Academic Life Coaching Business Plan · We do NOT sell life coaching. Life coaching is the process that we use to get to the solution. A process is not a solution. The two are similar

Academic Life Coaching Business Plan How to Market Yourself, Find Your First Paying Clients, and Follow a Lead from

John Andrew Williams [email protected]

Coach Training EDU Business Plan 2016-2017

Welcome to the ALC 1.0 Training Program Business Plan

Congratulations on taking a big step toward becoming a Certified Academic Life Coach and building a thriving Academic Life Coaching practice. It is an honor to have meaningful conversations with young people. It is fulfilling to watch your work have a positive impact on the lives of young people and to see them becoming more self-confident and recognize their particular brilliance.

Building a financially successful Academic Life Coaching practice requires care, patience, and work. Sometimes the path is easy. Sometimes it isn’t. Yet, this plan offers a blueprint of what I did to be successful and what others who have also been trained as Certified Academic Life Coaches have also found works.

The quality of your practice depends on two things: the quality of the service you provide and the effectiveness of your marketing. Fortunately, this program trains you in both. However, the irony of establishing this kind of practice is that the less you care about making money, the more money you make. The more you care about creating an outstanding experience for your clients and their parents, the more your client base will grow, and they will love you. They will brag about you. They will rave about you. They will tell their friends, and soon, friends will be telling friends of friends about your work. The best marketing in this business is word-of-mouth.

How to Get Started To get to the wonderful place of having a sustainable client base is to gain confidence in the ALC Program and begin to offer value to others. Here is a list of the first steps to start building your practice:

• Download the Super Training Guide and the Academic Life Coaching Workbook. Read through the Super Training Guide and skim the Academic Life Coaching Workbook.

• Download previous recordings of the ALC Training Program especially the real life client demonstrations with me working with a client. Two teenagers have agreed to let me coach them through the ALC Program and record our sessions. Please respect their confidentiality, and learn from the recordings. I know I am not perfect in the

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coaching, yet I also know that when I first started out as a coach, I learned so much from listening to other coaches practice.

• Ask one (and preferably two) students to be your practice client for the training program. Aside from being a requirement to become a Certified Academic Life Coach, you will learn a tremendous amount from jumping in and practicing on your own. Of course you will mess up and you will not always be perfect. However, you will still provide your client with lots of value. I do not recommend charging your practice client. You want to have the freedom to learn and try out the concepts without the pressure of performing for money.

• Get a recording device. If you are coaching by phone, you can usually set up your computer’s microphone to capture the conversation. If you are coaching in-person, you can buy an inexpensive recording device and set it up between you or simply use your phone. These recordings are incredibly valuable as a learning tool, and I imagine as you look back years from now, they will be really fun to listen to.

• Practice the marketing pitch. Record it. Play it back to yourself. The sooner you develop an ease about the marketing, of the ALC Program the more confident you will be and the more comfortable your potential clients will be.

• Reach out to your fellow coaches in the training program. We have an incredible community of coaches, and part of the success of the Academic Life Coaches comes from supporting each other, sharing ideas, and reaching out as friends and colleagues.

If you have any questions about the training or the ALC Program, please reach out to me or anyone on the headquarter team at Coach Training EDU. We are all here to help support you and this mission of empowering teens with tools to help them lead fulfilling and effective adult lives.

Start Thinking About the Business Side of Things We Solve Problems

The magic of the Academic Life Coaching Program is not as much in the actual ALC Program as it is in understanding how to enroll parents and students in the program so that they can experience the value and benefits of coaching. I spent two years figuring out how to market ALC. Here is the gist of what I learned:

We do NOT sell life coaching. Life coaching is the process that we use to get to the solution. A process is not a solution. The two are similar but fundamentally different. Just in the same way, we do NOT promote ourselves as Academic Life Coaches. Instead, we

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promote ourselves as experts who have experience solving specific problems for a specific audience. We just happen to use a specific set of skills and tools called Academic Life Coaching to do so.

In fact, sometimes in sample sessions and networking, I make fun of Life Coaching. Let’s face it, the concept of life coaching is cheesy (and often misunderstood). It is also hard to explain. So avoid it. Instead, when speaking to potential clients and networking, focus on the problems that you solve and the benefits you offer.

