Sandy recently asked me this question on LinkedIn:

“Hi Jaimie, I’m not a certified coach, yet. I’ve been thinking about getting certified. Do you have any recommendations on the best certifications?”

Hi Sandy,

Thank you for your question. My partner Mark and I have gotten this question many times, so I hope you don’t mind, but we decided it would be a great topic for our blog. I’m pleased to share our video response which also includes a written transcript below. I hope you find some helpful ‘nuggets’ in the advice we have shared.

Wishing you continued success,

~ Jaimie

Jaimie Skultety  00:06

I have a question that came to me today on LinkedIn and I thought it would be a really great topic of conversation because we’ve had this question asked before, and I know that you’ve had some really good responses to this. And I wanted to kind of run it by you, again. So I thought In this video, we can kind of ‘rap’ about it a little bit, and maybe help some other people who might be having the same question, because it seems to be a theme.

Mark Kanty  00:31

Fantastic. We always have great conversations. So I’m excited.

Jaimie Skultety  00:40

This person’s name is Sandy. And she says, “Hi Jaimie. I’m not a certified coach, yet. I’ve been thinking about getting certified. Do you have any recommendations on the best certifications?”

Mark Kanty  00:54

Awesome question. And you are so right. Like how many times we had that question?  We get that quite frequently. And I think what we need to do here, anybody that needs to do this, it needs to do the same to pause for a minute and kind of look at the order of how they’re creating their business.  And it often highlights the fact that somebody maybe–and I don’t mean to insult Sandy–isn’t thinking of it as a business. So you need to step back first, because any certification, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a coaching certification, or maybe it’s a particular tool, or a skill set or something is really dependent on the kind of coaching business that you’re creating.  So here would be an example, let me give you a little metaphor here would be somebody coming, walking to you off the street and saying, what kind of driver’s license should I get? Now, of course, how can you answer that question? You need a little more information, don’t you? So you know, the person maybe the first question would be, well, what do you want to drive? Wouldn’t that be the first thing to figure out? Before you figure out what license or certification you’re going to get? Do you want to drive a car? Do you want to drive a transport truck? Do you want to drive a plane? Do you want to drive a boat, maybe you want to drive a scooter, I don’t think you needed a license for a scooter, an electric bike, I don’t think you need a license for an electric bike, maybe just a regular bicycle, you don’t need a license for those either.  And the same is true in the coaching business, depending on what your discipline is going to be where you’re attracted to. And I’ll talk a minute about that. And, of course, give Jaimie an opportunity to share her insights as well. And that’s the reason I’m sharing this graphic with you here is that first, you need to lay the foundation for your business. And what does that mean? Well, defining your goals. What do you want to do? What do you want this business to do for you? And in those two steps, the ‘Laying the Foundation’ and ‘Defining the Goals’ for your business, is where you really need to focus. And by the way, this is where coaching is so critical. You need somebody to help you draw out…what are your passions? What are you good at? What do you want to do? Not what the world is telling you to do. Not what’s going to make you money. But what is going to allow you to build a business on a solid foundation? So what are your passions? What’s your personal history, and that you can draw from that will allow you to have a certain level of expertise. And then who are you attracted to? Who do you want to work with this kind of comes into the ‘Goal Setting’ section is not only our financial goals important there but much more important are what’s going to ‘float your boat?’  What’s going to allow you to be passionately excited every day about what you do you see Jaimie and I smile and laugh and have a great time together. Is it because we’re rolling in money? No, it’s because we love what we do. And we have ups and downs like everybody else. We have cash flow crunches, we have great days and bad days. But we’re in love with the process because we know who we want to work with. So that’s a big part of defining your goal is Who do you want to work with? Who really are you excited to speak with every day? Once you start to define those things, then you start to look at what we would call your ‘Signature Solution.’ So you pull those things together, you say, here’s the life experience I’ve had, here’s the person I want to help that has a need. And I really understand them well and what their needs are. And here’s how I’m going to help them. Here’s how I’m going to create a signature solution for what they’re looking for. That’s when you might ask the question, do I even need a coaching certification to solve this particular problem? Maybe you need another skill. Maybe there are other things that are at this time, a higher priority for you to be investing in. And it might not even be certification. It might be training, it might be some sort of thing that you want to put in your toolkit that you want to sign up for. That’s really going to help enhance your Signature Solution.  So I hope that’s not too long-winded an answer to the question, Jaimie. But that’s where we need to start is we need to pause and begin to lay a foundation for a proper coaching business before we even consider if, when, or how we’re going to get certified. Does that help?

Jaimie Skultety  05:18

I think it’s really helpful. And one thing I would add to what you’re saying is, it’s not about YOU. That’s really what it comes down to. Mark has talked about it here a bit, and I just want to highlight that it’s really about WHO you want to serve, and what you’re uniquely qualified to bring to bear; your resources, your expertise, your authority, all of that. And then it’s and then it’s a simple answer to that vehicle that you want to learn how to drive or have that license for.  Once you define who you want to work with, you can create your program–your everything–your whole business around what lights you up and inspires you, as Mark has talked about, that we feel passionate about. It’s an ever-growing process, and you have to fall in love with the process. And we are there and we want for that for you. So, again, it’s not just about what kind of certification what kind of coach do I want to be, it’s who you want to serve. Everything else gets kind of drawn out from that.

