Okay, I’m going to do something that I rarely do in life and I’m going to do it fairly publicly here on the Transforum blog. I’m going to rant. Hopefully, it is a considered rant – a creative rather than reactive one. It’s my intention to be pointed and clear rather than vitriolic. Here goes. I’d love to hear what you think.

What is with some of the media here in the U.S.? Despite over 20 years of dedicated effort on the part of countless professionals and the ICF, some of the general media seem determined to misinterpret the coaching industry.

It’s about as formulaic as a Hollywood B movie. Some reporter finds an angle or something to support a particular point of view and does “research” looking for any information he or she can find to support that point of view.

So far, so good. Then the reporter writes a piece, citing specific data to support the chosen angle.  Witness the recent article in The New York Times by Spencer Morgan about life coaches getting younger and younger: “Should a Life Coach Have a Life First?”

The article is cleverly tongue-in-cheek and gently makes fun of those coaches under 35 for having the hubris to think that they have anything to offer because they haven’t had enough life experience. The article then goes on to offer a variety of different quotes all presented in the context of a well-researched article.

Except it isn’t. Morgan seems oblivious to (and not interested in) the distinction between coaching and mentoring. Or coaching and therapy, for that matter. The author also seems unaware that coaching is a billion dollar industry which literally spans the globe. For instance, he states that coaching seems to be catching on internationally as well and offers a quote from a coach training company in Victoria, BC, in support of this, seemingly unaware that coach training is being offered on every continent and in every major language in the world.

Oh, well. No harm. No foul. Just a little hack job in the “Fashion & Style” section of the Times.

Except that misinformation continues. A popular blog picked up the article and continues to elaborate with a post entitled “Quarter-Life Crisis Survivors Become Underqualified Life Coaches”. And the beat goes on.

I would hope that any writer worth his or her salt would take a specific point of view – otherwise articles become bland and boring. That said, I would also hope that any author’s point of view would be framed in a larger context and that anyone writing a piece for The New York Times would, well, take the time to make sure he or she had the full picture.

Oh, by the way, I’m delighted with the young faces that have begun dotting the landscape of CTI’s programs and the profession in general. Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to train and work with several coaches in their 20s –  Zoe Wild, Eka Joti, Melanie Scott and Christin Myrick, to name a few. I’ve found these young people to be bright, articulate and very savvy. Certainly, they are far more sophisticated than I was at their age. I am pleased to have them in our profession and grateful to be a part of nourishing their enthusiasm and vision for a better world.

It’s 9:00 am in Sonoma, the final day of yet another Co-Active Leadership Program. The sky is the most brilliant blue and a gentle breeze stirs. Twenty-one people surround a crackling fire, their faces rapt and shining. Lithe as a cat, one moves into the center and circles the fire, declaring out loud her intention to make a difference in the world. One by one the others follow suit. They are, in turn, bold, shy, calm, dramatic, funny and profound.

The Willow Tribe. Photo by Meir Atias

Then the ceremony is over and my work is done. The ten-month journey has been wide and filled with learning. Without a doubt, these are not the same 21 people that began. What a delight to watch the faces change…to see the limiting beliefs fall away, to watch people claim their power, their impact, their destiny. What a privilege to watch them love, support, struggle with and push each other, weaving themselves into a community that will sustain.

They have learned much. How to stand firmly for what they believe in, how to create from all that life has to offer and, most importantly, to believe in the whisperings of their own heart. More than anything else, they have learned to look inside themselves for direction and to follow the path that is most resonant whether it is the popular road or not. They know who they are and what they are here for. 

Willow assistants Leslie Stein & Bill Spangler, co-leaders John Vercelli & Karen Kimsey-House. Photo by Susanne Sabahi

They will forget. We all do. We forget. And they have tools to help them recover. They have a good map to recover to. They are well-equipped for the real leadership program which will last the rest of their lives. 

They will change the world. One person, one conversation, one event at a time. In ways large and small, across cultures and continents, they will change the way people think and feel about leadership, life and about each other. 

Next month, I will begin again with another group. Today there is only completion and celebration. I feel well-used. They are my legacy to the world, these 21 Willows. I am grateful and I am proud.