I spent three months of passing around surveys and conducting interviews with parents and students to determine what they viewed as the top three problems that arise during the high school years. There were others, but these three were the most widespread and were the actual problems that I knew the ALC Program could successfully solve:

1. Stress about grades. If they were too low, the stress is in how to get them higher. If they were high, the stress was usually about all the hard work that it took to keep them there.

2. Frustration about the quality of the relationship they have with their child

3. Anxiety about the college application process and paying for college

A fourth problem from parents was worry about if their child had all of the life skills they needed to be successful in the world. The three listed above were more immediate and acute. This last one was only sometimes referenced, but when it was, it ranked high on the anxiety and intensity and was usually also associated with stress about low grades.

People live in their problems. Everyone has problems, and everyone wants to have their problems go away. The ALC Program was specifically designed to solve these problems. Once you acknowledge the problems that you solve, you start to put yourself in a position of being an expert. As you gain more experience using the curriculum and see the results of the students you are working with, you will gain more confidence and soon take on an expert status.

As a confident expert, you have tremendous influence to create positive change. The more you can identify and speak to the pain of your audience, they more they trust you. Further, the more they trust you, the quicker and more effective the change you can create. It is from this platform that you want to approach your coaching and consulting practice.

So, enjoy the process, learn along the way, and use this business plan to help you find your first clients and create a successful, thriving practice.

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The Marketing and Sales Process Too often, coaches and consultants try to make a complete sale with prospective clients rather than gently moving them along a smooth sales process. (I know that I did when I first started marketing.) To know what to do next and ensure that the process goes smoothly, I break the process into four steps:

1. Contacting Parent Groups and Schools About Setting Up Workshops (Keys: speaking to parent groups and school principals, gain expert status, share your information)

2. Contacting Parents (Keys: tell your story, learn their story, set up initial interview with their student)

3. Initial Interview with the Student (Keys: important factors to remember for the initial interview, and follow-up)

4. The Follow-Up Conversation with the Parent (Keys: continue to deliver value and build the relationship, and discuss logistics)

These steps are designed to relieve pressure. Your job is simply to move the client from one step to the next. Do not skip steps. By taking the sales process in smaller steps you are laying the foundation for a great client relationship and ensuring that you are really a good fit for your client. Do not sign up a client just from the first conversation, even if the parent is really eager. You want to have an initial interview and run the process. Every time.

Each of these steps are important, and I think the first step - setting up workshops, networking, and initially speaking with people - is the most challenging. However, I know that after that first step, the process really does take on a life of its own.

Additionally, just to be clear: after that first step, I have a strict sales process that I use every time. I used to deviate and try out different things, but now I know that the process works. In the next sections, I will go through each of the four steps in sequence.

Tell Your Story

No matter what step you are on in the process, it is important to have your story memorized and practiced. One of the most powerful tools in your coaching practice is telling your story about how you began the work you are doing. Stories are compelling - they help give you a context and they also ease the concerns of students who are wary of

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working with an Academic Life Coach. They also help with parents who want to make sure their investment pays off. Here is a sample story that any licensed Academic Life Coach may relate to:

“I started out my career and quickly realized that there was a gap between what students were learning in schools and what was useful in life. Many of the skills required to be successful in adult life - such as a leadership, communication, core motivation styles, academic thinking styles -

are simply not directly taught in schools. I also realized that many students struggle with stress about grades, frustration in relationships, and anxiety about college, and that is when I discovered

Academic Life Coaching. I know that life coaching sounds cheesy. The name is, but the concepts are outstanding.

Students who go through the ALC Program learn their own unique style and brand of leadership. They understand the way that they learn best so that they can use their time effectively and avoid

the stress that many students experience. They also directly build the essential emotional intelligence skills of greater self-awareness as well as learn about pursuing a passion outside the

bounds of the normal classroom. John Williams, a graduate from Brown University, started to develop this program in 2004 when he discovered the same gap. He became certified as a Life Coach and put together a series of concepts that eventually became the Academic Life Coaching Program. It comprises of 32

concepts spread out over 10 sessions. The first third looks at academic success systems. The second third looks at core life coaching principles, such as default perspectives, signature values,

and motivation and organization. The last third looks at communication, leadership and the college application. Although the ALC Program is not a traditional college consulting program,

much of the concepts naturally help students develop the skills that are so useful on an application.

