HQ Update: Doyenne coaching program now features more than 20 trained experts
By Heather Wentler
Entrepreneurship can sometimes be a lonely, isolating experience. Many of our members have shared that they need a space where they can talk openly about their ideas, their fears, or their flaws, and learn how to move forward.
But we’ve also heard from women entrepreneurs in our communities that when they have sought out professional coaching, they have ended up meeting with coaches who doubt their expertise, gaslight them about their experiences, or dominate the session with irrelevant advice.
That’s why we developed a coaching program for our members.
The Doyenne coaching program provides members access to coaching from women who are experts in their fields and have gone through a custom coaching training program.
The 1.5-hour training program introduces coaches to Doyenne’s guiding principles and our unique approach to coaching. Our co-founder Amy outlined this approach in a blog post in early 2018. Our training program covers the way a coach’s biases about sex, race, parenting, or the entrepreneurial process can get in the way of providing effective support. We aim to help coaches recognize the brilliance of the women they coach and equip them to create a space where entrepreneurs can let their guard down, be vulnerable, and feel seen—no matter who they are or what their background is.
Our coaches have a wide range of experiences and professional backgrounds, from sales coaching and strategic planning to design thinking and brand development, and more.
After a coach meets with a member, the member rates the coach in a feedback survey. Coaches must maintain a rating of 3.5 out of 5 to stay in the program.
Doyenne members at the Startup level receive two complimentary coaching sessions per year, and Growth level members receive four. If members want to have more than the two or four sessions that are included in their membership, they can purchase additional coaching sessions for $100/session, which is less than half of the market rate for a 1-hour professional coaching session.
Going to a coach for the first time can be intimidating, and for many entrepreneurs, it’s important to find a coach with a compatible personality. This year, we introduced a new monthly (virtual) event called Ask a Coach, a live coaching session open to the public. Attendees can submit questions anonymously before the event or by sending messages to the moderator during the event, and they can also ask questions in-person at the end. This gives current and prospective members a chance to get to know the coaches and get a taste of the kind of support each coach could provide—and get some burning questions answered. All sessions are recorded, and the recordings are available on our Learning Lab platform to watch afterward.
Learn more about how you can support the growth of women-led ventures by becoming a coach, or sign up for a coaching session on our coaching page.
