 Hi everyone. I'm Annie Nog. I'm thrilled to be here speaking with you today. I see a lot of black squares with white type names. If you'd be willing to show your face, please do. I'd love this to be as interactive as humanly possible, given that we're not together in person. So I'm thrilled to be here to tell you, yay, I see some more faces. I'm thrilled to be telling you more about, David's the one who told me about this opportunity. So thank you, David. I'm thrilled to be here to tell you more about life coaching, especially because I think it was about eight, nine years ago, I was very seriously considering this field myself. And I had all sorts of conversations with career coaches with career coaching certification programs to learn more about it so I could make an educated decision about whether or not it was something I wanted to pursue. So if I can be a small part of your journey in that decision, I'm very happy to be. So I just want to kind of assess who's here today and why. So that little hand that you can raise on zoom, raise your electronic hand if you are here because you're considering getting into life coaching. I see two hands raised or hands raised. Okay. So a couple people said yes to that. How many of you are here because you're interested in hiring a life coach and you're interested to learn more about what that is like. Just raise your electronic hand with that one. This is helpful just to understand why people are here. And how many of you are here out of pure curiosity because you just want to learn about another field. Raise your hand with that one too. Okay. Okay. Lots of people. Okay, awesome. If you would in the chat just type maybe the number one thing that you're looking to learn here today. And I'll do my very best to speak to those things. So I'll just wait and look in the chat. Just type what you're hoping to get out of this next, whatever it is probably 4045 minutes. Don't say anything yet. What's it like being a let you what's it like being a life coach, a better understanding what the career of a life coach is like. That's here for a different reason. Enlightenment. Wow. Those are some issues to career change experiences, jobs for seniors. Liz, if you'd be willing, would you just type a little bit more about what you mean by that, learning to be a better employee. So today, we're not going to be providing life coaching, but we will be talking about the field to understand this career and learning if it's a career fit for me to understand more. Okay. I think I'm going to speak to the majority of things I cannot promise enlightenment. Unfortunately, I wish I could. I'm honestly here to learn anything new. Okay. So with that, a few more logistical things. I'm going to be asking all throughout the presentation if people have questions so please keep them coming. I want this to be as interactive as possible. Okay, next slide please. Okay, a little bit about me so I'll just tell you kind of a high level about me and how I got here. So I'm originally from the Midwest and from Omaha, Nebraska. I was a very, very extroverted child and I thought I wanted to be an actress. I think around the age of eight or nine I started noticing that there were some mental health issues in my nuclear family and my extended family. And so I saw how important mental health was without mental health. We don't have much of anything. And so I thought I wanted to be a therapist all the way up until I went to college and I was a freshman in college and I was sitting in a lecture of 200 300 people in psychology in 2001, and it hit me like a ton of bricks of, you know, as as great as I think therapy is I didn't feel like I had to make up to be a therapist, and very delicate sensibilities. I didn't think I was kind of cut out to be with people at their absolute most traumatic moments. So I ended up studying something called human development and family studies it was a mix of social sciences. I absolutely loved it. Had a brief stint teaching English as a foreign language and then move to San Francisco. And after many years working in nonprofits. I was at JBS for almost 10 years that's where I met David. I got into life coaching and I haven't really looked back since that is not to say that it was not a terrifying first couple years of entrepreneurship because it was. And I've still loved it the whole time I'll tell you more about that today but I fully intend on doing this in some way shape or form until I retired and maybe past retirement. Next slide please. So why all the interest in coaching I'll start by just bouncing it back to you all what interests you in coaching as a field. Just go ahead and type in the chat. So I would interest you in coaching to be of service and the flexibility possibility of remote work. Passion to develop others and their to their fullest potential beautiful you're in the right place. I love to inspire and inspire others. Awesome ability to coach victims of sexual exploitation. Already coach folks. And please if you're not already looking at the chat do that way we can all be interacting with each other in some way, helping others through my experiences beautiful help people and leave them. Right, just to clarify this is about what interests you in becoming a life coach to decide if it's right for you or not. Okay, great. So these are all many reasons why people are definitely gravitated towards coaching. A recent New York Times article speaks to all of the recent growth in the field listen to these statistics are pretty staggering between 2015 and 2019, the number of professional coaches worldwide increased 33%. So it's a relatively new field and it's like on a very steep growth curve. Let's see there are an estimated 71,000 coaches worldwide and 23,000 based in North America so that just gives you a sense of the fact that people are very much being drawn to this field for all the reasons you mentioned, like flexibility, like having a job that's meaningful I think especially after living during a global pandemic, and us all having to face our own mortality. These questions really came up of you know what am I doing 40 to 60 hours a week and why. How do