In my last article, More Secrets Coaching Schools Don’t Teach, I stated that credentialing will not make you instantly profitable.
Here’s why:
When you stepped on to this path called “coaching,” you upped the ante in your personal growth.
It is as if your Soul said, “Oh, really? Coaching? Ahh, yes. I see here in your Contract, you agreed to the Awareness Fast Track. Ver-r-r-ry good! By the way, you’re going to want to fasten your seat belt now; the ride can get bumpy.”
True story. Been there. Lived that. And observed it in most coaches I’ve known.
This pattern is so widespread, I feel as if coaching schools could issue a warning to new enrollees: Caution. You are entering a Life Reconstruction Zone. Proceed at your own risk.
You see, you can not invite others to know themselves more deeply without doing the same for yourself. You can’t be a catalyst for someone else’s growth without having that same catalyst energy impact you.
If you have any old stories, beliefs, filters, wounds, emotional boo-boos and unresolved owies (and who doesn’t?), they will very likely get activated and brought up to the level of conscious awareness as a normal part of your journey as a coach.
But along the way, until they surface, you may be dealing with the symptoms without understanding why. These can include:
- Not attracting or retaining clients.
- Not feeling comfortable with a viable coaching fee.
- Avoiding or sabotaging your marketing activities.
- Worrying about “getting it right” in your coaching.
- Equating over-preparation for client sessions with delivering value.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
I realize you may have been “working on yourself” for a number of years by the time you step onto the coaching path. So it can be doubly frustrating to find, that after all the work you’ve already done, you’re still dealing with these challenges.
In almost twenty years in this profession, I’ve seen countless coaches become discouraged and disheartened, and leave coaching. And I’ve seen how devastating this can be to your self trust when what you doubt your choice to follow your heart’s call to this profession.
Can you see now why credentials alone do not “get you there?” If something within is calling for your attention in new ways, then getting letters after your name can become just another Band-aide™.
I believe strongly that a big part of What Is Missing For Coaches, the piece that keeps so many from being profitable, has to do with intimacy – a new understanding of intimacy based in your relationship with yourself AND all of your internal schtuff.
Your coaching success AND the value you bring to your clients begins with your relationship with yourself.
Do yourself and your clients a huge favor:
Find a coaching approach that helps you update how you are present with what is so for you, including those often pesky symptoms of growth that show up when your pot gets stirred.
One option: You could start your own new 12-step group: Pot Stirrers Anonymous. Or you could join my Coaching With Love program.
