In this conversation, Siawash and Yannick discuss the question of whether holding space is enough to create results in coaching. They explore the importance of holding space and being fully present as a coach, as well as the practice of holding space effectively. They also discuss the balance between doing less and doing more in coaching, and the role of action and intervention. The conversation delves into different philosophies on intervention and the importance of including the client in the ...
May 16, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 73
The question of how far coaches can go is an increasingly pertinent one. The limits and boundaries around what coaching is and can be quite blurry. In today’s episode of talking about coaching our resident coaches Yannick, Siawash and Nicki discuss whether coaching is the right approach to support someone who’s lost a loved one, or grieving some other significant loss or ending, or whether that sort of work is best left to a therapist. The episode with grief coaching expert Julia Menaul that Yan...
Feb 29, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 72
It is not uncommon that coaches have dual relationships with their clients. The coaching client may also be a colleague, a parent from the community, or a friend of a friend that they sometimes meet in social circles. Some coaches even coach family members or close friends. And sometimes it’s difficult to tell at what point we’re crossing the line between being a friend and coaching a friend. In this episode our resident coaches Nicki, Yannick and Siawash explore the benefits and pitfalls of coa...
Feb 15, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Many coaches are thinking about, or experimenting with scaling their coaching business to reach more people. But once we market at scale, many of us coaches find ourselves stretched too thin in the face of having to create content, write, sell, and engage a growing social media. If you’re committed to still be the one who’s delivering the work, it can feel impossible grow the business unless you’re working with a team. And once you hire content creators, copy writers or sales people, it’s inevit...
Feb 01, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Working with a coaching supervisor is the gold standard of maintaining professional standards, figuring out ethical dilemmas, and to continuously grow as a coach. Most coaches look up to their supervisor as someone that they respect and whose approach to working with people they would want to emanate. You could say that a coach doesn’t have to have experience in their client’s area in order to coach them well. Could you also say that a supervisor doesn’t need to be someone with experience in you...
Jan 18, 2024•14 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Daniel asked us whether coaching still works if the clients aren’t paying any money for the coaching. This applies to pro-bono coaching and also to circumstances like Daniel’s where it’s not appropriate to charge due to how coaching has been set up within the organisation or institution. In this episode of Talking about Coaching, Nicki, Siawash and Yannick hence discuss the crucial importance of commitment in the coaching relationship, and what other ways there are besides money to create commit...
Jan 04, 2024•15 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Metaphors can be a powerful way to unlock your clients’ thinking and progress in a coaching session. In this episode, our resident coaches Nicki, Siawash and Yannick discuss how to work with metaphors in coaching. _____ If you'd like to stay up to date with new episodes, continue the conversation or generally support what we do: Send us your question: http://bit.ly/talkingaboutcoaching Sign up to our mailing list (no spam, no sales, just a quick shout about new episodes): https://mailchi.mp/afc1...
Dec 21, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Following question was sent in: “Hi guys. Would love to hear your take on "money back guarantee" policy for your coaching. And possibly why you choose to implement it in a particular way.” So here we are, talking about whether money back guarantees are a great way to create the kind of confidence that gets clients through the door, or whether they add a huge weight to coaches and make it difficult to stay present and let the client do the work. _____ If you'd like to stay up to date with new epi...
Dec 07, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Welcome to this episode of Talking about Coaching, the podcast from coaches for coaches. This episode is one of Yannick's deep dives into one topic or person and we're talking to Clare Norman. "With over 20 years of coaching experience, Clare is highly sought after by other expert coaches, as well as successful coach training companies as a Master Mentor Coach. Clare looks to continually sharpen individuals’ coaching edge and upskill mentor coaches so they can deliver high-quality feedback to th...
Nov 24, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Sounds a little click-baitey perhaps, but we thought it was time to tackle this question head-on. With a number of episodes on related topics you will find plenty of practical tips on how to grow your business, and we may well do a more classical series of practical advice on how to get 6 figures in your coaching business, but today we wanted to shine a light on the question itself, what it means to be a 6-figure coach, why that may or may not be important to someone, and what’s crucial to refle...
