123: The Difference Between Consulting, Coaching and Counseling

Welcome to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross. Each week, I focus on the systems, strategy, and big thinking you need to CEO your business and life to the next level. Are you ready? Let's go.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Time to Level Up Podcast. Going to be honest, it has been a while since I have recorded an episode on my own here without interviewing someone, but I love doing these solo episodes and I enjoy giving you value in them. They also become a library of resources.

I don't know if you've ever done this but have you ever scrolled back and looked at all of the episodes that are out there? Because now we're up to like 120 something, which is a lot and I've actually started to group them a little bit to like, “Here are five episodes on confidence, or here are five episodes on delegating,” and I am going to be putting those out into small Spotify playlists and sharing them with you on social media and in emails.

If you're not on my email list, you need to get on the email list. I think the easiest way to do that is to go to andreaslinks.com, and right through that link, you can subscribe, so to speak, to my email newsletter and do lots of other things as well. You can take the quiz, I have two quizzes that are out there. One is in productivity and one's like a business audit or business checkup to help you figure out what you need to work on.

You can also listen to all my other podcasts there and you can also subscribe to my newsletter so that you get all of the amazing goodness that comes in there, which is going to include in the coming weeks these mini playlists that are topic-specific: confidence, delegating, goals, becoming a responsible adult, all the things. Go check that out.

But today's topic, today what we're going to dive into is how you benefit from having a coach that focuses both on business and life, a business and life coach, and when you know that you need one versus needing a counselor, therapist, or a consultant. How do you know what you need? When is a counselor the right person? When is a consultant the right person? When is a coach the right person? That's what we're going to tackle today.

Here's the first thing you need to know, whether you're working with a counselor, consultant, or coach: transformation does not happen overnight. I just want you to keep that in the back of your mind. None of these modalities are going to get you results in one minute or less. But as I go through this, I want you to notice that there are three facets of each that we're going to examine to try to help you sort through who you might need.

Each of these modalities has a different focus, they have different goals, and they have a different framework. Coaches, consultants, and counselors all work with different focuses, they have different goals, and they have different frameworks. I'm going to give you my number one analogy here or picture, I’m going to put a little picture of how you might know right away which one you need, and then we're going to get into some details.

As a woman and as a business owner, oftentimes we are standing at what I call the bottom of the mountain and looking up at the top of the mountain. We’re gazing up into the sky and we're trying to see the top and we can't quite see it, we can't quite figure out how to get there. The top of the mountain, the peak might actually even be covered in clouds. We might not even be able to see the peak, let alone figure out how to get there.

But if you came to me and you said, “Andrea, I want to climb to the top of this mountain. I want to reach the peak,” but you're not sure what kind of expert you need to help you get there, here's what I might tell you: if you are questioning whether or not you should be there in the first place, at the bottom of the mountain, how you ended up at the bottom of the mountain, or why being at the bottom of the mountain feels really crappy, I might go send you to a counselor or therapist.

That counselor or therapist, their job is to help you navigate the past, make sense of all the things that have happened in order to get you to the place you're at right now, and get you ready for tackling the future. But counselors and therapists are pretty much past-focused, helping you make sense of things. When you make sense of them, it feels so much better.

Before you even start climbing, you need to make sure that you're ready to climb and that's a counselor or a therapist. That's their job. But let's say you say to me, “Andrea, I know I'm ready to climb, but I want this to go super, just tell me what to do. Just tell me what to do, I don't really want to give you tons of background. I have a problem. I'm at the bottom of the mountain. I want to get to the top. Just tell me what to do.”

The kind of expert that you would need in that situation would be a consultant because consultants don't really need to know who you are, they can look at all the pieces of the puzzle from their own set of glasses, what's creating the problem and they can identify that through their own set of glasses, and then they're just going to give you a solution.

