For experienced coaches, trainers, consultants, and educators
You have already earned the room. Now make it official.
Certified Growth Leader is the credential that turns the expertise you already have into recognized CEUs, institutional credibility, and a training business that scales beyond your calendar.
- Offer IACET CEUs at your events, backed by Grow By 1
- Done with you onboarding to your first accredited event
- Coaching, community, and real market access
Application only. We review every applicant personally. There is no payment to apply.
Read this if it sounds like you
You are good. That was never the question.
You have spent years becoming excellent at what you do. People leave your sessions changed. Your ideas hold up in any room. The gap was never your skill. It is that your skill is not yet backed by a credential the biggest buyers recognize on sight. That is a positioning problem, not a talent problem. And positioning is something we can fix.
The quiet cost of great work no one can verify
Excellent work that carries no credential stays invisible to the best opportunities.
If any of these feel familiar, you are not behind. You are simply positioned below the level you already operate at.
- You keep explaining your value instead of having it recognized on paper.
- You watch less experienced people win contracts because they carried a credential you did not.
- You price by the hour because nothing institutional lets you price by the outcome.
- The doors you actually want — universities, associations, government programs, and enterprise teams — ask for accreditation you cannot yet offer.
None of this reflects your ability. It reflects your positioning. Certified Growth Leader is how you close that gap.
The Certified Growth Leader solution
The credential, the systems, and the room, in one place.
Certified Growth Leader gives experienced leaders three things at once. The accreditation that opens institutional doors, the done-with-you systems to deliver it well, and the community that keeps the work and the referrals flowing.
Pillar 1 — Offer recognized CEUs
As a Certified Growth Leader you can offer IACET Continuing Education Units at your events, backed by Grow By 1's standing as an IACET Accredited Provider. That single fact moves you from a nice option to an approved provider for universities, associations, government programs, and enterprise learning teams.
Pillar 2 — Done with you onboarding
You are never handed a login and left alone. Grow By 1 walks you through your first accredited event step by step, with the templates, proposals, and pricing frameworks already built, so you launch with confidence instead of guesswork.
Pillar 3 — Coaching and community
Ongoing one-on-one and group coaching, plus a room of credentialed peers who collaborate, refer, and open doors for each other. The isolation ends the day you join.
Who stands behind this credential
Built and led by Dr. Michelle Burkhard and the Grow By 1 team.
Grow By 1 is an IACET Accredited Provider, authorized to award the Continuing Education Units that institutions trust. The program is led by Dr. Michelle Burkhard, known as The Coach Doctor, who holds a doctorate in educational evaluation and research and has spent more than a decade helping coaches, educators, and leaders turn their expertise into recognized authority. A former teacher who became an internationally requested speaker and trainer, she serves clients across seven time zones and built the exact systems Certified Growth Leaders now use.
When you carry this credential, you carry that standing with you.
IACET Accredited Provider
Doctorate in educational evaluation and research
Serves clients across seven time zones
More than a decade building coaching credibility systems
Watch before you apply
See exactly how giving CEUs grows your business.
Before you apply, watch the free training that started this for so many leaders. In one focused hour, Dr. Michelle Burkhard walks through the exact shift that takes an experienced trainer from chasing the next gig to becoming the approved provider institutions come looking for.
What you will learn
- Why CEUs quietly decide who wins the biggest contracts, and how to land on the right side of that line.
- The real difference between being good and being credentialed, and why only one of them scales.
- How Certified Growth Leaders offer IACET CEUs through Grow By 1 to open institutional doors.
- The simplest path to your first accredited event, even if you have never run one.
How Dr. Michelle teaches it
This is not a pitch dressed up as a webinar. Dr. Michelle Burkhard teaches the way she coaches — generous, specific, and grounded in real frameworks you can use the same week. She shares the actual systems, names the real numbers, and answers the questions experienced people actually ask. Most attendees say they took more from this one hour than from programs they had paid for.
Watching is the fastest way to know if this is your move. No pressure, just clarity.
What you step into as a Certified Growth Leader
Everything you need to deliver, market, and scale accredited events.
- Intensive done-with-you onboarding to your first CEU event
- Ongoing one-on-one and group coaching
- Professional development workshops that keep you sharp and current
- Full access to the learning platform and content library
- A private community of credentialed peers on live calls and chat
- Cross-industry exposure, partnerships, and referral access
You keep full ownership of everything you create. Grow By 1 gives you the standing and the systems. Your work stays yours.
What changes when you carry the credential
The same expertise, a completely different position in your industry.
Before
- Explaining your value over and over and hoping it lands
- Pricing by the hour because nothing backs a bigger number
- Watching the best contracts go to approved providers
- Working in isolation, reinventing everything alone
After
- A credential the biggest buyers recognize on sight
- Pricing by outcome, backed by accreditation
- Sitting on the approved side of the table
- A room of peers who refer, collaborate, and rise with you
This was never about working harder. You already do that. It is about finally being positioned for the level you already operate at.
Selective on purpose
This credential means something because we are careful about who carries it.
Certified Growth Leader is built for a specific kind of leader. It is for you if you are:
This is for you if
- An experienced coach, trainer, consultant, or educator with real expertise
- Ready to be recognized for the level you already operate at
- Serious about credibility and long-term positioning, not a quick win
- Willing to follow a proven system and lead your own events
This is not for
- Anyone looking for fast passive income
- Anyone who wants a certificate without doing the work
If you read the first list and thought that is me, you are exactly who this was built for.
How it works
Three steps from where you are to Certified Growth Leader.
Apply
Tell us about your work in a short application. We review every one personally to make sure the fit is right for both of us.
Meet on a discovery call
If it looks like a match, you book a call with the Grow By 1 team. We map the pathway that fits you, answer everything, and walk through the investment and the options together. No pressure, just a clear picture.
Get certified and launch
You are onboarded step by step, credentialed, and guided through your first accredited event, with coaching and community behind you the whole way.
The title you will carry
Certified Growth Leader is more than a program. It is a position.
When you introduce yourself as a Certified Growth Leader, you are telling every room that your expertise is backed, your events carry recognized CEUs, and you belong at the table with the providers the biggest institutions already trust. That is the shift. Not more effort. A stronger position.
Your move
The leaders who credential first will define the next five years of this field.
You already do the work. The only real question is whether your positioning finally matches your ability. If it is time, we would be glad to review your application.
Application only. We review every applicant personally. There is no payment to apply.