Do's and Don'ts For Coaches Ep: 020

Dec 20, 2020

Hey friends,

Welcome to Episode 20 of She Coaches Coaches. I’m so glad you’re here.

The heater is blaring behind me here, it’s winter, dark and wet outside as I write this for you. If you’re listening to this in December just after I finished recording, I want you to know we’re in this together. The She Coaches Coaches community is weathering both the winter and our current pandemic.

Despite all that’s going on the world you can still become a successful coach. People need coaches, they need help to change their life, and some help even understanding and getting clarity on what’s working and what’s not.

You are in the perfect place right now, becoming a coach is one of the most satisfying pursuits and I believe there will come a time when almost everyone will have a coach, and some of us will have more than one!

Today’s episode is part 2 of a 3-part series about some dos and don’ts for new coaches that I want to share with you.

Last week I explained why brand-new coaches don’t need a website when they’re just getting started and a simple reminder that to be a successful coach you have to start and grow a business in addition to learning how to coach

You’ve never been a coach before and there is a lot of conflicting advice out there on social media and the internet.

These episodes are designed to share my thoughts and reasoning and then I encourage you to think about it and decide for yourself. Choose what works best for you and apply it. When you take everyone’s advice and keep switching strategy lanes it takes so much longer to get your clients and become fully booked

Today’s Do and Don’t are:

Don’t: Don’t be in a rush to quit your job

Do: All coaches need to be coached

Let’s talk about each of these. I’m going to start with the Don’t

Don’t #2: Don’t rush to quit your job

Lots of coaches just want a change. They are tired of the long hours and heavy demands of their job. Maybe you even chose your job, not because you like the career but because of the security, it gave you.

it’s not unusual to think that a job, with a nice title, a good salary, benefits and even a great bonus structure will give you a pretty sweet life.

And it does, to a point. But after a while, you may find you are eager for a change. You’ve thought about becoming a coach for months and you just want to get on with it.

But hold on, just a bit. When you rush and quit your too early you may be sabotaging your success as a coach. If you’re super stressed about money and how you’re going to pay your bills it will suck the enjoyment right out of your coaching.

It’s kind of like when you break up with a boyfriend and then start dating another guy. Suddenly you realize you’re essentially dating the same person. Don’t trade your dissatisfaction with your day job for similar unhappiness with your coaching business.

Your business needs some space and time to grow. If you put a bunch of pressure on it to pay your bills, and still expect it be fulfilling and enjoyable– it’s like expecting too much from that new relationship.

Give it time to allow it to mature. Get some clients, be booked, have some demand for your coaching.

If you think you can’t be happy in your current job, it may be thought work that you need. And what I mean by this is learn how to be aware of your thoughts and feelings so you can more deliberately choose a more supportive way. Have you ever experienced that? You quit a job that you hated because you were offered another job that looked so much better. Only you found out 6 months later that it wasn’t so rosy either.

If it’s time for you to leave a toxic environment or they’ve downsized, get another job to tide you over financially while you’re filling up with coaching clients.

One of the fastest ways to strangle the growth of your coaching practice is to rely on it too heavily before it’s matured.

You’ll know you’re in a good place to leave your day job when you see one of these scenarios. You’re coaching more than you’re working and there’s not enough hours in the day. You’ve filled your calendar for the next 6 months and you’ve got a waitlist.

Do #2: All coaches need to be coached

Here’s the data, 8 out of 10 people who sign up for a consult with me have never had a coach. Many of them have never experienced coaching for themselves.

These are the same talented people who want to be a coach.

They are passionate about helping people, but they don’t know what coaching is for themselves.

Listen, I’m going to come right out and say it. It’s hard to attract paying coaching clients if you’re not completely sold yourself.

Who would want to pay you for something you’re not willing to do for yourself?

Can you imagine a dentist not getting their teeth cleaned? Or how about a doctor who never takes their blood pressure.

If you want to be a coach, get coached. The interesting thing is that you will love it even more because of having experienced your growth.

It’s like having your very own bat phone. It’s a direct line to fun, self-acceptance, compassion, perspective, and a place for you to learn more about yourself.

Coaching is the best way for you to get more of what you want and less of what you don’t want. Simple.

I think (IMO) everyone could benefit from having a coach.

Where else do you get a chunk of time to think about yourself, where you’re accepted as you are and held in the highest regard for your potential.

Being with a coach is not the same as a supportive friend, they know the version of you that you are (or were) and they talk with you, treat you like that person. When you want to do something new, they might feel nervous for you, they don’t want you to get hurt, or upset the rhythm of your relationship.

Being with your coach gives you time to work through your day, your life, figure out what you want. Try out new ideas and learn how to be aware of your thinking and even more importantly that your thoughts can be changed. It’s only when you’re aware of what you’re thinking do you know how you feel and understand why your life looks the way it does.

I dream of the day when just about everyone who wants one has a coach and lots of us will have more than one coach.

Remember when no one could understand why you would want to have a personal trainer at the gym? Now, so many people have one and not only do we have a personal trainer we also have a nutritionist, maybe even a sleep expert, a massage therapist and someone who helps with hormonal imbalances.

The coaching industry will be like that too. At some point, people could be working with a life coach to help them be more fulfilled, a health coach to help with weight loss, a business coach to grow their biz or a career coach to get a promotion, maybe even an executive coach to help with their stress and presence in the C suite and relationship coach to help overcome bumps in close relationships or to find a partner.

The fastest way to get the life (and coaching business) we want is to work with our own coach and then we’ll be ready for the tsunami of demand that’s coming our way.

I hope you join me again next week I’m diving into the final dos and don’ts for new coaches. You don’t want to miss these tips, it will save you money, time and energy and help you attract your best coaching clients.

Now, before we wrap it up! I want to tell you about a gift I offer to all my listeners. It’s my free resource library, an online vault filled with content I created to help you grow and become a coach. I call it The Coaches Online Business Academy and here’s how it works.

When you sign up for your free account, you get immediate access to all of my free resources and yeah there’s a lot of them, and it keeps growing every month! You can dive into my ‘narrow down your niche’ quiz. Then jump into the 5-day video training to kickstart your coaching business. There are a whole bunch of PDF guides and checklists. Including 147 proven coaching niches, a checklist for what you need to know as a brand-new coach and ideas for where to find paying clients ….plus more.

Like I said, each month I add more free resources and you’ll get notified as soon as I load them. It makes me happy to share this with you. It’s one of the ways I support my community and support the growth of coaching.

All you have to do is go to the episode description or the show notes and click on the link to sign up today. And that’s it.

I’ll talk to you next week.

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