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Well, I thought coaching founders would be fun and easy. After over a decade of mentoring and some coaching on the side, I have always enjoyed helping others find their true motivations, helping them find the right why behind their business actions, and supporting them in defining the most important next actions and possible obstacles. It felt like a great way to give back to the European ecosystem and to stay in touch with broader problems than just what I was currently working on. Also, I always learned something new from those entrepreneurs.
In the past 12 months, I did an experiment where I took on a handful of technical founders as coaching clients. It was intensive founder coaching, with weekly calls, daily check-ins, and regular checkpoints. Basically, what coaching should look like as a job and professional service.
My biggest learning from this period? I can't be a great full-time coach. I can't. I miss the action and have a hard time staying calm when I see founders or teams doing less important things rather than eating the frog.
Also, when you have done a certain thing or activity many times, some things become painfully clear very quickly. Things like - wrong positioning of your product, wrong pricing, or a fact that you do not have PMF (product market fit) yet you want to start scaling the company.
As a coach, I do have the obligation to voice my concerns. I may give my opinions, but since I can't really go, do, and show, I have to navigate clients toward the activities and experiments that will help them realize that something is wrong. That's hard if you like the action, and it's occasionally frustrating when it doesn't work.
My coach said some time ago that everyone can be a coach if they want it bad enough, but to be able to do it long term, you have to learn to can detach yourself from your client's lives. I am probably guilty of both - it was an experiment I always wanted to try, but I wasn't "dying" to be a coach. And I found out that, to my surprise, I can't fully detach myself from my client's lives and actions. It often felt very personal and like I'm failing them when I let them do something that's not ideal for their situation.
Anyway, to be clear, it was mostly a positive experience. It just felt way more emotionally draining and empty of action than I initially expected it to be. To piggyback on my previous writing (Coaching got me back to writing), there were a couple of times when founders newly adopted the habit of written reflection, summarizing, and sharing regularly. And for some, it was uncovered during the first month of writing that there was something wrong, and we were able to move the team in the right direction. Yay!
Anyway, I am glad I had a chance to try this experiment, and I'm glad it's over. I have scaled coaching down, and I am back at the occasional mentoring of founders and students.
I know this one was a lot about me, but I wanted to document this reflection already for some time, not to lose it in case I will ever start thinking coaching (as a job) is easy and fun.
Maybe you have your own experience with coaching; let me know!
I certainly hope you will stick around, if you like - bring your friends - and let's support each other!
Find me as BFG (aka BrightFutureGuy) and let's connect!
- on X: https://twitter.com/aka_BFG
- on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/bfg
- Web3 Magic Podcast on Substack - https://www.web3magic.xyz
BFG (aka BrightFutureGuy)
Really fascinating to read… I had been wondering about this! I haven't gone into coaching, though it has been tempting to pursue after I began my writing and realized I have systems and knowledge I can use to help others. I’ve decided to take the longer view however and continue writing and building course content in the background, based on the idea of monetizing my knowledge instead of my time. Have you done that?
Hey Jon, starting with writing and building a course around your systems and knowledge is an excellent way to test the waters. I didn't do a course or extensive writing. I'd say active coaching has a very different audience from a coaching course and they will have different goals and expect different outcomes. I did a cohort-based course trial with a couple of founders, and that was quite a pleasant experience, so I may come back to that somewhere in the future. And courses in general are way less mentally taxing - it's given by the crowd dynamics and not so clear 1-1 relationship with your actions.