The number one question that business and life coaches ask me over and over and over is, 'How do I get coaching clients?', which is code for, 'How do I make money as a coach?'
At any given time, there seems to be a large percentage of coaches who are hungry for more paying clients. Some of them even have a limiting belief that you can't really make a living as a coach.
This flies in the face of the facts:
- Business and life coaching have been cited again and again as one of the fastest-growing professions by media outlets like CNNMoney, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc., etc.
- According to organizations that survey professional coaches and the people who hire them, most coaches make between $160 and $325 per hour.
- According to experts who've worked with millions of people (such as Oprah) everybody wants a better life, which helps explain the insatiable demand for life coaches.
So how is it possible that any coach doesn't have all the clients and money s/he could ever want?
- Marketing mavens will tell you that you need better marketing.
- Sales trainers will tell you that you need to close more sales (Well duh.)
- Coach trainers (like me) will tell you that good coaching skills practically sell themselves (I'm biased, but it's true).
- Law of Attraction gurus will tell you that you just need the right mindset (If it were really that simple, everyone would be a millionaire).
None of these solutions gets to the heart of what stops the majority of coaches from succeeding wildly - even the ones who are good coaches and do their best to learn everything that should help them succeed.
In fact, if you're honest with yourself, you already know why some business and life coaches aren't more successful, because this holds you back, too.
It holds everybody back at some point, including me. What I'm talking about is fear of rejection, shame, humiliation, failure, and being laughed at. It's the single strongest fear that humans feel, one so strong that it can make soldiers march into certain death, rather than live with the shame of running away. Sit with that for a moment...
Does it make sense that not one of the solutions I listed above really helps with this?
Well let me back up. They can help. They do help. Sometimes. But if fear of screwing up stops you from spreading the word about your new business and asking people to help you -- heck! -- if it stops you from asking people for their business; then learning a new program won't help you make more money as a coach.
So what will help?
Here are some things that have helped my coaching clients:
- Admit you have the fear and don't try to avoid how yucky it feels (people born to my generation -- Boomers -- or later, tend to avoid uncomfortable feelings, to their detriment)
- Ask the fear how it's trying to help and then let it help you (imagine it's a person who can talk and imagine what it would say. I know that sounds crazy, but it's an awesome tool for listening to your unconscious thoughts and for getting the best advice, ever.)
- Feel the fear and do it anyway (reach out to people, tell them how you can help them, etc.)
- Stay in action until the fear subsides (we stop fearing the things we do everyday)
- Model yourself after someone who's already succeeded ('fake it 'til you make it' is far wiser than it sounds)
- Hang out with people who've succeeded (You become who you hang out with)
- Don't hang out with people who are struggling (Research shows that folks who have the same problems, tend to reinforce those problems in each other and do worse, as a result)
- Become someone that other people want to hang out with (do what it takes to succeed and other successful people will hang out with you. That becomes a virtuous circle that creates more success for all.)
- Work with someone who understands and can help you (Like a really good mentor coach)
- Ask yourself if you really, really want it, because if you do, and you don't do as much of all of the above as you need to, you're out of integrity (that alone, will stop you from attracting clients)
- Stop making excuses for not taking calculated risks like, 'I'll launch my business when I have more money, more confidence, more blah, blah, blah...' (People who think that way tend to wind up losers.)
- Don't take a 'No' answer from the Universe (old-fashioned determination still works).
Once you've fully dealt with your fear of rejection and failure, then the right training or marketing program will start to work 'like magic'.
What about you? What form of fear stops you from attracting plenty of coaching clients? Share below in the comments section.
Learn how the Coach 100 process obliterates new-coach fears:
