Almost every coach I know has had some deep experience of transformation.
For some of you, it was a moment of enlightenment, a crisis, a coach, or a teacher that made a big impact on you. But for every single person I know who is a coach (if they’re any good), they have this deep and profound experience of what it is like to have your life transformed by being in relationship with another person.
A person who chooses to see you, to hold you, and to work with you in a way that no one else has before. A person who believes in your possibility, who pushes you, who challenges you. Every coach I know has had that experience and often many of those experiences.
For some of us, there emerges a desire, a calling.
A desire to be in the kind of relationships that change people’s lives.
In meaningful and profound ways. To not just be in a kind of relationship where we watch football or drink some wine or hang out and complain about politics or movies or entertainment. But to be in the kind of relationships and conversations that have a lasting impact. That leave an indelible mark on each other’s souls or ways of being.
And then for a smaller group of those people, there rises a commitment.
A commitment to finding the structure, statement, willingness, and courage to plant a flag in the earth and say “I am this kind of person for you. I am this kind of person for the world. Come have a conversation with me. Come make commitments with me. Come step inside my container and I will create that kind of relationship with you.”
These are the three steps: impact/transformation, desire, and commitment.
Most coaches I know have the first two handled.
They have lots of powerful experiences of transformation and they have a deep desire to create something in the world. They lack the third which is commitment. It’s where I see coaches stop again and again because they think that the experience and desire are enough.
Experience and desire to help people and transform is incredible, but unless you are willing to commit to master the structures, skills, and ways of being in the world so you can consistently—as a way to make a living—offer this kind of incredible relationship and incredible conversations, you are going to continue to struggle.
It is not a roadblock. It is not an unfortunate reality that you have to figure out. This isn’t “I wish I could just coach but unfortunately, I have to figure out this… I have to figure out marketing”. No.
It’s the thing that sets apart those that talk about wanting to serve and those that serve. It is the thing that stands between wanting to make a difference and actually making a difference.
And sure there are problems with business, marketing, and sales, but if you can master the commitment, structure, ways of being that have a lasting impact on the world which allows you to earn a living changing people’s lives, that is not insignificant.
That is not a footnote. That is not a thing to be moved aside. It’s not traffic to get around. It’s a vital process. A process that not only helps you become a better coach but helps you be the kind of person that actually makes a change in the world.
That is why I created the coachingMBA.
I created the coachingMBA not because I want to teach you a bunch of business skills, though we talk about business skills.
Not because I want to teach you about marketing and sales, though we talk about marketing and sales.
I created it because I saw that being able to master this thing called creating a coaching practice, being able to master the thing called creating a coaching business, getting clients, managing your money, and learning how to get stuff done and produce work that makes a difference in the world, is what separates the journeyman coaches from the mastermind coaches. The wannabe’s from the people who are making a huge impact in the world.
If you’re the kind of coach who has had an incredible experience of transformation and has an incredible desire to change the world but can’t seem to nail the commitment, who looks out there and sees all the marketing crap and all the five-step processes to get clients that’s not quite it, I hope you take some time to check out some of the stuff on this site and some of the stuff that I’ve written.
Your calling, the thing that happened after your transformation, the thing that caused your desire to rise, is a sacred desire. And it is worthy of a sacred and meaningful commitment to mastering this thing that is so important to getting your work out to the world. Not as a footnote, not as an obstacle, a hurdle to cross, or some box to be checked. But as integral and aligned with the greatest things you have to offer the world. And the changes that you want to create.
I hope that we’ll get a chance to talk and connect. And if not, thank you so much for being a coach.
