Prosperous Coach Podcast

This episode is about your unique talent and how, when it's applied to your coaching niche, and you allow yourself to shine, doors open to you.

Find show notes and more at prosperouscoach.com/15.

Gay Hendricks coined the term -- Zone of Genius -- in his book The Big Leap.

You might have heard of this even if you haven't read his book, because it made a big splash and has stood of test of time. He defined 4 zones: incompetence, competence, excellence and genius.

Most of us operate day to day in those first 3 zones.

You run up against incompetence and avoid those tasks and experiences. 

You find a day to day competence in most things and it's an acceptable place to hang out in but not stellar. 

And in a few areas you rise to excellence.

If you're in your zone of excellence, you're performing better than most people. It feels good, it's easier than other areas for you.

For me, that's stuff like writing and copy-editing. Things I truly enjoy and I'm better at than most, but still, it's not effortless.

Now, in your zone of genius, you are literally at your best.

The Zone of Genius is where your natural, innate abilities -- the ones that intersect with your passion -- shine and glow.

It's a state of being where inspiration flows to, through and from you and you feel deeply engaged and energized.

Other people may feel it even though they may not know what it is or how to articulate it. But that inspiration flows to them too and awakens something in them.

You can see how, your zone of genius could super charge your coaching abilities.

Now, if I asked you what your zone of genius is, you might be tempted to say: "Well, Rhonda, it's coaching of course!"

But that's not it. That's most likely excellence.

No doubt, you are an outstanding coach. I believe that. But the way I understand it, your zone of genius is something singular, unique to you not simply something you do better than most people.

As wonderful as it is, the problem with this whole Zone of Genius concept is that it's not easy to look objectively at yourself and immediately perceive it.

You need someone to recognize it within you.

And if that hasn't happened yet, you may think you're not enough or that there is nothing special about you, no unique gifts that you bring.

It's not true. You know that in your heart.

Part of my Zone of Genius is hearing other people's Zone of Genius. And I realized that it's one of the best ways to uncover clues about a smart niche for my clients.

One of my clients said I have a super power for helping coaches niche. I loved that and own that, but I think that is an outcome of my zone of genius, not the definition of it.

I don't know if I would have realized it if I hadn't been working with coaches to help them choose a smart niche.

But ... now that I think of it ... in all my jobs co-workers gravitated to me. They would tell me their dreams and share what they wanted. Sometimes, it was difficult to get my work done.

Now, when I work with coaches I ask a lot questions to help them discover their coaching niche. There is an array of information within them that gives us clues.

When they start talking about peak conversations they've had with people - friends, family, clients sometimes something within them kicks into a more effortless gear ... I feel that vibrational shift in my body and their words float up into the air like a hologram.

And that's when I know they've hit their genius zone. 

Their voice gets more resonant. Words flow from them that ...
Find more about how to find your Zone of Genius here.)

Okay, so this may sound corny. And I'm not trying to put you in one of those competitive reality shows. But there truly is a success factor that can be applied to anything in life that YOU want to win at.

And when I say win, I mean achievement that comes from passion and commitment, not purely for the sake of fierce competitiveness.

Whether you want to succeed at love, sports, or reaching your full potential, you need this factor.

Olympians have it in spades. And it's a huge part of the entrepreneurial spirit.

If you want to win at your coaching business, you especially need this thing going for you. 

Why especially? Because growing a successful coaching business is a significant effort and accomplishment. The good of that achievement ripples out into a larger community and positively affects lives.  

I think that small business is the territory for heroes. And it's an apt place to grow your full potential. 

It's incredibly rewarding to succeed at business and it will bust your ass on the way there. 

And, you'll be all the better for it. 

A Powerful Force
Have you guessed the success factor I'm talking about?

DRIVE is the success factor. 

It's that awesome force that carries you forward on your journey. It buoys you up during challenges. It gives you the energy to leap and leap and leap.

Trying to build a business without drive is like pushing on the gas with the emergency break on. You're not going to move much and you might damage something.

Having drive comes down to this ... how badly you want to be successful at your goal. 

Do you want it enough to make it happen, to allow yourself to grow into the person who achieves that goal? 

Take a moment now. Ask yourself ... do I have enough drive to succeed at my coaching business?

I can easily say 'yes' about myself. And that's why I've made it for 20 years despite slipping into all the typical pitfalls.

There's nothing special about me, that you don't have within you too.

But still not everyone will succeed in their coaching business. 

