Ep #71: The Coach Lab: Q&A

Hello, this is Lindsay Dotzlaf and you are listening to Mastering Coaching Skills episode 71.

To really compete in the coaching industry, you have to be great at coaching. That’s why every week, I will be answering your questions, sharing my stories, and offering tips and advice so you can be the best at what you do. Let’s get to work.

Oh, hey coach, it’s Lindsay and I want to let you in on a little secret before we get started in today’s episode. And really, it’s not such a little secret because it feels really big and exciting, and it’s not really a secret because I’ve hinted at it a couple times already on the podcast, and today I’m just going to give you the details.

I know some of you are going to be very excited based on the number of emails, and questions, and messages I have been getting just begging for the information and I just haven’t given it to you. I’m sorry. But now I’m ready, I have a plan, and I cannot wait to tell you.

So pull over, turn off the car, stop cooking dinner, get out of the shower, whatever you need to do. Grab a pen and write down, just scribble a little note, Lindsay’s new program, The Coach Lab launching March 9th. And then make a little asterisk beside that and then write March 9th to March 11th promotion for founding members.

What that means is I created a program for you and I can’t wait for you to be there. And because of that I also created a special bonus and a gift for you when you sign up in the first couple days the program is open. So, if you want more information, if you can’t wait to join, if you’re curious, whatever it is, come join the wait list. This is very important, that way you will not miss that promotional period.

Because listen, if you email me a couple days later and say you missed it, I’m going to say, here’s the link, you can still buy the program, but not for the promotional price, all right? So get on the wait list, you can find me on Instagram, just @LindsayDotzlaf and click on the little link at the top, go to the options, click on The Coach Lab wait list, add your email, you’ll be added.

Or I will also link up an option in the show notes. So you can go to my website and click on the show notes and there will be an option there to join the wait list. I can’t wait to see you there. That’s all I’m going to say for now. Let’s dive into today’s episode.

Hey, coach. So today on the podcast I am going to respond to all of the questions I’ve been getting through my email and through my messages about the new program, The Coach Lab. And I’m just going to answer them all right here on the podcast so that I have a place to direct everyone when they come to me with all the questions, because you guys have a lot.

And it made me realize, oh, they’re not just going to take my word for it? I don’t understand, you’re not just going to see the name and think, “Oh, I’m in.” All right, I guess I’ll give you the details. So first of all, make sure you’re on my email list because there have been lots of emails going out and emails about what the program is and what it entails and all of that. But if you haven’t seen those, that’s totally fine. What I did is I just wrote down, I compiled all the questions, got all of them, because some of them are silly.

But I compiled all the questions and I’m just going to answer them here on the podcast. I don’t have it scripted. I’m just going to tell you what’s on the top of my head. All right? So The Coach Lab, what is it? Just start there. The Coach Lab is a program for coaches, for any coach, any niche, any certification, not certification, any coach in the industry who wants to come revisit, or work on, or learn foundational coaching skills.

So if you’re a regular here on the podcast and you have listened to a lot of my episodes, everything that I talk about on the podcast, like all of the skills that I talk about that every coach needs to know, this will all be in the program.

And what that looks like when you join is you get access to, immediately you get your own login and you get access to a vault of videos or a portal full of videos that go through each skill that I think every coach should know. Like just the foundational skills that I think every great coach needs to know.

I keep it simple, I keep it clear, and I address, again, if you listen to the podcast, I have videos on how to create awareness, you know, several of those. Several videos on decision making and how to walk your client through making decisions and how to notice when they have unmade decisions that are creating lots of confusion for them.

I have videos on asking amazing questions and thinking about goals. Lots of videos on goals, and setting goals, and thinking about the future. And I could go on and on, but just all the things I talk about here on the podcast plus a lot more that I don’t talk about.

There’s just a whole library of videos that is available for you 24/7. So that is kind of the skills section. As of now, if you’re listening in real time, as of now, it is divided into three sections, of course, that could be different in the future. But right now there’s the skills, which is what I was just describing.

There’s something I call the container creator, which is really thinking through the container that you create for your clients. And the container, by container I just mean how you work with your clients, all the actual logistics of it, all the decisions you have to make. This is going to be so useful for brand new coaches who have never thought through maybe some of this before.

And also very useful for any coaches making changes to their containers, to the way they offer coaching or adding an additional offer. So maybe you’re going from one on one to group coaching or changing the way you offer group coaching. Anything, any type of change like that or anything new that you’re creating, this is going to be perfect for you.

And then the third section of the vault is going to be kind of problem solving or like what to do when, right? So you’ve heard me talk about some of these on the podcast. I actually did one episode quite a while ago, I can’t remember the name of it, but giving a little teaser and saying I was creating this program.

