This module is about what it takes to forge an effective coaching relationship between you and the client. We’ve devoted an entire module to training you in the types of skills and strategies that will enable you to connect with the client very quickly in order to start building that relationship of trust, honesty, and mutual respect right away. Part of this involves doing certain things to let the client know that your coaching space (whether in person, on the phone, or via some other type of medium) is a place of complete safety; it’s a place where they can open up without fear of being judged, criticized or labeled.

How successful you are in these beginning stages of the coaching process also depends greatly on how you choose to engage with the client. Of course, this involves setting the stage with powerful insights and questions, but a big part of it is also about knowing how to just sit back and observe, to receive the information presented to you with an open heart and mind.

In this module, you’re going to learn:

• Why building a strong relationship of rapport, fostering a relationship of open communication, and creating an environment of safety is of paramount importance to the coaching process.
• Tips and techniques that will help you build a space of trust and safety with the client.
• A simple way to evaluate your listening skills in order to discover where you are strong and where you could use some improvement.
• Techniques to quickly build rapport with your clients.
• The art of “Powerful Questions” – what they are, why they are important, and how you can use them for maximum success with your clients.
• A comprehensive list of Powerful Questions to utilize as a resource when practicing your coaching skills and working with clients.

A lot of what determines your success will take place before the coaching sessions begin. The old saying, “Success happens when preparation meets opportunity,” sums up exactly what we mean. This section is about putting in some of the “Groundwork” that must be done in order to get your coaching practice off the ground. Part of this is about creating a unique identity for your business that tells people right away why they should work with you as opposed to someone else.

Setting the stage for success also means you are doing the work to release any of your own internal conflicts that could potentially hold you back. This might require you to challenge many ideas you previously held to be true. You may have to learn to see yourself and the business of coaching in completely new ways. To become a really great coach entails discovering deeper truths about yourself and other people.

You must insist that your clients engage with you and themselves at this level of complete honesty. Otherwise, the work you do will be ineffective. Until people are truly ready to get brutally honest with themselves, the type of transformative change that we create as coaches cannot take place.

Here is what you’re going to learn in this module:

• How you can use specializing to set you apart from the competition and create a stream of clients eager to pay for your services.
• Some of the unspoken beliefs that hold many coaches back from achieving their true potential.
• The principles of “Adult Learning” and why they are important for you to know.
• An instructional tool known as the “Cone of Experience” to help you design learning processes to fit your clients’ individual needs.
• What the “Coaching Agreement” is, and how you can create one that gives you a professional image, sets expectations and boundaries, and elicits “Buy-In” from the client.
• A sample “Coaching Contract” you can use for your practice.
• The value of having each client fill out a comprehensive “Intake Form” before you begin the first session, why this tool is so indispensable, and the types of valuable information you can gather from it.
• A full and thorough intake form to use with your clients.

In this module, we’re going to cover what to do in your first coaching session with a client. You are going to discover why it’s probably much easier than you think to make this process work. A lot of times, promising coaches fail to see that they will get results with clients, as long as they continue to utilize the tools, techniques, and strategies they’ve learned in training. But what we’re going to do in this section is walk you through the basics of getting your client started in the right direction by creating a vision, establishing an objective, and laying out some steps that will move them closer to their desired outcome.

This is about putting everything in place to give your client the very best odds for achieving success. You’re going to take what they imagine in their head and lay it out in a more tangible and achievable format; you’re going to take what they’ve only dreamed of and change it into a very achievable possibility.

This is what you will be learning in this section:

• Why it’s important to both understand and rely on the process of coaching.
• The value of establishing a “Direction” with your clients as opposed to only focusing on the achievement of goals.
• The principles of setting “Goals” for maximum success – how to make sure your client creates objectives that are well formed and sensible to pursue.
• Why all of your “Action Plans” should be customized to fit the individual needs of your client.
• A script that exemplifies a very effective way to reinforce the action plan and make sure it works.
• How to make sure your client has the resources and tools they need to successively achieve what they want.
• How to break down very large plans and goals into smaller, more manageable chunks (script included).
• How to give your client’s subconscious mind a clear target through imagination.
• And much more…

In this module, we’re going to talk about different ways you can modify your client’s coaching program and, as a result, accelerate their ability to get what they want. In order to do this, you must observe what is occurring in the client’s life by looking at the results they’re getting, and from that, figure out whether learning certain skills might help them get what they want even faster.

