When it comes to being a professional coach there are definitely some “dos’” and “don'ts” which can make or break your coaching business.
First, I think it's so important to understand some of the biggest challenges most coaches run into, which will set up the 7 “dos” and “don'ts” I'll be sharing further down. For the full content, watch the video above!
Biggest Challenges:
#1 Time for Money – One of the biggest problems is the time for money business model. This means selling your time, selling your sessions. Exchanging your time for money will eventually lead to ZERO time left.
#2 Retention – Very often coaches either enroll clients in too short of a program, so they constantly need to either reenroll or let clients go, meaning they're having to continuously generate new business to repalce the loss.
#3 Burnout – When you're selling your time, you have to always be working to be earning, not to mention always having to generate new clients if you're struggling to retain them. likely will end up in the dreaded “hamster wheel” of getting new clients and marketing and selling over and over again and again.
All of this is a recipe for disaster. The good news is that these are all very common challenges and below are some solutions to these problems.
#1 Inner Alignment
In short, this means that you are not looking at your business and your personal life and livelihood as two separate pieces but as a whole, and making sure that what you DO is an authentic and aligned expression of who you ARE.
When I work with clients on this foundational piece, here are some of the questions we dig into:
- Who are you really? This is your passion, your strengths, your talents, and even your weaknesses. This is YOU.
- Why are you here? This is your connection to a higher power, a greater purpose. What are you called to do?
- How do you cultivate Life Force? What do you need to feel energy-rich? This can be your self-care, the food you consume, the hours of sleep you need, the activities you engage in, etc.
- Your Values. What matters most in the world to you, what do you believe in?
- Your Past. This is your story, this is any healing you may need to do from old betrayals, hurts, and trauma.
- Your Vision. This is your new vision. What do you want your future to look like and what do you want to create in this world?
#2 Lifestyle
The key focus really gets into what you need to sustain and fulfill the lifestyle that you want to have.
Ask yourself how much time do you want to work? How much money do you want or need to make? What do you want your work day to look like? What important ongoing personal committments MUST be honored?
#3 Monetize Your Magic
Your business model is the mechanism by which you turn your “magic” into money. Your magic is your gifts, talents, and those offerings that come easily to you. All too often people monetize their time and effort, instead of their magic, in many cases because they have a deep-seated belief that you must sacrifice to succeed.
How do you deliver your value for money? There are many different business models out there and the key is to find what works in alignment with your particular constellation of talents.
#4 Your Brand
Your brand is your identity expressed – expressed as a message, a value proposition, a logo, a website, a name, and all the other tangible and intangible representations of you out in the world. You have the opportunity to intentionally package that identity and cultivate it. But most people leave it up to others to decide and figure out.
I'm a big believer in brand authenticity – the clearer and more transparent about who you really are, the easier it becomes to brand and market in a sustainable way.
#5 Marketing
This is the consistent process of putting your brand out into the world in ways that your audience can find and consume.
Some commonly used marketing tools include Podcasting, YouTube (my fave), Facebook ads, and social media, etc. These can all be great ways to get your brand out in the world – as long as #1 is in play, and these strategies are energy-rich and sustainable.
Side note: I'm a big believer in Email Marketing to support all of the above.
# 6 Sales
Whatever your preferred sales methodology, turning all of your marketing and branding into sales is what business is always working towards. I mostly have meaningful conversations with people, a term I learned from one of my mentors, Mark Leblanc.
Mastering sales is one of the biggest “musts” for any coach.
#7 Delivery
Being a successful coach means that you can deliver results and you can provide real outcomes for your clients.
I look at this in 2 big ways: 1) Skills / Operations – how you deliver and manage the coaching itself to create valuable outcomes with clients, and 2) Personal Development – doing the work yourself so that you're constantly upleveling and can work with your clients for the long haul.
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If you're looking to become a more successful coach, maybe I can help. Let's connect and have a conversation. You can find me at superstaractivator.com/go and you can book a call on my calendar by going to that landing page.