From Singapore to Birmingham Alabama – Getting Face-to-Face

Posted by Dave Buck on January 29, 2008 under CoachVille Caffeine, | DAVE BUCK | 2 Comments to Read

Today’s Program features Duanna Pang-Dokland, A coach who always coaches face-to-face. In fact, like the Doctors of old, Duanna makes house calls.

Duanna tells an inspiring story of courage and flexibility. Moving to a new country, knowing noone, she started her coaching practice by going to networking events and meeting people.

While most of the coaching industry was talking about coaching by phone, she learned that the people in her community wanted their coaching face to face. So, she went with it and found that there are benefits to seeing her clients environments. She also learned that she can deliver a coaching session in a Starbucks!

To listen to this interview (and the entire Caffeine archive), visit www.coachville.com and sign up for CoachVille Caffeine.

Also in the Coaching News today:

Ginger Cockerham posts an interesting articke in the UK Times: Perfecting your World/Life Balance

Also over in the UK, we found a group not unlike our International Coach Federation; the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, and you will find a Global Coaching Conference link on their website, happening in Dublin, July.

Over in Jerusalem, a great article on building a Life Coaching Practice: Life Coaching: Writing Your Own Ticket.

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Tags: Coaching

Duanna said,

Hi Coach Dave!

Thank you for having me on your teleshow. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Am also very glad that you like my website! Here’s the address again — http://ignitingpossibility.com. Now I have another reason to maintain it well!

It will be so fun & awesome to finally meet you when you start your Coach USA tour! Our ICF Birmingham AL chapter welcomes you!

Best,
Duanna
Joan Bell said,

Hi Dave and Duanna,

I really enjoyed this call, I am just catching up on the recordings as I am in Oz and can’t make it to the live calls.

I loved Duannas enthusiasm, her willingness to share and her “story” and yes her website is “delicious”. I am certain we will be hearing a lot more of Duanna.

The “cafe” coaching is quite common in Australia and I had never heard of phone coaching until I began joining overseas forums and coaching chapters so I found it interesting the fact that Dave was quite intrigued by Duanna’s cafe coaching experiences.

When I was in Sydney for a while I had a gorgeous “office” in the reception area of IBM which had luxurious lounges and a couple of nice coffee shops. A very impressive “front”. It was right opposite the apartment I was living in at the time so very convenient.

A great way of getting started for new coaches actually is to hook up with a local cafe and have a “meet the coach” Tuesdays for instance which can be 2 or 3 hours on a not so busy day/time for the cafe. You can set appointments and make the sessions about 20mins long. It can be advertised freely in the “what’s happening section of a local newspaper and the cafe can also place a flyer or whatever in the window.

This gives prospective clients a chance to experience coaching in a friendly, safe environment and the coach and cafe both have a positive experience (as does the prospect).A local paper actually did a write up of a coach who did this so she also got great publicity for free.

Keep smiling,
Joan Bell