What is your coaching niche and why did you choose it?
I’ve been coaching for nearly ten years now and in the meantime, my niche has evolved.
In the beginning, I supported corporate leaders and newly appointed managers to help them in the process of transition and growing into their new role. At the moment I coach executives and ambitious business owners to help them develop successful companies.
"It made me realise that some of my coaching clients – especially entrepreneurs – would also benefit from mentoring, so I started blending coaching with mentoring (when required). "
Why did I choose my niche?
When I started working with my corporate clients I soon realized that those people, who were often very successful, needed someone who would dare challenge them and support them in setting and achieving new goals. As I am a rather challenging and direct type, that role worked for me very well.
As for my second niche – entrepreneurs, it happened “naturally”. I have been running my own companies for nearly twenty years now, and people have often asked me questions like: “You always have so many clients. What do you do?”, or “You work only six or seven hours a day. How do you manage that?”
Yes – they seemed to want to learn some things from me! So I thought I would try coaching them. If I have managed to design and implement the life I have always wanted, I thought it was a shame that so many other entrepreneurs underperformed and played safe!
The mentorship journey started with an interview with Jan Lonnen, then a course – partly online and partly live - in London. I thought that it would be great to be part of other coaches’ success and share my experience with them – what really works and what doesn’t!
100 hours of volunteer mentoring is a fantastic achievement! What was the most rewarding part of it?
I am very happy when my Mentees open up and talk about their true emotions related to coaching – when they talk about their successes and strengths but also when they share some of their fears. In a very short time – a few minutes – they know that the coaching profession is for real people, who are not perfect themselves.
What I also find rewarding is when I hear that my questions, insights and suggestions bring value to my Mentees and that they know what the next step is!
"It is the Client who confirms the value of the coaching support and not all Clients want to achieve their goals as fast as they can. That is what I had to learn!"
What was one thing mentorship changed in your own life that you didn’t expect?
It made me realise that some of my coaching clients – especially entrepreneurs – would also benefit from mentoring, so I started blending coaching with mentoring (when required).
Whilst we understand that you are supportive of all your mentees, can you give us an example of when in your opinion a mentee coach has overcome significant odds to succeed (or done particularly well)?
There is this person – we are still in touch, who booked a mentoring session with me over a year ago. She needed help in organizing her own development process. At that time she felt overwhelmed and just couldn’t move forward. She also had some serious limiting beliefs about her coaching skills and power sources.
We worked together for about three months. She got her diploma, set up a coaching practice and got her first clients just two or three weeks after that.
Tell us about a mentee that challenged your perceptions about what it means to be a successful coach.
As I have already mentioned, I am a direct and challenging person, I tend to attract Clients who have ambitious goals and want to achieve them fast. It has happened on several occasions that my mentees made me think: “Am I not raising the bar for my clients a little too fast or too high?
It is the Client who confirms the value of the coaching support and not all Clients want to achieve their goals as fast as they can. That is what I had to learn!
If you could go back in time to the person you were before the Introduction to Life Coaching event, what would you tell them?
Go for it! You will benefit in several ways – first, you will become much more effective in achieving your own goals, second – your relations with other people will improve, third – perhaps you will have a new exciting and very rewarding career.
Is there one tip or life lesson you could share with all aspiring coaches out there that would help them succeed as a coach?
So many people in the world want to change something in their lives – many of them are your potential clients, so the market is huge and still growing!
One tip? Prioritise your marketing! There are too many great qualified coaches who don’t have enough clients – just because the clients don’t know those coaches exist!
If you're interested in finding out more about coaching, just like Piotr did at the beginning of his career, start by joining us in our interactive live online training - Introduction to Life Coaching.
Choose from available dates here.
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