I find meaning how do I find meaning in my work. And then also there, there is money to be made and we'll get to that part later. I think most of the very very successful coaches who get into it that's not the predominant reason why they get in they get in because of reasons that you are just looking at these beautiful answers. Yeah, that's great. I encourage you all to look at the chat as well. Thank you for sharing Deborah and Paulette and everyone else. Okay. Next slide please. Okay so what anything there is there is the good and there's the bad. What do you imagine type in the chat might be some of the good that would come out of actually forget that people already wrote about that. Yes, I think the good is that people can feel like they're doing work that's meaningful. They can feel like very often people who get into coaching say you know people have been coming to me for advice my whole life this is kind of a natural skills that I have flexibility for sure I think people have that more than ever. And coaches very often have seen clients via phone and internet. So, even before most people are working remotely coaches were working remotely. And then also little to no overhead for coaches who work for themselves, because the work is done online and done via phone. All you need really is a space where you can talk confidentially with people on the phone or on the internet, and you need an internet connection. You don't need to hire people at least at the beginning. So it's pretty. It's a pretty easy low cost startup in terms of the cons. I have found and you'll hear me say all throughout this presentation that there are many people who are drawn to coaching they have this natural skill set, but they can't stand the idea of sales and marketing. A coach needs both. If you even if you're the best most effective coach in the world, if people don't know that you're there and that you do this, you can't apply it, you can apply the skills. So for some people, the sales the lead generation the marketing is a huge con. For some people it's not, especially once they find their own way. Instability I would say not only with coaching but with entrepreneurship in general, I have found it to be a huge roller coaster. So that's that can be a con, for sure. And then isolating some people don't like to work by themselves they don't like the idea of not talking to people at the water cooler they don't like the idea of not being in an in person team meeting. So that for some people could be a con. Any questions. Oh, I see one what are some good websites where customers rate career and life coaches. Yelp Yelp is one Google reviews you could see reviews. And I'll get to it later but there are also some organizations that have pools of coaches, where people can find coaches through their websites and you can read reviews one example of that is the muse. They're based out of New York, their website for job seekers and career changers. I'm actually a coach full disclosure a coach on there, but there are many there are probably 60 to 80 of us on there. So any questions about the good and the bad of coaching go ahead and type in the chat. Okay, next slide please. Necessary skills and attributes. So coaching I will say just like everything else coaching is not for everyone I think there are certain people who do really well at it. So let me ask you a few questions I'll give you a mini quiz. So if you want to pull up a Word document or take out some pen and paper you could just answer these questions yes or no I have five questions for you. Okay so question number one. Do you enjoy deep conversations with perfect strangers. Yes or no. Question number two, are you curious about new people and ideas. Yes or no. And just to clarify, the answers won't go in the chat they'll go on your own little piece of paper, or screen whatever you're doing computer paper. Number three, can you be trusted with secrets. Number four for the answers to write down when when you're interested in something do you feel motivation to pursue it. And finally number five are you bold in putting yourself out there. So tally up your yeses tally up how many yeses you had of those five questions. And I would say if you answered yes to three or more of those questions coaching maybe a fit for you. If you answered like a four or five. I think yes granted I made this up this isn't like a, this hasn't been through any screening processes so take it with a grain of salt, but I thought it was a fun. Question number five please I will do that. You enjoy. Thank you for your patience. You trusted with secrets. Question class. When you're interested in something you feel motivation to pursue it. Are you bold in putting yourself out there. Those are the five. And I see for number four wouldn't it hold for most anyone. I mean, I would say as a life coach know it wouldn't. I think very often, especially when people are doing work that doesn't feel aligned or doesn't feel connected with who they are and what they care about very often motivation is there is missing. Sometimes I think even when people are interested in something they're doing there's a block in terms of motivation that's what I found being on the side of the table and coaching and personally in my own life experience. Any questions about the fit piece the necessary skills and attributes. Go ahead and put them in the chat if you do. I find it's kind of, it's a few categories there's the presence compassion, trust, kind of soft skills stuff. And then there's also the drive focus getsiness piece. It's that's kind of the combination of skills I think makes for a really, really strong successful coach. Okay, will this presentation be available to review later. Yes, it will. I think the library is going to send a link. Okay. Next slide please. Okay so here's a little bit about earning. One thing that I'll say about coaching is compared to other fields it's a bit of a baby of a field it's not very old. It's like maybe 2025 years old that's it. So there's very few regulations. There's some people I've heard referred to it as the Wild West, where people can kind of hang up a shingle without any