When Ross Boyd joined the coachingMBA he told me a story about being at a party when someone asked him what he did for a living. When he told them he was a coach he immediately burst out laughing. Even though he loved coaching he struggled to feel like a real professional coach. And it impacted everything from how he ran his session to how he showed up on sales calls.
He told me that he’d often feel embarrassed or ashamed to talk about what he did. Which was remarkable because Ross was a former soldier and a man who takes great pride in who he is in the world.
Fast forward six months later and Ross has increased his rate (twice), signed several £5k+ clients, landed a £38k coaching deal, and has a new sense of “inner peace and pervasive confidence” about being a coach.
Here’s how he did it:
Step 1: In our first month together, we worked on discovering what made Ross and the other members of the coachingMBA unique. Ross reported that getting the honest reflection of his clients, family, and colleagues shifted his understanding of who he was. He started to see that how he saw himself didn’t match up with the way he showed up in the world.
Step 2: Once Ross understood that the world naturally respected who he was as a leader he began to take more risks and lean into his natural strengths. This helped him raise his rates (by 250%) and have the courage to “bottom-line” important deals (including the £38k client). What he started to understand was that when he was committed and showed up with that commitment, the world responded.
Step 3: The first two steps gave Ross the confidence he needed to start letting go of deals he didn’t want—but kept chasing out of fear—and start focusing on the kind of work he did want. As a result Ross signed two clients at his higher rate of £5k and he started to trust that he could both do work he loved and build a business without compromising his passion.
I recently created a Case Study where I sat down with Ross and talked about what he learned.
