Back to School: Coaches Continue Education

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterward. ~Anatole France

I absolutely adore “back to school” time. Here in the United States our children get the summer months off from education and go back to school at the end of August or beginning of September depending on what part of the country the family lives in. I loved back to school even when I was a child. I loved learning, loved a schedule and loved measuring my success (getting good grades) and I really loved being with all the other students. I loved books, paper and libraries. And now that I have children – more specifically – teenagers, I love sharing this experience with them. All of my kids are great students and they actually like school as well.

And, then there’s the added benefit of having my kids otherwise occupied so I can focus on work for a few hours everyday. Kids and I are both happy about this.

Now that I am an adult, and a professional, I still love learning. Daily I cull juicy bits of practical online marketing wisdom from blog posts, articles and Internet radio expanding my thinking by evaluating what other marketing educators are saying.

I have also developed a love for teaching learners and passing on what I have learned and tested in my own practice. It is a real thrill to get feedback from readers and clients who implement a practice and develop a new marketing skill with successful results. It is so delightful that my “work” is really “pure play” for me.

I believe it’s important for coaches identify weak or non-productive areas of their business and implement an education plan that brings them closer to realizing a successful practice.

Many coaches are certified as a coach, or in a particular method but are not educated or prepared to operate their coaching practice as a business. Personally I think this has been a weakness in many of the coach training programs is that nothing is offered in the way of training coaches how to build their business.

I’ve interviewed a number of coaches who are struggling with their practice – they don’t know how to enroll new clients – or how to enroll as many new clients as they can handle. Yet, I hear, or read from many of the same coaches that they are sick of all the pitches from all the coaches who coach coaches.

Here is what I am observing:

• first, there are coaches struggling to make a go of  a “coaching business“. They are dabbling at many different activities but don’t really know what works.
• these same coaches seem to feel surrounded by coaches who coach coaches on how to create a business from coaching

It seems to me these coaches are attracting their answer and running from it at the same time! Not all of the offers for education will fit them and the struggling coaches won’t know which ones will fit them until they specifically define their need for more information and then evaluate the offers to see which one promises the answers they seek.

Across the board, business is rapidly changing and evolving at such a fast pace that one can not simply learn the basics and be “good to go”. It is imperative that each of us budget for continuing education on a regular basis.

One of my clients just upgraded their 3 page website to a multi-page blog format. While his website had met his expectations for his definition for success, I observed that it was beginning to fall behind because of the pace at which his competition was moving forward. The Internet is much more than a “web”; that descriptive word is far too static. Personally I find that a word more like “raging rapids” is more descriptive of the pace of business & learning online.

Don’t let that frighten you or keep you from learning to build your own coaching business online. It is possible to learn as you go and with growth, I strongly encourage you to build a virtual team to help you evolve your coaching into a thriving business.

I would really love to hear some feedback from you as to what you feel you are lacking in information or education on how to grow your coaching business. What would you like to read about here or in the email ecourse that would help to move you forward?

Tell me, how may I support your growth?

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