There’s a little book about finance, called Fail-Safe Investing, by Harry Brown. It was written 20 years ago.
It’s a good primer on investing that tells you clearly what few books on money dare to say… You won’t get rich investing.
This is very relevant for our world of coaching.
Browne says,
“Think about your own occupation… Could someone without your training, your skills, your experience, and your talent outperform you at your job?
Of course not.
And yet too-good-to-be-true advertisements invite you—an amateur with no particular education, training, or experience in speculation—to compete, in your spare time, with professionals who have devoted their entire careers to investing, and who continue to eat, breathe, and sleep investing every day.”
That’s true for investing. And it’s true for success in any field.
If you want to be a great coach, put your time in.
If you want to be a great coach, do the work.
There are no shortcuts…
There are no shortcuts
I love tech. For over 20 years, I’ve purchased fitness gadgets for myself.
Wearable heart rate monitors, pedometers, the original Fitbit that clipped to my waist, several Fitbit upgrades, at least two Apple Watches, the Oura ring and dozens of fitness apps.
They’re fun. They’ll engage your mind. But they won’t do the work for you.
In fact, I’ve recently made myself a rule: no more fitness gadgets.
If I want to get fit, I need to do two things—eat healthily and work out.
That’s it.
No apps. No fitness trackers. No gadgets.
Just do the damn work.
If you want to be a great coach, then coach.
I see coaches spending hours creating their websites and their podcasts and their Instagram memes and their Facebook posts and their TEDx talks and their Clubhouse sessions. I see coaches devouring the latest books on personal growth and sharing quotes from their favorite authors.
But if you want to get good at coaching, there’s only one thing you need to do.
Coach, coach, coachity coach.
Stop doing all the things you think will be helpful and just do the one thing you want to be doing.
Want to be a great coach?
Then coach your ass off.
You can spend years in training and learning from “experts.” But you’ll figure it out faster if you just start doing it.
- “I want more clients but I don’t have a niche…” Coach anyone and everyone. You’ll work out who your dream clients are, later.
- “I want to be a better writer but I don’t know what to write about…” Start writing about your dreams, your doubts, your fears and your struggles. You’re an expert on them, right? You’ll figure out what you’re good at writing about, later.
- “I want to be a better storyteller but I don’t have any stories to tell…” Read other people’s stories and fables and Zen stories. Start by telling them to your clients. Collect stories by reflecting on your own day, each evening. You’ll have your own stories to tell sooner than you think.
- “I want to charge more but I don’t know who would pay me…” Raise your prices now. You’ll find out. You can always get creative if someone really can’t afford it.
- “I’ve coached 50 people but I don’t have any clients…” Coach 500 people and then we’ll talk. You need to be in this for the long haul.
If you want to get good at something, start doing it.
Do the work.
Love. Rich