This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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While reading the local newspaper one day, I stumbled upon a career column written by Jo Miller (www.jomiller.net), a Women’s Leadership Coach. I was immediately impressed with her ability to land a national column. Publicity like that has to be worth thousands of dollars, and she got it for free. She’s definitely a smallbusinessbranding success story, and I had to discover her secrets. Here’s the transcript of the interview:
Michael: It’s Dec 3, 2004. This is Jo Miller, and Jo is a Woman’s Leadership Coach. I sent Jo some questions ahead of time, and I’m going to go down the list of questions one-by-one Jo, and I’ll just listen to you answer them.
Michael: Tell me a little bit about your business; how long you’ve been practicing; who you work with; why people hire you; what you like about it and what you don’t like about it, if anything.
Jo: Sure. I’ve been a coach, and now I’m in my seventh year of coaching. And I specialize in working with women who are managers and executives. Some of them are professional women who are interested in stepping up to a greater level of leadership, so they may be a little earlier on in their career, but wanting to fast track themselves into a more senior leadership position.
And what I do with them is . . . my belief is women make wonderful leaders, but there’s something standing in their way, whether it’s confidence or just having the skills and competency to be a better leader. So what I do as a women’s leadership coach is I help them to reach their full potential as leaders and help them step up to being that competent, powerful leader that they know they can be. I provide them with the skill, the confidence and the game plan to make that all happen.
Jo: Most of my clients tend to be women in management and executive level in fortune 500 companies.
Michael: You must have been reading my mind. That was my next question.
Jo: Oh really? (laughs) You know some of them own small businesses too, but that’s a smaller proportion.
And the main reason they hire me? You know most of the women I work with, they’ve experienced some success in their career, so they’re generally very smart and very talented. And often they’ve gotten to a point where their progress has stalled and they can not figure out why. So, they’re interested in knowing what’s holding them back . . . what’s standing in their way.
And sometimes there are some real specific challenges people come up with . . . i.e. they want to get promoted or they want to get better results in their career, or get better results from their team. And sometimes it’s about getting more reward and recognition for the work that they do. So those are probably some of the common themes that people come to me with.
Michael: Let me ask you before we go on. Do you work with any men at all?
Jo: Yea, I do. In fact, up until about 3 or 4 years ago, my coaching practice was 50/50. And as a result of that, I still have 1 to 2 guys I work with. And I really love coaching men. But I also knew that I needed to have a really strong focus and a niche for my business to grow to the level that I wanted it to.
Michael: That’s something I want to talk about as we get into the interview. I’m glad you said that.
Jo: Okay.
Michael: What do love most about your business and coaching in particular?
Jo: That is a really hard one to answer, because I can’t think of what I don’t love. One of the greatest things is the caliber of women I get to work with. It’s just incredible. They’re all experts at what they do. They have had phenomenal success in their career, and so I get to learn so much from them as leaders every day. And so I get to leave every coaching call feeling excited and inspired and like I’ve learned something really valuable. So I really enjoy every minute of the work I do with them.
Michael: I’m guessing you’ve heard of the late Thomas Leonard?
Jo: Yes.
Michael: He was someone I respected tremendously, and I think a lot of coaches did. And one of the things he really drove home what that he learned coaching from his clients. And as I listen to you talk about some of the things you love about your work, is that something . . . I mean do you learn how to coach from your clients?
Jo: Oh yea, absolutely, and not only do I learn coaching from my clients, I also learn leadership from my clients. And just learn the art of living from them as well.
Michael: So you’re not really a leadership expert, per se. You learned it more from your clients than anyplace else.
Jo: Well, probably from a number of places. I had a couple of clients I had early on in my career who were just incredible at having a big vision, stepping up, making things happen, enrolling other people and then stepping away to allow their creation to grow. So I learned a tremendous amount from them, and it sort of made me curious to go read all the books and take all the classes on leadership, especially as it relates to women.
Michael: So, it sounds like a little bit of both.
Jo: Yea, and you know the last couple of years in particular, I’ve really immersed myself in learning everything I can.
Michael: Sure. So, can you think of anything at all that you don’t enjoy about this business?
Jo: Yea. Paperwork, and as I speak to you right now, I’m surrounded by an office that looks like a paper bomb hit it (laughs).
Michael: (laughs) I can relate. I spent an hour today . . .
Jo: It’s something I don’t love, and more and more, want to outsource as much as I can.
Michael: Okay. I’m glad I got something out of you that you don’t like about it.
Jo: (laughs)
Michael: Lets’ talk about the coaching field in general. You’ve been in it quite a while. Seven years, I think, is a long time in relation to how long the field had been around. Do you find people becoming more or less receptive to coaching, and what do think are the reasons for that?
Jo: Definitely more receptive than when I started out seven years ago. Back then, you spent the first ten minutes of a conversation just explaining what the heck coaching was. And I don’t have to do that anymore. In fact, I get contacted by people saying “hey, I’m ready to be coached.†And that lets me know people are aware of what this is and they know they’re ready for it too.
And I think at the same time, coaches have gotten much better over the last couple of years, and I think it’s largely thanks to the work of Thomas Leonard too, but coaches have got more skills at describing the benefits and results rather than the coaching process.
Michael: Yes, very well said.
Jo: And I think that has gotten a lot of the general public more excited and more interested about what coaching can provide.
Michael: So, it’s not so much selling coaching, but selling what coaching can offers.
Jo: Exactly.
Michael: Selling the sizzle rather than the steak.
Jo: Yea. That’s it’s.
Michael: Very well said. Thank you.
Michael: What was you background before becoming a coach?
Jo: I was in human resources and recruiting. I did some executive recruiting.
Michael: Again, the same type of market? Fortune 500 companies?
Jo: Technical . . . I worked for a large high tech company. And I also spent quite a few years in creative recruiting – graphic designers and web designers, etc.
Michael: So, when you went into coaching, did you do you training with CoachU?
Jo: No. I was in Australia at the time. And I trained with Results Coaching Systems.
Michael: I remember seeing that on your website now. And you actually worked with them for a while as well, if I’m not mistaken.
Jo: Yea. I became their lead trainer in Australia and then in the United States when I moved here.
Michael: Now, becoming their trainer, was that something that happened immediately after you completed training?
Jo: Maybe about six months afterwards they invited me to become an assistant trainer. I wasn’t completely confident about it when they first asked me so I let it go about six months before I jumped in. I wanted to build my skill as a coach first before I taught other coaches.
Michael: I think that’s not an uncommon a place to come from, especially as a new coach.
To be continued . . .