My Coaching Philosophy

After giving a speech two years ago to a Women’s Group focused on Professional Development and Networking, one of the attendees approached me. She said: “Your biography mentioned you specialize in coaching. I really need a coach to help me through this situation I’m in. Can I tell you about my situation and you tell me what to do?” Smiling, I replied: “Well, coaching doesn’t exactly work that way. My coaching philosophy centers on the power, expertise, and ability resting within the client. Two pillar roles I play are helping people to develop a clear vision of what they want, then assisting them construct a clear path to get from their current point to their ideal goal. However, there is not much ‘telling clients what to do’. Perhaps I can ask a few questions to help you grasp what you believe is best – among your decisions.” We discussed and she landed on a decision all with no direction provided from me! Later – about six months – I was able to see the joy her decision brought into her life. She did it!

Situations like the one above are completely common in the arena of coaching. Just yesterday, I received a phone call asking about what industries I support as a coach. “Do you do business coaching or only personal coaching?” A great question, indeed. The short answer: Coaching transcends industry; it is not limited to one industry.

Below you will find answers to Frequently Asked Questions regarding my coaching philosophy:

1. What areas of my life can coaching help in?

Financial:

• Increasing income via job promotions and/or business revenue
• Saving with purpose
• Deliberate investing for optimal return
• Creating habits to promote wealth building
• And more!

Romantic Relationships:

• Establishing expectations
• Navigating conflict resolution
• Cultivating communication habits to build mutual love and respect
• Keeping the love alive
• Prioritizing the energy of the relationship
• And more!

Emotional Intelligence & Mindset:

• Growing in mindfulness
• Using emotions to connect with others
• Understanding the emotions of others
• Implementing success mindset strategies
• Leveraging obstacles as sources of strength
• And more!

Social Relationships:

• Building meaningful connections with friends
• Creating healthy boundaries with others
• Expressing admiration
• Showing appreciation in a manner that resonates with others
• And more!

Health & Fitness

• Optimizing behaviors to craft habits that last
• Setting accountability tactics in place to fuel success
• Making small movements forward to create big results
• Managing stress to optimize peace
• And more!

Family

• Communicating expectations
• Navigating conflict resolution with maturity
• Listening to maximum effectiveness
• Demonstrating love in a manner than resonates
• Establishing boundaries to promote holistic harmony
• And more!

Career and/or Business:

• Attaining a promotion within the organization
• Attracting the right number of the right clients
• Marketing for maximum impact
• Influencing your superiors for success
• Demonstrating appreciation in the workplace in a manner that connects
• Building the skills for effective leadership
• Focusing on a personal growth plan to optimize results
• And more!

Spirituality

• Cultivating meaning from obstacles
• Viewing the powerful virtues present at all times
• Landing on a reason to be forgiving
• Displaying kindness and gratitude in response to cruelty 
• Finding peace during even problematic times
• And more!

Community Impact

• Making a positive difference in people’s lives
• Giving with your skills and your resources
• Targeting an impact with meaning and depth
• And more!

Effectiveness & Time Management

• Maximizing your calendar for optimal results
• Staying focused on your strengths
• Prioritizing with precision
• Creating plans for the next 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 5 years
• Inserting rest & relaxation to energize with purpose
• And more!

Values & Virtues

• Cultivating character growth
• Choosing life pillars to use as filters for decisions
• Leveraging virtues to overcome vices
• And more!

2. Will coaching help me? (12 questions to gauge fit)

• Are you hungry to change and grow?

• Are you driven to improve yourself?

• Are you ready to implement new assumptions, values, and behaviors to best elevate your life?

• Are you eager to reconstruct your priorities to optimize growth, if necessary?

• Are you motivated to invest in yourself with training, reading, listening, and new experiences to maximize change and growth?

• Are you energized by learning from and emulating others?

• Are you enthusiastic about achieving goals in your life?

• Are you ambitious about visualizing your future?

• Are you intent on enduring, persevering, and overcoming obstacles in striving toward your goals?

• Are you avid about being accountable to another person?

• Are you earnest in your belief in yourself, knowing you are worth the investment?

• Are you aware of the vital difference between coaching, consulting, and counseling?

3. How is coaching different from counseling?

Counseling is for powerful healing; coaching is for transformational achieving.

Counseling works with people in their weaknesses; coaching works with centering people on their strengths.

Counseling is focused on the past and functioning in the present; coaching is about elevating existing success toward an even better future.

Counseling is for people who perhaps need therapy to overcome (1) painful wounds from the past, (2) interferences related with mental health, and (3) problematic behaviors; coaching is for those building vision and creatively navigating toward greater accomplishment.

Counseling is a fantastic option for people who have needs best met in that arena; coaching is not a replacement for those who would best benefit from counseling.

Overall, assess your core needs and prioritize what is best for you.

4. How is coaching different from consulting (mentoring)?

Consulting is for you if you believe someone else has the answer you need; coaching is for you who believe the answer is already within you.

