Today’s Challenges for the Coaching Profession

For many the thought of working as a coach is very tempting. Working for yourself, to your own time table and supporting and inspiring others sounds like an amazing job. However, there are many challenges professional coaches face these days. Here I’ll be discussing some of them and how to thrive despite them.

Challenge One (and the biggest one in my opinion) — MLMs

There are so so many. The internet is littered with “hun bots”. The worst, they call themselves coaches and are giving the coaching profession a bad rep. It’s time that something is being done about that.

You can find them in Facebook Groups. They will send you friend requests out of the blue or strike up a conversation, make you believe that they are just someone else who is looking for friends. Then they slowly start spinning their pyramid scheme web. They do the same on networking apps like Shapr, LinkedIn and others where they try to interest you for their business. One of them once asked me to give her the details of my clients so she can show them how to make an extra income. Obviously, I work ethically and respect confidentiality. Scarily enough this person was training to be a counselor. They lurk on Instagram and post like there’s no tomorrow, call themselves business coaches, health and well-being coaches, basically any kind of coach you can think of. In one day after joining 2 Facebook groups for women I received 19 friend requests from MLM’ers. Their marketing is very aggressive and desperate. Around 90% of people joining MLM don’t make any money at all. If you have watched the Herbalife documentary you will know, that many people have lost tens of thousands of dollars and have lost friends and family in the process. With so many of them calling themselves coaches and marketing so aggressively you can imagine how many people come across them and what that does to someone’s perception of what a coach is and does.

Challenge Two — Untrained “Coaches”

Similar to the above minus the MLM. Recently I came across a post by a lady in one of the Facebook groups I am in. She posted a big selfie and then a list of justifications of why she is so proud of being a coach without certification. It was a long list and I wondered why she felt the need to post it at all. There was something quite defensive about it. Some of her reasons were that her life experience is enough, she had a tough life and is doing ok now. Sure, there are some people who call themselves coaches who never had any training but might fit someone’s needs better than someone trained. And there might be trained coaches who are not a good fit. My concern is the potential of harm if someone is not trained in ethics and professional boundaries and does not abide by a code of ethics and conduct. I know someone who had a very bad experience after paying someone over $10k for coaching, but they decided to give coaching one last chance as they did not want to leave it at that bad experience.

Challenge Three — People don’t know what coaching is

So few people still don’t know about coaching or see it as a glorified friend that helps you out. Some mistake it for a lesser version of psychotherapy and counselling (and sadly some untrained coaches will act as one despite not being a therapist). “I don’t have to pay a coach, I just talk to my friend.”

Here’s what you can do to stand out

Make a point of letting people know that you are a trained coach and I don’t mean a weekend course or webinar. Show them that you have a code of ethics and a mission statement. Integrity is everything. If you have taken a longer course, have invested lots of time and money and have put genuine work into becoming a professional coach, make it your badge of honor.

Lead with your integrity!

Be honest about what you can offer and can’t offer. People will appreciate your honesty and are more likely to recommend you.

Don’t take every client that comes along. If you don’t feel comfortable with someone you don’t have to work with them. It will be better for your confidence and boundaries in the long-term.

Keep your advertising classy. People don’t like spam and they don’t like cold-messaging. #bossbabe or #mumpreneur might work for some, but it smells of MLM advertising sadly. You don’t have to join every advertising gimmick out there. All it takes is one or two super-happy clients who will recommend you.

Ask for testimonials and google reviews. Give people incentives to recommend you. Word of mouth is the biggest compliment for your work.

If you work with businesses, ask if you can use their logo on your website to show that you have worked with them.

If you can afford it, invest in a reputable marketing professional.

Advertise via your governing body or join a reputable directory that offers many leads.

And again, lead with your qualifications and your experience.

Good luck!