Since Co-Active Coaching found me six years ago, it’s helped me create more fulfilment than I could’ve ever imagined. Amongst many highlights so far was the realization of an ambition to become an environmental journalist.

However, as the model makes clear, life is not just about pursuing important objectives but also how we embrace the transformation evoked by the journey along the way.

Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The truth is, when I set out, I had no idea the levels of despair the in-depth articles I was commissioned to write would invite me to confront.

Amongst myriad interviews, I met with a South American politician with the sands of time slipping through his fingers, balancing the need to fight an internecine civil war against protecting precious Amazonian rain forest from ecocide.  There was the vet who received death threats from local sheep farmers after helping reintroduce the bear to the Pyrenees. Then there were the ocean conservationists who intercepted a Yemeni fishing vessel carrying hundreds of shark fins. Their grief for the loss of this much maligned predator was made more complex by their empathy for the fourteen-year-old fishermen who had mindlessly slaughtered the sharks to alleviate their poverty. 

In spite of the power of Co-Active Coaching’s lesson of ‘being with’ where others are, over time I developed a resilient, thick skin, which didn’t suit me. 

I scotched over my own despair and was embarrassed to admit I was increasingly relating to the earth as a living sentient being worthy of an all-together different level of respect. Mother Earth is for tree-huggers, not hard-nosed campaigners, right?

Then, around August 2009, I began to consider ‘where next’ and the CTI Leadership Program seemed to me the best way to work that out.

When I first heard one of my leaders, LA Reding, call me forth on the first retreat to be a voice of the earth, I didn’t want to hear it. Having already held so much despair about the earth, my internal critic went crazy trying to formulate a far more prosaic life purpose statement.

Yet the program, which emphasizes 100% authentic self-expression and how to align that with a clearly defined life purpose, brought her words into sharp relief.  With time for quiet reflection in Nature, I considered whether it was possible to lead from my vulnerability about the earth. 

Nick Kettles

From that place of recognizing the power of our despair, I considered what it would be like if instead of trying to rescue the Earth, we focused more on adopting a new perspective in how we relate to her.

What would a Co-Active relationship with the Earth look like? What would we hear if we were really listening? That she’s far more creative, resourceful and whole than we are willing to admit perhaps? 

The learning keeps bubbling away for many years way beyond the final leadership retreat and it’s taken time since that point two years ago to really accept this is what calls me to be of service. Once committed to authentic self- expression, it becomes painful not to accept who you are and what you stand for.

Today the arc of my career as a campaigning journalist is coming to an end and I’m now working with my partner Priya, also a Co-Active Leadership graduate, to combine coaching, qi gong, and meditation to help others slow down so they can consider who they are being in relationship to the Earth. 

I am sure as this new arc unfolds, a whole new level of transformation will be evoked. The only difference this time is that I’m really excited what that will entail.

Nick Kettles, MA, CPCC, is a writer and coach who loves listening deeply with his clients for the words and ideas that sing their purpose. Otherwise, he’s slowing down outside, meditating beside a fire with his partner or playing with his children amidst the elements and the turning seasons. nick@newmythcreate.com

One of our long-time faculty members, Eileen Blumenthal, forwarded me this post the other day. It is brilliantly written by Micah L. Sifry. In it, he points to the bankrupt condition of our current power-based leadership models and offers the Occupy Wall Street Movement as being “leader-full”.

Many have called the Occupy movement lacking in leadership and disorganized. As the post illustrates, the press have not known WHAT to do with it! I’m with Micah, however.  I believe that the structures that have emerged from Occupy Wall Street call forth the leader in each of us and provide a container for all to step forward and take ownership and responsibility.

It may be that our current institutions must fall away, making room for leadership that is communal, dynamic and values the input and human capital of all, not just those with the most financial or political clout. Perhaps this is the essence of what Abraham Lincoln was dreaming of when he spoke the last line of the Gettysburg address: “ that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I believe firmly that we are in the midst of that new birth of freedom and that we all have a part to play.

