choice - the magazine of professional coaching


Part 1 of a four part series by Janet M. Harvey, PCC and Jan Berg, PCC of inviteCHANGE

Sponsored by:

 

SUSTAIN A PROFITABLE BUSINESS:
TURN DREAD AND STRUGGLE INTO EASE AND JOY


PART ONE: Building Our Business, The Great Dilemma

Whether you're a new coach or an experienced coach, we understand the importance of dedicating time to build your business. What happens to you when you hear those words? Most of us hear the siren call to marketing and sales . . . and many of us pull off the path and stop right there as soon as we hear the siren. We've all been there.

We all have a story we tell ourselves based on our personal history and experience with "marketing" and "sales." Some of us say, "Yippee! Here's a chance to show people the unique me that will offer the unique them exactly what they've been looking for". The rest of us have some reluctance, ranging from "I don't know what to do" to "I'm not ready" to "I couldn't possibly". Been there, done that?

What's really going on? Are we feeling exposed and vulnerable because we're "supposed" to present ourselves in a certain way and we don't know the rules?

Have we heard all the rules and we're paralyzed by what's expected? Do we not know who to ask for help? Do we even know the help to ask for? Are we challenged by how much help might cost us financially?

Are we resistant to the commitment we might create through our language and materials and what we might have to live up to once it's out there? Are we afraid of promising what we might not be able to deliver? Are we afraid we're not really as good as we want to be? Are we worried that coaching might not be as good as we represent it to be? Are we embarrassed by the notion of "selling ourselves?"

What assumptions are we making about what our prospective clients want? Are we wondering if we're special enough or skilled enough to be chosen from the masses of coaches? Do we believe that the market is saturated and it's not worth the effort? Are we secretly discouraged, knowing we haven't tried our hardest or done our best?

How we answer these questions risks creating stories that lead us to focus our attention on outer evidence to prove our value. We write and re-write copy for brochures and websites. We agonize to create the perfect logo, brand and image of who we are as coach. We design events, workshops, classes . . . all backdoor invitations to enter into coaching.

Despite our best intentions, efforts and creativity ~ the phone doesn't ring and we don't make calls. We find ourselves at home, alone, separated from what we long for, puzzled by the conundrum - we built it and they didn't come. On the advice of our coach we look back over our calendar to see how we invested our time, only to discover we are:
  • Separated from the life we love
  • Separated from the people who enliven us
  • Separated from the environments that stimulate our best self
We are choosing instead to work harder and longer on exactly the opposite. We wonder whether it's time to get "a real job".

So what is the other side of the Great-Business-Building-Dilemma? What is the front door invitation to coaching? What transcends our stories to allow us to build our business with ease and joy? What reminds us that coaching is our choice and it is a real job?

Relationships

When we're out in the world with the people we love, the incoming tide washes over us creating experience from the relationships that infuses our passion. Those relationships remind us of what we make important to enliven our offer to the world. Authentic relationship generates strong tides and that emanates from the inside-out, from the essence, center or core of who we are.

And, now you are wondering, what do I do next?
  1. Place important relationships on the front burner
    1. Use your inner knowing to identify the relationships that enliven, empower and energize you.
    2. Examine your allocation of time and commit space to these important relationships.
    3. Set an intention for how those relationships support your choice in being a coach!
  2. Explore a deepening inquiry about what you make important
    1. What choices drain you, what choices enliven you?
    2. What limiting beliefs stop you from choosing what feeds your passion?
    3. What breakthrough will energize your invitation to others?
  3. Feed your own longing
    1. Quiet enough to hear your own voice of passion and how it wishes to express itself ~ improvisation, singing in a choir, alpine hiking, book club . . .
    2. Craft a personal vision statement that expresses your essence, names what your center is and activates your inner light; speak it often.
    3. Nurture, nourish and appreciate your physical self in ways that are special and sacred for you.
How do you sustain authentic relationships that are central to sustaining your business in the ebb and flow tides of life?

Janet M. Harvey, PCC & Jan Berg, PCC are Partners and Senior Faculty for inviteCHANGE, www.invitechange.com a company created for those in search of meaningful processes that help catalyze learning and integrate a process for lasting change in one's personal and professional life. Janet embraces transformative coaching as a discovery process that ignites and empowers clients to choose beliefs and behaviors that generate a magnificent life experience aligned with one's core being. Jan is an advocate for human potential, tirelessly committing herself to the personal growth of others, masterful at helping her clients navigate through the tidal waves of transition with compassion, insightfulness and graceful confidence.

contact: Janet.harvey@invitechange.com jan.berg@invitechange.com

Feedback is welcome at ExpertSeries@choice-online.com
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This email is sponsored by The International Coaching Consortium for Coaching in Organizations ICCO invites you personally to attend the 6th annual symposium, "Leveraging Cultural Differences in the Global World" being held Oct 11 - 13 in Toronto , Canada . There will be conversations about organizations and coaching and how they interrelate. For more details see www.coachingconsortium.org/events- 0507.html.

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