We’ve been at the mentoring coal face of The Coaching Revolution since the beginning of October, and already we’re seeing breakthroughs with some of our mentees. As we’re so new and our community is still quite small, we have been able to offer 1:1 coaching/mentoring for the joining fee. What that has meant is that we’ve become very well acquainted with the new coaches/mentors and deeply involved in their business goals.
We’ve learnt that there are as many people out there who’d like to mentor people as there are those who’d like to coach them. In both cases, they have the relevant skills and experience. What they don’t have is the knowledge of how to get these to market – and that’s where we come in.
You Know What You Don’t Know
It’s often said that you don’t know what you don’t know. What I’ve learnt from the people I’ve been mentoring is that they do know what they don’t know.
My mentees are people who have lots of experience in a particular field, gained in some cases, over a lifetime. The thing about a lifetime’s experience is, of course, that it takes a lifetime to gain it. With all this knowledge and experience tends to come a passion to help younger people (particularly younger business people) benefit from it. Why after all, should we let others make the mistakes we made, when we can help them to avoid these often painful pitfalls?
Experience in a specialist field doesn’t however, automatically translate into an ability to ‘monetise’ that experience. This is what my mentees have in common; they absolutely know what they don’t know. They don’t know how to turn their experience and knowledge into a viable business.
Experience In Spades – How To Make A Living From It
Knowing what you can do for someone is great. Finding those someones to do it for is not quite so easy. What Sarah, Hank and I do is help you to overcome that hurdle and understand where to find clients who can and will pay.
Wanting to work with, say, students is great, but can they afford to pay you? If students are definitely your ideal clients, is there another way to find funding to help them? Whatever your preferred arena, you need to be able to make a living working there. If it’s not possible, then you need to have another think.
I occasionally hear that ‘the market is saturated’. It isn’t. Lots of coaches working in a particular area (and actually making a living doing it) means that there really is a call for that type of coaching.
Mentoring Isn’t Theoretical
I have been very fortunate in my coaching career. I was able to make a 6-figure income in my first year and have increased this figure year-on-year ever since. Prior to being a coach, I have decades of business experience, both running my own and working for others. I’ve been unusual in being able to turn the sales and business development skills from my past into coaching clients in the present. I’m able to use this knowledge and experience to help my mentees find and engage their own clients.
One of the things that I have been blown away by is just how receptive my mentees have been. It’s why I use the phrase ‘mentoring coal face’. I have been honoured to work with some fabulous people who have tremendous knowledge to share. They have taken my help and are turning that help into their own success.