I took the ALC 1.0 Training Program, learned how to deliver the ALC program, and became certified. I combine my own life experience with this training to essentially empower

students with skills that I would have loved to have learned when I was a teenager.”

And you are off and running! Once you refine your story and can express it in a way that makes sense and makes everything seems like a natural unfoldment of your desire to help teenagers, you will make sense. People like what they can understand. You have to make you and what you do understandable. Telling your story and mine is one of the most effective ways for you to be understandable and allow your potential client and parents insight into what you do and what you offer.

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Step One: Contacting Parent Groups and Schools About Setting Up Workshops I was thrilled when I first realized that I could do something proactive to get clients and jumpstart the sales process. I knew I had a great program. I knew students loved it. Yet, I was frustrated that I could not reach parents to tell them about the program. When I realized that setting up workshops was essentially free, effective, and that it worked, I was ecstatic. If you want to get your client base built quickly, presentations and workshops are the way to go.

The target audience for signing students up for the ALC Program is parents. Parents want the program for their children. They see the value. Students are often reluctant and unsure of exactly what the ALC Program is about. In fact, you can expect that most students will be hesitant about the program. I will address working with the student in the sales process in step three.

Speaking to Parent Group Leaders

If you get a chance to speak directly with a parent group leader, you often do not need to speak to a principal. Depending on how organized the group is, and the level of trust that the principal has in the leader, a parent group leader may have the ability to directly schedule and promote workshops.

These groups often have different names, depending on how creative they wanted to be. I have found it useful to create a contact management system that takes note of the group names, titles, and incoming and outgoing leaders by academic year.

The scripts for speaking to the parent group leaders are similar to speaking with principals with these exceptions:

• Parent groups are not as concerned with upholding the idea that schools are doing a fantastic job in the education of youth. In reality, schools are doing a great job teaching youth basic academic skills, which is the job of schools. The problem is that the aim of school is not enough to prepare young people to succeed in life. That is where the ALC Program fits in. When speaking to parent group leaders, I emphasize the innovative aspect of the program and the benefit that parents will get from attending the workshops.

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• Parent leaders will often want to pass things by the principal. I have found that it is helpful if you offer to meet with the principal ahead of time to smooth the process (which is why I will sometimes meet with principals first), or offer to meet with the principal. Every meeting is a chance to gain more allies and get more people on board.

• The two main risks:

1. The parent groups already have a full schedule and calendar of presenters.

2. The principal or parent group leader may think that we are trying to sell our services at the presentation. To avoid the risks, it is essential that you take on the perspective that the workshop is an opportunity for service and giving back to the community.

To avoid the risks, it is essential that you take on the perspective that the workshop is an opportunity for service and giving back to the community.

Speaking to High School Principals

Calling Middle and High School Principals is easy. (Although it may seem daunting, it is one of the most useful tasks you can do.) Principals want to hear from you. They want people to work with their parents and students so that more parents and students are happy.

You can make their job easier by being clear, knowing what you offer, and knowing what you want to get out of the conversation. Your offer to give a presentation is ideal; t is low-risk for the principal. Parents love it, and it is enriching entertainment. It also builds connections between parents, and makes the principal look good because you are a resource for the community. It is also high-gain for you. You get to continue the mission of helping teenagers in positive, profound ways. You have the opportunity to gain clients, and make money in the sale. You also have the opportunity to make other contacts and network with the parents in the audience.

What helped me the most personally, and what was a huge turning point in my understanding of networking, is that it is simply not useful for me to focus on whether or not the principal wants me to do a workshop right away. It is more useful to approach the call simply as a give-and-take of information. It is just as important to learn and gather as much information as possible about the principal and their concerns as it is to let them know that this kind of service exists and a good way to make use of it is to have you provide a workshop.

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Remember, it is OK for the principal/parent group leader to say, ‘NO.’ Of course this is not ideal or fun, but it will happen. However, it is best to get over it, move on, and schedule the next conversation.

