About the Author
Francine Campone, Ed.D., PCC stirs the Research pot at The Foundation of Coaching as Docent of the Research Repository, in the Coaching Commons, and a part of the Foundation’s Research team. She is a professional coach and consultant, applying her background in adult learning and education flavored by diverse other educational experiences and Zen Buddhist practice. Francine developed and teaches a graduate level course in research for coaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and courses on Evidence-Based Coaching at UTD and Fielding University. She’s on the track of collaborative research projects at The Foundation of Coaching and at UTD.
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February 4th, 2008 •
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I’m conducting a study of a coach training program and am interested in the most effective learning experiences you’ve had in your journey to becoming a coach. Do you have a favorite “how I became a coach” story to share? My own best learning experiences have been with those clients who were most unlike me and so their thinking challenged me to really stretch my own worldview. Maybe I just like learning the hard way. How about you?
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Comment by Francine on 29 April 2008:
Thanks, Gail, for the comprehensive and thoughtful reply! I know Andrea’s “pink spoon” model quite well and love the idea so much that I often recommend it to coaches whom I coach/mentor. I’d love to hear a little more from you about the inner work of becoming an entrepreneur. You’re quite right that the coaching world is awash in books, articles, websites, courses, workshops and more- all of which promise to teach a coach to become a successful marketer. I propose that there’s something more than information or even confidence (thought I loved your last line re: being too good a find). I wonder, for example, how individuals in other, comparable private-practice professions come to develop a sensibility that walks a line between providing a useful human service and “marketing” a product.
Comment by Gail Sussman Miller on 22 April 2008:
Francine:
What you ask about how to develop the marketing skills and mindset which I had to learn too, could fill a book. And HAS! Several are out there and yet that isn’t what you are looking for. Let me start by recommending Andrea Lee’s Multiple Streams of Coaching Income to broaden your mindset and give you tools.
I’m wondering… where in your 30 years in the business world did you observe people sharing messages to help solve problems? Even today, look to your favorite print, radio or TV ads. What catches your attention, especially on things you could be in the market for?
I am not sure if you are asking for direction, so I’ll cover that base just in case! I think it’s critical to learn how to LOVE marketing your business and yourself. And I see how it’s like coaching. Informing, asking provacative questions, collaborating on solutions… A key place to start is to know your WHO and WHAT… who you serve and what you do for them in measurable, observable, tangible language.
The the rest follows because you then know where your market or people with those issues hang out. Now you know where to network (online and off), speak, write, etc.
Welcome to the world of coaching and marketing, all rolled together. You are too good a “find” to keep to yourself!