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Coaching as a Digital Nomad

Coaching as a Digital Nomad

In today’s world, coaches are free to use advanced technology to become location free or, so-called digital nomads. It is technically possible to connect with our clients via video calls and perform our other tasks online. However, is it a realistic option when it comes specifically to coaching?

When leaving Europe to start my digital nomad adventure in Southeast Asia, I got bombarded with questions from my fellow coaches. Was it going to be possible to sustain my coaching business while working remotely? How was I going to get new clients? How could I make sure I have a stable internet connection everywhere? To be honest, it was overwhelming at the time. I had a plan, but was I sure it was going to work out? Not really.

Just like my colleagues, I had some limiting beliefs about running a coaching business while traveling. The nomadic lifestyle looked great on Instagram. But what was the reality going to be like? I did not know, but I chose to trust that I will be able to deal with the challenges this journey was about to bring.

Did I succeed? If success means have I been learning a lot? Has this experience expanded my range? Have I sustained my business, happy clients and my mental sanity? Then my answer is YES!

Would I recommend such an adventure to everyone? Yes and no. The truth is, once you are on the road, your business is not going to be the same. So, if you are considering running your coaching business while traveling, the main question is: Are you ready to embrace change?

And what changes can you expect?

1. Your environment will be different, and you will be the same person.

By saying yes to your dreams, you are not automatically saying no to your responsibilities. If you are a responsible person in your “real” life, it is not going to change once you become a digital nomad, not without your permission. However, if you are fighting an endless battle with your procrastination, working from a tropical island might not help you to focus on work.

What is your real motivation to change your lifestyle?

2. You might start attracting different clients.

Yes, there are people out there who think remote working makes you an irresponsible hippie. If you let your potential clients know about your lifestyle, what people will be excited to work with you? There is a chance that your clientele is going to change. This can impact the way you think about your business and your ideal clients.

Who are your ideal clients?

3. You are the one choosing your perspective on your challenges.

Working with clients in different time zones can be a challenge or an opportunity to redesign your idea of what your working day could look like.

Can you embrace change and explore the opportunities the transformation of your daily routine might bring?

4. You will let go of some of your standards.

Perhaps you are used to working with your clients in a meeting room, wearing freshly ironed shirts. As a digital nomad, you might be forced to coach from your phone, sitting on a trash bin, with lizards running on the wall behind you.

After eight months on the road, my imaginary list of must-haves to perform my work got reduced to three things: stable internet connection, (relative) silence and privacy. But even these simple things have a different definition in other parts of the world. So, it becomes essential to always have a plan B (and C and sometimes D).

This is an opportunity to boost your creativity and problem-solving skills and amaze yourself with your ability to stay grounded, 100% focused on your client, no matter what your working conditions are.

Are you ready to expand your coaching comfort zone?

5. Just like traveling, remote working is a journey, not a destination.

Each destination brings a new set of challenges. And that can be amazing and/or stressful. Staying in the present moment is the only way to enjoy your journey because you never know what will come next.

How are you dealing with uncertainty?

Final Words

Once you become physically distant from your clients and your environment, your fancy gear and pretty clothes, all that is left is you, your skills and your ability to be fully present for your clients.

Coaching as a digital nomad can be an intense boot camp of one’s own flexibility, self-management and resilience. It enables you to expand as a person and as a coach in many unexpected ways. At the end of the day, all you need to be a great coach is yourself. And the more you expand your own range, the more space you can offer your clients.

This is a share from Coach Federation.org, all content is their original content. The original post can be found here: https://coachfederation.org/blog/coaching-as-a-digital-nomad

About the Author: Anna Kmetova, ACC, CPCC, is a Life and Career Coach who empowers open-minded individuals to lead authentic and fulfilling lives through guided one-to-one sessions. When she is not supporting personal transformation, she helps companies implement a coaching culture. Anna is based in Amsterdam. From November 2018–August 2019, she has supported her clients remotely from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan. 

https://www.annakmetova.com/

The Allure of Chaos

The Allure of Chaos

 

Those born to the storm find the calm very boring.
Dorothy Parker

What is the most common addiction we have as humans?  The magnetic pull we predictably will return to, no matter how good our lives are?

We rationally desire peace and stability, yet paradoxically have attraction to disruption and calamity.  We rubberneck the unexpected incident of the absurd, the unsystematic, the disruption, the haphazard.

Curiosity engages the brain’s focus.  Anticipation prompts the pleasurable release of dopamine.  When novelty arouses curiosity, we have emotional interest in finding out what happens next.  Mysteries compel engagement; unresolved problems become preoccupying; suspense sustains interest.  Our natural inclinations to focus attention couples with special notice to events that contradict what we already believe, activating the error detection mechanism of the brain.

Our most common addiction:  problems.  By re-entering this habitual domain, we engage invigorating narrative, and paradoxically, the comfort zone of the familiar.  Just as we buy emotionally by making purchase decisions first at a midbrain level and then justify logically seconds later in the rational, conscious forebrain, we are immediately enticed by chaos.  We then subsequently seek to make sense of it.

While we attune to chaos narratives of the unexpected, we seek the seemingly contradictory certainty of the predictable.  This simultaneous dialectic engages the disruptor to prompt the mind’s desire for closure, and the brain’s attempt to end dissonance.

What makes us curious?  Seeking an answer is itself the initial reason and reward of dopamine release in our engagement with chaos.  The desire to bring closure and end dissonance by mind and brain means that cause and effect will be attributed, correctly or not.