Kelly, George Carlin's daughter

A: On the Internet. I’d just gotten my masters in depth psychology and knew I wasn’t going for my license and didn’t want to be a therapist. I was looking for something to serve my training and expand my horizons. I worked with a coach before grad school so I knew about it. I signed up for Fundamentals. When I walked into the room, I thought, “Oh dear. This is really corporate. What have I gotten myself into?” But within three minutes of listening to one of the co-leaders, LA Reding, I was like “Oh my God. I’ve found my new home!”

Q: What did you find so compelling?

 A: There’s no B.S. There is tons of learning to be had. It’s scrumptious. What Karen and Henry did was take the best of what had been discovered and created through the human potential movement of the past 40 years and really integrate it in a sophisticated and accessible way. I have studied a lot of those systems myself. I really love the experiential learning of CTI courses, though. You get it in your bones right away. It was everything I loved without the dogma. It felt very clean. It’s in service of something bigger than itself.

Every course has some great gift to it. In Fulfillment, it was amazing to tap into one’s sense of possibility and spaciousness. Balance was the most mind-expanding, learning about perspective. Everything is a perspective. Try everything on for the sake of it. Such a freeing practice. I use it a lot with clients.

Q: So, you have a coaching practice?

A: I work mainly with creative people, especially writers.

Q: Comedy writers?

A: No, I’ve found it hard to work with them. They often seem to be projecting my father on to me. Like they want my approval or they’re trying to tap into some kind of genetic magic they think I have.  In the work I do with my clients, I see myself as someone who is there to help them wake up to their truth, not some truth they think I hold because I’m a Carlin.

Kelly with mom and dad

Q: Aside from coaching, how do you use what you learned in the training?

A: Leadership was huge for me. I learned so many skills and tools. I thought I was already good at “Creating from Self” because I was a solo artist, but experiencing the first retreat showed me that I was still very limited in that area.  It gave me back my birthright. I realized that I have an impact on the world just by showing up. I use one of the grounding tools I learned in Retreat 1 backstage before I go out and do a show when my nerves are so intense and I’m feeling the adrenaline. It makes me go right into my body and out of my head.

In Retreat 2, “Creating from Other”, I learned the importance of co-creating. The future of this planet depends on it. I’m trying to teach people in my community – artists, comedians and writers – about that and I’ve created the space for co-creation to happen. I have parties with live music where it’s an incredible co-creation between musicians, there’s no real band. It’s all improv and sing-a-long. It’s really powerful, like church. It’s an incredible experience, like an advanced Co-Active Leadership activity.

Q: What’s important about Co-Active?

A: Whether we know it or not, it’s happening in every moment. It’s about being conscious that everything is interdependent. Many people walk around thinking they’re separate and things happen to them. Or they can make things happen. It’s so much more of a dance. Dancing in the moment is a great metaphor. Kids should be learning the Co-Active Way in school. If that were so, boy, every segment of society could be different.

Q: Did George know about Co-Active?

A: He was alive when I went through all the training, but he did not know about the concept. Like many artists of his caliber, my dad was self-driven, OCD and worked at a level that was slightly narcissistic. But he really knew how to create from self.  Although, he rarely collaborated with people, personal one-on-one relationships were easy for him. On stage though, he was the captain of the ship – his way or the highway.

I finished Leadership in February of 2008 and he died in June. I don’t know how I would have survived the week following his death if not for Leadership. I was a wreck, there was so much to do and organize and the press! And yet, my higher self came forward and knew how to walk through that week even though I was a wreck. Leadership was in my DNA at that point and it held me and walked me through it until I had to deal with the deeper emotions.

George and Kelly

Q: Did George’s “lone wolf” approach affect you?

A: I was propelled towards the opposite – I craved connection. Growing up in the chaos of drug- and alcohol-addicted parents, where one has to read the environment to know what’s needed to survive, I became highly tuned to my intuition. But these days, I am looking to emulate the wisdom and power of the ‘lone wolf” approach through my art. I do believe that the voice of the “lone wolf” is an important one when so many in the culture are more willing to be sheep and just follow the herd. That was my dad’s biggest gift I feel – waking us up to big truth.

Q: What are your next goals?

