The 15/15 rule: how to prepare for a coaching session
By Debbie Gainsford | Career Coach for Marketers | March 2026
Debbie Gainsford is a career coach and global marketing leader with two decades of B2B marketing experience. She helps marketers at a crossroads get clear on what they want and build the confidence to go after it.
You've booked a coaching session. But here's the thing, the most valuable parts might happen outside of it.
That's the 15/15 rule. Fifteen minutes before. Fifteen minutes after. And it makes more difference than you'd think.
The 15 minutes before your coaching session
Your brain doesn't change gear just because your calendar says so. If you jump straight from a meeting, a school run, or a scrolling spiral directly onto a coaching call, you'll spend the first chunk of your session just arriving. That's expensive time.
Fifteen minutes before you log on, stop what you're doing. Change your location if you can. Move, breathe, make a drink. Do something - anything - that creates a break between whatever you were doing and the conversation you're about to have.
Then ask yourself one question: what do I most want from this session?
The 15 minutes after your coaching session
This is the bit most people skip. Session ends, laptop closes, straight back into the inbox. And then a few days later you're wondering why nothing feels different.
Coaching works by surfacing things - realisations, shifts, things you didn't know you were ready to say until you said them. That stuff needs a minute to land. If you rush back into your day the second the call ends, it gets buried under everything else before it has a chance to mean anything.
So don't. Give yourself fifteen minutes. Go for a short walk. Make a drink. Write down what came up while it's still fresh - even just a few lines. Let it settle before life rushes back in.
Book the buffer, not just the session
When you put your coaching session in the calendar, block fifteen minutes either side. Before to arrive. After to process.
That's the whole trick. It costs you nothing and it changes everything.
Book a free discovery call with Debbie →
Debbie Gainsford is a career coach and strategic advisor for marketers and founders, based in Sydney, Australia. She works with clients locally and globally.
