I considered teaching in a classroom when I was in college studying literature and helping out in my kids’ kindergarten classes. But once I had to deal with the micromanaging parents, crying kids with snot bubbles and all their nonstop questions, I knew I couldn’t handle teaching kids.

I never wanted to go back to teaching anything ever again.

Now, in this online world of coaches everywhere, I was recruited to teach online sessions in entrepreneurship, broadcasting and speaking.

And an online coach is one of the best and worst roles to have. Like being that Production Assistant or intern. You know it will get you far and you will learn, but you have to take a ton of shit.

London Real Team Leadership

One year ago, I was recruited to be a leader of the London Real Business Accelerator. When approached by Lead Instructor, Chris Albert of Warrior Soul, I couldn’t believe that I was selected when there were many other people with more success than me.

I’m a Creative. I hate leadership but I loved the London Real experience and knew that this was an honor to be considered under Brian Rose and his staff.

In September of 2017, the first Team Castaneda was born. I loved my team of fitness pros, journalists, coaches, scientists and musicians. I watched them grow and become people that started to see real change and chase their goals after constantly pushing them to complete the tasks in the course.

Three weeks into running my first course, I was approached by Brian Rose again. He wanted me to simultaneously run a second course, Speak to Inspire. I was bumped to the front of the line above more seasoned Team Leaders and by then I knew I was doing something that was life changing, value adding but full of pressure and intensity.

Brian offered me the coveted role of Lead Instructor within 3 weeks of my first course. I didn’t know what to say, but when he and his team ask me to step up, I do it.

I love my students too much to let them down. I love them too much to stop working with them. And if you’re considering online coaching, keep these factors in mind if you want to gain and retain your students:

Learning How to Learn

.When I first created online courses for a fitness company, we just dumped information into videos and added a quiz at the end. I never felt like people were transforming, they were just earning credits like we do in college.

Any online coaching worth its salt is laser focused on transformation. Not just in knowledge, but emotions, ambitions, creativity and quality of life.

So the lessons you teach aren’t focused on memorization and quizzes but instead, life skills that make you change from the inside, hence a different type of learning is required.

The hardest thing about teaching online courses and coaching is not what to learn, it’s how to learn it and use it. Memorization and quizzes keep us safe from resistance. Taking the test is like ripping off a bandaid. The online programs through London Real have life tests that involve making your ideas public and testing them in the markets, LIVE.

Your example is most important

Corporate me would have fallen for the politics. But online coaching me is different. People I’m coaching are trying to escape the frenemies in the workplace, the backstabbing and gossip, the people who put you down and they come to you to lead them out of it.

When people come to you asking how you got out of the matrix, how you are living freely, what it’s like not to work in the 9 to 5, if you’re not leading by example, you won’t have stories to guide them. And they follow the stories more than anything.

People lack the qualities of success

Grit. Authenticity. Persistence. Most people don’t have it.

They’re not lacking because they don’t want it, not because they’re lazy, it’s because it’s been burnt out of them by their work life, families, and conformity.

That’s where your online coaching comes in, you have to walk them through breaking that pattern and thinking differently from the crowd. You have to show them the little things that add up into big changes.

Brilliant ideas take flight

The role of any coach is to get someone to do something that they are unable to do on their own.

Most ideas only stay ideas for students until they dive into the coaching programs. My students would hold onto something in their minds but never had a place to genuinely express it.

And this is what I loved about working with them. Ideas need to be cultivated, refined and retested. And with the coaching they were able to finally see it take flight.

Invest in Leadership

As the daughter of a veteran, and a military ex-wife, I never thought I would be a fan of Jocko Wilnik and The Jocko podcast. But I need Jocko’s take on how to manage a team. I realized that I talked too much and needed to let other people run the hotseat. I need to cheer on for successors and not be threatened by them, but develop them. Now I find myself picking up every resource on leadership because I keep getting different–and difficult–personalities that keep challenging me.

The best lessons from online coaching

Do Cool Shit. The latest group of students from TeamCastaneda were stressing out quick, so I wanted them to all have more fun. I challenged them to go out and do cool shit to enhance their social media. So that week, I saw them exploring their neighborhood, sharing their drawings, hiking, and having fun. While this was a lesson in documenting, storytelling, and authenticity, I had one other reason. I wanted them to taste the life that they wanted. If you get a little taste, you will go after it more. You will go after it relentlessly. Unapologetically. Without quitting.

Don’t Lose the Love. The students get the “Start with WHY” lecture, and they hear it so much that they drown it out. Behind the WHY there is love for what you do. And you have to keep that love alive by earning mastery everyday, by connecting with people who are on your mission.

Be original. The more I write, the more I realize how important original voice is. And it can be in everything you create, vlogs, blogs, social captions, podcasts and more. And the more I develop it, the more powerful I feel as a thought leader.

Rise above. And keep rising. The little things that made you upset, all those first world problems, they aren’t so serious anymore. Infact, you wish those were your biggest problems instead of managing conflicts with a team or making difficult decisions. You have to keep rising above all the little problems that will try to pull you back into the matrix.

How do you know if you’re qualified to coach?

You will never know until you share your knowledge and people respond to it with awe, with curiosity and inspiration.

Online coaching is continuous, and the only way you can be sure to be successful is to keep filling your cup with knowledge, adventure, and interesting people. The more I show my students my travel adventures, writing tips and stories, I know that they stay curious and eager to learn more.

If you’re ready to become an online coach, get started by hitting publish on the vlog, blog or podcast. You will experience the best and worst days of your life, but you have the potential to start a movement that will grow as long as you stay original, do cool shit and don’t lose the love.

Christina Castaneda

Written by

Author of novels and blogs; if I'm not traveling the world looking for stories, I'm somewhere in a LA coffee house writing them.

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