Effective practitioners shift between three roles: coach (helping clients find their own answers), mentor (showing how you'd do it), and consultant (giving direct solutions). Calling yourself only a coach limits who'll hire you and boxes how you work.
This is why I don't recommend people call themselves a coach, because they are so much more than a coach. So the way I look at it is, you know, which clients want you to talk, which clients want you to shut up, which clients respond well to tactics, which clients respond well to higher level stuff. So you don't really do the same thing for everyone. Your role changes. And I find myself that it's helpful to think about me doing three kinds of roles: a coach, a mentor, and a consultant. A coach is when you help someone find the answer within themselves. So often people will join just because they want therapy. You know that if you're a coach or a consultant, 95% of your job is relieving anxiety. Mentorship is showing people how you would do the thing. And then there's consulting, which is just giving people the answer when they ask you A or B and you tell them A. I find it helpful because I know which clients kind of need me to do what, to switch between those three hats. And this is why I don't recommend you call yourself any of those three hats because you switch between them constantly. And if you do, you will put yourself in a box and people will say, oh, you're just another coach. I don't need a coach. I'm good.