I would often go into a principal’s office with this outcome in mind: to learn three things about the principle and school and to give the principal information about the workshop, philosophy, and the services I offer.

My energy changes significantly when I focus on the give-and-take of information rather than my trying to get the principal to do something. (I also use this same perspective in networking events. It is just as useful to gather information as it is to give it.)

From the Principals Point-Of-View

The principal’s primary concern is that the school board, parents, teachers, staff, and students in the school are happy, especially happy with them. So, the principal is going to be thinking how this service can make their lives easier.

Their chief concern: you are going to try and sell their parent groups something and the parent groups, teachers, or guidance counselor is going to be upset. Their chief hope: you give a great presentation and boost attendance to the parent group meetings and they hear positive feedback.

You must address both their chief concern and their chief hope. You can address the chief concern by stating that the workshop is informational. You can address their chief hope by using the testimonials already gathered by participants of the workshops. Setting up the initial workshop is the most challenging. After that initial workshop, the second is easier, and the third is easier than the second. You can imagine how easy things become once you set up a dozen workshops.

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Scripts for Calling the School

Coach: Hi, my name is ________________________ and I’m an Academic Life Coach and interested in presenting a workshop to N a m e o f h i g h s c h o o l parent group. I’d like to have a short chat with the principal, ______________________ ,to let them know more about the workshops I’ve presented at other schools.

If you get connected to the principal:

Hi, my name is ___________________ and I’m an Academic Life Coach who has been giving (or offering) workshops to other schools, and would like to set up a time that we could meet briefly to let you know more about what I do and the workshops I offer. I know that parent groups are always looking for speakers, and I’d love to set up a time for a quick conversation. (Pause, let the principal/parent group leader respond and you’re off and running!!)

If you get the principal’s voicemail:

Hi, my name is ________________________ and I’m an Academic Life Coach interested in presenting a workshop to N a m e o f h i g h s c h o o l parent group. I’d like to have a short chat with you to let you know more about what I do and the workshops that I’ve presented at other schools. I know that parent groups are always looking for speakers, and I have a workshop description sheet I could also send you if that’s useful. Again, my name is _________________________ and my phone number is _____________________.

If they do not return you call, then call back in two days. They will usually call back soon.

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Keys to a Successful Call

The key here is to form a relationship and ask the principal /parent group leader what he or she needs, the state of their parent organization, and the kinds of presentations that have been popular in the past. It’s useful to get the principal/parent group leader talking as much as possible so that you can learn how to frame the workshop.

Key Information to Gather:

• Kinds of events that the principal/parent group leader is looking for speakers

• Main concerns the principal/parent group leader has about the students and teachers

• Kind of relationship between the principal and parent group

• Other leaders of the parent group

Key Information to Give:

• Educational consulting firm that helps students with stress, motivation, and organization

• Based on life coaching skills adapted to fit middle and high school students

• Workshops aim to educate parents on what they can do to help their kids

• The workshop is informational, not a sales pitch, and has received rave reviews from administrators, counselors, and parents

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Workshop Descriptions

Workshops form one of the primary ways of building your platform and enrolling clients. The following are three workshop descriptions that I have delivered in the past and that have been well-received by parent groups.

Motivation, Goal Setting, and Communication

• Motivation: simple techniques parents can use to motivate middle and high school students

• Goal Setting: why some goals cause more stress, and how to set useful and effective goals

• Communication: key tools for positive parent/teen communication

Stress and Organization

• How to help middle and high school students reduce stress and reach optimal performance levels

• Fail-proof ways to lasting organization

Personal Leadership in the 21st Century

• Defines leadership in a way that excites and motivates students to live their best lives

• How students can best prepare themselves to face the challenges, and benefit from the opportunities, the 21st century offers

• Helps students answer the two biggest questions they are asking themselves: Who am I? and How do I fit in?

• Steps parents can take to help future-proof their children

You can find PowerPoint (for Windows) and Keynote versions of all three of these presentations on your ALC 1.0 Training class page.

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What You Can Expect From Workshops

The usual workshop to current client rate averages to be about 5%. Sometimes, it is as high as 10% and as low as 2%. If you present to 50 people, you can expect somewhere between 1 and 5 new clients.