If fact, less than 1 in 5 will make it year after year. If those numbers intimidate you, I get it. But if that is enough to stop you, then you don't want this particular goal -- of being successful at your coaching business -- enough.

Foundation + Drive = Success
When I work with coaches, we do all the foundational things to set them up for success including their landing a smart niche that connects to their zone of genius, creating effective messaging that will grab their audience's attention and also creating offers their audience will buy.

We create systems that help them build relationships of trust and enroll ideal clients with ease into programs that pay the coaches well.

Some coaches take that foundation and reach success. THEY make it happen. 

Sure, it takes consistent action and an experimental mindset.

And they don't let mistakes or failures stop them. I heard this said recently: 

Failure is not the opposite of success, it's an integral part of it.

So, you need enough drive to carry you over those roadblocks or pull yourself up out of a pitfall -- experiences all business owners face often.

And, having drive doesn't mean you're a maverick or that you don't need anyone else to succeed. Far from it. 

Part of the drive is creating support systems for yourself as you need them -- a peer group, your own business mentor coach, training.

Support is essential.

4 Possible Reasons You Haven't Found Coaching Success ... Yet
(Find the 4 reasons here.)

This episode is the second ON AIR COACHING session where you can listen in while I work with a coach to narrow her target audience and uncover clues about her coaching niche.

Cynthia Brown recently graduated from Coach Training Alliance where she met one of my clients, Audra, who referred her to me. That and my podcast encouraged Cynthia to apply for On Air Coaching with me.

Let me introduce Cynthia Brown ...

Cynthia is the founder of New Lane Coaching. One of her main concerns is that women business owners often sell themselves short. She wants women to know that their small businesses can become more than they originally dreamed. All it takes is one small step each day.

Cynthia is currently involved in Toastmasters International to learn to speak at women business own associations. She's a certified coach and member of the International Coach Federation.

While Cynthia has initially targeted a broad audience — women small business owners, she wasn't certain about it, partially because she had another audience that was tugging on her heart strings:

high school students to help them transition to college or a career

When she thinks about that audience she feels sheer excitement!

But she had big doubts about this choice for a coaching niche.

We took some time to investigate whether that audience would be viable. In other words, would it pay off in income and clients.

We ultimately agreed that audience wouldn't sustain her financially.

Parents might invest in her help if her goal was to help those students get into a good college or university. But they might not be as excited about investing much to have Cynthia help their kids choose a vocation.

In our conversation, Cynthia became certain that it was best to only serve the audience of high school kids as a "side gig" where she'll offer support for lower fees as she has time and inclination.

Cynthia wants to have a thriving business and not be held up by struggling to convince parents.

We talked about the old "follow your passion" adage and how important it is to look for an audience and niche that both feels joyful and will pay off.

Sometimes that means going with your second choice unless earning a living isn't important to you.

Next, I prompted Cynthia to share a personal story about a previous employee she helped to formulate his career path. Years later he wrote her a thank you note for how her support influenced him.

It was a peak experience for Cynthia that touched her deeply. And I wanted to earmark that story as a potential clue for her niche.

Then, we shifted to talking about the broad audience that she'd set for herself in New Lane Coaching, working with women small business owners.

Cynthia felt it was too broad. And so did I.

First, we looked at whether it was important to her to limit to women.

Cynthia decided that, no, it's not..

Many coaches are inclined to specify women as a way to narrow their niche. That's a good idea if it really matters to you, the coach.

If you feel more of a solid affinity with one gender or another, go ahead and narrow that way. That alone won't help you stand out though.

But there are other ways to narrow an audience that will help you more than simply narrowing by gender.

And narrowing is a good idea if you're ...

(Find more Show Notes here.)

This episode is a creative exploration of how personality can affect your choice of coaching niche. It's part of Season 2 - Smart and Profitable Coaching Niches.

When I work with coaches to help them determine their niche, I ask a lot of questions to uncover clues that, when strung together, point us to natural possibilities for them.

I've been playing with this idea for years — that coaches often have a natural inclination that influences how they will build and grow their business. And that can influence what type of audience and niche will fit them best.

This is not usually a conscious choice, but rather a subconscious leaning. I've decided to call these archetypes.

I'll explain those 5 major archetypes and how they emerge to influence the direction of a coaching business. 

They are:

• Teacher
• Healer
• Pure Coach
• Icon
• CEO

One of them might be a clue for you. 

A few caveats here ... 

