When I first became a coach I had to learn how to be both the Entrepreneur and the Coach. I had to first learn and practice the art of moving a person through their problem, to the other side. This took a lot more than just teaching, as I found out.
I had no niche, no list, no product and no idea.
I heard there were many ways to start a business and get paying clients, and I went with the plan of coaching family and friends for free. I built up my skills (slowly) and my confidence grew as I helped my clients see different perspectives on areas of their life.
I enjoyed the process of drawing out the emotional resources within others so they can have insight and solve their own challenges.
But this is obviously not a sustainable business model.
I began asking them for small donations for a couple dollars. I wanted them to have a tiny bit of skin in the game but I also knew I could then identify myself as A PAYING COACH!!
I then started coaching my beautiful aunt who paid me for a full 6 session package. This gave me extreme confidence, although my coaching skills were still in the infant stage.
I wondered how I would spread my work so that it was more than my family who likes, knows and trusts me. That’s when I started building my business and coaching business owners online.
That’s when I
Up until then, I was staying inside my comfort zone, but this was a different experience!
Although many of you are not coaches, you may see similarities with your journey.
It doesn’t matter what business you are starting, there are many unknowns, yet many decisions to be made.
You need to choose
– your niche
– decide how you will help people
– who you will do your marketing
– who will help you
– what courses or programs you will take
Has this been your journey?
Do you feel the uncertainty I’m describing?
There have been a few tools I’ve picked up along the way that helps you live with this uncertainty so you can move forward and get that first paying client.
1) What does the emotion mean?
What do most people do?
They think that because they feel uncomfortable, something must be terribly wrong. Something must be wrong with their business, or even worse, with them.
Starting your business should be fun, right? After all, you are following your dreams and building a life for yourself!!
Well, let’s look at it this way.
It has always resonated with me that the currency for success is how uncomfortable you are willing to consistently feel. Not only for success, but Tony Robbins explains that the quality of your life is directly correlated with the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.
Therefore my philosophy has always been that business is just a tool. Business is just a way for me to stretch myself and feel uncomfortable enough so that I can grow. It’s a tool to show myself what I’m capable of, find hidden strengths and develop the resourceful sides of me.
If I wasn’t in business and coaching, I’d be doing something else that stretches my capabilities and get’s me out of my comfort zone.
This allows me to give the uncertainty a very powerful meaning.
2) Feeling the emotion
Intellectually you might know it’s moving you forward, but you feel the uncomfortable feelings in your body.
Many people resist the emotion of uncertainty and they fight it. Whatever you resist, persists.
So what I encourage you to do is sit down with this emotion and just feel it all the way through. Describe what this vibration of uncertainty feels like in your body. What’s tight or tense? Where do you feel it specifically and at what scale do you feel it?
When you do this you might begin to see that the vibration and emotion itself isn’t all that bad. What’s so intense is the resistance of the emotion. So once you stop resisting it, the emotion severity starts to diminish
3) Remember who you are
What side of you wanted to start a business? That’s the side of you that must be strengthened during this journey.
I watch my training videos of people creating powerful shifts in their life and I ball my eyes out. It hits me so hard to see how people can radically change their emotional state and focus on love, growth, and contribution once they let go of their fear.
I have always known I can get through the uncertainty because this was such a pull for me that I would stop at nothing to help people also have the same life-changing transformations.
This is the emotional muscle I have been focusing on strengthening, and I’m sure you also have the side of you that wants to love, grow and contribute. Remember the moment you decided to take this journey, and practice building that same emotional state.
To conclude, I think it’s important to remember that on the journey to your first client you will feel uncomfortable, and that’s a beautiful thing. You have the courage to get outside your comfort zone and do something very few have the guts to do.
Uncertainty is what you signed up for.
Uncertainty is what you can expect ahead of time.
Uncertainty is what will make you the person you’re excited to become.
Thanks for reading!
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