Workshops build on each other, and people will become interested and may contact you months later to work with you. I have had parents wait up to a year before calling me. You can also expect other people to reach out after the workshop and perhaps offer you another chance to speak, ask to get together, or offer to to move your business forward.

Have your workshop feedback forms and business cards printed 2 days ahead of the presentation. It really, really helps.

Your Ultimate Outcome

The ultimate aim is to have a platform from which to generate interest and attention. Workshops leads to other exciting opportunities, which tend to multiply. Conversations are progress and create opportunities.

You can expect a stack of about 12 to 20 feedback forms from your workshop - as well as a great feeling having presented to so many people. From those forms, you have contact information and can follow up with conversations that can create more opportunities.

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Step Two: Contacting Parents The process of contacting and discussing the Academic Life Coaching Program with parents can seem intimidating, but it is fairly straightforward. Here are the series of steps I used when talk with parents about ALC for their children:

Find Out the Parents’ Reason for the Coaching

Parents usually come to the program for two reasons; 1) they want help for their child academically, or 2) they want support for their child in the college application process. A few parents understand the value of coaching skills from a leadership perspective, but most of the time, parents will want a solution to one of the three problems described earlier:

1. Stress about grades

2. Frustration in relationships

3. Anxiety about college

The ALC Program can be tailored to either an academic, college, or leadership focus. Generally speaking, parents are more interested in the academic performance or college consulting aspects of the program, and then they later realize the importance of the leadership component as well.

Be sure to tailor your approach to each set of students and parents. If a family is interested in college consulting, emphasize that aspect of the program. If a family is interested in academic or leadership skills, emphasize those aspects. Each is valid and all three support each other.

A Quick Word About College Consulting

The ALC program is NOT a traditional college consulting program. ALC originated out of a core life coaching skills program, but I quickly realized it’s application to college admissions. It all boiled down to two things:

1. Students who learned these skills naturally did better on their college applications. They got better grades. They were more motivated. They did what they needed to do to get into their top colleges.

2. The natural focus of students in high school is getting into college, so it makes sense that a life coaching skills program would also serve as a college consulting program.

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Give Information and Suggest Setting Up an Initial Interview

In your first meeting with a parent, do not try to sell coaching to them. In fact, even if they think that it is a great idea and they want to pay you on the spot, refuse. It is too important for you to also have buy-in from the student and for the student to take ownership.

In your first meeting, keep these two outcomes in mind. First, you want to provide information to the parent about the logistics of coaching, the benefits it offers, and the limitations is has. Second, you want to schedule a time to meet one-to-one with the student.

When talking to parents about coaching and the program itself, remember to frame it in terms of the problems that the program is able to solve. This goes back to understanding the parents’ reason(s) for the coaching, as well as the idea of not selling simply selling coaching. Just like when you are talking with principals or parent group leaders, life coaching can be an unfamiliar and kind of ridiculous term for them to wrap their heads around. Remember to focus on the problems you solve and the benefit that you offer.

Additionally, meeting one-to-one with the student and having a sample interview is the best way for you to determine whether or not the coaching relationship is going to work out. After you meet with the student ,you can talk more meaningfully with the parent about the benefits of coaching and specifically what the program will offer their daughter or son.

Sometimes students are excited and eager to speak with a coach. The majority of the time they have a little resistance, and a few can be extremely resistant. It is perfectly OK for a teenager to resist seeing a coach. Explaining exactly what coaching is and what coaches do is even challenging for experienced coaches, let alone parents trying to explain it to teenagers.

Rather than having parents explain the program to their student, offer parents the option of merely requiring that the student meets with you to talk casually about what exactly you do and to see if they are interested. The meeting does not mean that the student must sign-up. It will not be an intense, pressure-driven experience. It is simply meeting up at a coffee shop and having a great conversation. Here are the main points that I cover when discussing the idea of setting up an initial interview with the parent(s):

• It is a casual conversation for the student to understand first-hand what the coaching program is like.

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• It is also a low-pressure setting for the student to meet me and decide if they want to work with me.

• It also gives me an opportunity to meet with the student and find out if the program is going to be a good fit for them.

