Coaching Blog

Your Post-Pandemic Future is Here. How Will You Elevate It?

Posted by Julia Stewart

Post-Covid Future and You

 

Quick! What's that outside your window?

 

Is that your future peeking in at you? Would you even recognize it? Is it just a wisp of a shadow of a dream? Or do you know what it looks like, already?

That last could be awesome or terrible.

Your future is yours to create. Do you have the energy? The focus? The care? The know-how?

Because if you leave it to chance, chances are it won't serve you. Read on...

Around the world, a species that was feared in danger of extinction just one year ago is reappearing: folks with gray hair and wrinkles who are now fully vaccinated. Sightings of this once rare breed have been made at stores, gyms, resorts, restaurants, and even hair salons. No longer forced to spend all their money on Instacart, they are once again venturing out their homes and the economy is returning to normal.

Soon, you may be vaccinated yourself. It'll then be your turn to start living life on your own terms.

Who will you be when you can be who you want to be?

Right now, you may be too exhausted, stressed, or burned out to think about your future. That's okay. If you can begin to take care of yourself even a bit, you can get back to normal soon. But don't force yourself to focus on the future if it drains you.

May I suggest that you start with the basics if you are worn out?

Begin with one deep delicious breath. Breathe in through your nose for a count of five and exhale for five-to-eight counts. Do this anytime, anywhere, when you need to relax and refocus. Watch calmly for improvements to your mind-state, because this type of breathing triggers censors in your body that tell your brain you are safe and can relax. This is tremendously healing. Return when you are ready. This blog post will still be here.

Next, take a moment to process any grief you're still carrying.

Whether loved ones lost, family not seen, jobs that ended, or even vacations interrupted. Each loss deserves at least a moment of acknowledgment. Heavy emotions are just information. Get the message and they will move on.

Now here's a crazy question: What did you gain from the pandemic?

Did you learn a new skill set? Make new friends online? Realize what really matters to you? Write down at least three valuable things you gained from the pandemic and why they matter to you now.

What happened that you never want to do again? How will you prepare yourself so you never go through that worst thing? Train for a new career? Move to a community of like-minded people? Stock up on toilet paper?

What did you swear you would change?

How can you keep that promise to yourself? Because promises unkept tend to weigh us down.

What habits served you during the lock-down that you want to keep?

Many of us will keep our 20-second handwashing habits! And what about those Zoom happy hours?

What habits served you during the lock-down that you can begin to let go?

Will you still wear a double mask when you become immune? Will you check Covid stats every morning?

Now, what would you do if there was nothing in your way?

What dream has been knocking at your window unanswered? How can you take a step toward it? Even a small one? Commit to taking that step. Then tell a supportive friend or loved one about it. Better yet, work with a coach. Then celebrate it. The first step is usually the biggest.

 

Keep taking steps to elevate the dawn of your new future.

 

I hope this was useful for you. If helping people is part of your dream. I invite you to try out our coach trainings.

 

Visit Life Coach Training Online Here.

 

Topics: make a living as a coach, Coach Training Programs, coaching questions, future of coaching, acknowledgment, video, Covid, pandemic

Video: Top Ten Secrets to Making a Living as a Life Coach

Posted by Julia Stewart

Coaches are asking to see the video of Top Ten Secrets to Making a Living as a Life Coach. Okay, here it is. Click the image below, register with your name and email and download the video to your device. It's a safe download. Have fun!

Top Ten Secrets to Making a Living as a Life Coach

The last post on this blog was, What Does it Take to Become a Top (Business or Life) Coach?

It sparked quite a stir and a lot has happened since.