Consulting is for finding an organization/person who has success principles for you to implement and emulate; coaching is for implementing what you have already learned.

Consulting is for you who are striving to overcome the “knowledge gap”; coaching is for you who are striving to overcome the “implementation gap”.

Consulting is for you to lean on an expert for their competence; coaching is for you who already have thorough knowledge, expertise, and competence.

Consulting is for attaining the best practices of what the consultants have done, are doing, or would do in the your position; coaching is for you if you know what needs to be done, but need the support and accountability in putting what you know into practice.

Consulting investigates and clarifies the crucial problems in your business; coaching is for you who have pinpointed the problem yet need to carry out the solution.

5. What does a coach do for me?

Empowers you to:

• Unlock and realize your potential
• Build your confidence
• Clarify and expand your goals
• Refine your vision
• Channel your energy
• Establish actions to facilitate goal achievement
• Focus on your strengths
• Achieve greater success
• Generate more income
• Break through barriers
• Fulfill your dreams
• Increase your skills
• Navigate through transitions
• Journey inward to understand underlying core beliefs that are blocking success

6. What happens in coaching?

Together, we:

• • Explore the area of life where growth is most desired (see question 1 for examples)
  • Examine current situation/circumstances
  • Determine future vision/goals
  • Identify obstacles/barriers
  • Specify a game plan for overcoming stated barriers
  • Attain a commitment to a course of actions, changes that best facilitate success
  • Encourage, build, and establish confidence
  • Maintain accountability on prior decisions, commitments

7. What are common myths associated with coaching?

Myth: A coach will tell me what to do.

Truth: A coach will empower me to navigate toward actions I see as vital, best, and ideal.

Myth: A coach should be the expert in the industry in which he/she is coaching.

Truth: A coach believes the expertise, knowledge, and competence is already in the client. The coach merely brings this expertise, knowledge, competence to the client’s awareness to establish confidence and then move toward goal achievement.

Myth: A coach is my own personal motivational speaker.

Truth: Ideally, a coach is motivating and inspiring. However, motivation may get you going, it is discipline that keeps you growing. The coach will help the client develop strategies to help the client stay focused even when feeling unmotivated.

Myth: I will need to meet monthly with a coach forever.

Truth: After you develop strategies and principles that contribute to success again and again, the client determines what support is best to sustain continued success.

8. How do I know if I should choose/keep a coach?

Take advantage of free consultation, if possible.

• • Great chemistry: Do we connect well?
  • Encouragement: Does the coach believe in me wholeheartedly?
  • Listen attentively: Is the coach in tuned with what is being shared?
  • Focused intently: Are we engaged with the area of my life that will produce the greatest rewards?
  • Question purposefully: Do the questions have a precise aim for a specific reason?
  • Genuine interactions: Is sincerity prioritized in communication?
  • Maximize time: What did we accomplish each session?
  • Bottom line: Am I accomplishing my goals?
  • United worldview: Do we embrace similar values, principles, and goals?
  • Wise investment: Am I making more money in my job/business with a coach than I was making without a coach? (The client should always be making significantly more than they spend on coaching.)

9. How much is a Strong Life Coach session?

• We provide custom packages designed to best provide value to our clients.  Prices range from $300 – $14,400 based on the package you choose.

10. Can I actually afford coaching?

Seven years ago, my perspective on the value of coaching changed forever. I was interviewing for a leadership position within the insurance industry. A part of me felt under-qualified, ill equipped, and inadequate for the role. Who was I to think I could compete with the other incredible candidates vying for the position? Before the interview took place, I set up a few sessions with an incredible coach and dynamic leader (and now friend), Kisha. Using the skills of a phenomenal coach, she helped me focus on my strengths, built up my confidence, demonstrated that I had all of the potential, ability, and skills I needed to not only attain the role, but to blossom in the position! Thanks to Kisha’s coaching, I was offered the position! Coupled with the role was in increase of over $16,000 in salary! Now, imagine if you would have asked me to put a price tag on those three coaching sessions with Kisha. $1000 a session? $2000 a session? Wouldn’t $2000 a session be worth it for attaining a $16,000 increase in salary?!

Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right.” Any time I am investing in myself, I wrestle with one burning question: Will I get out what I put in? In other words, I am considering the potential return on my investment (ROI). More than a dollar for dollar return, I hope to receive immensely more than I invest.

What dollar figure do you attach to your dreams, goals, and fulfillment? If the goals you have for your career and business were achieved, what would your return be? What income or revenue are you missing out on right now?

Perhaps the better question: Can you afford to not invest in yourself with coaching? What are you currently missing in your life? Ultimately, I believe that your goals will be achieved and coaching expectations surpassed. Of investing in yourself, the saying is true: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously, will also reap generously.” You will receive abundantly more than you invest.

Contact me for a consultation.

Let me know what question you think should have made the top ten.

Enjoy!

Derek Daniel Guajardo

CEO of Strong Life Coach

(210) 412 – 5545

derek@stronglifecoach.com