• Not every coach will have one clear archetype. 
• You might not relate to any of these archetypes. After all, they come out of my experience only.
• And for some people this archetype isn't yet awakened until they launch their business and something blooms within them.

I'll use myself as an example.

I had no idea when I decided to become a coach that 3 years later I'd be developing my own curriculum and teaching others how to coach. I didn't know that I'd launch a new and specific business 12 years ago to help coaches choose a smart niche and launch with confidence. 

I didn't intend any of that.

Meet the TEACHER ARCHETYPE

If you fit the Teacher Archetype then you have a strong leaning towards teaching. 

And it's born out of your own ideas, not someone else's.

That's a key distinction.

It might happen like this ...

You struggle mightily with something — in my case it was trying to figure out what my own coaching niche is — and your sense of determination kicks in full force. 

You decide that you're going to study this problem from all sides.

It becomes a bit of an obsession.  

You fall on your face a few times but it doesn't matter because you're like a dog after a bone. You're going to figure this out.

And this DRIVE TO SOLVE is a big part of the teacher archetype.

At first, you're not thinking about helping others with this problem. You simply want to solve it for yourself.

But at some point, when your ideas start to have a positive affect on you ... you realize that you're not the only one with this very difficult challenge.

And you begin to look at things from a meta-level. While transforming yourself you're also continuing to study the problem and develop a system or a model.

And maybe, unbeknownst to you, you have a gift for breaking complex things down into steps. And so you write them down.

It's often the way you respond to challenges.

Over time you perfect the system. And then you realize this could help others. So you create a program, you write the workbook, you put it online or gather together people who have the same problem as you. You walk them through the actions that will solve their problem.

That's the teacher archetype.

1. It starts with a personal journey of transformation around a key problem.

2. From sheer grit and your own experiential study, YOU create the solution.

3. Then you offer it to others.

Often, but not always, the services you offer will be ...

Read more about the Archetypes here.

This Prosperous Coach Podcast episode is a departure from the usual format because this episode is the first ON AIR COACHING episode where you get to listen in on a real strategy session with me and a coach who is ready to choose a smart niche.

First, let me introduce you to Marshall Stern ... then we'll get into the session.

Over the past 35 years Marshall has started & led several businesses. In 2009 he published a book Now is The Time... The Stern Truth on Growing a Business in Any Economy.  

In 2011, he partnered with Leadership Expert, John Maxwell, and became one of his certified Leadership Coaches & Speakers.

Currently CEO of Sandbox Signs + Graphics and also Business & Life Mastery, Marshall believes that self-leadership is the key to business & life success. Over the years he has seen many businesses fail and he is passionate and committed to helping others not just build a business that works but also a life they desire and deserve. 

Marshall became inspired to coach partially through a John Maxwell leadership training. 

With 25 impressive years running his own sign and graphics company, Marshall knew he wanted to work with business owners.

Up until now, Marshall has been on the journey of letting his more specific niche find him. The uncertainty has been confusing.

He heard my podcasts, applied for On Air Coaching and was accepted.

This session covered a lot of points that are valid to all coaches:

• The downside of a broad or ambiguous audience is that the Universe is also ambiguous with your results. When you put your certainty, commitment  and persistant action behind all you do, then everything you do has a greater impact.
• Not all potential audiences are seekers -- people who readily invest in their own personal and professional growth. See Episode #12 - Why Do Some Coaching Niches Fail? for a definition of seekers.
• There are several ways to narrow an audience so you have more leverage building your business.
• Language has the power to attract or detract. It's important to use the language that resonates with your audience.
• Clicking on the certainty button for one specific audience helps you leverage the power of language to attract ideal clients to your Discovery Sessions.
• What you learn in a training program may not be fully applicable until you are crystal clear about who you serve and exactly what they want.
• Let your integrity tell you whether something is right for you.
• If you have several good choices for your target audience, know that there is NO WRONG CHOICE. What draws you the most?
• If you target a narrow audience, don't worry, you can absolutely work with people who are outside that audience.
• Choosing a specific audience is about marketing power and ease in enrolling, not about excluding anyone.

Marshall knew that he wanted to work with business owners / entrepreneurs and along the way he's worked with financial professionals, business owners of all sorts and also with mompreneurs. 

He resonated with the moms who were also solopreneurs and they resonated with him, especially around his leadership philosophy.

But, Marshall was hesitant to pick one clear direction even though he felt it would help him in several ways to choose.

