Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.
A. The most common types of jobs I do for clients are one-time counseling sessions.
Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A. Evaluate your expectations. Somewhere between what the client desires, and what the coach can realistically deliver, lies satisfaction.
Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?
A. Life coaches are like attorneys: each one has a specialty. Know the specialty of your life coach. My specialty is the existential aspects of careers - how work impacts one's life and subjective well-being. Every life coach should have an area of emphasis and expertise.
Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?
A. What do I hope to accomplish with his/her services? What professional backgrounds have past clients come from? What were their goals? How was he/she instrumental in helping them achieve them?
Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?
A. What they hope to accomplish with my help.
Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?
A. I’m a career specialist who approaches careers from a life perspective; not a career professional who approaches life from a career perspective.
Q. What do you like most about your job?
A. What I like most about my job is that it allows me to help people put things in perspective, assist others in framing greater possibilities, and provide people with the tools they need to remove barriers to growth to achieve career and life success. It's not a job; it's a calling.
Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A. Most people are confused about counseling and coaching. Counseling is basically a one-off deal. I make arrangements to meet with someone for an hour, they come with questions, and I help facilitate answers. Coaching is ongoing. Much in the same way a coach advises his team throughout a season, coaching clients lasts for a set period of time; typically, until they've reached a goal, or they are well on their way. It's up to them to estimate how much, and how long, they will need me, based on their goals.
Q. What do you wish customers knew about you or your profession?
A. Life coaching is really about getting in tune and in touch with the needs of people as it relates problems they wish to solve. There is no substitute for experience.
Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?
A. I didn't choose my line of work; it chose me. I was a personal manager in the music industry for a decade, and in that role, I was essentially a "career coach." It was more hands-on than what I do now, but the principles are essentially the same: providing guidance and helping people frame possibilities.
Q. Do you do any sort of continuing education to stay up on the latest developments in your field?
A. Lots of research on work happiness and positive psychology. It's really important that I keep abreast on studies that provide me with scientific insights into what impacts career success; especially as it relates to one's subjective well-being.
Q. If you have a complicated pricing system for your service, please give all the details here.
A. My pricing is simple: it's a flat rate for an hour session. After the initial phone conversation, I will determine if their needs and my objectives can be met in an hour, and they are charged accordingly. I'm flexible when it comes to extending the session to two hours, but anything beyond two hours has to be divided into multiple sessions, which of course, becomes coaching at that point - which can be done via the phone.
Q. What is your greatest strength?
A. My highy refined interpersonal communication skills. I have an innate ability to quickly understand people; know what they are about, what makes them tick, and what truly motivates them.