A: I’m touring my solo show A Carlin Home Companion in 2012 and part of 2013. I’d love to have an interview show on TV or a bigger radio show on NPR. I’d like to be the next Charlie Rose!

Tune into Kelly’s weekly radio show on Thursdays at 5pm PST or download the free podcasts via iTunes. Don’t miss Kelly’s live solo show, A Carlin Home Companion. Reach Kelly at www.kellycarlin.com.

Ever notice that when most people set their New Year’s Resolutions, they often don’t make it a month before they give up on effecting meaningful change in their lives? It doesn’t have to be that way. In the 20 years since we helped pioneer the life coaching profession, we’ve learned a thing or two about what really works to set and achieve goals. Here’s how to make those New Year’s Resolutions stick for a change:

1. Start with a blank slate. Most people set up their New Year’s resolutions based on their failures from the past year. This begins the year with guilt and shame so the resolutions feel like a punishment and you end up recreating your failures. Not the way to motivate yourself. Instead, with a loved one, write down all your breakthroughs, breakdowns and things you didn’t accomplish you thought that you would and read them to each other. Forgive yourself your failings and learn from them. Hold a ceremony and burn them. Watch the smoke go up in the sky as they are released. Now you can start the New Year totally fresh.

Karen and Henry Kimsey-House resolve to relax more in 2012, the 20th anniversary of the birth of the life coaching profession. Photo by Phil Saltonstall Photography

2. Select an inspiring new theme. Celebrate and focus the New Year by deeming it the “Year of _____”. It could be anything from the Year of the New Puppy or the Year of Optimal Health to the Year of Transition to Retirement. This makes it fun and gives it an overarching emphasis attached to something meaningful to you and current to this time of your life.

3. Choose your new intentions. With the theme in mind, ask yourself what you want to see happen and what you want to show up in the coming year.

4. What if it were your last year on earth? Would your resolutions be different? Better believe it. Whether it’s to swim the English Channel, claim three weeks of vacation (one unpaid) or mend an estranged relationship, include some of those bucket list items this year.

5. Include “being” resolutions, not just “doing” resolutions, like “I am fully present when my children are talking to me” or “I treasure my body.”  Focus on qualities you want to exude not just tasks to complete. And put them in the present tense so your brain hears it as a done deal.

6. Set fewer goals. Would you rather succeed at three out of three resolutions or one out of twelve? It’s easier to focus on achieving fewer goals than many and the psychological effect of checking all of them off is encouraging.

7. Create structures to rewire your brain. Trick yourself into transformation by setting up reminders in your environment: Repaint a wall in your house a color that represents a goal or with the actual resolution spelled out in huge letters. Set your alarm clock to sing your New Year’s Resolution theme song. Order a case of your own private label wine with your resolutions emblazoned on the bottles. Get a personalized license plate that keeps you focused. Change all your computer passwords to remind you of your goals.

8. Enlist a resolution buddy. Grab a friend, spouse or sibling for mutual support in sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions and jump into the challenge together. Using an accountability partner is a tried-and-true method and it’s more fun than doing it alone! If you can’t find a reliable buddy, consider hiring a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach to keep you on track.

What are children being taught in our public schools today?  Often the picture is quite grim, fraught with stories of violence, crushing class size and teachers who are just going through the motions. That said, there’s so much great teaching that is happening as well. Here’s a little story to brighten your day. 

My sister Deigh Requa  (pronounced Dee) teaches second grade in Moncks Corner, South  Carolina, a small town near the coastal city of Charleston. For over 20 years, known as “Miz Requa”, Deigh has loved, nurtured and truly educated countless seven- year-olds in reading, writing and the ways of the world.

Each Christmas, the children give each other appreciation books. Deigh begins in early November with a note in the student’s homework file, asking each parent to spend time with their child, thinking about what they like and appreciate about the other kids in their class. “Is he nice?”, the parents ask. “Is she kind? Funny? Clever?”  Of course, for some kids the acknowledgments come easily and for others, it’s a little harder. 

Still, my beautiful sister persists. Guiding, encouraging and, well, coaching these seven-year-olds in the skill and art of acknowledgment. She persists because she is drop-dead committed to every single child in her classroom having a book for Christmas that is filled with acknowledgement and appreciation.