He was considering:

• Mompreneurs. But he had concerns that, as a man, he couldn't compete with the women coaches whose messages were about women's empowerment. (At the same time he thought that letting that hold him back was hogwash.)
• Parents who are also business owners ... 

(Find more of the transcript here.)

It's heartbreaking but some niches never pay off. They just don't ever get off the ground really.

And it's confusing because they are often about topics everyone cares about or targeting audiences that NEED so much help.

But that's part of the problem.

When people buy support to get what they need they'll most often turn to free resources or to known resources like therapists or doctors.

It's WANTS that inspire investment in programs that lead to personal transformation and most other expensive services and products.

WANTS drive investment in things and experiences, not needs.

Seekers and Non-Seekers

Seekers are what I call the type of people who invest time and money from their own pocket into their personal and professional growth.

Coaches are seekers.

Seekers:

• Are driven by their desire to make a meaningful contribution to the world.
• Have social personalities (even if they are introverted) and enjoy influencing others.
• Are always actively working on themselves and their top goals.
• Want to become masters at what they do.
• Buy and read self help or educational books.
• Will go to an experiential weekend retreat and invest a bundle in it.
• Pay for vocational training, like coach training, so they can do something they really want to do.

Not all people are attracted to those things. Sometimes it's circumstantial. Sometimes it's behavioral.

3 Types of Non-Seekers

1. People who were taught to be fiercely self-reliant.

2. People who invest most of their time and money on things they value more than their own personal growth.

3. People who don't value themselves highly right now for whatever reason.

So you can see it's important to consider whether your target audience is full of seekers or not.

Popular But Usually Profitless Coaching Niches

I'm about to list some audiences who are not generally seekers, which means they are less likely to invest in hiring you to help them overcome problems and reach goals.

Full time stay at home moms

They invest time and money in their kids. Yes, they'll love your free stuff and Facebook groups but they won't consistently or significantly invest in support to be a better mom, live a more balanced life, or to thrive in motherhood.

A client once came to me who had put 5 years into building a coaching business focused on moms. She is a highly intelligent go-getter who diligently tried every marketing approach. She had great programs, products, freebies, an effective website. She had a big list of moms but few bought anything she sold and usually only something very low cost. It was heartbreaking for her. She had to abandon it.

Another client decide to work with mom entrepreneurs. That was different because the focus was helping them to build their business and still have energy for family. The goal to build a business shifted their behavior from the non-seeker to seekers.

Empty nesters

These people do have real challenges but the state of being an empty nester won't inspire them to invest in programs to get through that experience unless they already know they want to fill their time with a business venture. Again the shift from empty-nester to business owner changes the buying behavior.

Divorcees

There is no doubt these people could use some help. I've seen many coaches try this audience and not make a good living at it. The only exception was a lawyer who became a coach. She had ready access to newly divorced individuals through her colleagues and past clients who valued her.

... to see more profitless coaching niches

Do you have to choose a coaching niche? No.

Some say let your niche find you.

You can just float around, stay a generalist, coach all sorts of people about all sorts of topics. 

I think that's a good way to go if you haven't consciously chosen to become an entrepreneur. You haven't yet stepped in the CEO role of your own business.

You're just trying this coaching skill set on. You don't expect to earn much. You just love the process.

But if you want to leave your current job or current situation and make coaching your career ... if you're serious about being your own boss and being the director of your career why not give yourself all the advantages and take the time to niche your coaching business in a smart and profitable way?

It's a strategic approach, and an internal shift as well, away from thinking like practitioner to becoming an entrepreneur. Treating your business as a living entity that grows and changes with you over time.

I'm about to illustrate the advantages that come with focusing your business on a unique audience and niche. And notice how one advantage leads to another.

One smart decision makes everything easier and empowers you for long term success and exciting turning points in your business and life that you can't even imagine yet.

First a quick suggestion ... if you are agonizing over your coaching niche let's have a STRATEGY SESSION.

It's okay if you haven't done anything yet to build your business.

It's equally okay if you've tried one or more niches and, for whatever reason, it's not working for you.

In our session I'll ask you questions to uncover possibilities. We'll identify a fantastic target audience for you, and brainstorm what they most want and how to apply your gifts and skills to help them get it.

Knowing you audience and niche will give you a profound sense of direction and focus for you coaching business. 

I'd love to work with you. 

So now for those advantages to targeting a specific and narrow audience and designing a smart and profitable niche around that group ...

