85 | How to structure your coaching sessions

Jo Lot: 00:01:21

Hello and welcome to women in the Coaching arena podcast.

Jo Lot: 00:01:24

I'm so glad you're here.

Jo Lot: 00:01:26

I'm Jo Lot, a business mentor and ICF accredited coach, and I help coaches to build brilliant businesses.

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I know that when you prepare to enter the arena, there is fear, self doubt, comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

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You can tend to armour up and protect yourself from vulnerability.

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In this podcast, I'll be sharing honest, not hype, practical and emotional tools to support you to make the difference that you're here for.

Jo Lot: 00:01:57

Dare greatly.

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You belong in this arena.

Jo Lot: 00:02:01

Hello.

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Welcome to the 85th episode of Women in the Coaching arena.

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I am so glad you are here today.

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I'm taking a request for a topic to cover on the podcast.

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One question I get asked a lot when selling a program is how to actually run the coaching sessions themselves.

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Because as we learn in coach training, it's about what's important for you today.

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What would you like to achieve by the end of the session, rather than a program as such?

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So let's dive into how you can structure your coaching into a programme without breaking too many of the coaching rules.

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And at this point, I think it's worth saying that we need to make this a viable business.

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And if what we learn at school isn't exactly how you can create a viable business, then it's your choice as to whether you decide to market what people actually want or try to pursue something that maybe people aren't buying.

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And as an ICF ACC coach, I've done all of the qualifications and the hours, but I do want you to actually be able to do coaching.

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And it's a real shame that nowhere in that coaching process do they say does the market actually want what we're selling.

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And that's why in my own coaching business, in various different niches, from executive coaching, career coaching and now business coaching, and now helping 100 plus coaches to make a viable business.

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Think about a way of doing both, being able to do the coaching you love whilst selling something that people actually want to buy.

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So excited to cover this topic today.

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One thing that my clients mention to be often is feeling uncomfortable with selling a program because then it feels like you're in charge of the destination rather than the client being in charge of the destination.

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But this is why we choose a niche and this is why we create a program that the client actually opts into.

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So it's a shared goal.

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You want them to get a promotion, for example, because they want to get a promotion.

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It isn't your goal, it's their goal.

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They've just bought into you helping them actually achieve that goal.

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People's time is so precious and if they don't see an exact correlation between what you are offering them and their particular goal, they will think that that's not a priority for them right now.

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I had my biggest lesson with this when I was doing my coach training and one of my friends was really lacking confidence.

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You know, she'd had kids, therefore she'd taken a massive demotion and she wanted to get back into a job that she loved.

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So instead of saying to her, which is what I would now say, come work with me, I can help you to get into a job that you love, I said, come for coaching, we'll do all of this important work, we'll work on your confidence, we'll work on all the things that are stopping you.

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And she said to me, that sounds really nice, but right now I don't have time for that.

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I need to find a job.

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What I could have said is, come work with me, I'll help you get a job.

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And obviously she'll probably immediately say within that first session, I have no idea what job I want to go for and I've lost all of my confidence and I don't feel like I've got any skills.

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And then we would have done the real work, which is the coaching.

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That is why this topic is so, so important today.

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I could have actually helped her, but sadly, because I didn't know how to position my coaching, she is still severely underpaid in a job that she doesn't enjoy.

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And I know that if I'd have managed to help her by saying, come work with me, I can help you get a job that you love, we would have done work on her values, on her strengths, on her confidence, and she would have got into a job that she loves.

Jo Lot: 00:06:11

This is why this topic is so, so important to me.

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Let's start with a typical program structure.

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Imagine a twelve week coaching program and perhaps you have sessions every other week.

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So six sessions in total.

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This is, I would say, the most common type of coaching to sell.

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It's effective because three months is a great period of time to work on a goal, but it's also not too great that people think, oh my God, I haven't got time for that.

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So whilst I much prefer six months plus programs, it's really hard for people to often buy that, for example, if they're wanting to change career, because most of us overestimate what we can achieve in a small period of time and underestimate what we can achieve in a long period of time.

Jo Lot: 00:07:00

What I find really helpful is to help someone take that first step by not making them commit to something that's too extensive.

Jo Lot: 00:07:09

Although to be honest, I do now because my programme used to be a three month and I've now changed it into a six month because I got to the stage where I didn't really want fly by night clients that expect the earth without realizing that good change takes time.

Jo Lot: 00:07:26

And that was a personal choice of mine when my business got to a place where I could be more picky and choose clients that I know are fully committed to the journey.

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But when I first started, I definitely had a far easier ride selling a three month program than a six month program.

