Creative coaching is an investment in your professional and personal creative goals. It works to keep you accountable for finishing projects using a coach’s expert experience and personalised support.

As a creative and writing coach, I’ve seen first-hand the ways that coaching can improve a client’s internal confidence and external work. Through regular sessions and an intentional progress plan, creative and mindset coaching can help you to level up as a creative and overcome procrastination, self-doubt, and creative blocks.

In this post, you’ll learn:

1. What is a creative coach?
   1. Benefits of creative coaching
2. How does creative coaching work?
3. How to find a creative coach (a step-by-step guide)
   1. Step 1: Research
   2. Step 2: Short List
   3. Step 3: Outreach
   4. Step 4: Consultation
   5. Step 5: Decision
4. Is creative coaching right for you?
5. My approach to coaching

What is a creative coach?

A creative coach is a professional guide and supporter who works to help you better establish your creative voice, process, and output. Coaches in general work to keep clients on track to achieve their goals through sharing their expertise and acting as an accountability partner. This coaching process takes place through weekly or monthly sessions uniquely tailored to the client’s needs and journey.

Creative coaching specifically works to build a client’s confidence in self-expression and stay committed to completing projects. The sessions might also help with more specific areas like project management, meeting deadlines, and working through creative ruts.

Over a series of sessions, your creative coach will develop an actionable plan for staying on track to achieving your goals as well as providing valuable resources for learning and growth. They will take on roles such as creative partner, editor, and ally, making sure to support you through the many stages of creativity.

Most importantly, your coach will help you to navigate the self-doubt and failure that can accompany any creative endeavour. Being a creative in any field such as writing, content creation, or marketing can at times feel overwhelming, but with a creative coach, you never have to feel alone.

Benefits of creative coaching

There are countless potential benefits to working with a creative coach. Here are the top three that should know about:

1. Action Plan: You receive a personalised plan of action to achieve your short, medium, and long-term goals allowing you to let go of the responsibility of accountability and leave it to your coach to ensure you stay on track.
2. Support through the highs and lows: A creative coach will support you during difficult periods of negative self-talk, low confidence, or failure so that you can more quickly recover and not feel alone and vulnerable to spiralling.
3. Expert Insights and Advice: Most coaches are experts in their field meaning they can offer you invaluable insights and advice to help you to follow in the footsteps of their success. Particularly for those starting in a new field, creative coaches can speed-track your learning process with their professional guidance.

How does creative coaching work?

Creative coaching is the process of weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly meetings between a coach and their client to follow a progress plan and move closer to the client’s goals.

The first step is typically a free consultation session between the coach and potential client which works as a chance for both to determine if they’re a good fit for working together. If they decide to move forward, the coach will then send over a contract and schedule the first session.

In that first session, the focus is usually on the client’s creative goals with some discussion on how they intersect with professional and personal goals. The coach will introduce ideas for a progress plan and ask questions to delve deeper into the client’s current projects and relationship with creativity in general.

From that point, every coaching session is an opportunity to review past goals and reflect on recent challenges or wins. Some coaches follow a structured plan for each session, while others prefer a client-led approach, letting the client steer the conversation based on their current needs. Creative coaches also often set homework between sessions to help keep the client on track with the goals.

How to find a creative coach (a step-by-step guide)

Step 1: Research

Before committing to coaching, it’s important to know exactly what type of support you’re looking for. Start by spending some time exploring the Different Coaching Niches and decide whether creative mindset coaching is the right focus for you.

Coaches can be found in a multitude of ways. Often they will have their own websites, like this one, or a social media presence to share their methods and expertise. Use search engines or LinkedIn to find coaches in the Creative niche to start researching potential options.

Step 2: Short List

Every coach will have their own approach and techniques so it’s important to consider if their style will fit with your needs. Use the coach’s website to look into their style and read client testimonials before crafting an initial list of 3-5 coaches you are interested in working with.

Step 3: Outreach

Reach out to these coaches to ask if they are currently accepting new clients as well as any specific questions you might have about availability, sessions, or prices. Make sure sure to note what their communication is like in response to this message as it may suggest what they will be like to work with later on. A coach who is slow to reply, vague, or pushy may not be the best choice for a long-term working relationship.

Step 4: Consultation

You should be offered a free 45 to 60-minute consultation before committing to any formal coaching arrangement. Do your best to stay open-minded during this session and answer the coach’s questions as honestly as you can so that they can establish your current situation and how/if they can help you. You can also ask whatever questions you might have during this time.

Step 5: Decision

After the consultation, consider if the coach made you feel comfortable and confident in their skills. Reflect on if their prices are within your budget and, more importantly, if you feel you will be able to build trust with the coach over time. Without trust, it will be difficult to open up to your coach, limiting the potential progress you can make in the future.

Is creative coaching right for you?

Creative coaching is targeted at those who can benefit from more structure and support in their personal and professional creative endeavours. If the following applies to you, then you may be a great candidate for creative or mindset coaching:

• You struggle to juggle multiple creative projects with your work and personal life
• You want to take on a new creative practice or project but lack the knowledge or confidence to get started
• You often find yourself giving up on projects and lack the structure to see real progress
• You are currently stuck in a period of self-doubt or a creative block

My approach to coaching

As a creative/writing coach of two years, I have developed my own personal approach to helping clients move closer to their goals. I use project-based coaching with a focus on mindset and accountability. You will be led through the technical and mindset skills necessary to reconnect with your creative self and reach your full potential.

My sessions are client-led, opening with a reflection on the goals set at the end of the previous meeting and moving through the strengths and challenges the client is currently facing. My personal intention is to help clients build their confidence through completing creative projects and then transition this confidence into other elements of their lives.

You can learn more with my Creative Coaching Services.