And it was an episode about something I like to call the bucket of drama. It’s like when your client comes at you with a story that has kind of 20 pieces to it. And they all seem to be wrapped together, how you kind of like dump the bucket out and separate it all, or the necklaces that are all tangled. That was my client, Emily’s, that’s what she came up with, which I also love. But I give her credit every time because I think it’s brilliant. So that’s one example, right?

Stuff like that, like what to do when a client comes with a story 20 pages long and you don’t know where to start, right? You don’t know what to do. What to do when a client comes and says everything’s great. Now, I do have a podcast on that as well, but obviously in the program I’m going to be just digging a little deeper into these, giving you more suggestions, getting a little more specific.

Like how to point out when a client comes to you with kind of everything as reactive versus proactive, right? Like they’re just reacting to their life instead of making decisions ahead of time and being proactive about the things. And then things like what to do when a client wants to quit, or wants a refund, or wants to reschedule a call or, you know, all of those things I address.

Kind of the day to day things that you will come across as a coach. No matter who you are, no matter what kind of coach you are, all of these things will probably come up for you. That’s one piece of the program, right? That is the vault, you can access it at any time. You have your own login, and you can go there and consume to your heart’s content.

And then we have the community. And the community is just where we can interact with each other, where you can come with questions or ask for coaching on the page. And that’s just the place where we interact, create community.

Community is one of my favorite parts, probably of my coaching business, just thinking about the communities that I’m in. Which means I put a lot of thought and effort into creating this community. I feel so excited about it, it’s going to be a place where, like what I’m envisioning is a space full of coaches who prioritize excellence and mastery in their coaching.

So whatever that looks like for you, right? It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand new coach or if you’ve been a coach for 10 years. This is a space where that will be the discussion, right? Like how to be a great coach, everything will be centered around that.

And then the kind of third part, third piece of the program is the live calls. So there will be weekly live coaching calls. And at this point I’m thinking monthly workshops. So one of those calls per month will be replaced with a workshop.

So the coaching calls will be just your regular coaching calls. You can come get coaching on anything that you have kind of watched and executed from the vault, right? Like from the learning, from the videos, you’ve consumed it, you will go out and try it, or you don’t try it because you’re scared because you have questions. The weekly calls is where you would bring that.

Any of that, like, okay, I tried this, here’s what happened. I need coaching on this, I need help with this part. Or, okay, I watched this video, I don’t really understand this thing. Those are all things that you can bring to the weekly calls.

And then the workshops will be a little more hands on. So it’ll be a little more like we all are going through some exercises together at the same time working through whatever the specific topic is for that particular workshop. I’m especially excited about the workshops, I love hosting workshops and this is something that I haven’t really seen done in other spaces, but I just knew from the beginning that I wanted to include that here.

Okay, the next question is who is The Coach Lab for? And I kind of already addressed this but it really is for any coach. You do not have to have any specific qualifications, certifications, prerequisites, none of that. It really is for anyone, whether you’re a brand new coach, just getting into coaching, it’s going to give you, really, the foundational tools that you would need to start coaching clients.

Or if you are a seasoned coach, if you’ve been around for a while, you love coaching and you just love investing in your own coaching, your own kind of more education as a coach, and just keeping up with your skills. And just being in a space where that is constantly on your mind, this is also for you.

Like I said earlier, it’s also going to be amazing for you if you’ve been a coach for a while, but you are making any changes in your coaching or in the structure of how you coach because you learn coaching skills and then use them with your one on one clients, right? But it’s another thing to learn coaching skills, use them with your one on one clients, and then take those same skills and transition them to a group.

They’re very different things, my clients always are like, oh, I just thought a group was going to be so easy, or, I thought running a program was going to be so much easier, whatever it is. And there’s just a lot that goes into coaching a bunch of people at once, versus coaching one on one. So you can always come back and review the skills, thinking about them through the lens of, okay, now I’m coaching 10 people at once, 20 people at once or whatever it is.

And as I said earlier, the piece with the container creator, that is going to be very useful for, again, even if you’ve been around for a while, but anytime you’re making changes to the structure of how you’re coaching, to really work through kind of each piece and think through the new thing that you’re offering.

Next question is why did I create this? Which isn’t a question I’ve gotten so much in my emails. But I have posted one day on Instagram with like what questions do you have? And that was something that people that kind of know me are like, “I’m just so interested in why do you think people want this? What prompted you to create it?”

And there are several reasons, probably one of the biggest ones for me is just really dreaming of creating this community where everyone is there because they want to be the best coach for their clients, whatever that means for them. Whether it’s just learning to coach or it’s learning to coach a lot more clients at the same time and be equally as or more effective than you are currently.

But just a community where the whole kind of vibe of the place is we’re here for serving our clients, right? Like we’re here because we want to be the best we can be for the people that we serve. Also, one thing that has happened, and if you’ve followed me for a while, if you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ve heard me talk about my mastermind.

