As a blogger I love it when people ask me questions that relate to my field.

As some of you will already know we, Nick Bolton and I, run Discovery Days for our Dynamic Youth Coaching and Mentoring Course. Afterwards, I usually get a few questions that I think will be best answered here so that everyone can benefit from and contribute to them.

I’m thinking about running both a youth coaching and business coaching business.

I find that a lot of coaches do this.  Some of the youth coaches I talk with have both a youth coaching and a business coaching arm to their practice.

Why is this?

I think it’s because a lot of youth coaching is dependent on schools, with their breaks and holidays, and to develop your business model, it’s a good idea to have other strands of income. Having said that, there is often a lot of work on holiday projects where coaching can be applied. And you can work directly with young people and their families.

Should I do public speaking too?

Public speaking is a great way to get your message out there. Getting in front of your audience so that they can hear what you do and how you do it. At the same time getting the opportunity to meet you face to face.

Networking is always good way to meet contacts and clients, and being able to do this with large numbers is just great, especially when you are centre of attention!

If you are doing some public speaking, make sure your message is clear, that you know what you want the audience to be left with. Plan and Practice.

How might volunteering be useful? 

When you work with a youth organisation as a volunteer, sharing and developing your coaching skills, there are a few ways that you can use this for your benefit.

Firstly, you are able to practice and hone your skills as youth coach, develop your models and your instincts. Experience is a great teacher and something your future clients will want to know about.

Secondly, you will be able to ask for testimonials, and create case studies from the young people that you work with, as well as their success stories.

Thirdly, when you have successfully volunteered for an organisation, you can ask them to introduce you to others in their field that would be interested in paying for your services.

Also you can research what the organisation got from working with you and how much they would be willing to pay for such a great outcome. This will give you an idea about your fees and the market that you work in.

How do I improve my coaching skills?

You can do this through your practice, gaining more and more experience. By collaborating and working with other coaches, sharing ideas and challenges. There are some great books out there that will help you with coaching in general.

And of course there is our programme!

I would love to hear if you have any more questions about youth coaching, so please leave a comment in the box below and I’ll get back to you.