AFTER the wave of train the trainer courses in the mid 1990s, WA-based coach Di Downie has decided to take the trend a step further and coach the coaches.
Ms Downie began as a business and lifestyle coach about 10 years ago – specialising in small business, family business and women in business.
Now she has created the Coach Academy.
Business coaching is a developing field in Australia.
“I’m concentrating on personal development and business tools. Most of the training is an organic process,” Ms Downie said.
“I spend half a day discussing the students’ business and looking for trends and tools they may need to develop.
“I also have tools for working with young people and women.”
Ms Downie said she decided to create the academy because of the amount of business that was out there.
“A lot of large corporations are outsourcing a lot of their work, which has created some opportunities,” she said.
“The other thing is people are confused by the amount of information that is out there. One thing I concentrate on is filtering and gathering the right information for business.
“Plus, the coach term was started to lose it meaning.
“The academy is designed to help coaches get better and help newcomers to become coaches.”
In the 18 months the academy has been running, Ms Downie has trained five coaches.
She said some of her students were coaches in their own right, coaching in their areas of expertise.
One is from a direct marketing background and is concentrating on helping clients boost their sales. Another is from a small business background and has chosen to concentrate on that sector.
She is off to Sydney this month to see what that market requires so she can develop programs to suit.
