Criteria for Entry

Program Info | Entry Criteria | Overall Strategy | Pricing | Testimonials | The Coaching Gym

The vision for the MDCP was created in July/August 2003 and was a plan to duplicate the best of the DBS in a format that would help coaches to create their own "million dollar practice" (given that this phrase was a metaphor for success and not necessarily a financial target).

Our intention was that the Mentees would take our business template and adapt this to the niche market in which they had chosen to work.

The quarterly workshops, the assessment forms, the PowerPoint slides, the 8 key strategies, the coaching gym model - could all be adapted, without the requirement to "do as I do" - this was not a franchise or licensing system, we simply would tell our Mentees "how I did it" and then leave them free to develop their own unique identities.
 
However, as the client numbers grew it became clear that we had firstly, failed to pre-qualify the Mentees who were joining our programme and, secondly, underestimated or completely missed the differences between dentists in the DBS and coaches (Mentees) in the MDCP.

We were unable to predict that, to implement the ideas and concepts in the MDCP business model, coaches would have to demonstrate some core proficiencies/competencies:

• Financial security and the ability to pay. We did price the MDCP at a level which we felt was a fantastic offer in relation to the value that we would deliver - $5400 for a year's coaching, during which Mentees would have access to ALL of the DBS proprietarily material and full permission to adapt that material to their own circumstances. In addition, coaching from CB and Team CB via the workshops and the gym. In addition, the benefit of a community experience within each workshop group and within the MDCP as a whole. We expected that "the ability to pay" these fees on a monthly basis would never be an issue as far as the Mentees were concerned. However, a significant number of our Mentees were either living from savings, living from a partner's income or struggling with few existing clients. As their coaching year unfolded the pressure to maintain our fees became an inhibiting factor which forced many to withdraw. We have noticed that our most successful Mentees are building their practice whilst maintaining core income from an existing business or professional activity. This reflects my own transition into coaching (from financial planning) over a three-year period;
• Time to build a viable practice. "Pace not race" is one of my key phrases. I tell my clients in the DBS that they will see the benefit of their year's coaching over a three year period - that "year 1" is about understanding the questions, "year 2" about figuring the answers and "year 3" about implementation. I shared with the Mentees that my own "MDCP" had taken 10 years to build. I shared with the Mentees that, with a standing start I believe that a coach could build their "MDCP" in 3/5 years. None the less, a number of Mentees either became frustrated by their own slow progress or, again, had financial pressures placing time pressure on them - and so they left;
• An understanding of basic business principles. I began my coaching practice after 23 years in full-time work and after 7 years of self-employment (with spectacular wins and losses). There are some things to do with basic management of finance, resources and personnel that seem self-evident now, but I had to learn them the hard way. Some Mentees came to the MDCP without such skills and we found ourselves trying to teach them to run a business - never our brief;
• An understanding of marketing and sales. After basic training in financial services, the acquisition of clients is second nature to me - I know how to market myself and I know how to help prospects become clients. Some Mentees came to the MDCP without these skills and we found ourselves trying to teach them marketing and selling skills - never our brief;
• The ability to delegate. My first day as a self-employed professional - in January 1987 - I employed a full-time assistant and presented my first prospect seminar. Although I am just as much a "control freak" as any soloprenuer, I have always understood what the best use of my time was - or not. A coach who is sat at home working on a web site, literature, branding, contact management systems or any other administration, is a coach who is not "out there" marketing themselves - and because being "out there" is outside of the comfort zone, many coaches prefer to be inside and busy working on ideas and systems that nobody else ever gets to see. Many Mentees either could not, or would not, afford adequate help and left the programme because progress became too slow as a result;
• The acceptance of the coaching gym model. We under-estimated the extent to which the 1:1 coaching paradigm is embedded in coaching philosophy. Accordingly, even though we preached this model as the basis on which the DBS had been built and the basis on which the MDCP was offered - we quickly heard the Mentees "complaining" as to the lack of my personal availability to them;
• The commitment to the DBS business model. I have always stated that the DBS was "a" way of building a practice and not "the" way - there are other highly-successful coaches with quite different businesses. The vision for the initial MDCP was to allow the Mentees to adapt the model to their own circumstances - this often led to them "leaving out" what we considered to be vital components in the plan, such as public speaking for marketing and workshop delivery. With hindsight, we have to be more dogmatic and insist that our template is followed more closely - otherwise we are held accountable for a lack of results when our own model had been changed too much;
• Commitment to a focused niche. We have noticed many Mentees struggling to build a practice because their niche simply is not identifiable for marketing purposes. For example, "I work with people in mid- life crisis". Well, where does one go to market to them? We understand with the benefit of hindsight that success follows the identification of:

A niche that can be targeted via professional associations, trade bodies, gathering places;

A niche that has a problem worth solving - usually a business problem, the pain of which has become greater than the pain of inactivity;

A niche that can afford to pay for the solution - again, usually a professional or business client that sees their investment in coaching as affordable and justifiable within their overall cash-flows. Clients paying from personal income pay lower fees for less time. Clients paying from business income pay higher fees for more time.