How To Pick A Great Coach And Avoid The Pitfalls of Hiring A Bad Coach

10 Step Outline of How To a Find a Great Coach and Avoid the Pitfalls of Hiring Someone That Does Not Work For You

(7-10 minutes read & [2] 5-10 minute exercises)

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It’s coaching season for you and you are on the hunt for a great coach. One that will seamlessly and effectively help you get to that next level. Right!?

Well not so easy to find the right coach these days. With the boom in the coaching industry everyone and their dog is now focused on ‘making it’ in the industry. Unfortunately, there are some who are giving the industry a bad name… even those at the forefront of it.

Full Disclaimer | I am a coach. I am an expert in personal development and spiritual growth. The idea for this article is to help educate you in choosing the right coach. That may also mean that I am not that coach. However, you will gain benefit from reading this article so that you can make an informed decision. A decision that will benefit you greatly.

Whether deliberately or not there are some pitfalls to avoid. I even fell into a few… it's cost me in the 6-digit range. Some of which had celebrity endorsements and in the top coaching companies. I won’t say who but what I will say is, you need to learn how to look for the pitfalls. This means answering these types of questions for yourself.?

• Are they doing a GREAT job and can they DELIVER?
• Are they a FIT? Not every coach?will be able to help you and have great results for others.
• What are their PERSONAL motivations for being a coach?

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Here Are The 10 Action Steps For How To Find A Great Coach and Avoid The Pitfalls

As you go through each of the steps, here is what to do. For each step, I will give a score value between 5 and 15.

Give each action step a score and total it at the end.

The higher the number you give, the more that coach resonates for you. 0 or 1 for not. My recommendation is that your total is at a minimum of 100 points?before you consider hiring the coach that you are reviewing. You are welcome to practice on me. Go through the action steps on me and tally it up. How do I fair with you?

#1 What is their Story? Value 15 points?

As coaching is such a personalized service, does their story reflect their coaching program or services? For example if they are stating they are going to help you build a 6 figure monthly income, and they are unable to for themselves, you may want to take that into consideration.?

Here is a check point, have they themselves gone through any transitions in their lives that give credibility to their claim? Does their story resonate with you? Can you see yourself in a similar path to what they have taken? ?Leo’s About Page

#2 What is their Program? Value 15 points?

Do they have a well developed program? Is it a cookie cutter version and certified under a certain paradigm of how to coach or something that they have passionately created? This is something you need to get clear on so that you can get the optimal experience for yourself.

Personally, I would prefer a non-cookie cutter version. A version that the coach, themselves, built. If it comes from their training and life experiences, they are going to have a lot of passion, commitment and enthusiasm for their program(s). And hence a stellar result for yourself, if you do the work.

It has taken me over 20 years of professional experience in my field, well-over 60,000 hours of mastering my own skills with well over 35,000 client hours to bring me to where I am today.

#3 What is the Entry Point? Value 15 points?

How do they give access to potential clients to start working with them? Do they have an application, a free consultation…basically how professional and ‘open’ are they to accepting new clients.

This is where you look for their intentions and you can tell pretty quickly if they are there to just make money or if they truly are, a coach.

Look around and if it seems too ‘markety and salesy’ you may want to approach someone else. Ever get someone who connects with you on LinkedIn and later that day send you, what seems like, a 2000 word essay on why you should check them out?

Also, check out their website and social media profiles and see if they have anything that you can read. This is so that you can get to know them more.

#4 Online Presence Value 10 points

Check out their social media postings. Go to their social media platforms and look at their posts and scroll down a ways…go back a few months. What are they posting then? Does it resonate for you?

Are there even any postings that go back a few months? How are they responding to their followers?

Start to get a sense of their style through what they are posting in their profiles. Try not to worry about how many followers they have. Those can be fudged to give the illusion that they are more popular than they are.

My main social profile is on LinkedIn.

Google them. Check out their website(s). Does their vibe resonate with you? What is their web presence like? Do they just have a slap dash sales page to hook you into their sales funnel? Or are they really trying to help people improve their health, relationships, finances and career?

#5 Customer Service Value 10 points

On their website do they have a good customer service policy? Check it out and make an informed decision through that. Once, you start to interact with them and you can get a happy sense of their customer service, give a bonus 5 points. Or at least an about page.

#6 Experience Value 20 points

Try to get a sense of how long they’ve been coaching for and how many clients plus where. You probably know the saying of practice makes perfect. If they haven’t been involved with personal service gigs for very long, you might want to allow that to help your decision making formula. That said there are some great?new coaches with amazing talent.