• As parents, they do not have to explain much about the program. It is much easier, and students get a much more accurate picture of the program, if they experience it first-hand.

• After you meet with the student, you can then have a more detailed conversation about the specific benefits the program will give.

If a parent is interested, and you have a meeting set up with the student, you can move to step three.

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Step Three: Initial Interview with Student The initial interview with the student is the third step in the enrollment process. I look at the initial interview a great way to get to know the student as well as promote the cause of coaching. In my mind I also want to meet with the student one-to-one before I commit to working with them because I want to make sure I actually want to work with this student. A large part of the magic of coaching comes from the coach/client relationship. Your wanting to work with a student is as important as their wanting to work with you. There are a number of factors and components to keep in mind when planning and meeting for the initial interview:

Important Components of the Initial Interview

Timing

When planning for the initial interview, you are really scheduling three meetings: an initial interview between you and the student, time for the parent and student to talk, and a conversation between you and the parent.

For example, a parent sent me an email on Sunday. I followed up with a phone call on Monday. We talked on Tuesday, and we immediately scheduled an initial interview for a week later. I set up a time to meet with the student (4pm), made it clear that it was important for her to talk with her son about the program after I met with him, and set a tentative time to speak with her that same night at 8pm. A week later, I met with her son. It went great. She had a good conversation with him, and she signed up the same night as the sample session.

Because there are so many moving pieces to scheduling the initial interview, it is important to think about timing of everything beforehand.

Student’s Mindset

Sometimes, students are really into the process. Other times they are not. It is important to recognize that students may not want to be there. Because of this, it is important to make sure you go through the four common objections of the ALC Program. I almost expect that most students are opposed to coaching from the beginning but I also expect most students will love it by the end of the initial interview.

The outcome is not just to enroll the student. Enrolling them is fairly easy, because most students are eager to learn the skills in the ALC Program. You really want to set the

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stage and frame the program for the students. This way, no matter whether the student is excited at first or a little skeptical, they will be prepared to stick with the program even when things hard.

Location

Meet with students at a coffee shop or some other public location, like a library. I like to meet with students in public places because it adds a sense of cool as well as provides some safety. You may also be meeting with a student over the phone, which I view as just as useful as in-person meetings.

Parents’ Presence

Parents usually want to hang around for a minute or two (sometimes longer), and that is great. I usually ask parents what they want to get out of the coaching. However, within five to ten minutes, I politely ask the parents to leave.

It is very important that the initial interview is just between you and your client. The reason: students want to feel like this program is their own thing, not their parents’ thing. I have found that if parents hang around, my close rate plummets. If parents leave for awhile, students are much more apt to open up and actually experience what it would be like to work together.

Make sure you are clear on this point, especially when you set up the initial interview. You do not want to blindside the parents by asking them to leave the initial interview if they are unaware that is just meant to be for you and the student. Make this clear ahead of time, and explain why it is so important.

Desired Outcomes of the Initial Interview

• I want to give students enough information about the program so they know what to expect. I start with how it will make their academic life easier and the benefits of knowing their personality and motivation style, their study style and how they can start to do things now that will make a big difference later on in their lives.

• I try to gather as much information as I can about them, their hopes, dreams, what holds them back. A conversation usually unfolds.

• In the initial session I often use the Core Motivation or the Wheel of Life. I rarely have time to do both, but I usually pick whichever one I think would be the best in the moment. Sometimes I save both for the next session.

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Flow of the Meeting

#1: Ask students “What did your parents tell you about me?”

I love this question. It is a great one to break the ice. Have a laugh, and get to the rest of the conversation.

#2: Tell your story.

Briefly tell your story so that you make sense to the student, including the ALC Program and its three parts: academic success, core life coaching, and leadership and communication

#3: Ask them their story.

You can start with where they go to school, what they are into, what they like to do for activities - or just about anything! Get curious and find out more about what they want to get out of the program.

#4: Meet common misconceptions.

It is important to meet common misconceptions that many students have in the initial interview. Even if a student is really fired up and ready to go, I still cover these for myths about coaching (these myths are also discussed in the Super Training Guide, as part of your ALC 1.0 training).

Misconception 1:

Having a coach means something is wrong.

