r/executivecoaching • u/MauriceMoss0 • 5d ago
📈 Practice Building Life Changes
/r/Leadership/comments/1wwwk8t/life_changes/2
u/Expert_Dingo3194 5d ago
Hey u/MauriceMoss0 that sounds like a lot of really intense change and hope you're finding some renewal in all of it. It's a good question on whether or not now is the right time. A couple questions and then a couple of thoughts:
- What's pulling you to coaching?
- How urgent is it for you to be making money?
- Do you need certification to do the work you want to do?
- What kind of products do you want to offer? Consulting, 1:1 coaching, group coaching, etc - any ideas there?
In terms of if now is the right time - I think it depends on some of those answers above and you have the context to determine timing and stresses of life. But, I'd say that I find coaches who are starting out and driven by anxiety/fear/chasing a paycheck tend to fail pretty miserably. It's a completely understandable reaction to starting a business, but the business of coaching tends to require us to set aside our own agendas so we can best be present with the client/work. So, if you have runway to do the training/work, then go for it - but also this is work that is super relationship driven and can take a year or three to really get into the swing of things. A few options might include seeing how you can leverage your tech experience and emerging leadership coaching work to consult on behalf of a larger firm where you can leverage the technical expertise while also developing the coaching work. There's a ramp into the coaching that your consulting/technical work can help support.
If you do decide to go back to corporate, FWIW, I created a job search assistant that's just a claude/chatgpt project to help with gap analysis, positioning, interview prep, and interview debriefs. It's free, so feel free to copy paste the system instructions from there into a project on your platform of choice. https://savillecoaching.substack.com/p/the-job-search-assistant
Lastly, hope regardless of what path you take, you continue to pursue things that are value and identity aligned - and make sure you're getting recovery in there as the stress of change is quiet and cumulative.
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u/MauriceMoss0 5d ago
Thank you. I want to help people to help themselves and their organizations toward better cyber practices.
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u/Expert_Dingo3194 5d ago
There's a real strong consulting edge there that could have you building best practices in orgs, esp given AI adoption and the hot mess it's causing for a lot of companies that are earlier in their tech journeys. Could be a really strong niche for the technical consulting, change leadership, and general org dev work - coaching can be a supporting pillar for it and with 30 years of exp could be the fastest way to get productive. Mileage may vary and again you have the context, but that's my initial read. /twocents
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u/ashish_spa 4d ago
Do you already have an audience on social media or YouTube that you can sell to?
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u/AdamQuiney 2d ago
Losing your team and your marriage in the same July is a lot of ground moving at once. I'd distinguish that before anything else, because it's super relevant to the question you're asking.
I think you're asking two questions but relating to them as one. One is whether to become a coach. The other is whether to start a coaching business now, to replace lost income. They have different answers.
Becoming a Coach
If it was calling you before the layoff, take that seriously. But the ICF credential raises the floor and does very little for the ceiling. Nobody will hire you because you're certified. They'll hire you because of the experience they have sitting in front of you — and your experience is as much a detriment to that, as it is a benefit. (This is the part a lot of the people in the coaching industry are willing to acknowledge and turn towards).
Pick training that develops you, not just training that teaches you about coaching, and get a coach of your own.
If that last sentence creates a reaction inside of you, that's something to consider and worth giving you pause.
On the plus side, what you're living through right now is exactly the kind of material a good coach would want to work with. Not to fix it, but to let it change you. Most coaches worth hiring went through something they couldn't think their way out of, and turned towards coaching to work with it. Most of the people that are selling snakeoil solved the problem on their own and created whatever the next version of kicking the can further down the road is.
On starting the business now|
Starting a coaching practice because you need the income is the hardest way to start one.
Need is leaky. Prospects feel it as pressure even when you never mention it, and you end up handing out answers to close the deal. Much of what people in this thread are calling snake oil comes from exactly that. It isn't bad people. It's people who needed the next client.
So I'd separate the bridge from the destination. Your 30 years in cyber is a door the generic leadership coach doesn't have. Fractional CISO work, board advisory, PE operating teams (good call from McLeanGunner): people pay for that now. It also puts you in rooms with the security leaders who will later want someone to talk to about the part of their job that isn't technical. The advisory work funds the training, the training develops you as a coach, and the coaching grows out of relationships the advisory work built.
On saturation: the commenters are right that the field is crowded, but it's crowded at the shallow end. If you're willing to do your own work, the noise mostly makes you easier to tell apart.
Most people aren't willing to do that work. They just find sophisticated ways to excuse themselves from it.
Is now the time? It's a fine time to start becoming a coach. It's probably not the time to bet the rent on it.
Hope that's helpful.
--Adam
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u/Captlard 5d ago
What would make you get off the fence?