Is Fear Driving Your Choices?

The other day I had a revealing conversation with a fellow coach, Clara (not her real name), about how she is marketing her coaching practice and enrolling clients. Clara, like so many coaches, is struggling to grow her practice and feeling a bit desperate about how to make it happen.

Our talk highlighted an unfortunate reality of our coaching industry: there are many people out there who will take advantage of that desperation by manipulating coaches into purchasing “marketing your coaching practice” programs which promise to pave the way to abundance and prosperity. 

Soulful, Account-full Marketing

Of course we all want to build a coaching practice that both fulfills the soul and the bank account, but let’s be honest, it’s not easy. It’s hard work. And the size of the challenge, and the pain that we feel when it doesn’t come together expeditiously makes us vulnerable to those who offer a fast track.

Clara was on the verge of spending a considerable sum of money (that she had borrowed) for a program that promised to take her coaching business into a whole new stratosphere. She had been drawn in out of a quiet, desperate need to make her practice viable so that, in part, she could justify to those around her the time and expense of becoming a coach. “Everyone is questioning me, why I gave up a good paying, secure job to become a coach. If I can make this happen I can show them the value and they will get off my back.”

Sound familiar? 

Are You Being Manipulated?

Many of those who claim to know the way to coaching prosperity understand the pain coaches feel, and play on it to build their own business prosperity. 

I received an email the other week from a business building mentor coach who proudly shared that she had made $100,000 in addition revenue in just 87 days. Numbers like this trigger the pain point in coaches who are struggling to find clients or generate revenue, and they trigger the desire impulse, that part of us that gets excited at the thought of having that kind of income for ourselves. Regardless of whether those numbers are true, showering one’s monetary success in front of those who desire it is a subtle kind of manipulation. 

It Costs Less Than You Think

To be clear, I am not implying that a coach should not learn marketing or sales skills. All coaches benefit when they have a grasp over a process that is integral to business building. However, I am saying it is not necessary to drop large sums of money on “marketing your coaching practice” programs that promise to teach you how to make large sums of money.

The first reason is because more often than not, you will not learn much more than you could have learned for free or much less (the cost of a book) elsewhere.

The second reason is that you have to recognize that learning practical enrollment skills is different from signing up for a “prosperous coach” program in an attempt to alleviate the worry and concern you are feeling. Whenever you act out of pain or fear you will make decisions that are not optimal for you (or your bank account). 

During my talk with Clara I shared with her that I had built a viable coaching practice by bootstrapping: using existing and freely available resources. Did I have to learn about marketing and sales? Absolutely. Did I follow all that I was told I “should be” doing to be successful? Not at all – I honestly rejected the vast majority of what I was told I should do. There is so much contextually irrelevant information (meaning it didn’t fit my situation) that many strategies can safely be rejected.

Doing What Is Good and Right for You

Clara was very happy to hear this because she had fallen into the trap that many coaching business marketers set: if you don’t adhere to a system (preferably theirs) then you risk not be successful (which triggers fear). I bootstrapped and cherry picked my way into success, taking from the learning net I cast only those ideas and actions which were truly right and contextually relevant for me, and rejected anything that smelled even vaguely off or manipulative.

And you can too! 

But it requires the awareness to notice how your thoughts and emotions are being manipulated, and the confidence to know that you are capable of building a coaching practice through intelligent effort and the wisdom of your own inner guidance.

Would you like some support with something? Great, go get that support. Do you have an area that needs strengthening in your enrollment process? Great, go find a way to strengthen that. Learn what you need to learn, but always come from a place of strength in yourself, and that way you will not succumb to those who desire to build their wealth or fame on the back of your pain.