training, for example, people can charge as much or as little as they choose. I have a suspicion that that is going to be changing the more the field grows and the more mature it gets I think that will be changing probably for better for worse and for worse. So I learned from a Sherpa website called Sherpa and also what I've heard anecdotally, so personal coaches and what that means is people who their clients are individuals who hire them for coaching. They make less than corporate coaches, and they make an average of $200 an hour again it is all across the board there are some people who charge less. There are some people who charge way way more because it's not. And there's no stipulations in terms of that corporate coaches make a lot more because corporations have money to pay coaches to work with their staff. So they make an average of $325 an hour. Very often, it's not just a one off session very often coaches, coaches package their sessions. So they might say okay I've got a three month package you could do or a six month package or a 12 month package. So doing that is one you can make more impact because you have more time with an individual. And number two, you can be a little bit more sure about your earnings, and you don't have to try so hard to market market market for every one session you have with a client. How much better for the customer would you say in person career coaching. Oh that's an interesting question. And everyone sees in the chat how much better for the customer, would you say in person career in life coaching is to compare to remote coaching. When I learned at first that coaching was remote I was very skeptical. I thought there's no way that people can do effective work remotely. And I was definitely proven wrong. I think at first I did it just via phone and I was shocked at how strong a connection could be on the phone I think sometimes in person when people felt like they weren't seen. They were even more open. More recently I've been doing video chat with people that's really nice because so many of the people I work with are employed, and they don't have the flexibility to go in person during the weekdays when I work. It also means that someone who was in trying to think of a time zone that would actually work. In some other country where we spoke the same language the time zones worked out. We could be the best match in the world. And because we can work remotely we can work together. So it just opens up possibilities that one last thing I'll say about that is I think it's one of the ways that differentiates coaching from therapy. I think when people think about therapy they think of going and sitting on a couch or laying on a couch and talking and I don't mean that with any negative connotation I think therapy is great. I think the whole idea with coaching is where are you now where are you going and how are you going to get there there's a lot of momentum. So hopefully that addresses your question. How does one know how long it will take for our clients issues to be resolved. That's a great question. So what I like to do with clients is have a session on me I don't charge them for it like an introductory session where we have a full hour, where I can learn more about them about what they're looking to get out of coaching. So I can determine number one can I help because sometimes I can't. So are we a fit and by that all I mean is do we enjoy the conversation is a free flowing. Could we see talking every other week for an hour because sometimes personalities just don't mesh. So that's how we determine fit I don't I don't like the idea of blindly taking on a client when I don't know if our personalities are a match and if I can help. One example of when I know I can help is sometimes people call, and they say I don't know if I'm looking for a coach or at their best. And if they say something like I'm so depressed I can't get out of bed in the morning or I'm still dealing with, and currently dealing with an eating disorder or I was physically abused when I was younger and I'm still working through that I know that I am not equipped to support them through those issues and I wouldn't be doing them or me any favors to pretend that I could. I would say why don't you know I would recommend looking for a therapist at this point. And sometimes when the personality isn't a fit I know a lot of other coaches who are great, and I can refer to them instead. Sometimes it's not personality sometimes it's tools. Coaches bring very different skill sets I would say some coaches are, if you imagine a spectrum of corporate and woo, or. Another word for that corporate and very outside the box I'm somewhere in the middle, I think, but when I share my tools with some people they're like oh that's too weird I don't want to work with you. In my personal opinion I can in person be quite limiting and frustrating or remote offers adventure commitment and soul dedication. Okay. Thanks for sharing. Okay, anything else about what people make. Next slide please. You clarified the distinction between coaching great question it's a question that I get asked all the time by potential clients. I would say, first of all, it's very hard to generalize because these days there's a lot of kinds of coaches coaching there's a lot of kinds of therapy. I will speak in very general terms. I think of them as a Venn diagram like two overlapping circles. I think what they have in common is that they're both a place to talk to a perfect stranger who's not a part of your day to day life to get out of the weeds to get some perspective to dream to vision. The ways that I think that they are very different is number one the trajectory so I think with therapy. Generally speaking it's looking to your past. It's looking at what happened in the past that I'm still healing from that I need to work through so I can move forward unencumbered. And then with coaching it's much more so where you now where are you going and how are you going to get there. There's room in both to talk about emotions the differences in coaching we're talking about present emotions. So there's not a lot of storytelling there's not a lot