In this mountain climbing example, they might just give you a map and say, “Hey, we've climbed this kind of mountain before. This mountain has a lot of downed trees. It's susceptible to storms. Through our years and years of expertise, we've found that people have the most success getting from bottom to top by using this particular trail and walking at this particular rate with these particular hiking boots. Go. Good luck.”

That's a consultant. They're in and out and they give you their recommendation based on their expertise and what they're observing. You're like, “That's nice, but I'm not like every other person,” you might say to yourself. If that's the case, and you are okay with what's gone on in the past, you know why you're standing there, you might be a perfect candidate for a coach, because a coach is someone who is very much future-focused.

They take you from where you are right now into the future, and they act as a guide or a Sherpa. They walk alongside you, they carry your backpack, and when you reach those fallen logs, they help you figure out how to navigate around them.

Now, you might have really short legs. Jumping over the fallen log is not a great idea. That would be me. That coach is going to help you assess that and figure out what's best for you. The consultant might have just told you that jumping is the fastest thing but they don't know how long your legs are. The coach might ask you a bunch of questions about how well you jump, whether you’re comfortable jumping, and they might tell you, “You know what, let's not jump, let's go around it, and let's go this way.”

When you get to the rainstorm that often happens as you near the peak, they're going to encourage you, hold your hand, and walk right beside you as you walk through the rainstorm. The consultant isn't around when the rainstorm happens. They just told you to pack your raincoat.

You might not even make it up to the place where the rainstorm is occurring, [inaudible] particular elevation if you are someone that really needs a counselor instead. But if you are at this level, and you're with a coach, you are much more likely to reach the peak and you will have done it in a way which is repeatable because you will have learned along the way which trails work for you and which don't so that you don't make that mistake next time.

Coaches help you do that. They help you establish systems and processes that work for you. They help you decide who you want to be walking with. They help make sure that you have enough energy to do the whole trail. They help you figure out why you're even doing this. They help you make decisions on which of the millions of trails to take and whether or not it makes sense to turn back at any point or if we just need to make an adjustment.

Picture that mountain. Picture you standing at the bottom. Are you the kind of person that just wants the quick and dirty, I don't really care who you are, I don't know how long your legs are or what you've done before kind of thing, a consultant might be the best path for you if that's the case.

Are you someone that isn't really even sure that you should be standing there, you have no idea why you're standing there or how you're standing there because you really haven't made sense of what has happened to you leading up to this point? Or are you someone that’s there ready to go and wants some assistance, a guide, or Sherpa to go with you to help you make this more doable, more fun, simpler?

There's your picture. Now, let's backtrack a little bit. As a business owner, if you're listening to this, you know the ins and outs of your business. You know how you deliver your services, you know how to manage your business. However, there are times when you would love some more insight, you would love someone to help you discover some obstacles that might occur.

You would love taking advantage of new opportunities when they're within your reach. You want fresh perspectives. You love knowing actual strategies because it makes things simpler and you are smarter, then become smarter. As a business owner, you know those things.

As a woman, you know the ins and outs of your life at home. You know your personal life better than anyone else. You know that it’s rough getting everybody out the door, you know that some mornings go smoother than others and you know why. You know getting dinner on the table is something that's always happening. It's something that never ends. Sometimes you really enjoy it and sometimes you want some new ideas on that one.

You know that you're the one who usually makes sure that everyone's got everything they need, from clothes that fit them to registrations for sports and activities. You might even be the one in your personal life who manages family finances, and I'm going to guess you probably are the one that plans vacations.

Oh, yeah, then there's you yourself. What about your own health and wellness? Now, you know that there are probably ways that you could be doing all of this better. But somehow you're surviving just the way it is now, but you know it could be better, it could be easier, and you could feel more in control.

Now go back to business. When your business is experiencing growth, decline, competition, or changes in your industry or market, working with someone else to help you through those times, you probably know that there are so many benefits to that, and working with someone else can add value to your business and it can lead to a lot of change.