At this point, you are also going to help your client to think of things they can do to bring both their outer world and inner desires into alignment. In other words, you’re going to create a plan they can use to maximize their environment for success. Our lives are integrated and interrelated with the lives of others. Everyone else is looking to satisfy their own needs, fulfill their own agenda, and basically take care of themselves.

Therefore, in order to have the best chance at achieving success, your client must learn to work with and around other people. This means the ideal thing to do would be to enlist their help and support in making their dreams a reality. That’s what you’re going to learn to help them do in this section.

This is what you’re going to learn in this module:

• How to help your client develop new abilities that will enable them to achieve what they want faster and easier than they may have thought possible before.
• How to determine which skill sets and aptitudes your client should work on developing first.
• Exercises that will help you identify and work on skills you need to improve to become a great coach.
• The ways in which your client’s everyday environment can become either their greatest advantage or biggest hindrance.
• Different types of environments your client may be a part of and how each one can affect them in different ways.
• How to help your clients create and sustain supportive environments that will facilitate their progress and success.
• A full breakdown and explanation of the International Coach Federation’s (ICF) “Core Competencies” and how they are used and applied to real-life coaching situations.

In this section, you’re going to learn some different coaching models that can assist you in helping your client identify their true desires, discover untapped resources, and come up with specific action steps that will move them closer to what they want. This is about working with a systematic strategy that facilitates the progression from one level of achievement to the next.

When you have a coaching model to work from, it gives you a structure that is virtually guaranteed to get results. All you have to do is insert details from the client’s life – their goals and objectives, their challenges, obstacles, and environmental conditions – and the process will reveal to them the most logical thing to do next.

In this sixth module, you’re going to learn:

• Why a systemized coaching strategy can be a great tool to help you stay on track with clients and facilitate their progress from wherever they are.
• The “FUEL” model – a four-step coaching system that helps to increase your client’s level of awareness and opens possibilities for them at the subconscious level.
• A working model of the FUEL questions and structure.
• The GROW model – a way of facilitating positive coaching conversation and to point your client’s mind in the direction of solutions.
• Sample GROW model questions to use with your clients.
• The “Personal Brilliance Model” – a strategy that gives you a deep understanding of who your client is now and who they are to become in order to achieve their objectives.
• A Personal Brilliance Model assessment you can use to evaluate your strengths for using this system.
• How to use the “Wheel of Life” – a tool that gives your client a visual evaluation of different areas of their life and illustrates where they are out of balance.

In this section, we’re going to explore the metaphoric nature of subconscious communication. The subconscious mind does not communicate in words or verbal language; those are attributes of the conscious mind. The subconscious expresses itself through images, feelings, metaphors, and analogies.

We know that virtually all problems exist at the subconscious level of the mind. It just doesn’t make sense for the client to consciously create and maintain challenges because then they wouldn’t really be challenges. The client would simply use their conscious intellect to resolve issues in the same way they made them up in the first place.

Because subconscious communication is metaphorical in nature, it means that oftentimes your client’s problems will be figurative representations of deeper issues. This means the presenting problem might not be the main problem, but merely something that symbolizes what’s going on in another area of your client’s life. In fact, the challenge your client is facing could simply be mirroring a circumstance or dynamic they saw someone else going through earlier in their life. This is where things can get very interesting and maybe even a bit strange, to say the least. However, working with metaphors is a very powerful way to facilitate effective and long-lasting change on the subconscious level.

