YOU ARE ALWAYS COACHING. EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT COACHING.
The life of a coach isn’t always easy. There are thousands of us out there. All shining brightly, all wanting to make a difference in the world, and all deeply inspired to help people become happier, healthier, and wealthier.
Yet, we often neglect ourselves.
In our burning desire to help people, we underpay ourselves, undervalue our contribution; sometimes we even forget we are running a coaching business.
It’s ok, I was there once, too. The truth is, most coaches aren’t taught how to run a coaching business. I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to both coaching and business, and I learned that the skill sets aren’t the same. I’ve also learned that they are both equally important if you want to create a sustainable lifestyle coaching and making a difference to people.
Several years ago I left my role as managing director of a coaching company feeling distinctly lost, overwhelmed and unclear. I knew I was a talented coach and that I could run a business, but I also understood that there was more to creating a successful venture. Being a coach and developing business skills isn’t quite enough. I’m being honest here. There is a third ingredient, a pillar that is essential if you truly want to grow your coaching business and make a difference in the world.
It’s your ability to be coached.
The depth of your client work and the transformations they experience directly correlates to your own personal growth. It’s a simple equation that is often overlooked in coach training.
The deeper you can go within yourself the deeper your clients can go.
So, do you want to go deeper with your clients? Create bigger breakthroughs? Experience more life changing transformations? Generate more high end referrals? Want to grow your business organically? Well, let’s start right here, right now.
Here are three key ingredients I’ve used to go deeper in my coaching and grow my coaching business.
I hope they shine a light on something that helps you.
- Know yourself
This might seem like an unusual starting point, and you might be wondering how knowing yourself helps you run a successful coaching business? When I supervise coaches I call this idea the Twin Journey. Essentially the deeper you go within yourself the more able you are to hold a space of transformation for your clients. Honestly, I have spent nearly fifteen years getting to know myself and I feel like I’m just getting started. I have had weekly therapy for the past five years, digging into the dark underbelly of myself and shining a light on what makes me human. Recently I commented on how painful the experience can be for me. It takes courage to go to the depths, but you are the only person who can do this. While your partner, parents, children, friends, colleagues will provide you with much material to unravel, they are not the ones who can hold the space for you while you doing your unravelling. This isn’t about getting stuck in the darkness, it’s about moving through your own shadow and integrating it so you can enable others to do the same.
- Know your gift
What are you bringing to the world? This is where I see so many people trip up. They try and engineer an answer to this question, to find a formula that fits. My approach to this is different. I believe that your gifts reveal themselves to you over time as you show up and do the work. This means a couple of things: first, find people to work with before you feel ready, without the perceived safety of being able to say clearly what you bring. It’s okay to be working this out as you go. Actually it’s better to do that. If you learn about your gifts slowly over time, rather than pushing and getting stuck in a blind alley, then you will reveal a far deeper truth than any formula you could create. Which leads to the second point, patience. It takes the time it takes. Anyone who tries to sell you a five step formula that gives you the answers in a jiffy is likely misleading you.
Let yourself become who you are, through the work you do.
It takes time but it means it is undeniably you and your clients will feel the solidity and safety that brings.
- Know your pace
Are you in a hurry to ‘make things happen?’ You’re not alone! We live in a time of speed, efficiency and getting stuff done. But with that comes pressure, stress and less space to listen to your intuition. We try and force things to happen before it’s time. We have preconceived ideas of where our business should be at certain major milestones, but life dances to its own tune. Creating a sacred space where you can tune into your intuition will enable you to know when it is time to go slow and when it’s time to push forward. Be coached so you can face into your fears of not being where you thought you should be, and allow yourself to find the gold in where you are.
Let your natural pace guide you, and do things your way, so that you and your work shines more brightly in the world.