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If you are just starting, I think a three month period is the perfect place to start.

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You will have less objections, your program won't be as expensive, you will get more testimonials because you'll work with more clients.

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So twelve weeks and here's how we could set up this program.

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You'll first want to think about your offer.

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Promise exactly what that person is wanting as their goal.

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So that might be get into a job that they love, it might be get a promotion, it might be get their first paying client.

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There are lots of different goals you could work on in your offer.

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Then you'll want to create a roadmap.

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This isn't a rigid plan, but a flexible guide to help that person along their way.

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So generally the types of things you might want to do or your client might want to do to achieve their goal.

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If it's getting a promotion, they will probably want to map their strengths over to the job that they want.

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Build their confidence.

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Work on the technical transitions like interviews, perhaps work on things like their presence.

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You will want to think of three to six core areas that your ideal client might want to work on.

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There's lots of different ways of doing this.

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You might want to break it into phases so it's easier to describe than lots and lots of different sessions.

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The exact session number doesn't have to map out to the exact phases.

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For example, if you see inside my portal, you will see that despite it being four phases, which is niche offer, marketing and sales modules, niche is one module, offer is one module, marketing is about seven or eight modules and sales is one module.

Jo Lot: 00:09:34

So it doesn't always balance perfectly.

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And that's okay.

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The most important part is that you can explain to your clients the types of topics that you will work on to help them.

Jo Lot: 00:09:46

Yes, I understand.

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If I'm to do those types of things I will be far more likely to reach my goal.

Jo Lot: 00:09:52

You might want to position this to your clients as something like over the next twelve weeks, we will work systematically towards your goal of insert goal here.

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Each session builds on the last, giving you the skills and insights that you need.

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Don't worry, we will also address any challenges that come up along the way.

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Think of this as your personal roadmap to success, with me as your guide to help you achieve whatever you want to achieve.

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Let's now get down to the crucial first session.

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It's just like in your coach training.

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If you have completed your training, it's really important to ask things like what specifically do you want to achieve through this program?

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What have you tried before, what worked and what didn't?

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How are you likely to be if you are stressed and anxious?

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And how may I best support you in these times?

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On a scale of one to ten, how committed are you to making this change?

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You will also want to do contracting, for example.

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Again, thinking about that client's goal, your role as the coach, the client's commitments and how you will measure success.

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You might say, let's agree on what success looks like for you.

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By the end of our twelve weeks together, what specifically do you want to have achieved or changed?

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And if you are like me, you can panic at this point because sometimes people can have really unrealistic expectations.

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A great question I learnt when I was working with a public speaking coach for my in person event which I ran last June is whose goal is this?

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And really make it clear that it's their goal and there are going to be things that they will need to do in order to achieve that goal.

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So for example, I raised this with him.

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I was worrying because I asked these questions before my in person event of what challenges are you currently facing?

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How would you like to feel when you leave the day?

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And the questions coming back were essentially the content of my six month programme.

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So I would like to have a clear niche, a clear offer, discuss pricing, have all my marketing mapped out and know exactly how to have a sales call and I'm thinking the day is planned, there are 30 people coming.

Jo Lot: 00:12:18

All of those things are not on our agenda, which was on the sales page when they signed up.

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So I was seriously worried that people would leave disappointed and it was a great thing to learn about really contracting at the beginning of the day.

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What is it that you want to achieve today?

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Whose goal is this?

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And keep checking in on your goal and thinking, what else can I do within the remit of the day.

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For me, for example, to get me one step closer to that goal, that really helped me to reframe this worry that they could state something completely unrealistic and expect me to deliver that to them.

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Okay, now we are through the first session.

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Let's break down a typical 60 minutes coaching session.

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First five to ten minutes, you're generally having a check in.

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How are you feeling today?

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What's on your mind since our last session?

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The next ten to 15 minutes, you might want to do a progress review.

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Let's think about the actions you committed to last time.

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What did you accomplish?

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What did you learn?

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Then you would move into the main focus of the session.

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For example, today we're focusing on your strengths or whatever it is within your program that you're meant to be focusing on on that day.

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Outline the reason why it's important.

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What are your thoughts on this area?

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Is this a priority for you right now?

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And then it's back over to pure coaching and let them decide.

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Is that important for them to achieve their goal right now or is something else on their mind?

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That would be most important.

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And then you would want to really be clear.

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Okay, I hear you.

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You've got an interview tomorrow, so we are going to park this session on strengths, for example, and work on that.

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Is that what you would like to do with today's session?

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Yes.

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Okay, that's over to them.