  • The post inspired a Q&A class titled, Top Ten Secrets to Making a Living as a Life Coach, which sold out in minutes, so we had to get a bigger webinar platform to accomodate all the coaches who wanted to attend.
  • The class inspired a new Coach 100 Full Practice GAME, with both a free version for everybody and an elite version for members of Coach 100 Premium. Tagline: "Everybody wins when you coach more clients, because coaching is changing the world!"
  • The GAME inspired a new blog aptly named the Coach 100 Full Practice GAME Blog, where game players can keep up-to-date, share their experiences, and support each other's success. Plus the game is also broadcast on our Facebook Page for coaches who prefer to play there. This is a social game. It's about winning by supporting others - the best way to succeed as a coach.
  • The class and game inspired a new series of 10 monthly Q&A webinars that go into deep detail on the Top Ten Secrets to help players succeed more easily/quickly. These live classes will be included for Coach 100 members, at no extra charge, and non-member will be able to join for $20 per class.
  • Players are already diving into the game. Are you one of them? If you'd like to join the elite version, go here to learn about Coach 100 Premium. If you'd prefer to play the free version, subscribe to the Coach 100 Full Practice GAME Blog here.
You gotta be in it to win it. Get in the GAME:

Subscribe to Coach 100 Full Practice Game Blog Now

Topics: business coach, life coach, become a life coach, Coach 100, become a business coach, coaching clients, make a living as a life coach, make a living as a coach

Marketing for Coaches: How to Lose Friends, Respect, and Clients

Posted by Julia Stewart

finding life coach clientsIf you're a relatively new business or life coach, then the question of where to find coaching clients is probably nearly an obsession for you.

 

And that's as it should be. You're in a huge learning curve and your future business depends on your ability to learn quickly and keep moving forward.

 

This blog post will help flatten your marketing and sales learning curve and save you from bumbling ineptitude. 

 

As you can imagine, my coaching clients and students frequently ask me how to find clients.

 

Most don't ask where. You need to know 'where' before the 'how' question can even begin to help you.

 

So here's a list of places 'where' you may find clients, preceded by a few places where you almost certainly won't.

 

Where you WON'T find clients, but you may lose respect, friends, or worse:
  • Friends and family: don't invite your best friend to coach with you for a fee. You're violating your relationship with her and will likely offend her and possibly lose her friendship. Do offer to coach her for free, if you like - and if she's interested. Mattison Grey calls this the Friends Channel. Don't talk business unless you're both on the Business Channel.
  • Other people's tribes: you may belong to communities of interest that are led by other thought leaders. Maybe all the members are on the Business Channel, but your fellow members may view you as just a peer. Don't presume they're open to becoming your clients, unless they've already expressed curiosity about how you can help them and even then, have the conversation in private. Otherwise, you'll be seen as inappropriate and tribal leaders may view you as an interloper. Better to start your own tribe.
  • Your coaching school: don't try to build a coaching business by coaching other coaches, especially your classmates. You may see yourself as more developed than they are, but it's unlikely they'll agree. If you SPAM them with invitations to coach, or worse, invite them to coach with you in class, you'll just look self-serving - not attractive. Do invite your classmates to trade peer coaching with you, gratis.
  • Social aquaintences: the folks you meet in church, at a homeowners meeting, or in line at a store may or may not be open to coaching with you. Let them ask about it. If they're just being social, just be social with them. If they seem curious, go ahead and share more - probably in private.

 

Places where you CAN find coaching clients:
  • Friends of friends of family: go ahead and offer some free coaching to your family and their friends. If they like it, ask them to refer friends to you for coaching. Sometimes it's as easy as that.
  • Friends of friends of friends: the closer someone is to your social circle, the more likely they are to be concerned about confidentiality, so ask friends to refer people for free coaching sessions. Ask those people for referrals. The third tier is a better bet.
  • People who join your tribes: start a Facebook Page, LinkedIn Group, or live networking organization. Serve your members. A lot. Invite them to complimentary sessions. The more they perceive you as a contributor to their lives and success, the more they will want your coaching.
  • People you meet at networking events: live networking is powerful when you know how to use it. Everyone there is 'selling' something, so the trick is to notice those who want what you have. Invite them to a free session.
  • People who read your blog: one of the easiest ways to build a tribe is to start a great blog. Easy, but time consuming. If you love to serve and love to write, your blog can become a powerful attractor. Use it to invite potential clients.
  • People who hear you speak: lead live workshops, online webinars, or teleclasses. Educate, entertain, and serve. Your listeners may fall in love with you. You can invite them to work with you, but don't be surprised if they ask YOU to coach them, first. When you're in the right place, doing the right things, sales practically take care of themselves.