Nov 23, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Here’s the full question we’ve received from SY, which I took some editorial liberty with. They asked: “I feel like a fraud sometimes when I'm coaching others on topics that I personally struggle with. I know my coachees are the expert of their own life and I am not a mentor, but can't help feeling a little ashamed/ fear of being judged when I am not at a flourishing, thriving state.” So here we are talking about feeling like an imposter when we feel we don’t have all our ducks in a row, or aren...
Nov 09, 2023•18 min•Season 1Ep. 64
The question came up in a recent Coaching Cabinet and lots of helpful advice was offered to a coach who’s just starting out, so we figured we’d add to that list and share a few rounds of things we would have liked to have known when we started out as coaches, and some learnings that we’ve gathered along the way. See also: Episode 01 - Is it important to be qualified, accredited and certified? Episode 05 - How much should I charge for coaching? _____ If you'd like to stay up to date with new epis...
Oct 26, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Our colleague Steffano asked us about what to do differently when clients seem excited about working together, but then fall off the bandwagon in the weeks following the consultation. So in this episode of Talking about Coaching our resident coaches Siawash, Nicki and Yannick discuss the DOs and DON’Ts of that first conversation with a prospective client. We share a very much non-exhaustive list of relevant theory mixed with our own experience of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to succ...
Sep 14, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Stephen brought up the question around preparing for coaching sessions. While it can be helpful to have a set of questions, tools or exercises on hand, it can also distract from being fully present. Moving beyond how to prepare yourself as a coach mentally for a session (see episode 19), in today’s session our resident coaches Yannick, Siawash and Nicki are discussing the benefits and pitfalls of preparing content and questions for your client. See also: Episode 19 - How do you prepare for a coa...
Aug 31, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 61
What does coaching look like 'in the real world' (beyond theory and what coaching schools teach us)? Who really is a clean coach (e.g. fully ICF competency compliant or steady within a specific school of thought or particular coaching approach)? What am I allowed and not allowed to do once I’m qualified and “out there”? Inspired by, and celebrating the public launch of the next evolution of Yannick’s Coaching Lab, TaC residents Yannick and Siawash went live on Facebook to discuss these questions...
May 18, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Most coaching schools teach us to be neutral, not to share our opinions, to work client-led. Coaching in the face of the climate crisis has challenged this perspective. Can coaches also be activists? Is it ever possible not to influence a client? And shouldn’t we be a positive influence in our clients’ lives anyway? How can I be authentic AND neutral? And how might attempting to stay neutral benefit or hinder the coaching process? In today’s episode of Talking about Coaching, our resident coache...
May 04, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 59
There’s been a lot of talk about ChatGPT recently, especially since it coached a few people reasonably well. In a recent study, AI coaches performed better than human coaches on weight loss metrics. The development of AI i exponential, so we can expect huge shifts in quality and ability. So it’s a good time to discuss whether we need to be concerned about AI replacing human coaches, and how we might (need to) partner with AI to deliver best service for our clients, and indeed perhaps to stay rel...
Apr 20, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Some clients just really need to hear that they’re on the right path, or that their idea is a good one, or that they’re worthy as human being. It’s a powerful thing to experience, and a gratifying gift to give. Yet, there’s a dark side to validation that our resident coaches Yannick, Siawash and Nicki point to in today’s episode. We chat about getting sucked into “validation games”, when it is and isn’t helpful for a client to validate them or their behaviour, and we explore the difference betwe...
Feb 16, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Most coaches commit to showing up for their clients. Some do so much so that they’re coaching clients even when they’re really quite ill or would much rather hide under a blanket for one reason or another. What’s your threshold for cancelling a coaching session? How ill do you need to get to say “I can’t make it today”. What might the fallout be? And how might we make those decisions? Due to present circumstances, this and more is what our resident coaches Nicki, Siawash and Yannick discuss in t...
Feb 02, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 56
We learn and grow so much when we’re coaching clients who are very different to us. Similarly, clients benefit a lot when they work with a coach who is different to them. We probably all appreciate that diversity leads to more innovation, yet most experts will tell us to speak to a very specific kind of person when marketing our coaching businesses, with the inevitable effect that we’re, by definition, reducing diversity in our clientele. Or is it? Today’s question was sparked during a recent ep...
