Is 2026 the Year you Train as a Coach?
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Release Date: 01/12/2026
Is 2026 the Year you Train as a Coach?
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
What if the thought of training as a coach has been sitting with you for years for a reason you have not yet fully acknowledged? As the new year begins, we slow the conversation down and ask a bigger question than whether coach training is a good idea. We explore whether 2026 is the year you finally make a clear decision either to step forward or to consciously let the idea go. In this episode, we reflect on why coach training often stays on people’s mental to do lists for far longer than expected. For many, it is not about gaining a qualification. It is about meaning, connection, identity,...
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Accelerate your Coach CPD in 2026
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
2026 CPD Accelerator: What if the way you approach your CPD this year could fundamentally shape your confidence, energy, and impact as a coach? In this episode, we sat down to have an honest, grounded conversation about what continuous professional development really looks like for coaches in practice, not theory. As Master Accredited Coaches and founders of an accredited coach training provider, we reflected openly on our own CPD journeys, including the years of intense learning, the quieter phases focused on business growth, and the moments where CPD crept up on us through deadlines,...
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Behind the Scenes of 2025
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
What does a year of growth really look like when you step away from the highlight reel and tell the truth? As we reach the end of 2025, we wanted to pause and pull back the curtain on what this year has genuinely been like for us behind the scenes. This episode is an honest, reflective conversation about the reality of running a values led coaching business through a year of challenge, change, and deep learning. We talk openly about the tension between what people often see from the outside and what it has actually felt like to be inside the business. This year has asked a lot of us. There...
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Eight or so Christmas Coaching Questions
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
What might become possible if you gave yourself space to pause, reflect, and listen this Christmas? This episode feels like a quiet exhale at the end of a full year. As we sat together, we wanted to offer something gentle, playful, and meaningful. Something that could be shared around a Christmas table, or held privately in moments of stillness during the festive period. We recorded this episode with the intention of creating connection. Connection with ourselves, with the people we love, and with the parts of us that have carried a lot this year. Rather than small talk, we wanted to invite...
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Answering Questions from our Listeners
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
What happens when coaches slow down, listen deeply, and answer the questions they are rarely asked out loud? This episode felt different from the outset. This week we sat down without scripts, without rehearsed answers, and without certainty about where the conversation would land. What we had instead was trust. Trust in the coaching process, trust in each other, and trust in the questions our listeners brought to us. We invited our listeners to share the coaching questions they find themselves holding, whether that is something they wrestle with in sessions, reflect on in supervision, or...
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What Stage of Coach Maturity are you at?
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Have you ever paused to consider where you truly are in your growth as a coach and what your current stage of development reveals about the way you show up for your clients? In this episode, we walk through the evolving arc of our professional identity and the way our presence deepens as we move from doing coaching to being a coach. It is a journey rich with curiosity, discomfort, insight, and ultimately, transformation. During the conversation, we unpack the three broad stages of coach maturity. We explore the ways we develop from novice coach to intuitive practitioner and eventually to a...
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Training to be a Coach after Burnout
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Have you ever reached a point where burnout reshaped your sense of who you are and what you want next in life? In this episode, we explore the tender, transformative journey that so many people move through when they decide to train as a coach after experiencing burnout. This conversation matters because burnout rarely leaves life untouched. It rewires priorities, reframes identity, and forces us to acknowledge that our wellbeing is the most important asset we have. Throughout the discussion, we reflect on why individuals arrive at coach training following burnout and what they discover about...
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Is the Coaching Market Saturated?
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Have you ever looked around at the growing number of coaches and wondered whether there is still space for you to build a thriving practice? In this episode we explore one of the most common concerns we hear from aspiring and experienced coaches: whether the coaching market is saturated. It is a question often rooted in fear and uncertainty, particularly for those stepping into the profession for the first time. As we reflect on this conversation, we notice how often this question reveals something deeper. It is rarely about the market itself. It is usually about whether there is space for me....
