From Skillful to Sustainable: Coaching Business Development That Can Actually Hold You

Date
5/20/2026
Time
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM CST
Venue
Virtual Meeting - Meeting link is provided after registering.
Register for Event
Registration closes 5/20/2026
Getting any business up and running--or keeping one alive--can feel surprisingly lonely. For coaches, who are most often solo practitioners, this isolation can be even more pronounced. Many invest deeply in their training, skills development, and client work, yet remain woefully underprepared for the practical realities of building and sustaining a business.

This challenge is often compounded for those entering a largely self-employed profession after years of predictable income and structural security. The result is that business development can feel confusing, destabilizing, or quietly overwhelming--even for highly capable coaches.

In this 90-minute interactive webinar, Rod Francis offers a grounded, human-centered approach to building a coaching business that is both viable and aligned, drawing on his extensive experience as a coach, educator, and entrepreneur. Designed for coaches at all stages, the session blends essential business fundamentals with reflective tools that help participants clarify where they are, what matters most right now, and what will genuinely support sustainable growth.

Participants will be introduced to a simple orienting framework -- The Founder's Compass -- adapted specifically for coaches, alongside a clear overview of the essential foundations every coaching business needs in place. The session will be experiential, practical, and immediately applicable, leaving participants with greater clarity, confidence, and a realistic next step forward.

Presenter: Rod Francis

Rod Francis is a US-based coach, coach educator, storyteller, and speaker who has led professional coach training programs in Europe and the USA for over fifteen years. He is the founder and creator of the ICF-accredited Emergent Coach Training program and works with coaches, founders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers navigating growth, transition, and uncertainty.

Long before becoming a coach, Rod was already a founder and entrepreneur--and he still is. His early work included building a design-led business in London from the ground up, gaining first-hand experience of the realities and tensions between vision and execution, purpose and sustainability.

This entrepreneurial background deeply informs his work today. Rod brings a grounded, human-centered approach that blends practical business insight with coaching, leadership development, and education. His coaching work is shaped by a long-standing interest in the intersection of ancient wisdom traditions, nature-based practices, and contemporary science, in service of meaningful human change within complex social and ecological contexts.

Approved CCE Units: 1.5 Resource Development

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