One thing I’ve noticed with my mastermind is I created this mastermind that is very similar to this program, kind of. So when I say very similar, I don’t teach the exact same things, but how I kind of created the program is I asked myself, what are all of the foundational skills that everyone would need to know coming into my mastermind to put us all on the same page?

Because right now in my mastermind I’m spending the first month or two kind of going over some of the things that I’ll be addressing in the program. And what I’ve done is I’ve kind of pulled that piece out, which means anyone coming into my mastermind is now all going to be on the same page.

We’re going to be just ready to take off running getting into some of the deeper things, right? Getting into some of the more advanced coaching skills that you need when you’re doing things like scaling a business, growing a business, going into groups, all of that.

I also have noticed just being in lots of different coaching spaces that, at least in my experience, it seems like there is a little piece of this missing in the industry. I’m not saying it’s not there, I’m just saying I haven’t seen it. So a lot of what I see is lots of support, lots of masterminds, lots of teaching around sales, making money, marketing, like heavy on the business side.

And then there are lots of options when it comes to certifications, and trainings, and all different types of things in the space, all different ways you can learn. But I keep hearing over and over that no one is teaching what I teach, which kind of blows my mind. And I think that space that’s missing is like I really break it down to the session with your client, right?

The structure of your business, like literally the day to day of what you’re doing, the like in the moment, not so high level. And that is going to be a lot of what this program is, is like really thinking through, evaluating like I have this one client that I don’t know how to coach, great, there are going to be answers for that in the lab. That type of thing, I at least haven’t seen a lot of it in the coaching space. Again, I’m sure it’s out there, but I just haven’t seen it.

And the other thing I notice a lot, especially with a lot of the students that are coming into my mastermind or that are just asking me lots of questions and like wanting to work with me, but not quite ready for the mastermind. A lot of coaches tend to be one of two things. Either they’ve gotten certified in one place maybe or they learned to coach in one place and they have one tool that they’re really good at using, like great at using, right?

They have just used it over and over and over and it kind of becomes a little bit like a math equation or very cerebral. And anything outside of that, when their tool, the tool that they know and love, isn’t useful, they don’t know what to do. And I don’t want you to feel like that. If that’s you, trust me, just come to me. I will help you, I have lots of tools, I will give them all to you. That is what the lab is about.

And the other side of that is coaches that have lots of tools and they also spend lots of time looking around thinking about like, what tools do I need? How do I create this best experience for my clients? And they continually look around outside and keep adding things, right? I call this like everything plus the kitchen sink coaching. It’s like, let me just throw this out, let me throw this out, let me throw this at it, let me throw this at it.

And kind of what I teach is a little bit in the middle, right? It’s like you don’t mean just the one tool that you’re amazing at, here are a handful. But you also don’t need 20, that might be too many. So what I teach is to look at what you already have, evaluate it, and say which of these do I want to use with my clients? Let’s hone those, right? Let’s get really good at using these tools, the ones I love.

You don’t need to go out and find 100 more tools. You either just need a couple more, or you need to take what you have and just like throw out 75% of it. Or maybe not throw it out, but just like put it in your back pocket for later.

One question I’ve gotten surprisingly a lot is how did I come up with the name? Everyone is intrigued by the name and wants to know more about it and like what were my thoughts behind it. And it’s so funny because I spent way too much time thinking about the name. And interestingly, I came back to the name that I had decided on probably a year ago and that’s what I went with.

And my idea behind calling it a lab is I envision it as a place where you come and you like work it out, right? You learn something, you practice it, you try it, you experiment and you figure it out. And it really aligns with my process, the process that I’m going to be teaching in the coach lab and like how to kind of use it, how to kind of use the videos and the knowledge that I’m sharing is you learn, right?

So that’s like you consume whatever, the video, the workshop, whatever it is. You learn the thing, you learn the skill, you practice it over and over, you evaluate it, and you learn from there, right? And then you just like repeat.

So you learn a skill, you practice the skill on real humans, you know, real coaching. You evaluate it, I teach an evaluation process in the lab. And the evaluation process shows you exactly how to move forward. So like, what are you going to do next time? And one of the biggest things that I am encouraging, and that I recorded in one of the welcome videos when you join, is that you pick one or two things to work on at a time.

So instead of coming in and consuming all of the videos over a week, you could do that. I mean, maybe that’d be fine, just like schedule a marathon and whatever. But what I really suggest is evaluating your coaching. Saying, what do I want to work on? Especially if you’re already a coach. Looking through the options, saying, what do I want to work on now? And working on it. And not picking 20 things, but picking one or two and just getting to work.

Like really practicing, evaluating, over and over and over. I know that it would be so amazing if we didn’t have to do that. If we could just consume, consume, and then instantly be great at it, and just carry on, right? Unfortunately, that’s not how it works so there is going to be some practice involved. And you also get coached on it, right?