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Is Coaching Who You Are or What You Do
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Have you ever wondered whether coaching is something you do or something you are? In this episode, we dive into a powerful identity-based question that often emerges when people consider a future in coaching: is coaching fundamentally a skillset, or is it an expression of who we are at our core? We explore how coaching can be seen as an external activity, a profession where we learn models, techniques and structures to support people with their goals. Coaching becomes the thing we do to make a living, with our craft built through continuous learning and development. At the same time, coaching...
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How to become an ADHD Coach
The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins
Have you ever felt drawn to help others navigate the unique challenges and strengths that come with ADHD, yet wondered what it truly takes to call yourself an ADHD coach? In this episode, we explore one of the questions we’re asked most often; How to become an ADHD coach. As more people receive ADHD diagnoses, many coaches are curious about how they can ethically and effectively support this community. Through our discussion, we share insights from our experience as accredited training providers and as coaches who work extensively in the neurodivergent space. We begin by unpacking the...
info_outlineWhat if the thought of training as a coach has been sitting with you for years for a reason you have not yet fully acknowledged?
As the new year begins, we slow the conversation down and ask a bigger question than whether coach training is a good idea. We explore whether 2026 is the year you finally make a clear decision either to step forward or to consciously let the idea go.
In this episode, we reflect on why coach training often stays on people’s mental to do lists for far longer than expected. For many, it is not about gaining a qualification. It is about meaning, connection, identity, and the desire to do work that feels more aligned with personal values. We talk openly about the emotional and practical drivers behind the decision to train as a coach, including career pivots, leadership development, self-awareness, and the longing for deeper conversations at work and in life.
We also address what can quietly hold people back. Waiting to feel ready. Decision paralysis when comparing training providers. The pressure to have a fully formed plan before taking the first step. We share why readiness is rarely something you feel before you act and how clarity often follows commitment rather than precedes it.
Drawing on our own experiences, we reflect on how coach training develops far more than coaching skills. It builds emotional intelligence, confidence, boundaries, ethical practice, and the ability to work with human complexity in a grounded and responsible way. We discuss what coach training really involves and why discomfort and growth are part of the process rather than signs you are doing it wrong.
We also offer a balanced perspective on when coach training may not be the right choice. If you are seeking a quick financial fix, external validation, or if working with emotion actively drains you, this may not be the right investment at this stage of your life. Equally, we share why coaching continues to grow in relevance as human centred skills become more valuable in a world shaped by artificial intelligence and rapid change.
Throughout the conversation, we come back to a simple decision framework. Does it make sense in your head? Does it feel meaningful in your heart? Is there space in your calendar to make it work? When those three align, 2026 may well be the year you move forward.
This episode is an invitation to stop circling the same question and to make a conscious choice that frees up energy, whether that choice is to train as a coach or to redirect your focus elsewhere with confidence.
Timestamps:
00:00 Why this question keeps returning year after year
01:21 Understanding the deeper needs behind coach training
03:09 Common reasons people feel drawn to coaching
04:03 What coach training actually involves
05:24 The myth of waiting until you feel ready
06:22 Choosing a training provider without paralysis
07:42 Questions to ask before committing to a programme
08:55 When coach training may not be the right choice
09:49 Sampling coaching before making a decision
12:37 Career strategy, confidence, and professional identity
14:26 How coach training can change your direction
15:49 Human skills in an AI driven world
18:32 A simple framework for making the decision
20:17 Taking action rather than waiting
Key Lessons Learned:
- Coach training is rarely about the certificate and more about meaning, identity, and growth
- Waiting to feel ready often delays clarity rather than creating it
- Decision making improves when you listen to both head and heart
- Coach training develops emotional intelligence, boundaries, and self-awareness
- You do not need a full plan for how coaching will fit into your future to begin
- Conscious decisions free up mental and emotional capacity
- Human centred skills are becoming more valuable, not less
Links and Resources:
Keywords:
coach training, train as a coach, coaching career, coaching skills, becoming a coach, leadership coaching, personal development, emotional intelligence, career change coaching,