Deigh Requa, Karen's sister

In the final days before the holidays, the children read these appreciations out loud to each other. Then they take the books home as a keepsake. My sister says that her students will see her five or six years later and what they remember most is this experience. Wouldn’t you? I mean I still remember a valentine that I got in the third grade. It was from my teacher and it made me feel like the smartest and most incredible kid in the world. What a gift! 

Can you imagine the incredible beauty of some 30 wiggly seven-year-olds taking the time to speak to what they appreciate about others? What an important and informative lesson in life – and what a gift that each of these children will have a foundation of self-respect upon which to build their future.  

I am not a parent myself and can only imagine the challenges of parenting in today’s world. I do believe, however, that were I one of Miz Requa’s parents, I would be very grateful to her for this powerful lesson. I trust that I would also be inspired to set a good example at home by remembering to acknowledge and appreciate my children and, in fact, all the people in my life. 

Deigh's second-grade class.

Acknowledgement is such an under- utilized skill in today’s go-go world. I’ve worked with any number of executives who couldn’t quite manage it. Great to know that at least in a small corner of the world, children are learning mastery of this life lesson at an early age.

I salute my beautiful sister, Deigh, and all the unsung heroes who are quietly and with immense dedication educating our children in what matters most.

A few years ago, I noticed that I was beginning to dread the holidays. Who should I buy a present for and how much should I spend? And what do I think they would like or appreciate? It became harder and harder for me to think about buying stuff for people I knew were trying to scale down and actually cut back on the amount of stuff in their lives. I began to avoid stores and malls…anyplace where large numbers of people were gathered. The whole thing became such a turn-off. The rushy-rushy of it all with people dashing to get it all done. The pushy-pushy of it all as retailers sought to boost their sales numbers.

It just all felt like too much. Too much activity, too much consumption, too much git ‘er done. Too much doing that, for me at least, actually got in the way of connection with the people in my life. For me, wayyyyy too much “Active”, not enough “Co”.

I realized that for me, Christmas is a time for me to savor and enjoy my relationships with the people in my life. Dear friends. Family. Henry. Myself. In relationship with the seasons, winter is a time of slowing down, of introspection and contemplation. I came to see why the frantic nature of Christmas felt so out of sync for me.

I decided to get off the Christmas bandwagon. I stopped sending out Christmas cards. I re-designed my alliances with family members and friends. When I did give gifts, I usually chose to give experiences rather than things. I let go of trying to figure out what the other person would like and instead, gave them an experience that I enjoyed. I winnowed my holiday social calendar to those few things that really mattered to me. Lunch with my CTI staff. A Chanticleer concert with my friends. A simple Christmas with my family.

My House family also elected to stop giving each other things, choosing instead to celebrate each other in a variety of different ways. One year, we drew names and created gifts of acknowledgement for our selected recipient – a video, a poem, a piece of art. One year we each gave little presentations so that our family members could know us more deeply. Last year we all dressed up and had a murder mystery together. This year, we’ve decided to give each other gifts that we already have. The gift cannot be purchased. It must be something we already own and something that we love. Something that is maybe a little hard to part with, and something that we would love for the other person to have. Has to be wrapped in material that we already have too.

The creativity has been off the charts and we’ve had so, so much more fun than in earlier years, awash in wrapping paper and piles of gifts.

Karen Kimsey-House with her dad, George.

With my nine nieces and nephews, I realize that I have developed a criteria of sorts over the past few years. Of course I want to give them something that they will like…nothing is worse than a boring present from an Auntie! That said, I try to give them experiences that will deepen and strengthen our relationship. Things that won’t break or go out of style or wind up in the trash.

So, one nephew who just got a drivers license will get a gas card with a request to take me on his favorite drive the next time I am in town. Another who commutes to college will get a three-month membership to audible.com. I’ve put some books I’ve loved in his library and he gets to pick out whatever he wants as long as he lets me know what he thinks about the book and whether he would recommend it for me.