Here is what you’re going to learn in this module:

• How your client’s present problem, their relationships, and even the language they use to describe their life can be metaphorical representations of deeper issues.
• How certain figures of speech can be literal translations of how the client is experiencing their problem.
• How cultural paradigms can reinforce beliefs and thought patterns that limit your client’s capacity for behavioral flexibility.
• Powerful tools useful in setting your clients free from the metaphorical cages they have created for themselves.
• How to give your client access to the experiences, perspectives, and resources of other people by stepping into different “Perceptual Positions.”
• The power of using other people in your client’s life as resources to help them progress.

Now we’re going to get into some of the more advanced skill sets and interventions that can become very important parts of your coaching toolkit. These are the higher-level techniques that few professional coaches really understand or know how to utilize effectively.

Everything your client does is motivated by a positive intention on some level. In this section, we’re exploring a process that will enable you to find out what that intention is and to elevate your client’s focus, to fulfill his needs at a much higher level. This highly powerful technique will enable you to facilitate incredible changes in your client’s lives.

In this module, you’re going to learn:

• A diagram and description of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – a model that explains how and under what circumstances people are internally motivated to pursue different levels of needs.
• The “Transcendence” approach – an incredibly powerful, life-changing tool that will enable you to guide your client into the fulfillment of his highest-level intention.
• A full script that demonstrates how to perform the Transcendence technique from start to finish.
• Why problems are really tools of communication and how to detect what’s being said in the client’s life on a deeper level.

In this module, you’re going to learn the techniques and strategies to increase your client’s capacity for accelerated learning. The more you can help your client learn, the more they will experience transformation in a much shorter time frame. We’ve come to understand that the relationship between time and learning is an important one to coach.

To facilitate change, you will also need to help your clients alter their behavior and transform their habits. Your clients’ habits are controlled by a part of their mind called the “Unconscious Mind,” and in this section, we’re going to give you some great tools to help them take control and start using their mind in new ways.

Here is what you’re going to learn in this module:

• Why Accelerated Learning is an essential component of your coaching skills set.
• The “Swish” pattern – an incredibly powerful, life-changing tool that enables you to help your client replace habits that don’t serve them with habits that do.
• A full script that demonstrates how to perform the Swish pattern from start to finish.
• How to help your client build “Mental Bridges” in order to cross over from one state of mind to another.
• The “New Behavior Generator” – a tool that allows your clients to rehearse their new behaviors in the safety of their imagination.
• A full script that demonstrates how to perform the New Behavior Generator technique from start to finish.
• What “Anchoring” is and how it can become one of your most powerful tools in facilitating change with your clients.
• How to use anchoring to help your clients access the resourceful states of being and bring them into different contexts.

We are all designed to be “Creators.” We’re at our happiest and most fulfilled when we are creating, designing, and developing new aspects of ourselves and our lives. As a coach, you will need to help your clients get to this place by giving them access to their own abilities as creators of their own destinies.

As you progress in your own coaching practice, you will begin to recognize the patterns of life that seem to repeat themselves over and over again. These are the deep patterns and structures that have come to define your client’s way of being. If these patterns are not working in their favor, then they are clearly going to need to be upgraded.

In this final module, you’re going to learn:

• What it really means to “Design Your Destiny” – the essence of what you’re trying to facilitate for your clients.
• How to give your clients a practical understanding of “Modeling” – a process that enables them to step into the reality of their desired future in order to create a roadmap to get there.
• A full script that demonstrates how to perform the Modeling technique from start to finish.
• What “Sleight of Mouth” patterns are and how they can become one of your most powerful tools to help clients experience transformation on a very deep level.
• How to use Sleight of Mouth patterns to help your clients reframe their perceptions and change their beliefs about what’s possible.
• A full script that demonstrates how to perform a Sleight of Mouth pattern from start to finish.
• How to prepare your client to deal with potential challenges that may arise after the coaching sessions have concluded.
• How to transition your client to a more self-reliant place where they don’t need you to help them think or make decisions for them anymore.