My journey with Coach.me
How can coaches help us iterate?
How I got into coaching
Way back in 2014, I was one of the really early coaches on a platform called Coach.me. Well at that time, it was still called lift.do (a smart move to change the name to avoid confusion with the other Lyft that was gaining momentum at the time).
I wasn't 100% sure that coaching was something I wanted to do in my career, but it certainly interested me. At the time, I had just started working for an EdTech startup called CreativeLive. I was producing and hosting educational workshops on a variety of skills. One day we were helping people develop skills in Photoshop, the next day we helped aspiring writers. There were even more fun classes on things like quilting or wine tasting. But the point was that we were helping people, typically thousands of people at a time who were tuning into to watch our livestreamed courses.
Coach.me
Coaching would be another outlet for me to help people on a smaller scale. I could get to know people 1-on-1 and get to the bottom of their issues and suggest actionable improvements to help them reach their goals. Coach.me was the perfect platform for this. I created an account and went through the rigorous coaching certification. Yep, I got my certificate as an accredited Habit Certification Coach. I completed a program and took a final exam that taught me how to translate traditional coaching methods into the modern app platform that Coach.me created.
Coach.me's CEO was a man named Tony Stubblebine. I loved Tony's demeanor from the first live training session I did with him. Tony is a Silicon Valley vet who really understands both the helpful, educational aspects of coaching, as well as the pragmatic business side of making an income from your craft. Coach.me was designed to quickly connect coaches with clients in a variety of areas. And it worked well.
For me, I found a lot of early success with text-based habit coaching. This is sort of like being an informed accountability partner who can help steer a client in the right direction with daily text check-ins via the Coach.me app. Obviously I can't speak specifically about the clients I've coached, but I can share general topics where I've helped people. Some folks needed an accountability partner to help ween themselves off of late night YouTube binges. Others wanted weekly reviews to keep track of progress on milestones for their small businesses. And then there were people who just had a general interest in self-improvement without a clear goal in mind. With my help, they were able to better define what they were looking to accomplish, and could create a map to help them get there.
My niche was helping people improve their relationship with technology. Kicking a social media habit could open up free time to start a side business. Building the “no screens after 10pm habit” helped people get more sleep so they could exercise in the morning. And teaching people about productivity habits like the Pomodoro Technique allowed them to get more work done in less time so they could spend more quality time with their families. Yes, this coaching often morphed into several areas (productivity, health, business, mindfulness) but at the heart of all of my best coaching connections was a desire to improve, to iterate if you will.
CEO Shake-Up
I’m writing this now as Coach.me has transitioned to new leadership. Coach Tony Stubblebine has moved on to become the new CEO of another company I’m quite fond of, Medium. He’s looking to improve things at the company in the same way he acts as a coach…small, steady changes. He’s also done a great job of being completely transparent as he tackles this new challenge and shares it through his writing. I’m excited to see what changes he brings to Medium. While I much prefer using Substack as my writing platform of choice, I still see the benefit of a the “YouTube of Written Content” that Medium aims to be.
And what about Coach.me? Who has Tony selected to lead that company forward? It will be in the fantastic hands of Kendra Kinnison. Kendra was named the new CEO of the company as Tony left. I had the pleasure of working with Kendra during several of those coaching certifications I mentioned earlier. She is a fantastic teacher who understands the world of coaching better than almost anyone.
I’m honestly not sure what lies ahead for Coach.me. I’m sure Kendra has plenty of new exciting things up her sleeve. She’ll be the first to admit that the interface is likely in need of an overhaul. While the mobile app is clean and simple to use, the interface on the web could use a few upgrades. The technology behind the site is neat, but the special sauce has always been the coaches themselves. I won’t pat myself on the back too hard, but coaches on coach.me really know their stuff. And the platform makes it really easy to find a coach who fits your needs, and just as easily move on from them if it isn’t a fit.
Conclusion
I share all of this because it’s a fascinating story of a company now celebrating ten years of operation and embarking on the next step in their journey. The entire coaching industry is on the rise. Fueled by pandemic demand and a more accepting mindset from millennials, Coach.me is poised to see continued growth.
And while there is never a bad time to improve yourself or build positive habits, it’s clear that most people start looking for coaches in the fall or around end of year/new year’s goals. Consider this a public service announcement reminding you about the power of coaching. I’ve been a coach and I’ve been coached and seen the amazing results.
No, I’m not saying you need to hire me as your coach (although that could be fun! check out my coach.me profile if you’d like) but it’s worth thinking about areas where you may want to hire a coach. If you’re a regular reader of my work, you undoubtedly have something that you’re looking to improve in your life. What better time than now to take the next step to start seeing some real positive changes?
Hey! I’m testing out some new polling tools that Substack has recently added. Keep your eyes on this section and please help me get some feedback by taking a second to choose an answer in my poll. Thank you!
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
P.S. - Did this topic get you excited to work with a coach? As I build out some new ways to interact with members of the community, I’m looking to gain some feedback on how I can better serve you.
Do you have a few minutes to give me some feedback on how you iterate on your own goals and whether you have ever considered coaching as a way to boost your progress? If so, feel free to book some time with me here!
Thanks for sharing your story, as well as some info about coach.me. I've thought of becoming a coach many times, and even done some training elsewhere, but never gotten certified. Many of my articles on Medium (some of which can be read by people who aren't Medium members here: https://bio.link/wendigordon) share self-improvement tips based on my experience of actually using them and learning what works for me.