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Your final five to ten minutes of your session is generally action steps and insights.

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Something like, based on our discussion, what specific actions are you going to take before our next session?

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How will you hold yourself accountable?

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And my favorite question of all, because I'm always so surprised with the answer, is, what was your greatest insight from today's session?

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And it's never the thing that I think was like, mind blowing in the session.

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It's always something else.

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And that question really helps them cement the learning and reminds them that they got value from the session.

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You will know this as qualified coaches, but throughout the session, powerful questions are things like, what's stopping you from taking that step?

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If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you do?

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How does this align with your overall goals?

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And even basic things like tell me more really will help them to expand their thinking beyond where it currently is.

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So let's talk about balancing program goals with your clients needs.

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Because life is never linear and what they sign up for is usually not what they leave with.

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It's at this point you can decide whether to use the parking lot technique, which is something that my public speaking coach mentioned to me on the day.

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Okay, let's put it here.

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I see it's really important to you.

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Let's make a note of that in our parking lot and we can either address it later in the session if we have time, or we can prioritise where that fits within our programme.

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And obviously this would all be after what's the priority for you right now?

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But if there are so many things, like I mentioned, we all overestimate what we can do in a small period, then it's really good to nail down how many topics they're bringing and help them to decide what is the main focus of today's session.

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Let's move on to recontracting as the programme progresses.

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The goal is usually never the goal.

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So in other words, they may come in wanting to change career and maybe they haven't changed career because when you actually start to think about it, you realize that things are not that bad.

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Or it was just actually your manager that was the problem.

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Or actually you just have a really unhappy marriage, or you just hate your work colleagues, or you just want to move to a different team.

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Sometimes whatever they come to you for is not where they end up, because life is never linear.

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So you will want to check in regularly on their goals and adjust as needed.

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In each session you could ask, for example, how is this program aligning with your expectations?

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Are there any adjustments we need to make?

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If significant changes are needed, then recontract, you might want to say.

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Based on what we've discussed, it seems like this new goal is becoming more important than your previous goal.

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Shall we adjust our focus for the remaining of the sessions?

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What would be most useful for you?

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Finally, let's move on to wrapping up their programs.

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In your final session, you will want to focus on reviewing the overall progress and setting your client for continued success.

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Questions like looking back, what are your biggest achievements from this programme?

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What tools or insights have been most valuable for you?

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How will you continue to apply what you've learned?

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Obviously, at this stage, you may want to see if they want to re contract with you and sign up for some more sessions on their future goal.

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It's really great here to think about, okay, you've achieved so much.

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What's next for you?

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And then when they share that, it's an opportunity to discuss.

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Do you want more help with that next goal?

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Offering that structured program doesn't mean it needs to end, it means you need to discuss if they need further help.

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Life is a journey.

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There will always be future goals to work on.

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So it's having that regular conversation throughout of like we can discuss at the end if you'd like further support and say that right from the beginning as well.

Jo Lot: 00:18:25

So it's not a surprise for people because I think then that can leave you feeling awkward mentioning it and leave them feeling sold too.

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So I literally say right from people joining me, if you want to stay on at the end, we'll discuss that nearer the time.

Jo Lot: 00:18:39

So I make it clear throughout that there are other options to work with me after our program ends, should people want to offering a structured program doesn't mean you are controlling your client's journey.

Jo Lot: 00:18:51

They have signed up with you because you are a guide on their particular goal.

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You can adapt everything you do to your individual clients needs.

Jo Lot: 00:19:01

Trust your skills as a coach and in the process you have created and trained for thank you for listening to this episode of Women in the Coaching arena.

Jo Lot: 00:19:10

I hope it was helpful to you.

Jo Lot: 00:19:12

Please do share it with your coaching cohort or your friends.

Jo Lot: 00:19:16

I would absolutely love that and review and rate the podcast.

Jo Lot: 00:19:19

It makes a huge difference to me to continue this journey of offering value to you weekly.

Jo Lot: 00:19:26

And like I say at the end of every episode, trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed thank you so much for listening to this episode of Women in the coaching arena.

Jo Lot: 00:19:39

I have a massive of free resources on my website, Joanna lotcoaching.com.

Jo Lot: 00:19:45

that's Joanna with an a and lot with two t's joannalotscoaching.com and I'll also put links in the show notes below.

Jo Lot: 00:19:55

Let me know if you found this episode useful, share it with a friend and leave me a review and I will personally thank you for that.

Jo Lot: 00:20:04

Remember to trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

Jo Lot: 00:20:10

Get into the arena, dare greatly and try.