If you would like to become an ADD Coach yourself, I currently offer several options. The most well-known, the A.C.T. ADD Coach Training Program, is a comprehensive look at ADD and ADD coaching that will leave you certification eligible with ICF at the PCC level. With ACT12 (curriculum to be posted shortly), we will also be offering an option that will leave you MCC certification eligible.

I have recently initiated group mentor coaching options, for details and to register, click here.

About Mentor Coaching

The ADD Coach Mentoring process concentrates your focus on developing your ideal client profile, your ideal practice profile, your niche, your business plan, your marketing plan and materials, and helps you prioritize your training path to reinforce the skills you will be using first with your particular clients.

Much of what I do with clients is tailored specifically to the client. Coaching is interdevelopmental --one of the differences between coaching and therapy.

There are many tools I have developed to structure your actions and to help us objectify the process. These include a group of programs I developed especially for coaches that I mentor and a series of programs I developed especially for ADDults.

As with the programs developed by Thomas Leonard, my policy is that my clients are licensed to deliver any of the programs with their individual clients royalty free. Should you choose to hold a workshop or plan to include the materials as part of a presentation to a group, a 10% royalty would be required.

My goal is to challenge you without overwhelming you.I generally explore options for a session or two before we begin program work. These programs all work together and no two clients approach practice development by exactly the same path. We will start based on what would make the biggest difference in your growth.

The following is a description of some of the programs my mentor clients use.

The goal of this program is to develop a picture of a practice that is toleration-free while you take the actions to have a full practice.

The tendency of most new coaches is to allow their practice to develop in reaction to some hastily conceived ideas of what's possible. What I want for you is a practice that suits you perfectly. Starting with your values, this program provides a structure to help you to discover which elements are essential, which are desirable, and which are based on values that belong to somebody else.

This program will help you to determine the meaning of a FULL practice for you. One CU Coach considered his practice full with 75 clients; coaches working full-time jobs may call their practices full at 5. My ideal client load is about 20 private clients since I want to have time to develop and lead seminars and groups and to work on several of the ADD books I am writing.

In helping you to answer this question for your life, we'll take into account your personal rhythms, your general energy level, your training, your other commitments and your other interests. Our goal for you to have a full practice. You will determine the number that is appropriate for you. [top]

This program will be one you will return to as you grow. "Ideal" is a relative term. In the same way that an ideal mate chosen at age 20 will have different qualities from one chosen at age 40, you will find that you will refine your Ideal Client Profile many times in the growth of your practice. Our goal is to take a snapshot of what would suit you in the 3 months following the time you do the work. I will ask you to revisit this program every quarter as you learn more about coaching and about your strengths and interests as a coach. [top]

Building on the information gathered in

The Ideal Client Profile,

this program focuses on developing a speciality or two that will help you to differentiate your coaching from that of your colleagues. [top]

What are your strengths? What are your areas of expertise? What is your product? What is your market? What are your income targets? Who is your "competition?". What sets you apart? These are questions that will be answered as you develop a business plan for your practice that will provide a flexible map to follow as you develop as a coach.[top]

Before you develop your business tools, we will do some focused work to develop your practice standards. What is your cancellation policy? How do you handle late callers? When are your days off? What forms of coaching will you offer? How will you structure your fees? Will you invoice? How will you keep your records? What systems will work the way that you naturally function, so that managing your practice is effortless? [top]

You will need to develop brochures, a Welcome Packet, perhaps a press-kit and some speaking materials -- paper tools that will help you to focus your energy as you market your practice.

There are a few things I wish I'd known when I first developed my materials that would have saved me a lot of work later on. This loosely structured program is my way of shortening your learning curve and sparing you the effects of many of the mistakes I made.[top]

The ideal marketing plan isone that so clearly communicates to its ideal client profile that the client recognizes himself immediately and is able to say, "Hey, they're talking about me!" That implies that you will develop materials and a strategy that will create a distinct way of relating to your prospective clients that will separate you from all other coaches.

In Marketing Your Services Anthony Putman says, "The really effective marketing [plan] creates a laser-like alignment between its mission and its market." We will spend some time developing a business mission that comes directly from your values-based personal vision. Then we will tailor a plan congruent with your target market because your target market will have come directly out of your values.

It is during this process that you will develop your most valuable tangible asset: your customer database. Part of our work will be to look at the kind of information you are going to want to keep track of and set up a system to keep track of it.

Much of this program comes directly from Marketing Your Services, so if you can pick up a copy of the book now and begin reading it, you will be ahead of the game. [top]

Developed for ADDers, the Challenges Inventory™ allows us to get a snapshot of your particular functioning in nine key areas. I designed the program to target specific areas which are particularly challenging for ADDers so that they can begin to prioritize a path through the rest of the ADD Skills series.

The program consists of a series of questions answered according to a graduated rating system. The ratings are then plotted on a grid that gives a visual representation of relative functioning in nine different categories, the mastery of which could be useful to ADDer and non-ADDer alike: time management, transition management, organization & task completion, stress tolerance, perfectionism/black & white thinking, attentional/focusing systems, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

I work with this program with every client and encourage my mentor clients to do the same. Although non-ADD clients tend to score on the low side in each category, the difference between individual scores can be meaningful from a systems development standpoint. The systems you are utilizing in the area where your score is the lowest (your area of highest functioning) will give us valuable clues to the way you work. We will apply those systems consciously to areas that aren't functioning as well as a means of learning the systems development process. [top]

Developing systems to manage energy is the focus of this program, another of the ADD Skills series. The TimeSteps™ program addresses areas of under-functioning as well as unrealistic time expectations while it tracks the development of skills to structure activities within time boundaries. It teaches new habits. Before you can prioritize your path through your training, we need to have a snapshot of your approach to time management and make sure that you are well organized for the many changes that will follow. As you work on your score on this 100-point program, it will serve as background for a practice management conversation. [top]