Episode #5: James Bianco - Beware Your Simple Stories About Coaching Success

01/02/20 • 109 min

The Coach's Journey - build a coaching business with integrity

James Bianco is a leadership and career coach and the founder of 16 Degrees Coaching. He spent 11 years working for the UK Department for International Development, working with ministers and introducing the Lean Start-Up methodology across DFID’s development programmes. Then, a desire to really see the positive impact of his work led him to discover coaching. He hasn’t looked back, clocking up over 2,000 hours of coaching in the first four years of his practice, including running career change webinars for thousands of people.

In this episode, we talk about:

- How learning the craft of coaching works and how ‘trying hard’ to become a great coach in fact is not the way to become a great coach.

The power of the stories we have about our success: how the simple story he had about successful coaches – that they work only on recommendation – at first empowered him to create a thriving business... and then made him doubt himself.

What he learnt from running coaching calls for over 100 people at a time for career-change experts Careershifters.

- Networking: how James used his network to create opportunities, recommendations and referrals, and the importance of dispelling the myths we have about our networks.

And listen out for the beautiful - and surprising - answer James gives when I ask him how he filled all the time he had when he left his civil service role to coach full time.

www.thecoachsjourney.com

For more information about James, visit his website: https://www.16degreescoaching.co.uk/ or find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bianco/

For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.

Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg

Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):

~10: The Grameen Bank: http://www.grameen.com/introduction/

~10: Overseas Development Institute Fellowship Programme: https://www.odi.org/odi-fellowship-scheme

~13: Marianne Craig: https://www.coachlifeandcareer.com/

~18: Phil Bolton – Read about Phil here: http://phil-bolton.com/ or get to know him by listening to my interview with him in Episode #2: https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-2-phil-bolton-from-forensic-accountant-to-the-go-to-career-coach-in-london-and-on-to-work-with-ceos-mds-and-founders

~18: The Coaching School: http://www.thecoachingschool.co.uk/

~22: Jim Dethmer: https://conscious.is/team/jim-dethmer

~32: International Coach Federation (ICF) Competencies: https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies

~38: Oxford Brooks Certification as a Skills and Performance Coach: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/coaching-and-mentoring-practice/

~67: Jennifer Garvey Berger: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-garvey-berger-7b4a264 and her book: Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocking-Leadership-Mindtraps-Thrive-Complexity/dp/1503609014

~72: Omidyar Network: https://www.omidyar.com/

~72: Luminate: https://www.omidyargroup.com/pov/organizations/luminate/

~74: Careershifters: http://www.careershifters.org/

~75: The Careershifters articles Robbie most regularly shares with clients: https://www.careershifters.org/expert-advice/the-lean-career-change-how-to-reduce-the-risk-and-increase-the-speed-of-your-shift and

In this episode, we talk about:

- How learning the craft of coaching works and how ‘trying hard’ to become a great coach in fact is not the way to become a great coach.

What he learnt from running coaching calls for over 100 people at a time for career-change experts Careershifters.

- Networking: how James used his network to create opportunities, recommendations and referrals, and the importance of dispelling the myths we have about our networks.

And listen out for the beautiful - and surprising - answer James gives when I ask him how he filled all the time he had when he left his civil service role to coach full time.

www.thecoachsjourney.com

For more information about James, visit his website: https://www.16degreescoaching.co.uk/ or find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bianco/

For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.

Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg

Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):

~10: The Grameen Bank: http://www.grameen.com/introduction/

~10: Overseas Development Institute Fellowship Programme: https://www.odi.org/odi-fellowship-scheme

~13: Marianne Craig: https://www.coachlifeandcareer.com/

~18: The Coaching School: http://www.thecoachingschool.co.uk/

~22: Jim Dethmer: https://conscious.is/team/jim-dethmer

~32: International Coach Federation (ICF) Competencies: https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies

~38: Oxford Brooks Certification as a Skills and Performance Coach: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/coaching-and-mentoring-practice/

~72: Omidyar Network: https://www.omidyar.com/

~72: Luminate: https://www.omidyargroup.com/pov/organizations/luminate/

~74: Careershifters: http://www.careershifters.org/

Previous Episode

Episode #4: Catriona Horey - I'm Too Far Away From The Joy

Catriona Horey is an executive coach based in London and a lead trainer, supervisor and assessor of coaching for the MOE Foundation. She spent the first ten years of her career transforming the performance of nonprofits, social enterprises and leaders in social innovation, but in 2013 a bereavement and a collapsed lung led to her reassessing her priorities, with the message ‘I’m too far away from the joy’ appearing in her mind. That set her off on her journey into coaching, leading to a thriving business today working with leaders in social innovation, high potential professionals and women who want to redefine their priorities.

In this episode, we talk about:

How becoming a mother has been fundamental in the way she has developed her business and how it is possible to have it all, but over a lifetime.

