It takes more than a map to arrive in Stage 2 of the 4 Stages of a Coaching Business. You need to have the fuel and ability to make the distance.
We know its possible to escape the “not enough clients or cash” stage. We looked at each of the phases we’ll go through to break free and rise out of Stage 1.
So armed with this information, what does it actually take to make it through those phases?
The 6 Keys To Creating Escape
Here are the keys that will make escaping level 1 more likely to happen:
1. LOOK FOR THE GAP AND COMMIT TO CLOSING IT
Looking for the Gap and Committing to Closing It – We can fool ourselves for years about what’s going on inside our coaching and our business. You know your sessions are kind of meh, and your sales calls are lacking, but you ignore it.
It’s a powerful skill to be able to look at your coaching and your business, see what’s missing, and commit to changing it.
Often it shows up in your sessions – People leaving calls with little more clarity then they came with, sessions that ramble and are formless, coaching that feels vaguely powerful, but doesn’t really inspire your clients. Often you know somethings missing, but you don’t want to face it.
The key then is to figure out what’s missing (usually through feedback) and then make a commitment to creating it.
2. GET INTO ACTION AND ESTABLISH A PRACTICE
Getting Into Action and Establishing a Practice – Once you’ve identified the gap, you get started practicing it right away. You don’t get caught in the endless web of answers and quick fixes out there.
Instead, you get into action. But make one of your first actions to establish a practice.
Set up a focus, a way to get feedback, a system of support, and find mentors who are skilled at what you want to improve.
This way, when you falter or hit resistance, you’ll have the rhythm of your practice to rely on.
3. FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS
Focusing on the Fundamentals – While there’s a lot about coaching and building a business that’s confusing, the fundamentals never change.
Are you connecting with your clients at the start of each coaching or sales call? Finding out what they want to create? Supporting them to move from insight into action?
When coaches falter they lose track of these fundamentals. They stop creating sessions with powerful drops. They stop having sales calls where they listen to their prospects.
Instead, they listen to their egos and the siren songs of easy answers.
This is going to happen to you. So you want to get good at noticing when your fundamentals are slipping and returning to them.
The world’s best coaches, the world’s most successful coaches don’t try to do a lot of impressive things, they do a few things very impressively.
So no matter what your practice focus is, it’s essential you keep your fundamentals solid.
4. WORK ON YOUR BEING/MINDSET/INNER GAME
Working On Your Being/Mindset/Inner Game – You’re going to run into resistance at some point.
And when you do, you’ll have to rely on your commitments to carry you through.
But all of your commitments rest on your integrity, your being, and your ability to be with your mind as it runs around in fear.
Which is why deep work matters so much, because if you can’t rely on yourself who can you rely on?
5. GET QUALITY FEEDBACK
Getting Quality Feedback – There will be times where you won’t notice what’s missing.
Your gaps will be small and subtle until they grow into BIG GAPING gaps that begin to weigh down your coaching and your business.
Get quality feedback along the way instead. Don’t be fooled like most coaches are, that getting ‘feedback’ from your clients is enough.
They don’t really understand coaching and they aren’t looking with an objective eye, you need something more if you want to keep growing.
6. GET SUPPORTED
Getting Supported – Doing this alone is challenging, almost impossible really.
Most coaches live inside what we call the coaching bubble.
They only ever see their email inbox, their Facebook feed, and if they’re lucky a few clients and prospects. Without outside support and a community of other dedicated coaches, this path is hard.
Which is why you need support. And not just the kind of support that offers easy answers at a low low price, but the kind of support that tells you the truth, helps you do the hard work, and cheers for you along the way.
These 6 keys to escaping stage 1 overlap obviously and you can practice them over and over again for the rest of your coaching career.
They aren’t fancy or flashy, but they work.
They are the easy answer you’ve been looking for; the shortcut of ‘no more shortcuts’.
Love,
Toku
PS – At the October Half Day Dojo we’ll be focusing on how to avoid the BIGGEST MISTAKE 80% of coaches make in 90% of their sessions. It’s a common factor that can have you STUCK in stage 1. So if you want to know how to nail the DROP and improve your sessions, join us and few other dedicated coaches at the HDD: http://bit.ly/HDD-OCT-01
PPS – The BIG MISTAKE I’m talking about is the GAP that happens when you FAIL to find out what your client really wants. And that is, above and beyond, the #1 reason why most coaches sessions end up sucking. Please don’t let this super easy-to-fix mistake take you out.
You can be a great coach if you simply learn to practice like one.
