Introductions

First impressions are extremely important. They kick-off the coaching relationship and set the tone.

Your first messages should communicate:

• Confidence
• Clarity
• Care

We suggest you have some templates on hand for these interactions. This doesn't mean you should send cookie-cutter responses. Templates are great because they make sure that your first responses are well thought out and cover all the important basics. Good ones are easy to customize to your client.

You should definitely review the section on Setting Expectations before drafting initial message templates. Here are templates that you can use for your initial interactions:

Welcome Message

Clients receive a welcome message immediately upon signing up to your coaching. Since it may take you up to 24 hours to respond depending on timezones, you'll want the welcome message to include something that engages the client, usually an assessment. The welcome message is a good place to set expectations, too: time of day that they should expect to hear from you and your coaching process.

Edit your welcome message under "Coach Chat" by going to your Coach Dashboard, clicking Tools, then clicking 'Edit Coach Profile'. You have the option to write goal-specific welcome messages. We highly recommend you do this, especially because it lets you tailor your assessment questions to the specific goal you are coaching.

Here are three examples:

Example, Set Priorities for Your Day

Thanks so much for choosing me to be your coach! It's great to connect, and I'm really looking forward to working with you.

To get started, I'd like to get some more detail about your background with setting daily priorities and productivity. Here are a few questions which will kick-off the process:

1. What is your main objective for signing up for 1-1 coaching?
2. What would success look like to you?
3. Describe your perfect work day.
4. Describe your typical (not perfect) work day.

Take your time to reflect with these responses, looking forward to working with you!

Example, Inbox Zero

Awesome! That's the first step out of the way. I'll be in touch shortly to learn more about you so I can be as helpful as possible.

I'm based in Australia and my main check in time with clients is 7am, which is 8pm in London, 3pm in NYC and noon in SF. I also check at least once again in the evenings around 8pm (9am London, 4pm NYC and 1am in SF). If I don't respond straight away please be patient as I may be asleep or tied up. And no need to wait for me to respond. Hit me with questions and comments straight away if you have them.

To get you started:

Why is reaching Inbox Zero important to you? What challenges do you foresee? Is this for work email, personal, or both? What email flavour (e.g. gmail) and apps / devices do you use to access your email? What do you expect from me as your Coach?

I feel very strongly that you will see tangible improvements in your life through working towards and achieving this Goal. Good luck!

Example, General:

Thank you for signing up for coaching with me.

You can send me a message at any time and I'll respond as quickly as I can. I make sure to check in with all my clients by 3pm Pacific Time.

My process is based on building momentum, so one of the first things we'll do is find a first step that you can take toward your goal. But before we do that, I need to hear more about your goal and why you hired me.

Here are a few questions to kick off the process.

1. What goal do you want to achieve and why?
2. What would your life be like if you achieved this goal?
3. Describe your perfect day?
4. Describe your typical (not perfect) day. What's stopping you from achieving your goal?
5. How do you hope my coaching will help you? If you've been coached before, do you have any preferences about how I should coach you?

My goal is for you to see major results within two weeks. I'll use your answers to the questions above to explain the process for getting there.

The First Response

The first time you hear from a client is when they sign up and respond to your welcome message. Your response to that message should include active listening.

• Use the 4 R's: Repeat, restate, reframe, and relate to what the client has said. You need to show them that you heard them. That way they know that all of your future coaching is personal to them and also that it's worth answering your questions. Most commonly, coaches screw this up by responding immediately with more questions or direct advice.

• Your methodology: Now that you've done an initial assessment, let the client know where the coaching is going to go. This gives context for whatever next step you give in part C. Most commonly, you'll be using our Momentum Method as a guide, so say something like, "I follow the guidelines of Coach.me's Momentum Methodology, which is to focus on consitency first, then grow technique/difficulty, and then find an early milestone where we can celebrate and evaluate your progress."

• Next step: This could be more questions or a specific exercise that relates to the methodology you describe. In Momentum Method, you'll be turning a goal into a consistent habit.

Here's what this looks like in practice. Imagine a client who has signed up for meditation and who has described a golfing situation where he has felt anxiety. This is a response that uses Active Listening:

[Active Listening: Relate to the person and restate their goal]

"Great to meet you and thanks for giving me a try.

I'm a big believer in meditation for the goals you talk about. It's exactly as you describe, you build an awareness of the hundreds of strange thoughts that go through your head. And then one day you'll say to yourself, "Oh, I'm being watched by the fourball and that's making me feel nervous."

Then you'll put that thought down and bring your focus back to your breath. And then you'll be calm again.

[Momentum: explain the basics of methodology so that the client knows what's coming.]

To set expectations, I follow the guidelines of Coach.me's Momentum Methodology, which is to focus on consistency first, then grow technique/difficulty, and then find an early milestone where we can celebrate and evaluate your progress.

[Next Action: suggest a potential first exercise, but be open to the client's feedback because you may not have all of the information yet.]

First, our focus will be to build a regular practice that you can do daily or at least multiple times per week.

What is your experience with meditation? Have you ever meditated before? How did it go? Do you have an idea about when and where you want to meditate? How many times per week do you want to meditate?

Without knowing your experience with meditation, I would suggest something very small and simple. Here's a great minimal practice that you can do no matter experience or time pressure:

Sit down. Close your eyes. Take five deep breaths.

That might sound trivial, but if you can do that multiple times per week, then you're going to be able to expand that into a serious meditation practice.

If that exercise doesn't feel right, or you have something else in mind, let me know and we can talk though it."