Mark Kanty  05:24

That’s brilliant, Jaimie. And as usual, you know, you brought a laser beam focus to it. Let’s take it back to the metaphor. Let’s say that you run out there and you get a driver’s license to drive a transport truck. But then what the job you’re applying for is to run a boat ferry. So that truck license is not going to serve you in any way whatsoever. Because your customer, the ferry business, needs you to have a boat license. And that’s the same idea. You put it so beautifully, Jaimie, is that it’s not about you. It’s about the person you’re serving. What are their needs, and wants, and desires? And how are you going to help them solve that, then put your toolkit together to help them solve that?

Jaimie Skultety  07:02

And one other thing… people may not be looking for you to have a certification necessarily, they just want the transformation that they want.  So if you can prove to them that you can provide that–with and for them–that’s all that you need. That’s the biggest tool that you need to have sharpened in your toolbox. It’s not about I have a piece of paper with a frame on the wall, or I have this email that says I’ve been certified. I mean, do people really even go and confirm that you’re certified? Is that really an important thing when somebody’s selecting a coach? So what you have to decide is whether it’s worth my time, my money, and my energy to go and get certified, when really your certification is your experience in life?

Mark Kanty  08:02

I agree. Another great point is that it is far more important than any accolade you have in terms of certifications, or any letters you have beside your name, because in the end, who cares? If your client is interested, their number one priority is that transformation that typically comes from your experience, your life history, your personal history, and how you’ve solved problems on your own, and how you’re uniquely qualified to help them.  And I’m going to be a little controversial here. Sometimes very often, a certification can get in your way and actually inhibit your business. Because when you start from that perspective, all of a sudden, everybody becomes a square peg, but then you’re trying to maybe fit them into a round hole because they might be a triangular peg, or a square peg or an octagonal peg. And because you’ve got this rigid sort of training that says it has to be sort of this way, it becomes ‘cart before the horse’ kind of thinking. So you definitely need to pause and figure out who that ideal client is for you and why and how you’re ideally suited to serve them. And that has nothing to do with any certifications.  The other part about that idea, too, is that you what we call ‘commodify’ yourself sometimes. So if I put myself out there and I say, Well, why should you hire me? Because I’m an XYZ certified coach, then the next question is, well, how much do you charge? Well, I charge $____. Then inevitably that person is going to go, “So the most important thing is that you’re an XYZ certified coach, right?” Yeah. “Okay, I’m gonna go and check LinkedIn, or I’m going to Google XYZ coaches, because if all I need is somebody that’s certified with that, then why should I pay your fee? I’m just going to find the cheapest one out there.” So this shows you how it becomes a commodity and you can actually do damage to your business because you’re not being focused on the most important thing, which is your client, and the transformation that you’re going to provide for them.

Jaimie Skultety  10:08

It also provides you an opportunity for creativity. So you get to be you get to design your coaching program, you’re not living into somebody else’s certified ‘package,’ if you will. We are not discouraging you, if you really are passionate about getting certified in something, do that.  We’re not here to say to dissuade you from that mission if that’s what your mission is.

Mark Kanty  10:35

If it’s in your skill basket and you’ve come to a certain level in your business, and you’re stalled in your coaching business, because you’re saying, hey, I want to work with this organization, for example, and this organization only takes people with this particular certification, that would be a good reason to get it. Because you’re stuck, you and you really want to work with that particular organization, that would be a good reason. So these are all things to consider and think about.  And if you want to help with this, if you want to talk about business development, and not just looking at coaching as a way to make money, or as your next job creating a job for yourself, but instead building yourself a coaching business, that’s going to be sustainable and have longevity, and bring passion and joy to your life, let us know. We’d be happy to sit down with you and have a quick call talk about where you’re at, give you some strategic advice on directions that you might want to take things you might want to think about just like the topic today on whether or not and who to be certified from. We’re happy to do that with you, you can reach out to us.

Jaimie Skultety  11:41

You can go to www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/mark-meeting

Mark Kanty  11:56

We will jump on a Zoom call and strategize with you. We’ll talk about where you are with your coaching business right now. And where maybe you’re stuck, where there are constraints in your business, and how you can break free of that. So I look forward to speaking with you, by all means, check out our website, we’ve got a new website coming up. By the way, I’ll mention that now. It’s not quite ready yet. But it’s called up The Upscale Method where we talk more about our particular pathway and our roadmap for how to get you and transform your coaching business from one that maybe is struggling or not getting what you want to a truly fully-functioning coaching business practice. So watch for that. And that’s TheUpscaleMethod.com. It’s not live yet, but should be live any day now. So watch for that. But UpscaleYourBusiness.com would be the main URL to go to right now. And I’ll stop rambling. And I think we’ll sign off for now. And we’ll look forward to your next question. And happy to answer it.

Jaimie Skultety  13:03

Yeah. And I’ll send this to Sandy so she gets it.

Mark Kanty  13:06

Yes. And please leave your comments below. We’d love to dialogue about this. Yes, for sure. Thank you.