activities, I met qualified people who had not done any classes on coaching or were not part of ICF or WABC. Damn, the good coaches are not all certified! This is getting complicated. So I dug a little further in the coaching process. Advice became somewhat contradictory, complicating things even more.

2.4
So you become a coach by coaching….or being coached

The mentor-coach of the school restored my lost hope. In the meetings that followed, my clients benefited from much better coaching sessions. This, in turn, buoyed my own confidence which resulted in my capacity to get more clients. Dominoes!

2.5
The coaching is not free anymore…

This summer I put my public relations on turbo. I prepared a series of meetings with influential people who were able to help. I discovered the force of WEB 2.0. I became quite active in the blogosphere, multiplying proposals for articles and presentations.

And the wind turned… customers started to show up. I found questions in my blog inbox. Requests for interviews and conferences. An offer of partnership. The future looks brighter.

I may have to wear shades.

Alain Thériault
B.Ed., MBA. Trainer, Speaker, Coach