The activating thrill of chaos may be the reason that we currently have our current political scenarios, combined with the no longer latent emotions expressed by leaders in the inciting words and ideas that then become contagious.

Ed Lorenz conceptualized chaos theory in the 1960s in this way:  The initial state of events may seem unrelated and random, but eventually a pattern emerges.  This study of phenomena that appear random, but in fact have an element of regularity, may eventually be understood using a different framework and organizing concept.  In the end, all the pieces fit together.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.   (John Lennon)

 

Reprinted from the NeuroMentor® Blog Series by David Krueger, MD at www.MentorPath.com

DAVID KRUEGER, M.D., Dean of Curriculum and Mentor Coach at Coach Training Alliance, is an Executive Mentor Coach who works with executives and professionals to develop and sustain success strategies. A former Professor, Psychiatrist, and Psychoanalyst, his coaching and writing focus on the art and science of success strategies: mind over matters. He founded and served as CEO for two healthcare corporations, co-founded a third start-up that went from venture capital to merger/acquisition.

Dave is author of 17 books on success, money, wellness and self-development. His latest book, The Secret Language of Money(McGraw Hill), is a Business Bestseller translated into 10 languages.

My One Word

My One Word

Many people are moving from resolutions to the idea of choosing one word to define, inspire, refresh or motivate a change they are looking for in the year ahead. This movement aligns so well with coaching as a profession.

Think for a moment about “coaching” or “coach” in the context of your One Word if you are a part of this movement. If the One Word movement is new to you, play with the idea of a word choice for your coming year.

Here at Coach Training Alliance, our word for 2018 is SHIFT.

As the President of Coach Training Alliance, I want to personally invite you to hear our very own Lisa Pisano explore the idea of SHIFT and share how viral SHIFT can be – it literally has changed the lives of thousands of our graduates and then multiplied onto their paying clients.

SHIFT into the possibility of your own sustained practice.

SHIFT into a career where feeding the change others want to see is personally rewarding.

SHIFT into a 2018 fueled by a community of educators that have guided the paths of so may great people like you looking for the next great SHIFT in their lives…

Please join Lisa here: https://www.coachtrainingalliance.com/becoming-a-coach-workshop/

Author: Chris Osborn is the President of Coach Training Alliance. His lifelong learning includes experience as CEO of a large financial services company and founder of several growth oriented service companies.

On Change and Transition

On Change and Transition

There are things we don’t want to happen, but have to accept; things we don’t want to know, but have to learn; people we can’t live without, but have to let go. And some things we can get ready for only after they’ve already happened.

The change is the event. The situation. You move to a new city, divorce, retire, experience a significant loss, take a new job, lose an old one, or change careers. As we focus on change, we address the rituals of change, the work tools, the strategic goals. And every ending begins something new. The transition is the process. It’s the internal story of change: a shift in orientation, even in definition. In transition, we let go of the old story, the outlived chapter, and evolve into a new story. A new identity internalizes the changes to sustain and enhance them. Otherwise, this most powerful organizer of the human psyche, our identity, is what we return to no matter what new behaviors we engage in – unless we evolve our identity along with the new experiences. We can develop a transition story that provides the coherence to reassure in the present and foreshadow the future.

The ability to understand the dynamics of both change and transition, and to craft a meaningful story is essential to the success of dealing with significant life change. The strategically informed bridge between past and present creates a successful passage to the uncertain future. There is both an art and science of coaching transitions: understanding the dynamics, developmental stages, and strategic steps. It’s the ending that makes the beginning possible.

Author – Dr. David Krueger, M.D., is a Trainer/Mentor Coach and Dean of Curriculum at Coach Training Alliance. His latest book, The Secret Language of Money (McGraw Hill) is a Business Bestseller translated into 10 languages.

The Answer is Group Life Coaching

The Answer is Group Life Coaching

The Question Is…     

What is a legitimate coaching business model, that only takes the same marketing effort as one new one-to-one client, that leverages your time and your earning potential, and is highly profitable?     

That’s right! Group Coaching!     

We used to believe that group coaching was an extension of one-to-one work with our clients. We believed that we could only fill groups with the folks who were already in our “base”.

The truth is that Group Coaching is a legitimate business model. It takes the same marketing time, skill and effort to market, enroll and fill an entire Coaching Group as it does to get one new one-to-one client! Group Coaching is the best way to leverage your time and earning potential as a coach; meaning you serve more clients, in less time, for more dollars.

The Benefits of Group Life Coaching
When you facilitate small coaching groups you…

Position yourself very competitively in the marketplace;
Create demand for your expertise;
Deliver accessible, affordable and tremendously valuable services;
Charge group clients less than your one-to-one clients;
Greatly increase your own hourly earnings in the most highly profitable coaching service you can include in your mix of services.

In today’s economic environment people need our services more than ever before and we have an obligation to be available to support our clients. Group Coaching is a delivery system that allows us to do just that, at a price point that people can afford, and in a format that will leverage our time and be highly profitable.

I wish you well on your journey to Be, Do and Have everything in your life that supports and affirms your best and most brilliant, passionate Self! Good luck in all your group coaching endeavors!

Author Dr. Jackie Black, an internationally recognized relationship expert, has spent over 15 years in a corporate environment and built two successful businesses. Learn more about Jackie here: https://www.drjackieblack.com/meet-dr-jackie-black/