MadeinFuture Series: Hire a Coach, Will Ya?

Alice Hlidkova
Jul 22, 2017 · 8 min read

How I coach.

In my element.

Anyone can be a coach. But how good am I? Measuring my goodness depends on how I get people to think and walk them through their process without losing focus and interest. Motivation is key and there is a science to it. Remember the scientific method or design thinking? We engineer our life by verbalizing our visual board and partnering up with people that help us get there. Mental modeling is key — stating and acting upon the milestones — in order to understand how many steps we should take to get where we ought to be. Are there ten steps or 147? Don’t feel intimidated.

The benefits of a guide.

The benefits of having a personal life/transformation or business coach is your ability to embark on a journey of self-discovery in order to emotionally release all that is holding you back and receive all that you deserve. What is tricky is that once you are ready to receive what it is that you desire, then what? What to do with the “what” can be a psychological mental cluster that explodes or moves aside like a window curtain dancing in the wind.

To grow, we welcome new information. Sure, personality tests like Myers Briggs help to identify who you are but they are limited as it prompts you to choose from an array of binary answers. Personally, I use Hexaco and StandOut to dive into your personality and character traits in addition to entrepreneurial profile. We also hire others to help us grow. Your Instagram account is a creative outlet and a marketing tool to track your progress we call transformation. Did you ever think about hiring a social media growth consultant to help you reach your audience better. I recommend Michael Grizzard from Grizzard & Earp, LLC. What about an internet marketer who can help drive manage leads and design your brand? Damien Watts, a former football player started PositiveNrgyMedia to help others grow their brands. There are so many resources — people and software — that can help coaches in their practice. Some work better than others.

7 learned lessons after 6 months in business.

1. Driving to prospect client meetings is a waste of time. If you choose to do so, make your meetings a weekly priority and be consistent. Nate Minnehan whom I featured at the end of this article attends weekly Metropolitan Club where he has a membership. When you arrive, be ready to present a printed proposal to discuss during the meeting. Send the agreement contract post meeting via email or Facebook Messenger. Some may think this move is bold. Good! If you are bold, work with bold people.

2. Opinions don’t matter. “I like what you do” is not good enough. Prospects can tell you that over FaceTime, Skype, Facebook or Zoom calls. These modes are much preferred and desired for busy entrepreneurs who would rather choose audio and video options rather than an in-person meeting. Save those after you get paid.

3. Online coaching is booming. Hire social marketers, internet entrepreneurs, or software developers to help you get set up. Wix.com sucks on mobile. Squarespace is better. Better yet buy a template on WordPress.

4. You can’t sell your services. This is NOT how coaching works. Referrals are king. A referred client could also become your business partner. They can also invite you for a weekend at their beach home as Coach Hans Phillips did featured at the end of this article.

5. Get business in other markets. It is ok! Go where the need it and that could be abroad. Lately, female entrepreneurs in Asia are interested in my work. Like the western women, they want to build their brand, buy well-established brand, and learn to form and run a start-up. For them it business is a balancing act of mind, body, spirit as social issues increase in that part of the world. Building an audience and marketing on WeChat, Baidu, etc. Are you ready?

6. Start-up founders may ask you to be a co-founder or join their board. The perks are tremendous especially when you are helping them raise $200,000 in Seed funding. From 40 slides down to 10 is a skill and its called “lean entrepreneurship.”

7. Coaching saves lives. One of my client convinced her son to give up his gun with a newborn in the house. I catered my program around principles of radical forgiveness, a program designed by Colin Tipping, that teaches people how forgive those that caused them harm.

Where the Industry is headed.

Learning lessons in the people industry are fun and the sector is booming. Coaching is a $107 billion industry (2015 figures according to Forbes). One-on-one coaching has shifted to online coaching, another word for e-learning. My friend Christopher Kai has the GPS program that teaches anyone to talk about anything for $10,000 a speech. It takes time to build a brand and although most people in his program make around $1,000–5,000 per first speech, the opportunities for making thousands of dollars to talk about success principles of how to become a millionaire are enormous. There are other coaches that upload courses on Udemy or invite strangers to their homes via Airbnb for a mastermind sessions on wealth or growth hacks and other prosperity programs. The internet is a tool that drives business for coaches in any market. The US is saturated compared to the Asian market and yet the opportunities are endless. Ask the internet entrepreneurs who start and sell business online and hire them to help you become established.

Why you should establish your presence online.