of someone coming in. Like talking for an hour it's much more of a back and forth. I hope that answered your question Laura if it didn't please write more in the chat. What are your transformational principles I'm not sure what that question means if Deborah if you could restate it that would be great. Okay, so types of coaches. So, for anyone who's looked into working with coaches you can see there's a lot of different niches or niches however you pronounce that. There's life coaches there's executive coaches there's health and wellness coaches there's sex coaches there's coaches for absolutely everything. I got this just kind of anecdotal story to share that I think can shed some light. I think that a lot of coaches deep down are doing the same thing. When they put their niche in front of the word coach, all it is is kind of a doorway for someone to come in. So for example, a couple years ago I was working on some networking and I got together a group of I think it was five or six different coaches. There was a nutrition coach there was me I was the life coach there was an executive coach there was a sex coach. We got together we talked about what everyone did we supported each other in terms of learning and in terms of development in our jobs. And one thing that became very clear to I think all of us is we did very similar work despite having different titles. And the reason why I think that is is because someone might come to career coaching, but to pretend that career is completely separate from who they are as a person and their spirituality, and everything else I think is silly I think we are very multi dimensional people, and these things all very much connect. Few of any questions about that let me know. Where do you market yourself other than the muse. So, I'll get to this, I'm actually going to get to that a little bit later. If I don't answer it later let me know. Yeah, I'll get to this one about training later to great questions. Okay next slide please. Okay, so what do coaches do day today so part of the reason why love love love this field is because note the days feel very dynamic. They're not ever kind of all the same. I think the day depends on where you are in your business as well as what season it is so for example, when I was first starting I didn't have any clients to work with. So I was doing a lot of networking. I was doing some exchanges for free where I would offer coaching to a marketing person and they would teach me how to market because I knew nothing about marketing. I was doing a lot of visioning thinking about who's my ideal client where do I find them. That was all like the first year, especially. And a decent amount of that probably in the next year and still is sprinkled in over time I started doing a lot more client calls and calls with prospective clients. It seems in coaching summers are slow. It's not that shocking I think in summer people are thinking more about playing and kind of kicking up their feet a little bit more than personal development. And so during the summer that's when I take professional development trainings that's when I network more that's when I might do more of things like this, like speaking opportunities potentially. Okay. So yeah, these are the kinds of things that would happen day to day and it's always different percentages of those things. And when I say administrative I mean, I've got spreadsheets to track how many clients am I working with and how many calls have we had this month and what what am I making so far this year, things like that. And then also I'll send reminder emails to people the day before the calls or they might email me between with questions about the quote unquote homework the stuff they're working on between calls. So it's a huge mix and it makes it very interesting and very dynamic. Okay, next slide please. Okay, so education and training so like I mentioned this field because it's so new is very much Wild West of a field. So some people say you know what, I'm going to just kind of get business cards that say life coach and tell people I'm a life coach and get started. I remember when I was starting my brother was encouraging me to do that he said well if you can do that. Yeah, I can do. Don't don't spend all that money on a training and I said I don't feel like I would have the skills or tools to bring I wouldn't know what to do with clients if I got them without a training so I personally went the certification route but it's not required. I think the pros of certification. It can very much increase your skill set. It can increase your competence. So there are some individuals and corporations who are seeking coaches who look to make sure that someone is certified not always. But I would say often, I would say the cons of certification is, it takes time and money. The length of certification varies, and the cost varies. So, if you're looking for a certification program for coaches, there are so many. Some are remote somewhere in person. Some have different focuses. The one thing that I would highly recommend is that you make sure that it's ICF approved. ICF is the governing board for the coaching field International Coach Federation. They put their stamp of approval on some and not all certifications so you would want to make sure it's ICF approved. I can tell you with my own certification. I went to a school I did a lot of research for me it was very important that the school was established that they had been around that they had a reputation that employers knew who they were. I went to a school called CTI Coaches Training Institute. I think it's called something slightly different now. ICF stands for International Coach Federation. Deborah, I'll get to your question in just a minute. So, that's why I went with them I also love that they're all over the world and they happen to have a local branch I thought that was cool to imagine that after graduating I would have colleagues who are all over the world. And that particular certification there were two parts to it. The first part took about between six and 12 months depending on if people were working at the same time, but it was five