How to start a coaching practice the most painful way possible
When I read master coach Christine Hassler’s book 20 Something, 20 Everything in 2009, I knew, I KNEW I wanted to do what she did. My inner voice said it clear as day, I was going to be a coach. But being all of 20 years old myself, I had no money for any kind of coach training program. As I did my best to work part time jobs and earn a college degree, I put books and small courses on my credit card. I was always painfully aware that these courses were severely lacking in coaching tools and the HOW of how to actually help people. I have strong feelings, ethics, and morals around charging people money when I didn’t know if my coaching could actually benefit anyone so I never got my practice up and running. After spending some time in the salon and spa industry, I did the next best thing to signing up for a $9,000 coach training program, I finished my psychology degree at the closest public university for a few thousand dollars. I then secured a job at a local nonprofit that offered community mental health services.
It was a complete disaster.
So I moved to Florida. And got another job at a nonprofit this time working directly with people living with severe and persistent mental health disorders.
It was also a disaster.
I wasn’t given any of the training I was promised and I wasn’t gaining any useful experience with actually using tools to move the needle in people’s lives. I started to have panic attacks in my car as the weight of my situation smothered me.
Oh, and did I mention my mom died? And then my grandmother passed away and then my last remaining grandparent got cancer.
And I had no money.
And I had to pay $2,000 in rent every month.
And I had $48,000 of student loan debt and $20,000 on credit cards.
So I got another job.
It was, you guessed it, also a complete disaster. I hope you’re sensing a pattern here. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, I should have been the one getting services at the mental health agency, not attempting to provide them.
So I moved home and spent time with my grandmother before she passed. And I cried, and got lost in anxiety, and drowned in grief, and downward spiraled, and couldn’t get out of bed. It was…a fun time. Over two years passed. And I was still here. And I still wasn’t a coach. I still wasn’t a successful anything. But by this point, the mere thought of me signing up for a coach training program sent me into a shame, panic, perfectionist, fear spiral. I had witnessed the damage mediocre therapists and coaches could do and I just couldn’t be one of them. Thank god for my coach, who supported me in connecting with how engaging and fun coaching could be and that clients didn’t need my perfection, they need my presence.
And here I am in the middle of a coach training program. Showing up, doing the work, being my own best coaching client, offering others the support and insights I never got. Being with them so they aren’t alone. Learning some pretty solid coaching skills, growing as a person, being of service to others. I’ll be here when you need me. Reach out and say hi, sign up for a free session if you need support. Let’s create a life you actually like. You deserve it. We both do.