#1 You Have a Solid Direction and Focus

I remember when I started coaching without a niche how aimless and lost I felt. Every day was a head scratch. My brain searching around for purchase. What should I do?

First, I went to friends and family to convince them to hire me -- the low hanging fruit. But those clients didn't stay long. And I didn't have the heart to charge them much.

I also noticed how hard it was to get them to focus. They brought weak agendas. There wasn't a clear enough goal or a big enough why. It was as if my lack of focus didn't inspire them to commit to serious process or changes.

I came away with some fluffy testimonials about the value of my coaching but little sense of true impact.

After exhausting people I knew, I palpably experienced that uncomfortable sensation of having to beat the bushes to flush out potential clients.

My marketing was pitiful but I worked so hard trying to interest people in coaching.

Having a solid niche replaced that aimless, listless feeling with certainty and focus.

#2 Your Message Stands Out and Grabs Attention

It's not easy to get attention ... (find more Show Notes here.)

With today's episode we're heading into a new series — Smart and Profitable Coaching Niches.

I know you might be groaning about this topic because the whole niche thing feels so hard.

But this is my super power ya'll.

Helping coaches design a smart and profitable coaching niche is the first thing I help my clients do.

Because ... building a coaching business without a smart niche is like building a new house without a foundation.

Think about it. If the foundation is good, the house is solid and secure. It won't fall down. 

If the foundation is crap, the house feels flimsy.

If you've been feeling like your business is a bit flimsy and you don't know exactly what to do every day to attract clients that pay you well ... it's worth your time to get this centerpiece of your business right.

And I'm sorry to say that a majority of coaches that I meet have glossed over their niche or haven't decided Instead they put up a website selling a certain type of coaching or all types of coaching and it doesn't work.

If you haven't listened to my last episode called — Why Coaching is a Hard Sell — check it out. It explains why selling a certain type of coaching is hard -- too hard to enjoy and earn well. It's a great primer for everything I'm going to talk about from here on. Go to prosperouscoach.com/7 to find that episode.

Most coaches only consider what they want to coach about. And it leaves out the most essential thing — who you serve and what they want so much they'd be willing to invest money to get it.

Over the next several episodes I will reveal my process for helping coaches choose their niche.

First a quick announcement ... I'm now offering Strategy Sessions. 

The way Strategy Sessions work is you and I have a private business coaching session that's recorded and later that session is aired as an episode in this podcast series.

A Strategy Session is perfect for you if you are a trained coach who hasn't yet landed your own profitable coaching niche. 

It's okay if you haven't done anything yet to build your business.

It's equally okay if you've tried one or more niches and, for whatever reason, it's not working for you.

In our session I'll ask you questions to uncover possibilities. We'll identify a fantastic target audience for you, and brainstorm what they most want and how to apply your gifts and skills to help them get it.

Knowing you audience and niche will give you a profound sense of direction and focus for you coaching business. 

I'd love to work with you. 

Okay let's dig into this niche thing!

Most Coaches Only Choose a Track

First, let's define it because in my nearly 2 decades of studying coaching niches there are some big gaps between what some call a coaching niche and what I'd call a coaching niche.

Some people say that a coaching niche is the area you focus on, for example:

·      Health and Wellness

·      Relationship

·      Career

·      Business and entrepreneurship

·      Executive and Corporate Leadership

·      Spirituality

See, to me, these are not quite niches. 

I would call these coaching tracks instead. You might have taken coach training in one of these areas ...

This episode might blow your mind. But I hope it OPENS your mind.

You've probably suspected the truth of this already. It's been nagging at you but you haven't known what to do about it.

Coaching is a hard sell.

You don't want to have to sell at all, but you definitely don't want to do a hard sell on people!

And, I hear you thinking ...

"What the fork, Rhonda!

I'm a coach and you're telling me

it's not a good idea to sell coaching?

What else am I supposed to do?"

Bear with me, because there is an important mindset shift wanting to happen here.

Yes, it is a super valuable skill. It absolutely does help people transform. And we — you and I — are completely sold on the idea of it.

But most people are not.

To help you understand the disconnect between what we know and what our prospects don't know, I'll share what I call my origin story. 

See if you recognize you're own origin story in any of this.

I remember when the idea of coaching sparked in my mind and started burning like wildfire.

I was a Marketing Director of a small corporation. From the outside, it seemed like a perfect job. Great salary, good benefits, weekends off. My boss was the President and an engaging leader. I had authority and a lot of freedom.

Still, each day I came home from work feeling soul-less.

