What’s Your Job Title?
Job titles are for the employed. They are for people who need a box to live in. I don’t mean to be unkind when I say this and I apologise if I’ve offended you, however, what I say is true. Job titles are so that the people who read them know where to put you in their corporate (or public sector) pigeon holes.
Job titles are used to signify status and knowledge, they are occasionally marketing tools, but that’s not what they are for coaches.
What Kind Of Coach Are You?
In exactly the same way that potential clients don’t care about ‘your story’ or your qualifications, nor do they care about what you call yourself. It isn’t of any interest to them. As I’ve said before (and will no doubt say again), potential clients are only interested in what’s in it for them.
I know of coaches who have agonised over what to call themselves. They have taken months to decide what to be and sadly, it makes little or no difference to the impact they have on the world. The reason that it makes no difference is that the title is often meaningless to those outside our industry.
These are some titles I’ve come across today in a quick search on LinkedIn:
- Change coach
- Dynamic coach
- Peak Performance coach
- Executive coach
- Balance coach
- Emotional Intelligence coach
- Life coach
- Business coach
- People coach
I could go on, but I hope you see what I’m getting at. Who, other than the coach themselves, and maybe those who did the same course as them, understands what each one of these coaches does?
More specifically, who knows what the difference between them is? Change coach? Isn’t that what all coaches do? Emotional intelligence coach? Who is emotionally intelligent, them or you? Or are they teaching emotional intelligence? Who knows?
Don’t Use A Title, Use A Golden Sentence
Rather than answering the question ‘what do you do?’ with something like ‘I’m a change coach’ or another job title, answer it with a Golden Sentence. This is what a golden sentence looks like:
I work with X (where X = your ideal client)
To help them (or to help them to overcome) Y (where Y = their 3am problem)
So that they can Z (where Z = the outcome of working with you)
Let me give you some examples.
I work with peri-menopausal women to help them understand what’s happening to their bodies, so that they can regain control of their lives and stop feeling like they’re going mad!
I work with working mothers, to help them to reassert themselves in the workplace so that their status of ‘mother’ doesn’t negatively impact their career.
Working with qualified coaches, to help them to find paying clients, so that they can coach for a living and not as a side-hustle.
So are two scenarios:
One, using a job title:
Other person – “Hello Sarah, what do you do?”
Me – “I’m a change coach”
Other person – ?
The alternative, using a golden sentence:
Other person – “Hello Sarah, what do you do?”
Me – “I work with qualified coaches, to help them understand how to find paying clients, so that they can have a financially viable coaching business”
Other person – ‘Oh that’s interesting, how long have you been doing that?” and the conversation carries on…..
Focus On What’s Important To Your Client (And Not Your Job Title!)
What I’m trying to impress upon you here is that what’s important isn’t what you think, it’s what your potential client thinks.
You don’t have to compromise yourself, you can still be you and stand for the things that are important to you and market yourself successfully once you take the focus off you and onto your potential client and what they need.
If you’d like to talk to me about any of this, here’s my diary link. It costs nothing to chat to me.
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