Coaching Impact

1.0 Testimonials
2.0 Case study
3.0 Retention rate

On this page, I try to share some data that seems to be relevant evidence about my coaching. However, the data is limited, and I’m obviously biased.

1.0 Testimonials

Testimonials can be seen as mini case studies of the outcomes that certain people have experienced. The testimonials presented appear cost-effective – especially when considering the promise and impact of the people who experienced this effect. While it’s warranted to remain somewhat skeptical of both the content and selection of the testimonials, I think they’re useful proxies.

When I started coaching with Seb, I wasn’t working on the most important things and struggled with hopelessness and feeling misaligned. Our coaching enabled me to clarify my long-term priorities, make tough decisions, and take courageous action based on those decisions. Professionally, this was instrumental in me stepping back from my previous company to launch a new venture focused on the secure development of AI. Personally, I now feel more aligned with myself, hopeful about the future, and excited about life!
I highly recommend him.

Kristian Rönn (CEO of LucidComputing)

Kristian Rönn is the CEO of Lucid Computing – A Secure AI Deployment Company.

 

He previously co-founded Normative, a large company for sustainability accounting, and worked at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute.

I now trust myself and my abilities to do what’s aligned with my priorities and saying no to things that are ultimately unimportant. I went from procrastinating while feeling guilty and stressed, doing unimportant things optimized for improving my CV to setting realistic and motivating goals that are aligned with my values while enjoying more time off and peace of mind. I now also have solid habits around sleep and exercise and trust that I can implement new habits when needed. I would highly recommend coaching with Sebastian!

Mathias Bonde (Chairperson of EA Denmark)

After 15 sessions.

Coaching helps me think of more habits, routines and thought patterns as mutable. Sebastian helped me to develop better systems for the structure of my workday, daily planning, and increasing time for deep work and improve my communication skills. Sebastian gives thoughtful feedback, asks the right questions, and helps to find the experiments that reduce or eliminate the core of the problem the situation.

Anonymous

After 12 sessions

Sebastian has been a truly excellent coach. Our weekly conversations are rich and thoughtful. They always result in a good action plan, which steadily improve my productivity and, most importantly, my overall life trajectory.

Caroline Jeanmaire (DPhil in AI Policy - Oxford University)

After 8 sessions (Caroline continues to work with me).

Everybody should have a Seb. He really helps you take something chaotic and confusing and turn it into a manageable system where the next steps are clear. He’s got a great balance of helping you on the emotional side as well as the productivity side, and seeing how they relate to each other.

Anonymous Founder

After 5 sessions

Should we trust these testimonials as useful proxies for cost-effective impact?

The testimonials presented appear cost-effectively impactful – especially when considering the promise and impact of the people who experienced this effect. While it’s warranted to remain somewhat skeptical of both the content and selection of the testimonials, I think they’re useful proxies that can be trusted – especially for evaluations of “was it cost-effectively impactful for these people to get coaching from Sebastian?” or “is it promising for me to run a six-week experiment with Sebastian?”.

2.0 Case study

The following is a case study of Mathias. I wrote up this case study based on survey results and my representation of what happened. Mathias validated and updated this six months after he stopped coaching with me (March 2022).
Mathias (15 sessions). Unfulfilled and under-utilized software developer and volunteer chairman of national EA group who transitioned into AI policy in the European Parliament and Charity Entrepreneurship

From (January 2021)

Life-time impact:

CS graduate with substantial un-utilized talent for policy/politics without much idea of what to do. Was working full-time as a software developer with low motivation and direction and organizing a national EA group in the evenings. Quite concerned with optimizing for roles that would look good on a resume (from a non-EA / common-sensical status perspective) and was applying for lobbyist jobs he wasn’t interested in.

Well-being:

Stressed and dissatisfied due to inability to prioritize, setting unrealistic expectations, and procrastinating. Unfulfilled due to a dissatisfying job. Poor dietary and exercise habits.

To (October 2021) (update March 2022 to fully capture the progress made and ripple effects)

Well-being:

More fulfilled as he is doing something that’s much closer aligned with future career goals. More satisfaction and having time for relaxation and fun due to increase in self-compassion, satisfying efforts during the day, and setting realistic expectations. Additionally, he now goes to the gym ~4-5 times a week and eats extremely healthily.

Improvement process:

Mathias spontaneously decided to set up a weekly coaching session where he writes things into a document, where he simulates Sebastian by asking the questions he imagined that Sebastian would ask.

Life-time impact:

Mathias formulated an ambitious decade vision of reducing X-risks via creating or contributing to institutions. Concretely, he went on to pursue AI governance in the European Parliament in a trainee position and is now actively looking to start a charity (participant at Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation program 2022). Frequently saying no to things that aren’t aligned with main priorities and doing deep work to focus on things that matter. A negative effect is that he is contributing much less to the national EA group but he found a full-time paid replacement.

3.0 Retention rate

66% of the people who work with me continue beyond the first six-week experiment and go for at least 12 sessions (and as many as 100+) without any form of grant or subsidization. I take this as a strong indicator of cost-effective impact as coaching is fairly expensive and my clients have a high opportunity cost on their time.

Why do people discontinue coaching with me?

I sought out feedback from the people who decided to discontinue coaching with me and here are the reasons mentioned (roughly in descending order of frequency/significance)

  • It’s too expensive to keep paying (e.g., because their financial situation changed).
  • Wanted lower frequency and shorter sessions than what I offer.
  • The counterfactual impact wasn’t high enough due to existing high-quality coach-like activities.
  • Decent but not great personal fit/resonance.