My marketing coach recommended I include this question in a personal interview statement designed to answer questions from potential clients about what I do, my qualifications, how I work, and the benefit they will get from working with me. This question is designed to build trust between the client and the provider. I share it here for that purpose, as well as to present the suggestion to others of preparing a similar response for themselves. It's a part of telling your story, which is a valuable marketing tool.
The question is: How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be doing it? Go ahead and send me your statement of how you came to be doing what you do; and I will post here those that I can with or without your name as you like. Email me at raycoach@rcn.com.
My question: How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be a coach for legal professional?
While the coaching profession is relatively young, 10 or so years, I have been coaching all my life - from programs I developed as an undergraduate in college to my children’s soccer team. I learned about coaching as a profession in 1997 when I was developing a program to utilize the stimulus of nature (another passion of mine) to help people clarify their vision. I found a mentor who told me that what I was trying to do fell into the realm of a business or personal coach, and with his encouragement I completed training with one of the top coach training institutions in the country. I feel it is what I am supposed to do.
From the start of the training I was required to get clients; and, as they say, I never looked back. I now coach attorneys, small business owners, entrepreneurs and executives. I also now teach in the coach training certificate program at New York University.
As I started to coach, I focused on my experience and knowledge about small business. I have been a small business owner, myself, for over 20 years, and come from a family where my father, his father and his father, as well as all my siblings have been small business owners – a kind of apprenticeship.
I now coach people in the context of their work and remain committed to working with people around their business or profession. The “what do you do” response from the businessperson or entrepreneur always draws my attention. A business, to me, is about providing a service or product, and taking care of a problem or need that someone has; and I never get tired in hearing people’s stories in how they do this.
While a good work-life balance is critical to success – and I have worked successfully with a number of attorneys on their balance issue - business people and professionals spend 50-75% of their life being of direct service to others through work, family and community involvement. For the better or worse, most of this is work and the balance of one’s time is spent eating and sleeping. I love to hear what people do for a living.
I identified a niche of coaching attorneys when I noticed that most of my clients were attorneys, and found working with them to be challenging and rewarding. I find attorneys to be intelligent people, handling complex situations, leading complex lives requiring thought, integrity and understanding of human relationships. Being an integral part in helping people who help others is gratifying. As far as the connection to small business goes, a successful law practices is a small businesses.
Equally exciting, and for the same reasons, I enjoy working with entrepreneurs.
I have a belief about our innate talents and supporting what we well naturally, rather than trying to make improvements in areas that we do not have natural abilities. I became a coach to help others develop and excel at their own strengths – to help people operate from their greatest gifts and talents and be nourished by what they do – so that at the end of the day you are more energized than when you started the day. Coaching does that for me, and I want it for my clients.