 

So there you have some powerful DOs and DON'Ts for attracting coaching clients without offending people. As always, it boils down to Servant Entrepreneurship. If you want much more...

 

Get Paid to Coach. Join Coach 100.

Topics: business coach, blogging, coaching clients, make a living as a life coach, make a living as a coach, Facebook, Life Coaches, marketing and sales, LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing, Marketing for life coaches

How Professional Coaches Make More Money

Posted by Julia Stewart

I've written previously about how executive, business and life coaches make money. And we have a free eBook that goes into detail about life coach salaries. But here's something we don't often write about: How else do professional coaches make money?

Average salaries for executive, business and life coaches range between $50,000 - 150,000USD for COACHING services. But most coaches have a few other services that they also offer, which can boost their salaries well into the high six figures.

The ICF has just released this helpful infographic on the "Extras" of coaching. In other words, extra services. Below it, you'll find a link to sign up for the Life Coach Salary eBook, to learn more about how coaches make money and how to set your coaching fees.

 

The "Extras" of Coaching

To get the FREE Life Coach Salary eBook, click below:

Get the FREE Life Coach Salary eBook

Topics: business coach, life coach, executive coaching, money, make a living as a life coach, make a living as a coach, ICF, Life Coaches, life coach salary

How Business and Life Coaches Really Make Money

Posted by Julia Stewart

how life coaches make moneyThe 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:

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:

Download Your Free Coach 100 eBook

 

Topics: money, coaching clients, make a living as a life coach, make a living as a coach, Business Coaches, Life Coaches

The Great Coaching Pyramid and Your Success

Posted by Julia Stewart

Folks say I'm brilliant for coming up with this, but really I'm just observant: The old Marketing Funnel (AKA Product Funnel) doesn't work that well for most coaches unless they flip it over.

marketing funnel The Marketing Funnel sounds so logical that I tried it out as soon as I heard of it, several years ago.

Result? Hardly anybody bought my lower priced products, but because I focused on products instead of one-to-one coaching, I got FEWER clients! Not only that, but the lower-priced products were a lot of work to create and I needed to invest in a virtual assistant and a shopping cart, which weren't cheap. 

Most real coaches that I know have the same experience. I say 'real' because some folks do quite well with this business model, such as successful internet marketers, authors and speakers, who can afford to hire teams of consultants and assistants. They can make this work. Sometimes those people also call themselves coaches.

If you're primarily a coach, without a team or a big budget and especially if you're new to sales and marketing, it's actually much easier to go straight to high-paying coaching clients and skip all the work it takes to fill your funnel.

PYRAMID Because the funnel approach takes so much time, work and money to create, it felt kind of like building the Great Pyramids. Instead of a funnel, which sounds like it will just pull clients to you via gravity or suction or whatever, it's more like pushing bolders up a steep incline for slave wages.

So I flipped the funnel over and turned it into the Great Coaching Pyramid. It's so much more effective for real coaches like me. If you're a real coach and what you want to do is coach, then go straight to the top of the Great Coaching Pyramid and you'll experience success faster.

 

The Great Coaching Pyramid

If you love to coach, fill your coaching practice with one-to-one clients first, add products later, if you want. This way, you're doing what you love and that's really attractive. You don't need a huge investment or team to make it happen. Each client pays you well, so you make a living with 10-20 clients instead of 10,000 to 20,000.

I kept my shopping cart and assistant and some products. Because I found that my one-to-one coaching clients were interested in buying my other products and services, as well.

If you're a real coach, most of your income should come from coaching, right? And you can make a much better income by focusing on coaching, itself.