I guess that this has been at the heart of gift-giving all along and it took my slowing down a whole lot to realize that. How do you create a Co-Active Christmas? Well, the way you generate a Co-Active anything: by having the people be more important than the things and by making resonant choices about the actions that we take so that we are moving from a place of connection to ourselves and to the people in our lives.

I hope you have a lovely holiday season this year…one that is rich with experience and love…one in which your relationship with the people you love deepens and grows in resonance and beauty.

How do you celebrate a Co-Active Christmas?

I said recently to my coach in one of those beautiful solid moments of insightful realization:  “This time, I am really speaking  from an authentic place of inner knowing”.  And although I am not the first one raising a voice for a more compassionate care towards elderly people with dementia, my words are not parroting any book or expert in the field. I am speaking from my own experience of finding new ways to communicate with my mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s and lives in a home in Madrid. Since the short film was released a year ago, I have had the chance to realize how many people are ready and longing for its message.

It was during CTI’s Co-Active Leadership Program that I came to know that finding my purpose in life had to come from connecting my yearning with that of the world we live in. I remember being quite obsessed in the beginning, assuming that it was something anyone should know intuitively and fast, in a couple of inspiring retreats or powerful coaching sessions. What I know now is that there are no rules or short cuts to connect with our deepest self and to recognize our personal cause in order to put it in service of an outer need.

What has fully supported me in this process, apart from that amazing Leadership program, was to have by my side Co-Active allies – coaches listening to me beyond words, moods and stories…listening and looking for the resonance of my soul. Thanks to those strong partnerships, the film “A life beyond” is now out there, conveying a message of hope and connection and acting for me as a supportive wave that holds me to follow my inner calling.

A LIFE BEYOND from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

Olga Romanillos is a Life and Executive Coach and member of CTI’s faculty as trainer in the Certification program. She can be contacted at olga@romanillos.eu

Last week, Henry and I traveled to several different cities throughout North America, delivering a one-day course about the new developments in the Co-Active Model. The event was well-received in all locations and I had a complete blast! There was a great diversity of experience in attendees with some who were certified over 10 years ago to others who had not yet taken a class with CTI. It was a blast. I got to connect with people I hadn’t seen in years and of course meet tons of new people. Fun! Through the first part of 2012, we’ll be continuing to deliver this event at various CTI locations.

Over the course of the week, a very interesting thing started to happen. At each location, several people would come up to me and introduce themselves. They would say they had been coaching for five or ten years and that they were one of the few (or rare breed) who has a successful coaching practice. I found this comment to be astonishing. And what was even more astonishing was the way in which each comment was delivered – kind of on the side, as if it was something that should be kept quiet.

As the founder of the largest and oldest coach training school, I have been swimming for years in the conversation about how hard it is to become a successful coach. I’ve been accused of being out of integrity by continuing to train coaches for a profession where there is such small hope for success. I’ve heard the profession of coaching called everything from a big lie to a pyramid scheme. I’ve read any number of blog posts about the elephant in the room of the coaching profession.

I have to admit that over time, a part of me began to buy into this story of a failing profession, studded with gifted, trained coaches who were unable to put to use what they had learned. I began to wonder where my responsibility lay in the matter and frankly, lost more than one good night’s sleep over it. On this recent trip, I came to a powerful realization which was that this particular story was just ONE perspective on the coaching profession. . . and without even realizing it, I had started to act as if I thought it were true.

So I did what any self-respecting Co-Active coach would do: I got myself some Balance coaching and got re-grounded in where I stand on the profession of coaching. As with all perspectives, it is not the RIGHT one… all perspectives are both true and not true. That said, where I currently stand rises up from resonant choice, from deep connection to my purpose and values. It’s also imbued with my own experience – something I wasn’t even allowing to come forward before.

In my experience, being a professional coach has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It has nourished, grown and transformed me. Not only that, it has provided me a structure, a form to contribute to others in a particular way – something I had sought for many years. It is thrilling to be a part of this dynamic, loving, fledging profession and I am forever grateful for the role I have been able to play, both as the founder of a major coaching school and as a Co-Active coach.