weekend long classes. And what I love what delighted me about those classes I was never a fan of. I was never the best student in the world, and I walked into the room of those classes and it was exactly what I've been looking for my whole life. It was like 20 people in the circle, no desks chairs in a circle. They taught the skills and we immediately applied the skills on each other. So for people who are experiential learners, not people who just learned through hearing. It was, it was such a breath of fresh air. Also what I was not expecting going through those classes I thought I was learning how to become a coach but I wasn't expecting is that being the recipient of coaching from the other students I felt like I had some pretty big ship personal shifts, which was great. And then the cost. So that certification was $11,000. So it's not cheap, not cheap, which which could be you know one of the cons. Again, there's all sorts of trainings they vary the second part of that training after the classes was it was called the certification and I was so glad I did it. It was a chance to apply what you learned in the classes in small groups one on one to you had to have five paying clients to be in the certification. And that was probably the most helpful thing I got from it I know a lot of people who didn't do this, the second part of the certification. Who they learned the skills but they never actually took the leap to getting clients. And I'm convinced to this day that the reason I was able to is because I had to. In that second part doesn't want to make sure that makes sense I see there's a new message. Did you say there's an opposite of experiential learner. I don't know off the top of my head exactly what the different learning types are but I remember some people are auditory learners. Some people need to kind of learn by doing. I'm sure that other people know the other types of learning. I just know that a lot of universities assume that people are can learn through hearing and a lot of adults don't actually learn that way. Okay, back to Deborah's question in the chat. As it relates to helping your clients continue in their transformation what tools or principles do you use to help your clients maintain their metamorphosis after the coaching engagement without your guidance as a coach. I see two questions in there one is around the tools and the principles. There's a lot, and I learned all in the certification I didn't come with any of them. So that's where I think to learn tools to learn principles today is too short to begin to get into those, but I would definitely recommend going into a training or certification program to learn the tools and principles. The second part how do you maintain the metamorphosis of a coaching engagement after the engagement. That's a really good question so at the beginning of working I work with most clients for about six months. We would talk every other week for about an hour. At the beginning we set goals and intentions for our work. We check in on them at the midpoint and at the endpoint to assess and celebrate progress. And then in the very last session we set next steps. So it's kind of, we outline what they're going to be working on and doing for the next three four months, and I keep the door open and say listen if you just want me to know what you're up to, and you want to shoot me a line now and then please do. Obviously people don't take me up on that. But occasionally I do hear from people and that's always really nice. Okay. Angela talks about the different kinds of learners in the chat. Great. Okay, next slide please. I was kind of taking note of who was in the room. What types of professionals were drawn to coaching. This is by no means to say that people who are successful coaches come from these fields I just noticed it as a theme. So interestingly enough there were a lot of therapists getting trained as coaches. They were either getting trained as coaches because they were over therapy and wanted to try something else, or because they wanted to learn coaching skills to bring into their therapy practices. Not surprising that therapists would be drawn to coaching. HR professionals there were a lot of them to a lot of them I think plan to keep their full time jobs in fact I think a lot of their employers paid for them to get the certification. They wanted to learn the skill set to bring into their HR jobs. They were HR professionals who were trying to transition out of HR and into coaching. And then there were marketing and business people that those people could have done marketing or business and a variety of settings. I always felt like they had a bit of a leg up as long as they were good at the actual coaching. They had a bit of a leg up on other people because they already knew how to market and put themselves out there which a lot of people who get into this don't seem to have that skill set. Any questions about the common backgrounds of people who get into life coaching. Next slide please. I'm also doing a time check over here. Okay. So getting started so if this is all sounding great. And you're interested in getting started or you've been certified and you want to get started. This is really all you need you need a private space to be able to have these conversations remotely or in person if you choose. You need internet connection. You need a process so you need to be able to when potential clients reach out to you you need to be able to speak to, of course, what you will do with them and how you need the tools which is why I'm big on certification. And then you also need to have a some sort of presence. I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I would have for people who are getting started is don't hide behind your computer. A lot of people feel like they need a website, they need business cards they need like a gorgeous website they need a really established social media presence. I had I have a mentor in this field, who is very busy with coaching clients, she has never had a website or business cards. She it just goes to show she's out from behind her computer so much and she loves life so much that I think