more inspiration for coaching system upgrade
25 Oct 2017yesterday, i had an excellent lunch with an old colleague of mine. we talked about many things, including our burgeoning practices! we ate at wonder spice cafe, which was delicious, and i learned a lot from her. a few specific thoughts she shared stuck out as being really helpful ways to think about building out my coaching practice. i figured i should drop them here so i don’t forget them (similar to how i shared thoughts the last time i heard ideas i could implement)
remember to build the practice such that eventually other people can do the work that i’m doing
eventually, i’ll probably want to be doing client pipeline development and so it makes sense to set up structures and systems such that, at some point, i can train someone else to do the direct coaching work and i can step out/up to a higher level and do other things to keep the org/business operation.
sidenote: i actually wonder if this is true. we also talked about how our folks (probably) have a higher-level of facilitation skills and a strong interest in cooperatives. even though previous generations of coops haven’t been so great, we could probably do it better.
and now that i think about it, maybe it’s actually a bad idea to eventually handoff the work on the ground to someone else (who has a lower payrate). that seems to be the exact process that puts people in managerial positions that they don’t enjoy and it takes the joy out of the doing the work… because they’re no longer doing the work. they’re just managing a team.
that said, the core idea of the advice was: set it up so that, when something happens to you (which it will) the org still (a) operates and (b) is a source of income for you. those two things do feel important, but i just need to think clearly about how they exist in their right place and in the right values framework.
find consistent, high-paying clients and keep a regular relationship with them to make money so that you i can focus on the mission-critical clients without worry about money
this one pretty much speaks for itself. but an interesting, specific idea is that if i can find a few big corporations that will take me on as a coach for people in their org, the corporation might pay big $ to have their org be supported. that frees me up to work with qtpoc, women, and poc without worrying about money. it feels important right now, given that i don’t need the coaching to make income, to learn about what practices and services i want to offer by working with as many poc as possible and getting clear on what to do there. but eventually, i could probably take on higher paying clients.
the evolutionary coaches network doesn’t have to just be life coaches
she mentioned a very real parallel between the way both of our practices create environments where people “unzip” and let us in to an inner sanctum. if the network of coaches is intended to have a collective understanding of the state of our folks (species) advancement and general well-being, anyone who has intimate relationships with people they support is a feasible network member. (this also confirms for me that people i’m coaching need to mostly remain confidential - i debated for a bit).
there was actually more to this convo but i really need to go shower.
words / writing / post-processing
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