So you can practice, you evaluate yourself, you can come to coaching with questions about your evaluation, about how things went, about like why can’t I figure this out? Why isn’t it working? We’ve got you, it’s going to be so much fun.

And the last question is, will I be the only one coaching in the coach lab? And I have lots of thoughts about this question, but I’m going to go ahead and just address it upfront. The answer is no. And if you’re on my email list, you’ve probably already seen this, I’ve written an email about it, maybe a couple.

But, of course, I’m the one who’s created this, I will be doing a lot of the coaching for sure. And I want you to just consider, I have been teaching coaches coaching mastery in my mastermind for the last almost three years, two and a half years. And no one is better equipped to have amazing coaches come in and teach, and coach, and host the workshops than me.

I didn’t do this on purpose, but I’ve been preparing for this for years. And not only have I been preparing for it, and are they prepared, right? Because they know my processes, they’re going to be prepped before. I’m not just like going outside and finding a neighbor and saying, “Hey, can you come host my coaching call today?” Right?

What I love, love, love, love more than anything about having some of my students come in and help me is I think sometimes they offer a different perspective, right? They might say my exact teaching through their words with different language and it will land so differently for you. Right?

So you may have heard me, if you listened to the episode with Kimberly, I’ve already asked her to be a coach in the program, just as an example. There are many other amazing coaches. And I love the way she talks about decisions, right? That is something I teach in my program, it’s something her and I have spent a lot of time talking about.

And when we have a chat about it, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, how you talk about it is so great.” Right? So for her to come in, and let’s say she does a workshop on decision making, or hosts a coaching call and you want coaching on that, she is more than prepared to coach you on it.

And I want you to consider, for anyone that’s listening that is like, nope, I only join things– Because I’ve heard this, I know this is not that uncommon, right? If you’re like I only join things where the person that created it is doing all of the coaching, I just want to offer that’s actually not what you want, you might be missing out.

And as a coach, especially if you have your own business and you plan to grow it and scale it, you’re going to have this too, right? You’re going to hopefully have amazing, some of your best students or coaches that you hire from, maybe from me someday, or maybe from wherever you are certified or whatever, who will come in and serve your clients and you will watch them do it in a way that’s like oh my gosh, like wait, are they better at this than me?

That is how I feel about some of my clients. And I can’t wait for you to learn from them because I learn from them every single time I watch them coach. So that was a long answer. But the short answer is yes, I will be doing most of the coaching. No, I will not be doing all of the coaching.

And I have some of the industry’s best coaches ready to come in and stand in for me when I’m on vacation, or sick, or spending time with my family, or need to rest my brain because I’m creating something big, I’m creating new content for the lab.

If you haven’t experienced that, like if you’re not at that level of your coaching business, you do get to a place where eventually you’re like, “You know what? My students might be better at coaching on this process because they’re out there using it every day.” Right? Because they’re my students, because they’ve gone through the process already, they’re out there coaching on it every day in their business.

Whereas I am hosting a few calls a week and then sitting at my desk and creating new things, new content, like just using my brain in a different way.
So if you’ve never thought about it like that, I just offer that for you. And for those of you that have and are excited, good, you should be. And you will not be disappointed, I promise.

So I think that’s it. So the details, I think you heard it probably at the beginning of the podcast, but this episode will come out, I think, one day before the program launches. So today is Tuesday, March 8th if you’re listening in real time. Tomorrow is Wednesday, March 9th and that is when the doors open.

And from Wednesday to Friday, March 9th through 11th, this is the only time I will ever do this, there’s a founding members special and there’s a discount. So the regular price is going to be $2,000, the discounted price is $1,500.

And there are lots of reasons I’m doing that. A couple of them are, one, I’m just so excited. I want everyone to just not overthink it, just get in right now because I want the energy in the beginning to be just so fun and amazing. In my mind, it’s like a party that everybody has to come to, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t. And I want to make it just like irresistible for you.

And the second reason is, this is my first time having a program and I’m just envisioning everyone coming into it and there being just a few things that we have to work out, right? So you are rewarded for joining me from the very beginning, for helping me set the energy of the room, for helping me create the community. And I just can’t wait to see you there. I cannot wait.

If you’re not on my email list, be sure to go now to the show notes for this podcast and there should be a link there to join the wait list, which I know it’s kind of silly to join the wait list because it’s coming tomorrow. But if you join the wait list you will be sure to get an email with a link to join if you’re interested in the coach lab.

I hope that I covered all of your questions, but if you have any others please just email me and I will see you next week. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Mastering Coaching Skills. If you want to learn more about my work, come visit me at lindsaydotzlafcoaching.com. That’s Lindsay with an A, D-O-T-Z-L-A-F.com. see you next week.