she's into some sort of dancing, some sort of dancing and she goes every week. And so these are the people in her community these are the people who knows what she do who know what she does and refer people her way. That's the big just don't don't hide behind your computer or think you need to have a perfect gorgeous website before you get started. That can all come later. Okay, next slide please. Next slide please. Okay the where life coaches find work. Just the next one. Weird. Oh, I don't think I've. Business. Can you go just one more back. Oh, okay, it's missing. So, I'll send the updated one to Angela so she can send it out. So the slide that's missing is where life coaches find work. So I learned very early on that for myself, I did not want to find all of my own clients. It was too stressful. It was like felt like it was putting all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak. And so I started to find this contract work so I've done some contract work with the muse. I've done some contract work with a place called SNP which stands for actually stands for smart nice people communications kind of a funny acronym. And so I was like, oh, they're in San Francisco. And then I've, I've interviewed with a bunch of other places, really important. Yeah, just saw your what you wrote David yeah you don't need you don't need a great website you can just do it. There are a lot of places that have pools of coaches where you can contract. I have found that a lot of them I don't believe pay fairly. Some of them have kind of their own way of coaching. So for me I just know that that's not a fit for a lot of other people it is. And so I found a couple places to contract where it's a great fit they kind of let people come in they pay well, and they let you just coach the way that you like to coach. So for me that works really really well. It seems like there's more and more of these companies who have a pool of coaches and they market for you and then they take a cut. That's how it works. There's also coaches and I really truly don't know many or any of them but I know that these jobs exist, where you can work internal as an internal part time or full time coach for a company. I can't speak to that much because I just don't really know very many people who do that but I know that those jobs exist I think especially in tech spaces. That's what I see in the chat. Okay, growing the business. We've spoken to this a bit. Many get into coaching because they're naturals at using the soft skills, people come to them they're very approachable they give great advice, they can be really present and compassionate with people. I know a lot of people struggle. A lot of people with those skills that struggle is putting themselves out there I know for me. I knew very little about marketing I felt really uncomfortable with it at the beginning I had a lot of hesitations about coming across as just like slimy, but in a way that I didn't want to come across. And then over time, I think I'm six years in I've been able to find my own voice and now I love marketing because I found the ways that I like to do it and that's the way I go so I use a lot of social media. You know, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and that's kind of how I do the majority of it. And then I'll occasionally maybe once or twice a year send mass emails to the people I've supported for the last six years. Just checking in and saying you know, happy holidays or whatever it is and thank you for keeping in mind is like as a resource. Some people do newsletters, I started out with doing quarterly newsletters and I would dread it every time I saw them I counter so I stopped doing newsletters that's one of the really nice things about working for yourself as you can decide how you go about it. Referrals are really big. So I a lot of people learn about me from the internet. It's one of the positive sides of the internet through Yelp or wherever if they just search career coach referrals and testimonials. Okay, I see Dave's question. What are some tech companies that have internal part time or full time coaches. I actually don't know. I know that they exist. And I'm sure if you look on LinkedIn and search those jobs, you would find some I'm just really not very aware of those. Okay, next slide please. Okay, resources I've already mentioned these but I want to make sure to share them visually. So there's the International Coaching Federation that's kind of the overarching governing board of the coaching field internationally. It's a great place to find certification programs that they've approved of. Once you're a coach, it's a great place to find professional development training networking opportunities they're just they're a great resource and I would say the resource for coaches. And then I included the link to where I went to get trained which is one of many, many training places called coaches training Institute which I think now has a slightly different name but if you search coaches training institute you'll find it. Okay, last slide. Okay, so question just wide open for questions I know there have been questions throughout that if you have any others please type them. And Angela if you'd be willing to just share my, my contact information in the chat that would be great website and where they can find me. Oh, you already did. Thank you. Brian shared that thank you. So please feel free to connect online. And see here. Yeah, I think I see a hand raised. Hello. Maybe that's not a hand raised. How did you launch your coaching business. I'm trying to think to when I, how I launched my coaching business. I think one of the first things I did was when I was in that second part of the certification and I needed to find five paying clients. I just emailed almost everyone I knew, you know, previous colleagues, family members at the time roommates and said hey, I'm offering, I'm in training so I'm offering low cost coaching to people who are interested and that it's a win win because I need my hours and I'm offering low cost training. And it was just really helpful to do that it was also very scary to do that. But that was kind of