The question her coach asked her which made her look at her whole career plan completely differently.

Marketing: why you should choose the marketing strategy that works for YOU, and the marketing distinction that made the difference for Catriona.

What Catriona did to generate 11 clients when her first batch of practice clients wrapped up.

The way Catriona thinks and talks about her purpose in life.

Over the course of this podcast, Catriona and I hit SO MANY of the common questions and challenges coaches face, including money, the question of niche, coaching on the phone, networking, connecting and more. And in case we had missed any, make sure to listen to the end for Catriona’s five brilliant tips to shortcut to coaching success!

www.thecoachsjourney.com

For more information about Catriona, find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/catrionahorey or visit her (minimalist) website, which has been ‘coming soon’ ever since I met her, at https://www.withcatriona.com/

For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.

Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg

Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):

~2 mins – Future Leaders Trust, now rebranded as Ambition School Leadership: https://www.ambition.org.uk/

~4 - Andrea Berkeley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-berkeley-4056673/

~15 – Camilla Mendoza: https://camillamendoza.com/

~22 –Simon Hampel: https://leadersquest.org/people/simon-hampel

~23 – MOE Foundation: https://moefoundation.com/

~25 – Culture at Work: http://www.coachingcultureatwork.com/ and Carol Wilson: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/coachingcultureatwork

~27 – Natalie Scholey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-scholey/

~28 – Tony Phillips: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonyjphillips

~32 – Rich Litvin: https://richlitvin.com/

~33 – Coaches Rising: https://www.coachesrising.com/

~33 – CTI + their certification programme: https://coactive.com/

~37 - Nicole Berg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolejberg/ and Coaching at Work: https://www.coaching-at-work.com/

~42 – International Coaching Federation (ICF): https://coachfederation.org/ and their credentials, ACC and PCC: https://coachfederation.org/icf-credential

~44 – Anna Lundberg: https://annaselundberg.com/

~45- The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler: https://richlitvin.com/the-prosperous-coach/

~48 - My LinkedIn Articles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbie...

Next Episode

Episode #6: Joel Monk - Conversations At The Cutting Edge of Coaching

Joel Monk is a coach whose work transforms leaders beyond the limits of conventional success, and the Co-Founder of Coaches Rising, a community of over 19,000 coaches dedicated to having the biggest impact they can. Working as a community artist - and after a difficult period in his life - he moved into a Bhuddist house. There he met a coach, his soul spoke to him and he set off on a journey which has led him to coaching bank CEOs, TV personalities and... well... me!

Alongside that, Joel and his Co-Founder Laurens Van Aarle created Coaches Rising, a pioneering training organisation bringing together thought-leaders from across the world and empowering coaches to create ever-better results. Coaches Rising brings together tens of thousands of coaches, has an amazing podcast (hosted by Joel), and runs some of the best (and best value) coach trainings available.

All this means that Joel has spent time with many (if not most) of the most forward-thinking people in the world of coaching, which gives him perspectives on everything from enrolling clients to myriad coaching techniques to the newest and most advanced ideas at the cutting edge of what makes great coaching.

In this episode, we talk about:

How problem solving and goal-setting can be traps that coaches fall into and what to do instead.

How he ended up living out of his jar of loose change and how being broke helped him change his story about money.

The roles serendipity and a tantric sex retreat played in him getting his most rewarding coaching gig ever.

His three pieces of advice for those new to coaching, and why he has faith that sincerity, dedication to the craft and putting the time in can make amazing things possible in anyone’s life.

Plus, we have a conversation about the role coaching has to play in the strange, complex and sometimes-unsettling modern world.

For more information about Joel, visit his website: http://joel-monk.com/ or Coaches Rising: https://www.coachesrising.com/

For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.

Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg

Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):

~8: Robbie’s colleague Jo Hunter’s TEDx Talk about Creativity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eun2mJMs1DM and her everyday creativity company, 64 Million Artists: https://64millionartists.com/

~12: Rivca Rubin: http://www.rivcarubin.com/

~13: Fred Kofman (https://fredkofman.org/), Integral Naked and Ken Wilber (https://integrallife.com/who-is-ken-wilber/)

~20: Robbie’s Twelve-Minute Writing Practice. You can browse all the pieces here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbieswale/detail/recent-activity/posts/ Or this one gives a description of the practice and its origins: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creativity-fear-freedom-robbie-swale/

~20: Steven Pressfield and The War of Art: (https://stevenpressfield.com/)

~25: Rich Litvin: https://richlitvin.com/

~30: THNK (School of Creative Leadership): https://www.thnk.org/

~35: Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/

~37: Jamie Wheal and his book, Stealing Fire: https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/team/jamie-wheal

~37: The mouse study Robbie mentions (thanks Peter): https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/05/scientist...