According to career and executive coaches who spoke with Business Insider, incorporating AI into their operations has proven to be crucial. These coaches have found that AI tools play a significant role in enhancing client engagement, streamlining work processes, and fostering business expansion. This feature is part of an article series titled “The AI-Powered Solopreneur,” which delves into how independent business owners utilize AI to propel their growth.
In the realm of career and executive coaching, the most impactful interactions often take place during individual sessions with clients. This is where breakthrough insights are uncovered, motivation gains traction, and a vital rapport is established between coaches and clients. The challenging part comes afterward: translating these insights into actionable steps.
For solopreneur coaches, transforming session conversations into practical tasks for clients can be time-consuming and demanding. While a team of assistants could manage this task efficiently, solo entrepreneurs must make a tough decision: either take notes during sessions at the expense of being fully present, spend hours transcribing insights post-call, or entrust clients with follow-up responsibilities.
Kim Surko, founder of Surko Coaching specializing in leadership development, shared her experience of feeling overwhelmed by administrative tasks that detracted from the transformative aspect of her work as a coach. She realized that relying solely on herself was not sustainable for her business. Embracing AI emerged as a natural solution to alleviate this burden.
Three solo entrepreneurs in leadership, business strategy, and communication have harnessed the power of AI to help clients achieve more in less time while expanding their coaching capabilities and adding value to their services.
A significant breakthrough for these coaches has been leveraging AI-powered note-taking tools to distill lengthy discussions into tangible outputs. By obtaining client consent, they record coaching sessions and utilize platforms like ChatGPT to swiftly convert nuanced insights into practical outputs such as pitches, resumes, website content, and positioning statements.
Liz Morrison from LM Strategic Storytelling highlighted how AI tools prevent valuable insights from being lost in lengthy recordings. By employing custom projects like Claude, she can swiftly transform session transcripts into “Story Banks,” extracting narratives that clients can promptly utilize for various purposes.
Prior to integrating AI into their practices, this type of meticulous work demanded substantial time commitments from solopreneurs that could have been devoted to supporting other clients. Kim Surko emphasized that using AI for note-taking saved her considerable time per client daily while doubling her coaching capacity.
In addition to aiding with note-taking tasks, AI has facilitated progress tracking for both coaches and clients. Through tools like Kanbanchi supported by Gemini, visual representations of client goals and achievements can be easily updated during coaching sessions. This approach has resulted in increased client renewal rates as individuals witness tangible progress towards their objectives.
Furthermore, these coaches have found AI beneficial not only for enhancing in-session coaching but also for personal development. By creating searchable archives using tools like Gemini within Google Docs, they can access a wealth of exercises and prompts instantly during sessions. This efficiency enables them to delve deeper into client interactions and make significant strides forward with each session.
Lastly, these coaches acknowledge the role of AI as a supportive partner in their coaching endeavors. By uploading transcripts across various client interactions and seeking feedback on performance areas from AI systems such as Gemini, they gain valuable insights for continuous improvement. This reflective practice partnership offered by AI serves as an invaluable resource that complements their expertise as solopreneur coaches.