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How CoachAccountable is giving me 100 extra days this year

This one’s a guest post by the venerated, bonified CoachAccountable customer #1, Dr. John Kenworthy.

During our visit a few months ago in Singapore, Dr. John mentioned that I gave him a lot of his free time back.  As I continue along my path of telling the story of CoachAccountable as being a win waiting to happen for your typical results-focused coach, I decided to ask Dr. John if he’d care to share with the class more precisely about that time he has saved.

His willingness to do so was generously enthusiastic, and his account was nothing short of remarkable.  I told him his title of saving 100 days of time this year might be regarded as a bit sensationalist.  He has assured me he’s ready to duke it out in any form of comment debate that ensues, so feel free to weigh in below with any skepticism and/or curiosity you have.

Take it away, Dr. John.


How CoachAccountable is giving me 100 extra days this year

Anyone reading this has likely seen my name on a few comments on John’s blog, and it is true that I am one of (if not the) biggest fans of CoachAccountable.

And you may be thinking that the attention grabbing headline is hype, so let me explain. But first let me set the record straight: I am not John Larson’s lacky, nor am I employed by him in any way… I am a customer, and no, I don’t get freebies (though I do volunteer to Guinea Pig new features happily).

When John and Tracy visited in Singapore I told him that CA saved me 20 hours a week.  He automatically assumed I said per month[JOHN L.: Actually, I thought he meant in total.  Call me pessimistically humble.], and was rather taken aback when I insisted it saves me, on average 20 hours a week. So, firstly for John, I slightly miscalculated, it’s just 19 hours a week.

John asked me to write something for the blog, so I thought that I should share with you how using CA saves me 19 hours a week, and hence gives me 100 ‘free’ days a year (based on 9 hour working days).

Where CA saves the most time for me is in what it excels over: Excel and a CRM system.

On-boarding a new client

(I typically take on 5 new clients in a month).

Previously: I set them up on my CRM, created an Excel sheet (from a template I use) to track their sessions, brief summary of what we did, dates and so on. I would send them a personalised agreement by email, get their personal workbook printed and use that in our first session so they knew what they were in for, their own reviews and of course, their own objectives tracking.

With CA: I set them up in CA, send a template worksheet agreement and share the workbook elements they need through files.

Time saved: 50 minutes per client

Coaching Sessions

(I typically have 20 clients on-going and two monthly sessions each)

Previously: Send an email with link to google form for their review from the previous session, await response and add data to their individual client master spreadsheet. Just prior to the session, interrogate my CRM and Excel sheet for previous session information to review, find tools or templates I plan on using. During the sessions itself, I have already saved a huge amount of time by using a LiveScribe pen to record notes – I do not transpose, but share the LiveScribe pdf (now in Evernote) with the client – this is linked to their CRM record to easily find it for the next pre-session prep. Set agreed tasks for coming week, set reminders for self for ‘nagging’ email task list. Assign homework, locate and send, set reminders for ‘nagging.’

With CA: Send a worksheet template “review” three days before the session with a deadline. Review stream and actions in CA. During web-based session (about 75% of my work now) I take notes in a session template in CA during the session. For an in-person session I use the Livescribe pen as above, but now embed the Livescribe document inside the session notes – which is actually an additional step in CA (and hence costs time, but not much). Actions (tasks) set on CA, homework (usually worksheets and files) shared during session on web, and after for and in-person session.

Time saved: Web coaching – 115 minutes, in person coaching – 50 minutes. Most of this from assigning actions and homework and setting reminders for self to ‘follow up’ (aka nag) clients – plus of course, actually following up between sessions.

Ad –hoc check-ins

(I have about 20 of these per month, I might initiate to chase a client, or they might reach me for something they need right now.)

Previously: Search the CRM, follow appropriate links to latest notes, check spreadsheet record, update CRM and spreadsheet post call. Assign follow up task in CRM.

With CA: Find client in dashboard, check stream and actions.

Time saved: Average 15 minutes per check-in

One caveat though. I have not counted the hours I have spent in setting my CA system up with the templates – that has been about 50 hours of work.

Step Previously With CoachAccountable Minutes Saved Times per Month Total
New client: sending agreement and starter pack email template, attach personalized agreement, track email open, wait for reply send welcome “worksheet” with message and share starter pack 5 5 25
New client: onboarding print workbook, bind, and walk client through in-person web coaching with screen share, 45 minutes includes setting coaching objectives 45 5 225
Appointment booking web-based with ScheduleOnce web-based with CA, about the same 0 40 0
Pre-session reviews send review form via email, await reply, store response in Excel assign Worksheet based on template, CA files completed assignment automatically 25 40 1000
Coaching session prep Find and review previous notes and happenings from email, Excel and CRM. Review client page Stream and Actions tab. 30 40 1200
Coaching session No time saving here, but more gets done because of the clear picture going in 0 40 0
Post-session wrap up (in-person) Upload and store LiveScribe notes in EverNote, share with client via email. Tasks and homework set and sent via email, reminders set in CRM. Upload and store LiveScribe notes in EverNote, share as new session notes in CA (extra step but keeps things more together), share with client via email. Tasks, homework, and reminders set in CA. -5 10 -50
Post-session wrap up (web-based) Upload and store LiveScribe notes in EverNote, share with client via email. Tasks and homework set and sent via email, reminders set in CRM. Type notes during session. Tasks, homework, and reminders set in CA, also during session. Effectively no post wrap up is required, because it all gets done during the session. 60 30 1800
Ad-hoc check ins Find and review previous notes and happenings from email, Excel and CRM. Review client page Stream and Actions tab. 15 20 300
Time Savings Totals: Minutes per month:Hours per month:

Hours per week:

Hours per year:

Working days per year figured at 9 hours/day:

450075

19

900

100

So what do I do with that 100 days??

Well, I finally finished my book that’s been ‘almost’ for 2 years in January. And I’m writing the next one now.

And, since ‘Courses’ went live, I have now transferred my own Caddy training certification course to the system, which has now enabled me to go global with the programme. And I’m actually using the Courses feature to automatically do the on-boarding, follow up and sending ‘mini’ modules to my clients. That’s not saving me time by the way, but it is expanding my business and means I can actually go on holiday and still be looking after my clients whilst I’m on the beach.

So John, if you can get CA to find the clients and sell to them as well, and do the coaching sessions for me, I could retire. :)

 



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