Put your personal hat on. When your home is experiencing a transition, maybe there's a new family member or a new family situation, new schools, new jobs, or maybe if there's no transition at all, it's just day-to-day chaos, you know that things could be better and that working with someone or seeking some new information, ideas, or thoughts, you could probably feel better.

Even in this chaos, you can gain some control or focus, and working with someone outside of your home offers so many benefits and it can lead to not only you changing, but your whole family dynamic changing.

But who should we be working with as a female business owner? Well, let's see. Should it be a life coach, a therapist, a consultant? Well, there are similarities between all three of those. Here's how: while the answer to what is therapy, what is consulting, and what is coaching, is very different for each of those modalities, there are some similarities.

All three of them work to really enable clients to make positive changes in their lives, in their businesses, and become a more productive and a happier person. That's the similarity. Everybody is working to help you make positive changes. But there are lots of differences between the three.

Consultants, remember, they're just assessing the problem and providing the solution. Usually, something has gone wrong when they come into action. Therapists diagnose and treat clients from a healthcare perspective. Usually, their client, patient is ill in some way. Coaches come in and look to grow and make things that are probably already pretty good, even better, amazing, and extraordinary and they help probably their already very healthy client to think bigger and to be even better.

Those three modalities come up with things from different starting points, but all three modalities are working toward creating positive change. Here are my tools for assessing who you need and when. Now, I obviously love working as a coach. But here's when you really need to hire a consultant versus a coach.

Knowing when to engage a coach or consultant is really based on your circumstances. Coaches and consultants both provide you with help and assistance. Both can help you solve problems, but we come at it from very different approaches and methodologies. A consultant focuses on the problem and the problem in and of itself kind of in isolation.

Their focus is really not helping you necessarily improve your leadership abilities, dealing with people, broadening your perspective, figuring out what's possible, or discovering potential solutions that you probably already know but might not be engaging in, a coach does all that, consultant just comes in and says, “Here's what to do.”

Whereas a coach focuses on helping you improve, discover what's possible, and start putting things into action, the things you might already even know but can't quite pull the trigger on yourself. They help you improve yourself as a leader. The focus is different.

Let's talk about the consultant's goal. The goal of the consultants is really to provide the solutions and strategies, process improvement, plan implementation but they don't necessarily take into consideration who the business owner is, what other things you have going on in your life, how this all might integrate into you as a whole person without you feeling overwhelmed or falling off track.

The business consultant has a different goal because the coach's goal is to help you feel great in the process and implement a plan that's going to work for you who you are as all of you, the whole you. Two different goals. When we talk about coaches versus consultants in their framework, the consultant framework is to investigate, formulate, and deliver. It's one-sided.

Both coaches and consultants working with them can be game-changers. You could get to the top of the mountain working with either one. But what I've found is that solutions become more relevant, realistic, and exciting when they are generated from a coach-client symbiotic and mutual respectful relationship like a combo. Things work better when we collaborate usually. The coach’s framework is much more of a collaborative framework.

The focus of the consultant is really to just provide you the solution, not necessarily improve you. The consultant's goal is to just focus on specific things at that moment, not necessarily to take the whole you into consideration, and the consultant's framework is to investigate, formulate, and deliver, not collaborate. You got to figure out if a consultant is right for you.

Next, let's figure out if you need a counselor or a therapist versus a coach. This is where I get the most questions. I'm going to tell you that a lot of my clients who are working with me as their business and life coach are also working with counselors, and that's just totally fine. Some are also working with consultants, and that's on specific things and that's totally fine too.

But think about this. One of the most common misconceptions about coaching is that it is therapy in disguise, or even worse, that it's therapy from an unlicensed practitioner. But in reality, coaching is really its own unique service. I love this definition. I read this: coaching is designed to help ambitious achievers meet the outcomes that will bring them success and fulfillment, in any and all areas of life and business.

