Why a Major Success Made Me Want to Stop Career Coaching

This is something that happened in March. March 13 to be exact. My birthday. I found myself telling this story to Carol Roth yesterday. I am still raw, and realized I had to write about it.

I had been working with a woman for about six weeks. She had been out of work for a year and came into my practice completely freaked out and worn out from an extended job search.

She had been using a scatter-shot approach in her job search because she was in sales, and she felt she could sell anything. She had switched industries in the past and had always been successful. I got it. But her approach wasn’t working. 

We worked on getting her clear on what industry she most wanted to work in and what type of work environment she performed best in. In fact, we got her crystal clear and she knew exactly what the right opportunity would look like.

Six weeks later, she landed a job:

  1. In her target industry
  2. At her previous salary level – even though she had been out of work for a year!
  3. So close to her house that she could walk on a nice day

I helped her work through the final negotiation phase and she got a better overall compensation package as a result of my coaching.

Then I sent her the invoice for our second month of work that I had delayed because she was going through the final stage of her offer and was very stressed out. (Month two of a three-month commitment.)

She stiffed me.

The best and fastest results I have ever gotten with a client yielded a snotty note on my birthday saying that even at my dramatically reduced rates she didn’t realize it was a three-month commitment and we needed to talk about it.

I told her it was my birthday and cancelled the invoice.

Karma is a biatch.

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