Tag Archive for: mindset coach

How to Make Money as a Coach

I’ve lost count of the number of emails I receive each day asking how to make money as a coach.

The answer is surprisingly simple.

If you want to make money as a coach…

How about you don’t suck?

How about you stop worrying about how to make money and start focusing on how to be fucking good at what you do?

  • Share something people give a shit about.
  • Change lives with your wisdom.
  • Help people.
  • Share the thing that sets you on fire. Because your people will feel the burn, too.
  • Be a better entrepreneur and coach by showing your passion.

Forget about finding the package or offer that will magically sell millions. If you don’t believe in it, if you don’t like it, no one else will either.

If you’re helping people with the stuff that used to wake you up at night, leave you sweaty and short of breath, the power of what you learned will come through. The same thing happens when you sell what you hate. People see it.

And if you don’t believe in what you’re selling, why would anyone else?

Which brings me to my second point.

Be yourself.

You might be able to hide how you feel for a little while. You may even be able to act like someone else for a short time. But people can tell when you’re not genuine. And it never lasts.

One of the easiest ways to be successful is to be YOU.

Don’t waste your time and energy faking it. And it takes an enormous amount of energy to pretend to be someone you’re not. Plus, it’s a disservice to your people. It prevents you from showing you know you’re stuff.

No one can be the coach you are.

So don’t be stingy. Show us who you are and what you have to say, as only you can.

Be brave.

Accept that everyone WON’T love you. And know that’s perfectly okay.

Be true to yourself, to your voice, and you will succeed.

Hiding facts, altering the way you might normally say something, leaving out details of who you are because you find them embarrassing – all of that cheats people from connecting with you in a powerful way. And they know when you’re holding back. (Just like you’re mom knew when you were lying.)

Example: Plenty of people get upset about my swearing, especially my mother. For a while, I tried to clean up my language. I really did.

The whole time, I felt stifled and suffocated. More importantly, my work noticeably suffered.

I tried to change an aspect of who I am – my potty mouth – so my work would be more palatable to more people.

What I learned instead was editing a part of my voice meant altering all of it.

Changing one aspect of how I showed up slowly permeated the rest of my voice. I became neutral, gray, fucking boring. Not me.

You want money for your work? Earn it.

Being successful in this business is not easy. It’s scary as fuck to put yourself on display, present your innermost thoughts with conviction and let go of what everyone else thinks.

But it’s the only way to do it.

Screwing up makes you better

You can think about something for days on end. That new idea can be mulled over, viewed from different angles and perspectives ad infinitum.

None of that will help you do it better.

Whether it’s showing up online, creating a new offering, coaching for the first time or tying your damn shoes, we must do the thing – experience it – in order to improve.

Many women entrepreneurs think and think and think. Mistakenly believing it will help them execute. It’s safe (free of judgement of others) in your head. You can practice endlessly, spin your thoughts, and no one is the wiser.

The problem? Science has actually proven that it’s not until you have the guts to try something and practice over and over that you actually improve.

Doing the thing, making a mess, screwing up royally? That’s where the power is.

Ergo, your willingness to fuck up makes you better.

Your willingness to be brave? Catapults you.

When I started writing, I was in high school, about 15 years old. And I sucked. Sure, I had moments of genius, fragments to hang achievements on. But they were nothing, comparatively speaking, to what I produced as a reporter and copy writer.

When I began my career as a journalist and editor? I was okay. Better than in high school, but not the writer I am now. And every day that I continue to write, experiment, play with words, make a mess, also makes me better.

My willingness to fail has been my road to success.

When you care more about improving yourself than what other people might think, you will succeed. It’s inevitable.

When you do it, instead of thinking about it, you exponentially speed up your learning curve and put yourself on the path to achievement.

In The Talent Code, author Daniel Coyle talks to the chair of psychology at UCLA about this very thing. Robert Bjork says one real attempt at doing something – allowing yourself to try and fail – is more useful than several hundred observations.

“We think of effortless performance as desirable, but it’s really a terrible way to learn,” he said. “Things that appear to be obstacles turn out to be desirable in the long haul.”

Perfection is for losers.

I talk a lot about fear and how it keeps us small.

After all, if you don’t try, you won’t fail and no one will judge you for your mistakes.

It also means you stay where you are. And if that’s not where you want to be, the answer is doing something else.

I believe if we don’t have what we want, we’re holding it away from ourselves. More often than not, it’s because our subconscious is protecting us. Sounds crazy, right? Our brain battling us when it comes to our goals and dreams?

But think about it.

You want money and don’t have it. You run an online business but don’t show up to let people know you have offerings to sell. The two are clearly connected. (Ninety-nine percent of the women I work with do this.)

Ask yourself what you’re afraid of. Why is showing up online so scary? People might judge you, not agree or like what you have to say, ridicule you, complain that you post too much, and on and on.

So what?

Maybe they will and maybe they won’t.

The point is thinking about showing up online won’t make you better at posting or more comfortable with it. But doing it will.

Be willing to stop, stumble and figure it out. A microsecond of struggle makes a lifetime of difference.

In The Talent Code, Coyle calls it practicing deeper.

I call it fucking up to make money.

Your mistakes make you smarter.

So what are you thinking about (instead of doing) right now?

What can you screw up today to further your goals?

My challenge to you is to go make a mess in the name of progress.

Forget everyone and everything else. Create single-minded focus on your goal and then DO SOMETHING to get it.

• • •

If you’re shy about charging money. If you’re reluctant to raise your rates. If you’re questioning your self-worth and the value you bring to the table. If you have no idea where to even begin with your pricing…

I can help. Just reach out.