I have just spent the weekend away from my computer attending a free two day Personal Coaching course.  The purpose of this ‘taster’ was to see if people would later be interested in signing up to take the various specialized courses in becoming life coaches.  There were about 150 other like-minded people, a good cross-section of the community, who also turned up this bright Saturday morning.

The coaching course started well, with the presenter immediately putting us all at ease.

After coffee and jokes we launched straight into just what a personal life coach does.  Helping to create a plan to take people from where they are now to where they want to be (What they desire in life).  This part surprised me, as someone who dishes out advice on my blog posts and many forums.  Coaches don’t give advice, they listen and draw out from their client, by a simple system, the steps they need to take to achieving their goal in life.

This is a 4 Step Plan:

1, First Recognize Goals

The coach has to help the client to identify what is their specific goal  How will they know when they have achieved it and to build in a time frame.  When they want to achieve it by.

2, Where Are You Now?

What has the client done so far to achieve their goal, also what challenges have been met and overcome.

3, Possibilities

Here you stretch the client into thinking beyond what the client has thought of before. What else could the client do,what if they tried to do it this way or that way?

4, Taking Action

a, What option would be fastest/easiest/preferred?

b, What specific action will the client take and when?

c, What obstacles could stop the client from taking action?

There were then several ‘exercises’ involving interaction between attendees of the course.  It was fun and informative, and no hard sell of products,… yet!

Before lunch mention was made of a dvd we could buy, but it was delivered so low key and in an almost couldn’t care less way!  Were they lulling us into a false sense of security?

The rest of Day One involved further interactive exercises, which everyone in the room participated in with much enthusiasm.  All the while building up value of the event by giving us tips and tricks on being a coach.  At the end of the day we were told what would be in store for us the next day.  They would go into Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).  This interested me and may more people in the room.  Mmmm, can’t wait!

Day 2 – I had filled out a lot of my notebook on Day One and wondered if I would run out of paper.  I should not have concerned myself!

A new coach was to teach us this morning, but I was disappointed, no mention of NLP, just several stories were related to us to make a certain point.  There was much talk of empowering our beliefs and getting out of our comfort zone.  They were gradually building us up into thinking, yes coaching is an achievable career.

The afternoon session brought us back a trainer from Day One.  NLP was mentioned briefly, but not covered in any detail .  That would be left for a course you would have to pay for.  The rest of the afternoon was spent recognizing what type of coaching would best suit you.

1, Personal coaching

2, Small business coaching

3, Youth coaching

4, Corporate (by business) coaching

We were then treated to the kind of money we could possibly earn.  Everyone in the room perked up.  By just doing a few hours a week, we could earn a very attractive income and if we then went full-time, well the potential earnings were huge.  Appetites were now wetted!

Now came the sell.  The first course price floored me when the trainer smiled and said, without changing her facial expression, about £16,000!  With the other courses dropping down in price considerably.

At this point I had to leave to catch my train. With the content of my wallet still intact, I also had some new knowledge to disseminate. I had bagged some email addresses for possible joint ventures, which was good. If there was a low point, I had developed a painful stomach ache, I guess from eating only burgers for two days.

All-in-all, a good weekend,… now I had just 3 minutes to catch the train, damn that stomach ache!