Dec 06, 2022•17 min•Season 1Ep. 55
On some level I always think “what are you hiding?” when I see someone with a blurred or virtual background. Imagine that’s what your client thinks when they first meet you? Does it inspire trust? Not really. On the other hand there are many reasons why a coach may choose not to reveal what’s happening behind them. Same goes for clients, and even if we can see their full frame clearly, we have no idea what’s happening outside of this frame, and it’s really worth getting curious about that. So in...
Nov 24, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 54
It’s one of the most regular topics that we see discussed: Is it going to help me to have my coaching fees on my website, or will it scare potential clients off? It seems like you can’t win either way: If the price is too low, they might think I’m not a good coach. If they’re too high, they’re not reaching out in the first place even though they probably would have invested once they get a sense for how powerful these conversations are. There are many good arguments for and against telling peopl...
Nov 11, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Nobody needs a supervisor (with a good few notable exceptions perhaps) - every coach should want one, is the underlying message of today’s episode of Talking about Coaching. “I want every coach I know to listen to this conversation” Siawash concluded toward the end of this episode, Yannick got super excited and dove in deep on what supervision is, why it’s important and how broad the range is of what supervision can mean in practice, and Nicki shared her experience of being supervised as a relat...
Oct 27, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 52
You will have heard many coaches rave about the importance of listening to your gut, your intuition, your hunches about what to do when you’re coaching, which question to ask, how to navigate your session, etc. Some coaches go as far to argue that you should always trust your intuition, so in this episode of Talking about Coaching our resident coaches Nicki, Siawash and Yannick are taking a good look at when and how following our instincts is or isn’t a good idea. We draw on the literature, prof...
Sep 27, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 51
It happens to the best of us: Something triggers our ego and instead of being present and focused on the client, we get a little hijacked and aren’t serving the client as best as we could have. In this episode of Talking about Coaching our resident coaches Yannick, Nicki and Siawash are discussing why this is an important topic, how it can affect our work with our clients, and what we might do to let this happen as little as possible. We discuss the value of “doing your own work”, why supervisio...
Sep 22, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 50
You’re 5 out of 6 contracted sessions into your coaching agreement. The last session is scheduled and the engagement is nearing the end. How do you approach the ending? What’s important to talk about before we go separate ways? How might I open up the conversation to explore the possibility of continuing to work together? How do I get a good testimonial? What might be a good “exit protocol”? Is it okay to ask for a referral or testimonial? All these and more questions are being discussed by our ...
Sep 08, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 49
For most coaches it’s clear what their clients can expect from them. But what can coaches expect from their clients? In this episode of Talking about Coaching our resident coaches Yannick, Siawash and Nicki are talking about responsibility, contracting and expectations. We’re raising questions about who does what in the coaching relationship and how we can have this conversation with our clients. _____ If you'd like to stay up to date with new episodes, continue the conversation or generally sup...
Aug 26, 2022•19 min
Welcome to this episode of Talking about Coaching, the podcast from coaches for coaches. In this conversation, we get to know Tessa, whose life-long passion for psychology and transformation shifted her career in the fast-moving logistics sector into coaching for change and transformation. She works with individuals as well as businesses, always looking for positive, forward-facing ways to create change, achieve outcomes, and finding the right next steps required to make change happen. She has a...
Jun 28, 2022•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 48
It seems to be the oldest question in the book: How do I get more coaching clients. I have a valuable service to offer and my clients really benefit, but how do I get my message in front of them? Those who hate being on social media or going to networks events may be considering paid advertising as a potential route into creating new leads, and so today our resident coaches Nicki, Siawash and Yannick will be talking about where coaches might advertise, what advertising is really about, how it ma...
May 05, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 47
More and more coaches are interested in working with groups. SOme of that is motivated by being able to make coaching more affordable, and hence accessible - perfect for coaches who want to put their fees up but concerned that coaching shouldn’t be exclusive. But working with groups comes with layers of added complexity and it can be quite elusive as to what it is and how it can work. From life coaching groups to working with leadership teams, it’s a broad range, and today our resident hosts Yan...
Apr 21, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 46