#7 Certification Value 5 points

This has some credibility and realistically doesn’t mean all that much. Personally, I would rather get financial advice from someone who has seen both amazing and rough times financially and how they pulled through, than someone who is ‘certified’.

When it comes to coaching it really boils down to two things. Research and Experience.

What is their experience? If they have none, what have they researched?

For example a real estate coach may have no experience in selling real estate. That said, they went around the territory they are in and asked the top realtors how they do it and pulled together a training manual in how to based on those best practices.

Would that training manual be worth money? Absolutely.

Oh and in the case that you are wondering… I am a certified coach.

#8 Do they have an Intake Form? Value 15 points

When you get in contact with them, ask this question… Do you have a client intake form? A good intake form should take at least 30 minutes to fill out.

For example, my intake form takes on average, about 45 minutes to fill out.

I want to hit the ground running when a client signs up with me. Without a good intake form, the first 2 or even 3 sessions can be eaten up had that intake form not been completed.

#9 What is their price point? Value 15 points

What is the cost of taking one of their programs? This is the biggest clue as to whether or not to hire them.

And it is not about the price point in the way you might think.

A good coach will charge in this following way. They are going to look at the value of what they have to offer and the results clients get. They will then come up with a ‘comfortable’ price point for what they offer.

But here is what a great coach, not just a good coach, will do.

They are going to stretch themselves beyond that… not because they want to charge more but because they want to push themselves as a coach, beyond their comfort level.

They need to be growing just as much as you are. And as much as so many of us doubt money or have money blocks, money is the greatest from of accountability in our world. You or I will both put more effort in when we pay more for something. We just value it more.

Rolls Royce vs. Ford Pinto.

I have had many $30 courses that sit on the back shelf. Anything worth investing into is going to be an investment. And this factor is going to strip away a lot of coaches that don't value their work.

Question: If someone offered you a $30 workshop that would solve all of your problems in life vs. a $10,000 program - which do you think would actually support you best? -permitting all of the other key things are in place.

Both the coach and yourself need to look at this as an investment in each other.

So here is what I recommend when shopping around. Ask the coach what price point will really?stretch them?so that they get to new and unparalleled?heights as a coach with your?program.?

This honestly, is worth every extra penny.?If they are not charging at a price point that stretches them, I actually encourage you to either walk away or offer paying them their stretch point. See what their reaction is to this. This will give you clues to their ability to help you.

Price Point Flip Side.?The price point also needs to stretch you. It needs to be out of your comfort level. Why? If you were enrolled in a program that was a comfortable price point. You may or may not give it to yourself.

If the price point stretches you, you bet you are going to show up. As odd as it is money has become an accountability partner in our society. So make money work for you. Find a price point that pushes you slightly beyond what you are comfortable with.

#10 Intuitive Clear Decision Value 15 points

(5 - 10 Minute Exercise)

You are going to have your objections for sure. Usually time and money are the objections. I can’t afford that. Realistically can you afford not to? I don’t have the time. Schedule it in.

It really comes back to your intuitive decision though. So here is your exercise. Find your 3 yeses. Why do you want a coach? What 3 reasons make you fully committed to working with a coach.

Find your 3 nos. What will you not be ok with? Find your 3 reasons why you will not work with someone.

Get clear on these before you start your search for a coach. Take a few minutes and just let it gurgle up from the depths of your self…your yeses and nos. Write them down and have them close at hand when talking to or researching a prospective coach for yourself. Get an intuitive sense of whether or not they match your core requirements.

Here are my 3 yeses and nos for when I am screening my potential clients.

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My Yeses

Energetically aligned.

Ready to dig in and get control of the stress in their lives.

They realize that it is going to take some personal work and are looking forward to the process.

My Nos

Consistent levels of excuses for their behaviour.

Committed to their limitations.

Make life difficult for those around them.

Want to free your energy and acheive more? Ready to do so?

Then Click Yes!!

Please share this article. Happy Coach Hunting!

About Leo Richard

Leo Richard, is a personal development and spiritual growth expert. He has taken his 60,000+ hours of personal training and developed a clear and easy to apply system to free your energy and achieve more. He has worked with thousands of clients from all walks of life; politicians, executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities and teachers to name a few. Born a highly intuitive person, he's experienced spiritual and energy phenomena and awareness of others’ emotions, energies and auras since early childhood. These experiences led him to form a life experience and strategies that combined his empathic sensitivities with a growing challenge to live a genuine and meaningful life with integrity in today’s modern world.