I felt sick on Sundays and dreaded the coming week. When I got home from conferences, I'd cry in the airport parking lot. I was so spent.

I decided I had to break free and deep down I knew that just getting another job wasn't going to do it for me.

I summoned the courage to go my boss and I told her I'd be gone in 6 months and that, in the meantime, I'd like to shift from employee to consultant, train my replacement and work from home 4 days a week.

To my surprise, she agreed to everything I asked. I think she valued me but knew somehow that I was a short termer.

I had more bandwidth then to consider what my next steps were.

During coffee with friends I asked what they thought my strengths were and we brainstormed entrepreneurial possibilities.

One friend said: "You'd be a good coach, Rhonda."

A tingle zipped up my spine and in days I was immersed into a year long training program.

My life flipped over in the most exciting way.

I became coaching's best advocate. I became obsessed. 

So you can imagine how confused I was when I talked to people about it their eyes would glaze over and they'd slip away from the conversation.

In a not very subtle way I was trying to convert them. To convince them that coaching was wonderful and that they wanted it.

In reality the only people who really wanted to hear about it were people who were thinking of becoming one themselves.

I'd argue that it is an even harder sell now because there is exponentially more marketing for services out there than there ever was.

And people don't pay attention unless messaging hits every hot spot for them.

I wrote about topics like limiting beliefs and how to find confidence. There are sooo many articles out there on those topics so it wasn't surprising those topics didn't get read. I gave talks on similar topics at Chamber meetings and in libraries.

What happened?

Crickets.

Much later, when a few clients did enroll ... (find more Show Notes here.)

This episode covers 4 big mistakes I made during the start up of my coaching business. Maybe you can relate.

Yes, I made all of these mistakes and more and I lived to tell the tale.

But I've experienced multiple magical turning points in my business as well. Wonderful things I never could have imagined came my way because I did not let my mistakes stop me.

And that's the key, right?

My guess is that, as I talk about these pitfalls, you'll recognize yourself in some but also realize that you're much more savvy than I was at startup. Coaches seem to get smarter every year.

Mistakes are still the best way to learn. It's a time honored tradition. And growing a coaching business, like any business, is a total experiment. It's a long term gamble.

When I was able to see my business in that light it became easier to power through mistakes by making small adjustments instead of over reacting.

If you can teach yourself to think like a scientist or an innovator and play the long game, you'll be golden. That gumption and grit will pay you back many fold.

Okay ... enough preamble ... now to dish the dirt. 

Mistake #1 — Holding High Expectations

There are schools of thought about expectations.

Me? I'm with Shakespeare who purportedly said: "Expectation is the root of all heartache."

That's wisdom similar to the Buddhist belief that craving is what causes suffering. Sounds right to me.

See, I expected:

• to replace my income before I quit my job.
• to immediately get dozens of referrals from friends and family.
• for everyone to get the value of coaching with a single free session.

The weight of those expectations and others crushed me. Because when things didn't work exactly as I'd hoped, disappointment set in. I was certain that it meant I wasn't good enough.

It didn't mean that. It never means that. It only meant that the experiment was still alive. And, I needed to chill out emotionally while still taking action on behalf of my business.

Then, I realized pretty quickly that exchanging high expectations for low expectations was just another type of self sabotage. It's totally de-motivating.

So it's best to check expectations entirely. The winning attitude turns out to be another buddhist principle. Live in the present moment. Let love drive you in your business and show up as a professional. More about that in a minute ...

I know now that for my first 2 years of coaching, I had been holding my breath until I arrived at an imagined destination.

Where did my high expectations come from? Well some was arrogance. Some was ignorance. And the rest was because ... 

Mistake #2 — I Drank the KoolAid

At the time, when I launched my coaching business there was a lot of hyperbolic messaging about coaches earning high 6 or 7 figures coming from rock star coaches.

As if that was the norm.

I'm glad to see that rhetoric has toned down. And several people who are earning high revenues these days are more transparent about the significant investment of time, sweat and seed money it takes to get there.

I was just listening to Natalie Eckdahl of Biz Chix, one of my favorite podcasts. She generously admitted that her first whole year of business, she had zero profit.

Four years later though, she is one of those phenoms. And I can tell she works very hard for it.

I appreciate her transparency so I'm going to pass that forward now.

My first year in my coaching business I grossed a whopping $10,000. Not enough to pay for my coach training, equipment and mentoring.

My second year I grossed $ ... (find more Show Notes here.)