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Laura is often asked questions by her clients, web site
visitors, and audiences everywhere. Here is a selection of questions (and
answers) that are most frequently asked.
- What do I need to know about becoming
a coach? How do I get started?
- If you are considering becoming a coach, there is no
better way to get started than to hire your own coach for at least 90 days and
get first hand experience of what it really entails. Choose a trained and
preferably credentialed coach so you can experience the difference between
coaching and the other disciplines that are being called coaching but
really amount to advice-giving. Coaching is not advice-giving, so if you
are attracted to the profession because you have always helped other people and
given them advice, experience what coaching really is and then decide if it is
for you. Besides, 90 days with a coach will change your life considerably and
the most successful coaches are those that walk their talk.
Second, go
to www.coachfederation.org and check out the credentialed
coach training programs available worldwide so you can find the right training
program for you.
Third, please understand that having a coaching
practice is having your own business. Being ready, willing and able to market
yourself, manage yourself, manage clients and run the day-to-day is essential
to your success. Many people do not take into account the isolation of working
alone and the intense start up phase that is required (1-3 years to create a
sustainable clientele) and consequently, surveys show that the majority of
coaches are not making a full-time living. It will most likely require
that you be diversified and have other adjuncts to your coaching business
(writing, speaking, consulting, products, or part-time employment) to meet your
financial goals.
- I am in a country where there aren't
many coaches. How do I find out about hiring one?
- It is not essential to be geographically close to your
coach. Most coaching is done by telephone so you have your choice of coaches
worldwide. Again, www.coachfederation.org is the place to tap into with their
referral service available for free. Coachu.com and some of the other coaching
schools also have their own referral services.
- How do I get published?
- E-books and self-publishing options are at an all time
high in terms of access and that means that anyone that has a written product,
can get published. Going through the major publishers, is a whole other story.
In essence, it requires a formal proposal, presented formally by a literary
agent. Most unsolicited proposals or manuscripts are not read.
I am not
familiar with how to get published for fiction which is its own entity and that
branch of publishing requires different things. As for non-fiction, showing
that you have a platform from which to sell a book becomes essential to your
publishability. That means you can show an agent and then a publisher that you
have access to people that will buy your book---if you are speaker and reach a
certain number of people per year, if you write for a publication and you can
point to a readership, if you can point to a listening or viewing audience
through broadcasting or the web or you can show you hold a leadership position
and can influence people to buy your book---these are all ways to prove you
have a platform. That unfortunately, becomes almost more important than what
your great book idea is.
As for your book idea, Geoffrey Herman's How
To Write a Winning Book Proposal, is a great guide for preparing your
material for yourself and for your prospective agent and
publisher.
- Can you mention our organization,
product or service in your newsletter or magazine column?
- If what you have is a resource that can serve a very
large national audience, I want to know about it. Otherwise, I cannot promote,
especially in national publications, any individuals or products or
organization or services.
In my newsletter, I occasionally offer up
something that I think will serve my audience but it is only in cases where I
have had first hand experience of the person and their work. Do not send
products, samples, or offers to us because in my definition, that is not first
hand experience and I do not have enough hours in the day to review what is
sent to us. First hand experience means meeting by chance, by common
introduction or by other organic, life-directed means. Meeting each other once
in passing at a conference or at one of my seminars does not fit that
definition. If I ask to review something, then I will make the time, but please
understand it is not a guarantee that I can help. I do want to and do so
whenever possible without creating a conflict of interest.
- Will you speak for our organization
if we cannot offer to pay you?
- I do a fair number of pro-bono events per year and I am
glad to do so. I do have a couple of standards and that being that the group
consist of no less than 100 people and that books are made available for sale.
If it requires travel, expenses need to be paid.
- How do I become a Now What™
Facilitator or a Senior Trainer?
- You can become an Authorized Now What? Facilitator
through our "Now
What?™" Facilitator training program . Participants who have
completed the training, have successfully taken the exam and have worked with a
few clients on the program may be asked to become more involved with the
internal Now What? team, but that depends on demand for the program and
how much help we may need.
- How did you get started as a
coach?
- I was a client first for 18 months before I even
considered starting my own training. I was one of the first sixteen people to
complete the training offered by Coach University, and was a founding member
and board member of the International Coach Federation. It took 2 1/2 years to
build a reliable business from scratch. I had no professional network
whatsoever. I had a different coach every year for the first five years of
being a coach and have worked with several coaches since for a few months every
year.
- Can you coach me?
- I keep a very small client base so most inquiries get
directed to our Now
What?™ coaches. We are committed to you getting the right coach for
you and will also refer outside of our company if we know of a better match for
you. Unfortunately, I can't work with everyone who asks, but when I do, you
have my full commitment for a 90 day engagement as coach and client. For some
people 90 days is a great amount of time, for others it's a kick-start and then
they move on to another coach and for others still, we do 90 days, three times
a month and then switch to a reduced schedule if my travel allows for it. My
fee is substantial, so that might help you determine quickly if I am right for
you. Click here for more information.
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