When you go online, you can choose any market. If your geographical location is saturated as it is in Scottsdale, AZ, and parts of California, go to a virtual one. In 5 years, everyone will have a cell phone and as they convert to smart phones, I will be able to reach more people. a couple smart phones will allow me to stay in business. Facebook, Venmo, PayPal and Quickbooks have made it easy for the self-employed to get paid. Online, coaches can automate their leads using CRM tools and update engaging content with various content management tools.

The awesome coaches in their own words.

The Possibility Broker.

Minnehan pictured here with the founder of Chucky Cheese Gene Landrum

“Ježíš, ty jsi česká?” said Nate Minnehan at the Secret Knock conference, in LA. The Czech question translates to “Oh Jesus, are you Czech?” The young man from Rochester, NY, proceeded to sing me a song in Czech followed by the English translation verse by verse. The creative extraordinaire started his coaching business Get Lost to Find Yourself in efforts to transform the lives of his clients, creatively. A dynamic personality, Nate had to lose himself to find himself again.

Finding himself into these roles has been natural. Minnehan is a life hacker, visionary, leather goods craftsman, carpenter, videographer, among many other things. On WalknTalk, his personal brand, he sells hand-made leather diaries he designed in the Czech Republic and hand-sown in Argentina before he found a shop to do it for him. He sells wooden bicycles displayed in the Lamborghini store in Chicago, he also brought to the conference to roll on stage. Minnehan craves artisanry at its most elegant format. He took his suit line, Murphy’s Suits to Sears (rename Willis) this morning with one hand made binder of sample fabrics. Plastic free. Presentation is the Queen, the negotiation king.

Minnehan and I coach one another. I am not sure when its coaching and when its friendship. “I love coaching,” says the young man, who recently had a meeting with a Cisco executive. “Now you can meet my coach,” Hans Phillips in Santa Cruz, California. “Tesis se?,” are you excited?

The Witty Torch Carrier.

Phillips and Acosta during a Facebook Live session.

I called up Hans Phillips within 24 hours of speaking to Minnehan. A chance to meet spend time on the beach with Phillips and his family, and meet prospect clients? Awesome! “Let’s go over expectations,” said the man who has been in the industry for over 20 years and ran a successful training company in Silicon Valley. “My wife and I have fun, we are pretty social.” Next came the house rules. “You will stay at the guest house, one block from the beach. Do whatever you want. Have fun.” Thank you for the instructions.

In person, Phillips is more handsome reflecting Fabio the actor. Hans used to model, so did his mother who was an actress. His wife modeled and together they supported children’s causes. Social impact.

To create a successful coaching business in Silicon Valley took patience, empathy and the bold move to pull in a woman like Jennifer Acosta as business partner. The internet entrepreneur together with Phillips are working with some tough tech executives in the Valley. “I see it all, burn out among other things,” he said of one client who heads the people department without spending any time with her kids. “Founders being stripped of equity.”

Phillips is developing large scale coaching and leadership programs for large companies. “I developed people now I want to focus on companies to incorporate mindfulness and holistic healing practices. “My wife keeps me grounded,” he says of Desiree, who is also a coach, dancer and an incredible force of inspiration for him. “Coaching without coach means playing music without a rithym. You hear something and it doesn’t sound that good,” concludes the Santa Cruz native.

To sum up the value proposition of a coach.

Coaches are mentors who get paid to guide. Coaches give support and love during precious moments in someone’s personal and professional life. Coaches come in many sizes and ages. One doesn’t have to wait 10 or 20+ years to gain industry expertise to become a coach. Technology accelerates this process, doubling our information downloads, importing and exporting quality content. Coaches are as good as their coaches called masters who have been in the trenches long enough to share their stories and make us laugh. These brave souls reduce the number of mistakes for the next generation of newly minted coaches that bold enough to carry the torch. A sense of urgency and trust are at the basis of a quality coaching engagement. You don’t just pay for the engagement but also for the access to information and network of experts that will help you reach your higher power. Yet there is more, from diving into metaphysics to psychology to creative design thinking, to navigate this industry is like asking someone to pick the chocolate truffle in the candy store. The future of coaching is that everyone will need one to stay focused, collaborative and gain clarity in your life’s purpose.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Jason White for keeping me on track, Nate for lifting my spirits and Hans for the wonderful corporate and personal introductions. Dragana out of LA takes coaching to another level, traveling to Dubai for business clients while Christopher Kai coaches on how to network with billionaires. His GPS Program has reached hundreds of thousands around the world. Adam Kipnes in Phoenix teaches small business owners how to generate $10,000–20,000 in additional revenue. Your collaboration and dedication for your soulful work continues to create ripples in your community.

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