Reality:

A coach is not trying to "fix" anything. A coach is merely giving you additional tools for you to get where you want to go in life easier and more effectively.

Misconception 2:

This is just a program to get me to do what my parents want me to do.

Reality:

I am not here to get you to do what your parents want you to do. I am here to help you get where you want to go, and I often give parents ideas about how best to support you.

Misconception 3:

This program will mean extra work.

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Reality:

I am not going to give you extra homework in addition to your school work, but the work that we do will help you approach the work you do have in a different way.

Misconception 4:

People may find out that I am being coached, and I don’t want that.

Reality:

No one will know that I am you coach unless you ask tell them. I will not tell anyone that you are my client. Our relationship is held confidentially, and you have my permission to

tell others about me.

#5: Break out the Academic Life Coaching Workbook and Do the Core Motivation and/or Wheel of Life Exercises

My personal favorite, and the exercise that I have been using most often, is Core Motivation. I like it because it gives the students a really great understanding of themselves as well as what it would be like to work in a program that addresses them as individuals. If you have time, you can also go to the Wheel of Life or the Academic Thinking Styles exercises as well. All of these are great to start out with.

The initial interview is really about getting to know each other, dispelling myths about coaching and giving the student a good understanding of what it would be like to work together so that they can make an informed decision about the program.

After the Initial Interview

After the initial interview, some parents want to hang around and talk about it. Doing so is fine. However, I recommend to the parent that they talk to their child and get their child’s feedback on the program. Only after the child and parent talk do I find it useful to talk to the parent. I ask the parent to make sure they talk about the program that day, and I like to schedule a conversation with the parent the same night as the initial session.

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Step Four: The Follow-up Conversation With the Parent Now that I have additional information about the student, her or his needs, and what both the student and parent want out of coaching, it is time for a follow-up conversation with the parent. I have a clear outline of the benefit I can offer and what this program would be about, and I am able to convey that to the parent in this conversation.

Parents usually ask about the cost and logistics of the coaching program, and this meeting is usually a pleasure. It is an opportunity to build rapport with the parent, as well as give the assurance that the program is going to be tailored to their student and meet their student’s needs. There are a few things that are important to address in this follow-up conversation:

The After-Session Email

The after-session email is an important part of keeping everyone on the same page throughout the coaching process. When following up and talking with the parent, it is important to mention that you will send an email, the same email to both the student and the parents, that covers three things:

1. What you addressed in the session in summary (not detail) form

2. Action steps the student wants to be held accountable for

3. Your suggestions (as a coach) on how the parents can best support their child

Remember, it is extremely important to keep everyone in close communication, especially regarding feedback about how things are going from the parents’ point-of-view. I prefer email as opposed to phone. However, phone conversations are great for some parents and I leave that open as an option.

The after session emails are usually enough contact to keep parents informed and in touch. Sometimes, I will send an email in between just to keep the rhythm going and check in.

A Note About Confidentiality

I do not offer default confidentiality to my student clients. If a student wants me to hold something in confidence, I do. On the other hand, I am very sensitive with what I do share with parents and I rarely go into a lot of detail. This is definitely something to talk with both the parents and the student about at the beginning of the coaching process.

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Payment

I usually give families two payment options for the full training program.

Option one, to pay in full. I give a five to ten percent discount to families who pay up front, in-full.

Option two, to pay over three or four months. For families who want to pay over time, I simply split up the total cost of the program into thirds and have families pay me on the 1st, 4th and 7th sessions.

The Client Agreement/Contract

Once, the parents have said “yes” to coaching and we have discussed payment, I have both them and the student sign an agreement. There is a sample client agreement on your ALC 1.0 Training class page that you can use and modify for your coaching business. This is mostly a formality, but it also holds the professionalism of your coaching and can often give parents peace of mind.

Setting up a Schedule

About half the time, I schedule directly with the student through text message or email. The other half, I work out a schedule with the parent, usually through email. You will need to be flexible in how you schedule your coaching sessions. Different families have different schedules, and it is important to figure out what the best way to set a schedule will be right away.

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Documents

Academic Life Coaching Business Plan · We do NOT sell life coaching. Life coaching is the process that we use to get to the solution. A process is not a solution. The two are similar