Here is the main question of our interview. Many coaches are successful, but some are not very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful coaches from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create a Highly Successful Career As a Life or Business Coach”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
Successful business coaches lead by example, don’t have an ego and genuinely want to serve others. They’re open hearted, focused on personal growth, excited about what’s possible and seek to empower others. And it’s genuine.
One of the women I’ve coached began her business in network marketing in 2018. She focused heavily on her business building habits, her mindset, practicing gratitude and so on. She has taken her processes and made them solid daily habits, and her business has absolutely exploded. She has led by example, never had an ego and genuinely wanted to serve others. Her attitude has been infectious in the most authentic way. She made it to the top 1% of the company with this approach in 2 short years, and what we did together in business building and business coaching is what led us to create 90 Day Habits and the journal and to coach more people in growing their businesses.
On the flip side, unsuccessful life coaches focus on themselves, manage people instead of empower people, and think that they know it all. I think all of these traits can live within each of us. But it’s important to consciously be aware of them and channel the more positive energy towards your mentee while leaving yourself open to learn and grow as well.
If I told you that I haven’t personally grown from coaching others in their businesses, I’d be lying. It’s the most rewarding and incredible gift.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen coaches make when they start their business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Coaching is a bit abstract, and it’s not something that many can visualize how to monetize. The common mistake new coaches make is that they don’t treat it like a business. But it is! When you share your skills and expertise with someone, that is valuable — if you believe it so. That’s where the crux is — if you don’t place a value on it, other’s won’t either. But if you’ve learned and grown a wildly successful network marketing business, you know more than many others and you have something valuable to share.
You have to believe you’re worthy to share your expertise. And do your research, see how others monetize their expertise. Some write books, some give live coaching, some build interactive how-to guides. All of these are good ideas. I urge everyone to find what works for them.
Based on your experience and success, what are a few of the most important things a coach should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience? Please share a story or an example for each.
A great business coach is a great listener. It’s not about telling your client what to do, it’s about asking questions and leading them to discover the answer within themselves.
With that said, you can learn a lot about your clients. Use your active listening and what you’ve learned to affirm what they desire, and to help them reach for what they truly want.
I started coaching a woman who had just started a side hustle and hated her day job she had at the time. I asked a series of questions to understand why she hated her job and just how big the pain point was. When I asked her how much she wanted to make in her side hustle she answered a few hundred dollars. I followed up with, “I thought you hated your job?” To which she replied “I do!”, I followed up by asking “So how much would It take for you to leave your job?” To which she answered “$8,000 per month”. I asked her how quickly she wanted to do that and we set a date making it a tangible goal — a tangible dollar amount with a deadline. She was able to set that goal, because I first listened to understand then I asked questions until she came up with her own answer. Ask to understand, not to respond.
With that approach, a business coach can create a wow! experience that’s unique to each person.
Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business, and particularly in coaching. What are the best ways for a coach to find customers? Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
The best way for a coach to find customers is to first focus on your current customers. Starting out, most of your customers will come from word of mouth network marketing. This is why it’s important to create massive value for your current customers and let them be walking, talking billboards for your services.
Further, identify and seek out your “anchor client” — this is a client with a large influence who you can secure, add value to and have them recommend you and / or share on their platforms. It is also great marketing material for you when you’ve coached an anchor client.
If you don’t have any customers, the best way to find customers is to identify your ideal client down to the details, and then go find them. They may be in your circles, but they may not. Go to places they are, hang out and start networking, letting people know exactly who you help and how you help them. For example, “I help women executives lead a more balanced life by working smarter, not harder.”
Coaches are similar to startup founders who often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to end up burning the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to your fellow coaches about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting their business?
My recommendation to fellow business coaches and life coaches on how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting their business is to be a product of their product! This means practice gratitude, meditate, do your daily affirmations, move your body and focus on your mindset. Those are going to be pivotal in your own physical and mental wellbeing.
From there, hire a coach or mentor to guide you as you’re starting. This will help identify your blind spots, help you be more efficient and undoubtedly will shorten the learning curve. The product of all of this is an improvement in mental and physical wellbeing.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Everyone should create a morning routine of positive habits. I believe we could create a huge ripple effect of positivity if everyone started their day with gratitude, positive affirmations, and other tasks that build better habits, we can put so much good into the world.