 

 

Great income pyramid People will hire you without sampling all your products. Why? Because you're a good coach. You get that way by doing a lot of coaching, not by creating websites and products.

Here's a secret: Marketing Funnels are NOT triangular. A great company that teaches about marketing funnels and is honest and upfront about it is Hubspot. They have a team of very smart professional marketers. They're much better at it than you and I. I've seen screen shots of Hubspot's marketing funnel, based on their marketing data. It necks down to almost nothing after the very first level. That means they need to reach tens of thousands of people just to get a few clients.

Here are a few numbers about that: Fantastic marketers are happy to convert 5-10% at each level of their funnel. Not so great marketers are lucky to convert 1-2%. At a 2% conversion rate, you'd have to attract 2.5 Million free customers to get 20 high-paying coaching clients. Or you can build your business with coaching.

 

 

Coach 100 Mentor Group

 

There are a few more spots in the Coach 100 Mentor Group. Join and fill your practice with coaching clients by July.

 

Topics: coaching business, Coaching, make a living as a coach, successful business

How to Become a Coach Video

Posted by Julia Stewart

Watch the recorded version of our free 'Become a Coach' webinar and learn the keys to building a successful coaching business as quickly as possible.

How to Become a Coach Video

 Become a Coach eBook

Download the free 'Become a Coach!'   eBook

Topics: become a life coach, become a coach, become a business coach, make a living as a coach, becoming a certified coach, what does it take to become a coach, how to become a coach, how long does it take to become a coach

How Coaching Skills Can Save Your Career

Posted by Julia Stewart

Coaching on the Job"People who are coaches will be the norm. Other people won't get promoted."- Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric

That's the story in a nutshell. People who work with people and know how to coach effectively will lead more productive teams and improve the company's bottom line. Their team members will report more job satisfaction and  fulfillment. Everybody wins.

However, you need to have a job before you can get promoted.

The current job market is one of the toughest that most of us have ever seen. If you're job has been automated or shipped overseas, or if you just don't fit the ideal employee profile that potential employers are searching for, you're probably wondering how you can reinvent yourself to succeed.

I won't tell you to become a coach.

Coaching as a profession really isn't for everyone, but coaching as a skill set is something everyone should consider, especially if you're looking for a way to make yourself more employable. And I'm guessing you might also prefer to have more fun, money, fulfillment, accomplishment, and job promotions, as well. Who wouldn't?

This article isn't for people who want to become professional coaches, unless you just like knowing that coaching skills will always make you more employable, in case you ever want to get a "regular" job again. I'm writing this for people who would benefit from upgrading their coaching skills, so they're more successful in other careers.

The numbers are impressive. 

At any given time, there are tens of thousands of job openings that require coaching skills.Yes, some of them are for sports coaches, but virtually every other type of position as well, from nurses, to chefs, to managers, to sales professionals, even to engineers! Go online and look for yourself. The problem is that most folks don't really know how to coach their people.

But what if you did? 

What if you used this time to invest in becoming an excellent coach? Not just by sitting in on a weekend course, but by practicing and working at becoming an effective coach? It's just a thought. 

  • If you've ever wondered how you could inspire your people to do their very best
  • Or how to get the information you need without interrogating people
  • Or if you've ever wondered how leading a productive team could be fun, and at the same time help you finish projects on or ahead of schedule and still bring in more money for the company.
  • Or maybe you've wondered if it's possible to wake up on Monday morning anticipating another great work week.
  • Or maybe you've just wondered how to motivate twenty-somethings to show up for work looking and acting like professionals. A recent episode of 60 Minutes summed it up nicely:

Stop bossing and start coaching!

Coaching is still one of the professions that's growing, despite the economy and for good reason. When done well, it makes a huge difference. And you can do it well, if you learn what to do and practice it in the right environment. Again, it's just a thought.

 

Topics: business coach, coach training, become a coach, free coach training, make a living as a coach, coaching success, coach, coaching skills, coaching career, communication

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