Are You Going Full Steam Ahead?

I hired a business coach several years ago at a time when I wanted to grow my coaching practice and didn’t do anything she asked me to do. Ok, maybe I did 10% of what she asked. At first, I was excited at the prospect of getting more clients and completed the questionnaire she sent me in advance of our first session and went through some of the materials. Then we got started.

“OK Michelle, you need to get back control of your website from your designer so you can update it yourself.”

“Oh,” I said, wondering if I should spend the money and where to start. It seemed like such a big task.

“You also need to start writing weekly articles and giving online seminars or creating products.”

“Oh really…why?”

The more she talked the more overwhelmed I felt. It seemed like there were a lot of things I needed to do and I didn’t understand why. She left me with homework to do and helped me along for a few weeks but about halfway through I gave up.

I blamed her for a while, questioned her methods and if they were right for me, but in the end, I got very honest about how much or rather how little of the actual work I did. Truth is that she built and sustains a very successful coaching business. She is an online marketing legend with loyal clients and fans, some of whom are even more successful than her. I just could not do what she asked me to do at the time.

It didn’t help that I then had an emotional meltdown that took the ground right out from under me.

She kept in touch with me after we stopped working together and I was able to get through some of the assignments on my own when I recovered from my meltdown. I got back control of my website in time and spent weeks learning how to update it and design it to my taste. I spent hours writing articles and ran my first online seminar. I also created my first product- a meditation guide. Everything she’d told me to do worked when I did it.

Fast forward five years, I decided to work with her again. I signed up for her new coaching programme. I paid almost three times the amount I did before and was in a group of 65 others as she was no longer working one-to-one with clients. I was ready to do the work necessary and willing to challenge my comfort zones. I trusted that as she’d built her own coaching business she could help me build mine.

Working with her this second time was a different experience. I would say that I showed up 100% and did 90% of the work – there was a lot of it so some I’m making my way through step by step.

I still struggled with some aspects of the work and was slow in others. Five separate people on the course helped me over a period of three weeks to create a weekly schedule, something that others had finished in a few days on their own. I was so resistant to it because I didn’t want to feel regimented and thought if I had a schedule I’d be living like a robot.

It took me six weeks to come up with a summary of what I do, again something that others had completed in half that time. On the other hand, there were those that had dropped out or weren’t really engaged with the course.

I got up at four and five am weekly for calls. I put in hours and hours of time doing the assignments and giving others feedback on theirs which we were encouraged to do. My whole attitude and mindset was different. As a result, I and my practice took enormous leaps.

When I was ready to give it my all and not argue with her methods and approach, but instead try them out, and adjust where I could, I got the results and traction I was looking for.

I call my schedule my sacred intentions and I have a lot of space in there and slots where I plan to spend time in nature or enjoy nourishing meals, companionship, romance, art and music.

I don’t have a client list, I have opportunities to serve. I don’t have a business plan, I have a magic plan. I don’t have a marketing plan, each week I get to choose an adventure to go on to share about my work.

Even now the course is done, I’m still applying what I learnt and I love my sacred intentions. Some things are still a challenge and seem a big goal for me to achieve but I know I can chunk it down, take small steps and make my way to it in my own time or reach out to her again and sign up for another course if I want her support.

I don’t chide myself for not having done the work when I first signed up with her, as I think I did all that I could do at the time. Signing up with her was an important step that cemented my intention and commitment to making things work for my coaching practice. It took me many years to translate that intention into a practical day-to-day reality and find my own way and rhythm but I’ve found it.

I’ve put in many hours over the years to build my practice and classes. I’m very clear that I’m not just building a business, I’m building a life that my work is a part of. It supports me in a practical way but it also makes my life meaningful. When I saw that I could do the work necessary and build my practice without sacrificing my own integrity, well-being or sense of what was important, I was fully on board.

And only then could I get going full steam ahead toward my destination.