This month in the CAM Community of Coaches we are talking about renewing your ICF credential.  Brian will be leading an awesome webinar on the topic.  (If you miss the webinar, you can get the archived recording here on the membership site.)

One of the most common questions I hear from coaches is some version of “Why should I get a coaching credential?”  The truth is that not every coach should seek an ICF credential (don’t tell the ICF I said that!).  But many coaches do benefit from being credentialed and the benefits mostly come down to two things: confidence and credibility.

Confidence is the internal dynamic of believing that you are a qualified, capable coach who can actually help others.  Being credentialed gives some coaches a real confidence boost because they feel more “legit” having gone through the necessary steps to be credentialed.

Credibility is an external dynamic whereby others believe that you are a qualified, capable coach who can help them.  Depending on your coaching clientele, a third-party such as the ICF can boost your credibility among those who don’t know you that well and are looking for signals that you are a good coach.

I’m curious about your experience with being credentialed.  Did you decide to be credentialed (or not) based on confidence, credibility, or some other factor.  It’d be a huge benefit to other community members if you’d share your experience in the private Facebook group for the CAM Community.  If you’re not on Facebook, that’s no problem – just email your experiences to our Community Coordinator Martin Torres and he’ll post them for you.  Just tell your story about being credentialed – What motivated you?  What was the experience like?  What have been the results?  What advice would you give other coaches?

This month in the CAM Community of Coaches, we are talking about getting clients.  One important aspect of getting clients is “marketing.”  But what is marketing and how can Christian coaches do marketing well?

Marketing involves helping people find out about the opportunity to work with you and develop an interest in hiring you.  I like to distinguish marketing from sales, which comes after marketing and is more about supporting a potential client’s decision to hire you (or not).

Christian coaches can do marketing well by approaching it as a form of ministry.  Marketing can be ministry when your marketing messages carry intrinsic value to those who receive those messages.  On the other hand, if the only purpose of your marketing is to sway people into hiring you, then they really aren’t receiving any value from the message.  Marketing that brings no intrinsic value to the recipient is manipulation, not ministry.

Christian coaches have unlimited possibilities for marketing that’s ministry.  Here are some simple examples:

• If your coaching niche is local business owners, host a business leaders round-table forum once a quarter.
• If your coaching niche is public school administrators, create a monthly newsletter highlighting best practices for the industry.
• If your coaching niche is healthy living, create a podcast where you interview dieticians, physicians, and others who have valuable information and insights.
• If your coaching niche is ministers preparing for a sabbatical, create a sabbatical guidebook for churches.

This month in the CAM Community of Coaches, we are giving attention to coaching groups, teams, and couples.  Our webinar had to be rescheduled for August 29, so we’ll wrap up our month giving attention to our focus.

Coaches can expand their support of powerful transformation when we expand our notion of who’s coachable to include:

• Couples (and families). One of my favorite authors, Patrick Lencioni, has a good book that describes how families can benefit from receiving the same type of attention and intention that leaders provide for their organizations.  Coaches can support families in setting goals, determining focus, and growing closer.
• Teams make decisions and take action in order to achieve some larger purpose.  Coaches are awesome at helping clients make decisions and take action, so we can enhance the effectiveness of any team.
• A group is a collection of persons who share some common interest, but who don’t need to share common decisions or actions.  Coaches can improve the group experience by helping members tap into the collective creativity and resourcefulness.

What’s your experience coaching couples, teams, and/or groups?  Please share your experience in the private Facebook group so others can benefit and learn.  If you’re not on Facebook, that’s no problem – just email your experiences to our Community Coordinator Martin Torres and he’ll post them for you.