Coaching, the Internet, and "Prospective Clients"

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a person interested in coaching. Trying to sustain my excitement, I replied back and spent my time planning a training program for my new runner. Since Marie and I haven't been marketing our business, I was surprised and delighted that someone found my name on the RRCA coaching site and contacted me.

Through the next week, I emailed back and forth with my client's father. She would start at the end of August and I would train her for two months. I was a little wary that I never received the client's name and her father gave me very little personal information about her, however, so far we had just been emailing so I figured I would wait and see what happened.

The next week, I received an email through the RRCA website, titled "COACHING SCAM". The email stated that an email scam was circulating and RRCA coaches were being contacted by a man wanting coaching for "his daughter". An alarm went off. Could it be that I was being scammed? These things only happened to other people, right? Wrong.

Through a few more emails, I found out that the person I had been emailing was a scammer. Enraged and more than a little pissed off, I tried to handle the situation by contacting the authorities. They'd be able to do something. So I called the Ann Arbor police department. The first woman I talked to was very pleasant and just transferred me to another, very unfriendly person who in a few words said she was unable to help. Unbelievable.

As someone who is planning on offering online coaching to clients, internet scamming is something that we will probably come into contact with more than once. However, there are some precautions we can take to prevent it from going too far: Contacting clients in person or by phone, getting as much information as possible about clients, and being more aware that scams are possible.

Someone who wants coaching has to be aware and do their research as well. Finding a certified coach through a website like RRCA is one way, and finding out as much information as possible about your coach will help you find the best coaching services you can get.

Scams happen all the time, and it doesn't seem like someone would get far by contacting coaches, but it does happen. This is a good lesson both for coaches and coachees: make sure you've done your research, and if possible, meet with the person you are planning on taking on before anything else.

Running, Beginnings and Endings

Everything has a beginning and an ending. As I sit here right now, I am ending a time of injury and beginning a time of recovery, renewal, and working myself into running again. While I’m excited about the prospect of once again enjoying an activity I once felt I couldn’t live without, I am also grieving the ending of a time of exploration, when I had time to delve into activities that my busy running schedule didn’t previously allow.

Everyone should start something new once and awhile. We get so used to being “good” at something, whether it’s running, work, family, or the easy patterns of the week, we can quickly forget what it’s like to be “new” at something. To begin comes with its own anxiety, fear, and unknown, but along with those feelings come excitement, anticipation and exhilaration of this unknown.

These beginnings are like a drug to me. I thrill for this change, the anticipation of something I’ve never done before, of something I know nothing about, but will come to understand over time. When I started running, each new distance was rife with experiences, each race provided a new challenge, and over time, what once was filled with uncertainty became normal, expected, and as much as anything can be, certain. I knew running.

Now, starting again, these feelings of newness are back. I can no longer just “go out for a run” of indeterminate distance, feeling the ease of each step at my usual pace. Each step now is it’s own struggle as I build endurance. I must plan my runs, being careful not to overdo it, feeling my legs aching in surprise at what once felt easy as my lungs ache and struggle for every breath. I begin again, slowly, uncertain, and anxious about how this new but old venture will turn out.

I try to remind myself to be patient. I want to be good right now, again, just like I was before my injury. New beginnings take time, patience, and consistency, I remind myself. It is okay to not be the best, when you’re beginning, I say.

At some point, this beginning will come to an end, and I will be back to my usual running self. But the experience of the new is something I will come back to, over and over, remembering that everything has a beginning and ending, filled with excitement, anxiety, fear, loss, grief, and closure. Sometimes all at the same time.