how the ball first started getting rolling. Thank you, Mario. Let's see here. What was else was involved in the launching of the coaching business. I did a lot of exchanges. I didn't feel like I had a lot of money to use to build my business and so what I offered was coaching. I wanted to look for what I needed and look for exchanges where it was kind of a win win. So like I met I found a previous client who wanted more coaching was a marketing person and she helped me build my website. I didn't pay for it with money but I paid for it with time. So that was some of, I would definitely recommend the exchanges. So coaching and counseling so I thought I spoke to the differences between coaching and therapy. I think that would be a very different as similar answer to this, which is more so counseling, at least the way I understand counseling is very similar to therapy is like looking to someone's past helping them heal helping them work through issues, so they can move forward and coaching is much more so where are you now where are you going and how are you going to get there so it's got a very forward moving momentum. I wanted to take you to get to the place where you felt you had a consistent flow of clients I don't think you're going to like this answer. It took a while. It definitely took a while. I would say it took a solid two years for me to feel confident that they were going to keep coming. And for me to feel relatively busy full disclosure I have two little kids so I work part time I've always worked part time I work three days a week. I do a little pair coaching with another part time job. I always recommend for people who want to go into coaching to not leap into coaching to more so keep your paid full time job with benefits. Build your work with a couple clients a week. Get your name out there and then at a certain tipping point, then you move to coaching because it takes a while. Let's see here. Is it necessary to be certified before launching. It kind of depends on your background, I think I mean I as you can tell I'm a big fan of the certification. I think for a lot of reasons it's extremely helpful to do that. First. That said, as part of the certification process, you are working with clients so it's a little bit of a of a process. What kind of coach would help an elderly person who's trying to accomplish educational goals and development of talents. Maybe a life coach. You know, I on one slide I listed all the types of coaches that's why it wouldn't be a career coach it wouldn't be an executive coach I would look for a life coach. What you can find actually coaches with a niche or a niche of people who work with people who are retired or about to retire. That would probably be a great, a great fit. You mentioned the field of coaching is only 25 years old what type of people were filling this need before there was job called career life coach that's a good question I don't know I'm going to guess that it was therapist. I think now it's so nice that people have more of an option that it's a little bit more, there's more of a distinction. Do you coach other coaches. So this is an interesting phenomenon and there are a lot of coaches who have most of their clients are coaches and I've heard people express some concerns that it's like a pyramid scheme. I think most coaches have a coach or a therapist or they're working on themselves in some ways so for me it's not very concerning. I think I've only had a couple, a couple clients who are going trying to become coaches, but it's definitely not like a way that I market myself that that's who I work with. What type of coach are you I call myself a life and career coach. I really. I actively tried not to become a career coach because what I did right before I got into coaching was I worked at a workforce development company organization and we worked with job seekers to help them find and keep employment so I was a little bit burnt out with the resume and cover letter writing so I was trying not to become a career coach, and they say that your niche always finds you. And sure enough people kept coming to talk about job and career. And so I do do a lot of that work but I don't do it on a very logistical way. We talk a lot more about the questions underneath the resume and cover letter we talk a lot about who are you what do you care about. And how do you line your work in your career up with that. How do you become more aligned how do you turn up the volume on your sense of contentment. Any other questions. Do people coach their friends. Oh my gosh, such a good question. Do people coach their friends or would you not call that coaching. Everyone is different with this I do know some coaches who have coached family members and friends. I personally do not do that. I think one of the benefits of working with the coaches that they don't already have experience about you and what you should do that it's a totally unbiased person so I personally like to keep that boundary. Like I said some people are able to do that and they do it well, I'm just not one of them. Do prospective clients often have preferences when it comes to remote versus in person and experience or credentials of the coach. I find that even if someone comes to a call thinking that they really want to work with a coach in person if it's a fit, they'll work with you remotely to. There's not a lot of coaches I know who do in person work. It does happen but it's pretty rare. And let's see here. They do seem to even if they don't know what the letters behind a name means. I think on some levels they want to know that people were trained as a coach. I hope that answers your question Emily. Just waiting to see if any others come through. Okay. All right, it looks like we're wrapping up everyone thank you so much this was really fun. Thank you for help making it interactive I really just like talking at people. So nice to spend an hour with you all wouldn't a company that has an internal coach be a good place to work. Sure. Like, yes, I think it probably would. Okay. Thank you so much Annie for taking the time to share with us your knowledge and experience of what it's like.