Think about that: help ambitious achievers meet the outcomes that will bring them success and fulfillment, in any and all areas of life and business. I love that as a definition for coaching. How do we define therapy? Well, therapy, which we can use interchangeably with counseling and psychotherapy, is really when a client works with a health care professional.

Coaches are not healthcare professionals, but they are professionals. But therapy, the healthcare professional diagnoses and resolves problematic beliefs, behaviors, relationship issues, feelings, and sometimes physical responses. Therapy, the idea behind it is to focus on past trauma or issues in order to change either self-destructive habits, repair and improve relationships, or work through painful feelings.

In this sense, therapy is really working on the past and on introspection and analysis with really the hope of resolving those past issues in creating the space for a more stable and happier future. I like that definition of therapy because it is working more on that whole person but it's definitely focusing on the past or what is causing the present right now.

Coaching on the other hand, a coach is not a healthcare professional, but a coach is a professional and they help you clarify goals and identify the obstacles and what the problems might be in order to create an action plan and get your results. We've got to clarify the goal, identify the obstacles, create the action plan, and get the results.

The main difference, I think, between these two things, is that the coach takes the client's current starting point as an acceptable neutral ground with no judgment and then moves forward from there. Changing their thoughts, helping them change their thoughts that helps them then drive to take actions from that point onward.

I like to say life coaching really enables someone to take control of their life and their thinking, and then take action to steer it towards their goals. Partnering is also something that a coach really feels deeply, whereas I think, and I'm not a counselor, but from what I've read, counselors, yes, they partner but there's more of a doctor-patient or healthcare professional-patient relationship that has some boundaries, in a sense.

Now, I'm not saying that there are no boundaries with coaching but it's a different type of relationship. Coaching is really inspiring. As a coach, I try to inspire my clients to maximize their personal and professional potential. I want to help improve performance and enhance the quality of life.

I am there to provide support to help you enhance your skills. I’m there to provide resources, to help fuel your creativity, which you already have inside you. I think in the traditional sense, counseling is focusing on moving people from a state of dysfunction to function.

Whereas coaching, I'm assuming you are already functioning, and you're functioning pretty well. Now we are just going to elevate you, get you to a higher level to achieve your full potential. Because up until now, maybe the only place you've gone is the self-help section of the bookstore and coaching is an alternative.

You might say to me, “Alright, Andrea, this is great, but who is your ideal coaching client?” My ideal coaching client is someone who is highly motivated, future-focused, and is willing to work on the following four areas: one, defining, setting, and managing goals, moving from the present into the future. Two, formulating a plan that's going to use your skills, your strengths, to reach goals.

Because oftentimes, you may not know where to start, so you have no plan because you can't figure out where to start. I'm going to help you figure out ways to navigate through where you are so that you do start. Then the third thing is I'm going to hold you accountable for your progress. The fourth thing is I am going to provide you with a structure that includes encouragement and support.

My job as a coach is to listen and ask you the right questions because I believe you have the answers. I generally work with people that are healthy, who really want to just improve their circumstances. Counselors, I think are working with people that oftentimes need help identifying their dysfunction or their trauma, and they're trying to help them heal or resolve their pain.

A lot of times counselors help you figure out that how you're feeling now is a symptom of something that has gone on in the past. Whereas, I don't assume anything has gone on in the past. We are here in coaching to help you make progress and to help the progress to be simple, doable, and fun.

Now, the difference, to use our framework of what's the different focus, different goals, and different framework, the focus of counseling versus coaching is different. The focus of coaching is really to identify what's happening, modify what's happening, change what's happening, and move forward.

The focus of therapy is to look at the past as a tool, understand the past as a tool for getting to the present. Therapists a lot of times focus on why things are happening. Coaches work on how to work toward the goal, which may involve changing some thinking. We both work on changing some thinking.