I also know that building a successful coaching practice can be hard work. In my experience, that is true about the building of ANY business. As an entrepreneur for the past 30 years, I know firsthand how much time, dedication, patience and just plain elbow grease it takes to build any going concern. One must be willing to study and be an ongoing learner, continually developing one’s craft. It’s important to become educated about business itself, about the market one is entering and how to be most effective. One must be willing to step into the vulnerability of marketing one’s services consistently and directly over a long arc of time. I consistently tell people to plan on it taking a minimum of two years and it’s likely that it will take longer. Of course people are welcome to be pleasantly surprised when they are successful sooner and it is a really, really good idea to plan for the long haul.

Now, when I say two years, I don’t mean two years of (imagine the tune in your mind) wishin’ and hopin’ and hopin’ and wishin’. I do mean two years of dedicated and consistent HARD work. The notion that one can just create a web page and wait for the phone to ring is naive whether one is building a business as a coach or any other service provider. I hear many coaches talk about how much they hate marketing. When building a business as a service provider, marketing is an essential part of the equation. My dentist hands out magnets with his info on it and offers a special for new clients at the first of the year. I get regular mailings from a former nutritionist. I have an extraordinary body worker who has written a book, teaches teleclasses and is quite active on LinkedIn. And these are mostly old school examples and don’t even take into account the more current use of technology and marketing approaches.

In addition, I have had the opportunity over the years to talk with many, many people who are making great use of coaching in combination with other professions or inside organizations. In this recent trip alone, I met internal coaches working successfully in major corporations, people who were offering coaching in support of any number of other professional services and incredible coaches who were designing and delivering coaching inside healthcare, educational institutions…you name it.

I also hear a lot about how challenging the current economy is for coaches. I know that the past few years have been hard…and they have been challenging for pretty much everyone in that “99%” the Occupy movement has been talking about. I know they have been so for me, both personally and professionally. Many solo entrepreneurs have taken a real hit. I was talking the other day with a woman who has her own cleaning business. Two years ago her business was down by half. In the past year, she has been rebuilding slowly. My incredible hairdresser Fati, who is successful, well-established and incredibly talented, has even noticed a drop-off as well. People just are not spending as much as they used to on their hair.

What I have also noticed is that these hard times have called people forth to work smarter and harder. We’ve had to dig deep and get clear about who we really are and what we really mean. I know this is true at CTI and I see it reflected around me by the many, many Co-Active coaches who have used the recent economic challenges as a transformative opportunity to redefine themselves and what they stand for.

I’ve been around the coaching profession since before it was a profession. I began coaching in 1988, almost 25 years ago. Of course it’s common practice for “old fogies” like myself to claim that current challenges don’t amount to a hill of beans. The “walked five miles to school through deep snow” syndrome. Still, there were some major challenges way back then. Imagine attempting to market yourself as a coach when no one knew what coaching was. When I mentioned that I was a coach, people tended to get all excited and say “Oh, my Uncle Jerry is a coach too. What’s your sport?”

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of a core group of dedicated people, professional coaching is much more established and more widely known. We have a worldwide professional association, The International Coach Federation (ICF). The industry is filled with seasoned, long-term coaches, dedicated to supporting the profession of coaching and the development of those wishing to enter it. Steve Mitten comes to mind. Steve is a Master Coach and for 14 years has been a vanguard of the coaching profession. He has served the ICF in a number of different functions including President and today, continues to generously offer information and sound advice to beginning coaches.

That said, coaching is still a fledging profession. This can be seen as either a challenge or an opportunity, depending on your perspective. As awareness continues to expand and the value of coaching becomes increasingly validated, more opportunities for employment as a professional coach are becoming available. It’s not the same yet as going to school to become an accountant and applying for a job with H&R Block. And the opportunities are growing.

As for the profession of coaching itself, I believe that the future remains very positive. As life becomes more and more chaotic and challenging, people will have more need for professional Co-Active coaching. However and wherever our students choose to utilize the model and skills that they learned at CTI, I know that the Co-Active approach will help them forge solid alliances and interact effectively with a wide range of diverse populations – a solid foundation for success in any profession.

For those of you who are working to build a successful coaching practice, I send you encouragement and championing. Coaching is an amazing profession and, in my personal experience, well worth the hard work and dedication that it takes to build a successful business.