For the 3rd in this series of "where I'm at" posts, today I will talk about the coaching business I'm involved with. If someone might happen to be reading here, yes, I am a certified Christian leadership coach. I took my first class in November of 2013, and received my initial certification in December 2014. A good friend and I started a coaching partnership, called Elevate Coach, in April of 2015.
As far as the business itself, well, lets just say we're not ready to quit our day jobs. Personally, I haven't had any paying clients yet. I "trade" coaching with my partner once a week, which is good practice, and helpful to me personally, but it's a little disappointing that I haven't done much else with it. Of course I've no one to blame but myself. I haven't exactly been searching for clients very hard.
So far I have been continuing to take advantage of the free webinars and events hosted by Coach Approach Ministries (who certified me), as well as reading books and literature on leadership and life coaching. It is still something I believe in, and quite honestly, I really enjoy doing. I guess I mostly just lack confidence in myself as a coach, which is likely a result of my lack of experience.
I suppose I need to simply be more intentional about thinking like a coach, practicing it as part of my regular life, and then worry about paying clients after that. The biggest reason I need paying clients is so I can count those hours towards a higher level of certification, as well as trying to justify the cost of continuing education. However, maybe I need to let those things take care of themselves.
So, in a nutshell, the coaching business has been slow in getting going, but it's not over. I am still moving in that direction. I may never do this as a "job," but I definitely still see it as a worthwhile endeavor, and enjoy doing it. I need to give myself a kick in the rear and work at getting some clients, and I am also thinking of signing up for 'the coaching connection' in November. It would give me 40 hours of paid coaching, plus experience at both doing and receiving coaching from some different people. So I may do that.