The goal of the therapy. Number two, the goal of the therapy, the goal of counseling is to help you explore and understand your subconscious and unconscious mind. It helps you to really have a deep understanding of behaviors with a goal of overall mental health, which is why therapy can be so helpful for depression, anxiety, and things like that.

Coaching is to help you get unstuck. Coaching is more about “Let's take some action and get some results.” Now we also have to understand your thinking and why you're feeling there. But I found if you're a perfect coaching client, it is a lot easier to change your thinking than someone who may be suffering from depression or anxiety. Oftentimes, life coaches or business life coaches can help you measure your success too. We can figure out ways to measure things.

Here's the third difference if we go to our framework: both coaching and therapy use talk sessions. They’re similar that way, but therapy has sort of both unstructured and structured types of therapy. Whereas life coaching sessions are a little more focused and structured. We come out of each session with some actionable steps.

Summary: therapy focuses conversations on exploring why past relationships might have been destructive, recovering from past trauma, working through depression and anxiety, maybe surviving a divorce. In order to get the correct type of professional help, it's really crucial that you understand the difference between all of these modalities.

If you're working with a coach, a coach, on the other hand, helps you clarify and achieve personal and professional goals, creates business and household plans so that you feel like you're in control, have a focus, and know what your next steps are.

We also help you work on your communication skills and even achieve what I like to call financial independence, security, or freedom, figure out work-life balance, starting a business, or grow a current business. It is super important no matter what you choose to know that having that outside perspective and help to address your challenges is amazing. It is such a gift.

I think the next best step for you is to probably do a little self-assessment. I've developed a tool called The Wheel of Life, Take it to 10, which is kind of a take on a very old therapy tool called The Wheel of Life, which is going to help you figure out what's going on in all these different aspects of life.

I want you to take that and assess what's happening. It might help you discover what is best for you. Is it counseling? Is it coaching? Is it consulting? Once you have that information at hand, you're ready to begin your journey. You're ready to explore and figure out where you want that exploration to start from.

Do you want it to start from understanding your past? Do you want us to start from what's happening today? Or do you really just want someone to tell you what to do? You've got to assess where you're at, you've got to look at yourself in the mirror, and get real with yourself. Are you willing to invest time? Are you able to invest time? Are you open to whatever the process is that each of these modalities delivers?

If you're not, then that's okay. Then start doing your research, figuring out who the best person is for you. It's not easy figuring this out. I'm happy to help you figure it out. Sometimes I'll tell my clients, “I don't think this is a good fit. I think you need a counselor. I think you need a consultant. I don't think I'm the right coach.”

But it's really important that you are calm throughout this whole process because no matter what you choose, there are going to be times when you're challenged or pushed, maybe even angry a little bit, but the rewards of seeking support are invaluable.

Okay, my friends, business and life coaching together help you look at the whole picture. That's why I think it is the best modality for someone who wants to create the future, a different type of future, or wants to improve on what they already have. Because business and life are so intertwined. Once we start to work on one thing, the other comes along and then we can flip-flop back and forth, depending on what you need and when.

We're not just talking business and we're not just talking life, we're talking the whole picture, the whole wheel so your whole wheel keeps rolling. Okay, my friends, go check out this free resource, Wheel of Life, Take it to 10, work through that, share it with me. Let's chat about it. Schedule a call and we can go through and figure out what exactly you need.

If your business comes up as being something that you think really needs work, go take the quiz, take The Business Freedom Finder Quiz, figure that out. If you think you're the problem and you're not feeling productive enough, go take the Productivity Quiz. All of that can be found at andreaslinks.com or in my show notes.

Alright, my friends. Let's get you rolling. Let's get you coaching, counseling, or consulting, whatever you need, but let's get you moving to that next place. Until next week. Remember, it's always time to level up.

Hey, listening to podcasts is great. But you also have to do something to kick your business up a notch. You need to take some action, right? So go to andreaslinks.com and take the quiz. I guarantee you'll walk away knowing exactly what your next best step is to level up.