Yes, I am sharing anonymously with permission.

I recently talked to a new coach who started her practice three months ago and felt very out of her depths in the real world outside of her training cohort. She felt utterly unprepared to coach, so she was kind of relieved she hadn't coached anyone outside her training group yet. I told her, I assumed it was a new coach jitters. 

When I asked her why she chose the program she did, she told me she'd followed the instructor for years and wanted a healthy serving of whatever she was having. By all outward appearances, it looked like that woman was running a highly successful practice and had all her shit together all the time.

This coach admitted that she secretly (maybe not so secretly) wanted to get into the instructor's inner circle - she craved the connection with the "it girl" coaches who got the personal time and seemed to be friends with the group leader. 

It did not work out that way for her, and she wondered if she needed to be a better coach or simply not good enough in general. When we dug a little deeper, she admitted she'd spent way too much time wondering if maybe she wasn't funny enough, pretty enough, or if she wasn't sophisticated enough to get a spot at that table.

She contacted me because she was hoping she could hire me to "supervise her first ten or so coaching sessions" and give her feedback and support. I gave her the names of several people who'd graduated from that program and suggested she start there. She told me she was embarrassed to ask and was afraid it would get back to the program leader that she was shopping for additional training support. 

These programs have a seductive marketing strategy that disguises personal development as a ticket to join the "in" crowd. But here's the issue – they often offer single-point-of-view training that's catchy but woefully incomplete. Students sign up, craving a sense of community but feeling isolated and inadequate.

Many of these programs push you to mimic the style and tone of the guru leader, leaving you both under-trained and invisible. It's a recipe for frustration and mediocrity, not success.

Guru-led groups often foster an environment of devastating comparison and despair within the student community. Instead of lifting each other up, students constantly compare themselves to others, feeling inadequate and discouraged. This environment too often inadvertently creates a toxic inner mean girl club that isolates the outsiders within the group. 

If you're thinking this sounds like an exaggeration, trust me, it's not.

If you're thinking this sounds like a high school drama nightmare, you're not far off. 

Credibility by association doesn't really work. Just because you're part of a guru-led program doesn't automatically make you credible. Believe it or not, clients in the real world might not even know who the guru-coach-trainer is. 

Clients look for authenticity, expertise, and a genuine connection, not just a fancy certification from a popular training group.

Guru-led training programs often produce coaches who focus solely on marketing to other coaches, creating an insular bubble that doesn't reach potential clients in the outside world. It's like a closed loop of self-referential marketing that limits your growth and impact.

At The Coaching Guild – We do things very differently. This Coaching Guild is not about exclusivity or conformity. We're about diversity and individuality.

Our program is multi-disciplinary, meaning you get exposed to a wide range of perspectives, techniques, and approaches within the coaching community. Our panel of instructors isn't a clique of gurus; they come from different backgrounds and disciplines, bringing richness and depth to your learning experience.

With The Coaching Guild, you don't just fit in – you stand out. You're encouraged to shine in your uniqueness and to develop your own voice and style, rather than being a carbon copy of someone else.

Join us, not to blend in, but to stand out. Let's create a coaching community that celebrates diversity, fosters individuality, and uplifts each other to greatness.

The Coaching Guild is a training coach training program specifically designed to nurture dreamers, artists, creatives, outsiders, rebels, and good troublemakers. You know, the kinds of people who tend to be introverts. It is a multi-instructor, multi-disciplinary approach to training that prioritizes learning innovative foundational coaching skills and marketing training.

If you are interested in coach training done very differently, hit me up for a no-pressure, no BS, no trip, and fall into a sales funnel conversation. Let's talk about what's possible for you as a coach.