Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.
We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.
Today we are interviewing Marcey Rader. Marcey is a Productivity and Health Coach based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?
Marcey: I coach both private clients and clients from companies. Sometimes, companies will hire me to coach individuals and/or teams. I coach in the areas of productivity and health behaviors. Anything from emails, managing time, creating boundaries, eating for energy, opportunities for creativity and collaboration, stress management, and sleep hygiene — the full spectrum of productivity and health.
NCA: You mentioned that you get clients privately and sometimes through companies. Can you talk a little bit about how those clients might differ?
Marcey: I do find that private clients tend to be more invested because they’re paying for it themselves. For clients that are part of a company, it’s more helpful if it’s an entire team or several people from that company that are going through the coaching as well because then there are other people that have an idea of why they are scheduling meetings a certain way or why they have turned off their notifications or why they want to do a walking meeting instead of a regular meeting. There are pros and cons.
If it’s somebody that is a natural teacher or maybe even a director or a manager, it’s great when they knowledge-capture and knowledge-share. When they take my coaching and then later transfer that to their team. For example, I coached a director at a biotech company. Every Monday, she would have ‘Marcey’s Minutes’ and she would share with her team all of the things that she learned from me in the last week during our coaching session.
Not everybody does that, but I encourage anybody that manages people to do that. They were all excited because they felt like they were getting the scoop and it wasn’t just that director who was learning all of these things. In addition, it helped the director because they knew what she was trying to accomplish.
I become very close to my clients. I love seeing how they progress over that long period of time. I’m coaching them on not just life skills but skills for work and for their health. I tend to become very close to them and love seeing their wins and how they progressed and how it’s changed their life.
NCA: Can you talk a little bit about your educational background on your path to becoming a coach and if you had to complete any certification or training to get to where you are today?
Marcey: I have a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and I have multiple certifications. I would actually have to go online and count them. I think I have 8 or 9 health and fitness types of certifications and I’m getting another one — a nutrition certification from NASM. I am a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I also went through Productivity Coaching at the Productive Environment Institute.
NCA: Can you talk about what is the most rewarding part of that relationship that you have with your clients and on the flip side of that, what is the most challenging aspect of the work that you do?
Marcey: From a reward perspective, I work with clients long-term. The minimum is three months but it’s typically six months — sometimes longer. I become very close to my clients. I love seeing how they progress over that long period of time. I’m coaching them on not just life skills but skills for work and for their health. I tend to become very close to them and love seeing their wins and how they progressed and how it’s changed their life. I’ve had many clients that have received promotions, got a new job, lost 50 lbs., gotten pregnant when they were struggling before, and other things that make it really easy to go to bed at night.
The thing that’s most challenging for me is when somebody signs up that is maybe not quite ready or that I have to chase down. I feel like I’ve gotten better at figuring out those clients that aren’t ready to start and discouraging them from starting a program right now, but there are always clients that you just can’t tell. They’re very excited in the beginning but then you’re constantly having to follow up and get them to check in or schedule their appointments. That is frustrating to me as a coach because it’s very different from my personality. My personality is, if I invest in something, you better believe I’m doing everything to get the value for the money that I paid and to get as much as I can from whoever that coach is from a learning perspective. That would be the most challenging.
Actually, I’m going through something very challenging right now. I am upleveling to a new coaching platform. Currently, I use Google Docs and the Voxer app and it has worked very well. But now I’m investing in a new coaching platform. Learning a new platform and trying to figure out what the best platform is for me and for my clients without it being a burden for them to use is really challenging for me. Especially because they hire me as a productivity coach to help make their lives simpler and now I’m saying, “Now you need to download this new app.” It’s challenging but I recommend it as a coach. I need to do this or I’m not going to be able to scale. I can’t charge the amount of money that I charge and give somebody something like a Google Doc.
NCA: Which mentor in your career was the most vital to your success as a coach and in what ways did this mentor help you thrive in your career?
Marcey: I’ve had more coaches than mentors. If I am a coach, I need to hire coaches myself. I’m going to go with my most recent and her name is Shauna VanBogart. I would say what she helped me the most with was recognizing my value and helping me with pricing. Also, helping me to price that value because when your business is based on your experience and your knowledge, it’s very easy to give it away.
It’s easy to abuse people in service-based businesses because you can just ask them the question and they can tell you. Whereas if I sold sweaters, nobody would think to say, “Can you just give me that sweater? Can I meet you over coffee and you give me a free sweater?” Or if I owned a coffee shop, they wouldn’t walk in and then expect me to just give them free coffee. But because your knowledge is just in your head and based on your experience, it’s sometimes awkward to figure out what those boundaries are. She helped me with that even just from a logistical perspective.
My very first business coach, Megan Huber, has helped me with email marketing. I didn’t know what a list was. This was all so new and I feel like from a business perspective, there are coaches for different seasons in your business. At some point, you need somebody that can teach you the basics but they may not be able to take you to the next level. It’s okay to move on from somebody or to get very specific. You should know exactly what help you need.
NCA: What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is just starting out in their coaching career?
Marcey: My advice would be not to take on a client if you have any sense of dread about it, especially when you’re first starting and you feel like you need to take on anyone. I’m a very logical and practical person but in the beginning, I needed to take whoever wanted to coach with me. I would take on anybody and my stomach would sink before every session. I would start dreading our session the morning that I woke up because they just weren’t a good fit for me.
If you take on somebody that you know is not a good fit, you might not be able to help them to the best of your abilities. That’s not going to help you grow your business because they didn’t achieve success and they can’t spread the word that you are a success coach.
As hard as it is when you’re first starting out to say that a client is not a good fit for you, it’s important for your mental health and also for your success as a coach.
