Home » coaching

Tag: coaching

The people who use mentors and coaches advance 4x faster

As a lone wolf, I take great pride in doing things by myself. But since I became a father, the stupidity of that was obvious. While it can be fun and challenging, it is also very slow and inefficient. We don’t have unlimited time, so the choices we make on spending time matter!

Learning from other people’s mistakes and hiring coaches and mentors makes a lot of sense if you want to progress fasters.

But how do you choose a good coach or mentor?

I used to believe that you need to go for world-class coaching. Because you can advance the fastest if you learn from the best of the best:

  • They’ve tried it all.
  • They know what works and what doesn’t.
  • Since they are world-class, you won’t find this knowledge anywhere else.

But there is a serious flaw in my thinking! And that is: I am asking a word-class coach to teach me how to most effectively swim across the wide canal, without ever once entering a swimming pool. 

Simply put: there is absolutely no way for me to apply the advice they give me, and it is a high chance I may not even understand it.

I realized that you need to start at the beginning, not at the end. Meaning: if you want to beat the world record at swimming across the canal, you will need to start with learning how to swim in the first place!

So my revised definition of a good coach or mentor is someone who is way ahead of you so they can challenge you and point out your mistakes, but not someone who is so ahead of you that what they are saying makes no sense!

Think about this for a moment: even if you can afford a one-hour call with the best swimming coach on the planet, you don’t know what to ask. It is improbable that you will ask the questions that would get you the most value. 

It is the same when building your online presence. Trying to do it alone is slow. But trying to hire the best team to make you a mega-website as your first project is not the best idea either. 

The Spiritual Software Engineer’s Guide to building your Online Presence

START HERE – Build an audience

Connect with people around you (online or offline) that share some of your values and interests. You need to build a bridge between “i/me/myself” and how it assists “we/us/ourselves.”

Contribute to what they post and share online. Build a conversation with them. First and foremost, try to understand them. You aim to create a community.

PAY ATTENTION

Pay attention and take notes:

– what do they ask?

– where do they need help?

– what inspires them?

– what is the problem they have?

Create content generously answering these questions: meaning for free and with the best quality you can (don’t try to be “perfect” that is just hiding from posting the work. Just do your best)

Save this content in a library (folder with documents in GDrive, Dropbox, local PC). You will thank yourself later!

GET’EM EMAILS

Once you get a feel of your audience, get them to subscribe to a newsletter. Use a free landing pages feature from AWeber, MailChimp, or some such.

By now, you should have a list of topics of interest that you can write about:

– full newsletters – best

– a weekly or monthly update where you send the best posts from Social Media – OK

– curated content – where you recommend other people’s work that relates to your audience – lazy, but it can save you in an emergency when you don’t have something scheduled.

WAIT FOR THE QUESTIONS

At some point, you should be getting inquiries about private consultations or help with a specific problem. The way to respond is to send them to the appropriate post or article that talks about possible solutions and, at the end, let them know that you are available for a one-on-one session for this price.

People will likely choose the free alternative initially, but eventually, some will pay for the “one-on-one.” Regardless, take important notes of these questions as they are ideas for valuable content or a potential product.

KEEP TALKING – KEEP CREATING

Continue the discussion with your audience.

When you have collected some 4-5 excellent questions to address, announce a free Zoom call where you will talk about those. Invite your audience to participate. At the end of the call, be sure to mention your one-on-one offering for those who need to get specific details. As a reward for giving you their attention so far, you can discount that price just for the live participants.

Be OK with the fact that this first call will not be so great. Things will not work; you will forget to mention something important. All that matters now is to practice. You cannot get to “mastery” by skipping over “beginner.”

LOOK FOR FRIENDS

Continue the conversation with your audience.

Look for collaboration opportunities.

The WRONG way to do this: “Hey, can you feature me on your blog/podcast/FB page?”

The RIGHT way to do this: “Hey, your work is awesome! Do you mind if I feature you on my blog/FB page/newsletter?”

Continue the conversation with your audience.

CAN YOU CREATE A PRODUCT/SERVICE

Based on your work so far and the community’s interaction, get an idea for a product or a premium service. Before you start working on it, ask your community what do they think? Are they interested? Would they pay for it? Bounce some numbers off of them. If you get a YES, then it’s great! If you get a NO, then also great! Ask what would need to change for the product to be more useful? (and it may not be the price!)

ONLY NOW YOU ARE READY TO BUILD A WEBSITE

– you have a much better idea of the name of the site – in some cases, it makes sense to use your own name, in some cases the name of the solution, in some cases the name of the problem.

– you have a massive content library

– you know what your audience wants, so you know how the home page should look like

– you know if you will sell a physical product, or if you will teach or if you will do coaching

If you will sell a physical product, check out Etsy or Shopify. (there is a difference between the two, but that’s a story for later)

If you sell teaching or coaching, have a look at Teachable.

If you don’t plan on selling anything, but you want to level up your blogging game: get a WordPress website (you can even start with free hosting at WordPress.com). This will build your brand and authority in your field, but you still need to have some offers to sustain the project.

BECOMING KNOWN

Continue the conversation with your audience.

You are much better at this now. Collaborations happen more often. You may be invited to podcasts, or live YouTube shows, or even get speaking engagements, if that’s your thing. Always be prepared to say in one line what do you do and who do you help.

YOU NOW HAVE A BUSINESS

At this point, you have some history with your audience:

– you know what works and how well

– you know how many people become customers

– you have a rough idea of a monthly income

You now have a business, and it is at this point when I would suggest you hire a business coach or participate in some business workshops to help you move forward efficiently.

GET READY FOR LEVEL 2!

Exploring Teachable as a platform for Spiritual Teachers

Are you looking to create an online course or a coaching service? Let’s explore if Teachable is the right platform for you.

The Short Story

Pros

  • You don’t need to worry about technology.
  • You can create landing pages to promote your course. 
  • You can integrate it with other platforms (using Zapier). 
  • It has dedicated features for selling coaching sessions.
  • It is effortless to scale your business.
  • There is a basic blog tool that can help to create awareness around your business.

Cons

  • There is a monthly fee that you need to pay, regardless if you make any sales. (Starts at $39/mo)
  • You can remove the Teachable brand starting only with the Professional plan.
  • It has a 1.8/5 score on Trustpilot reviews because of bad/slow support. (It does much better on Capterra with 4.5/5)

Caution

  •  Their free “Get Started” plan is very limited. It is just a quick test drive.
  • Don’t expect to publish a course on Teachable and then wait for the money to roll in. You still need to bring an audience.
  • Before creating your course, look for other classes like that on the platform. No competition may signify that there is no audience, or the course is not a good fit for Teachable.

The Long Story

Spiritual Teachers can use both courses and coaching services to share their insights with an audience and elevate the Consciousness on our planet. 

Working with a platform like Teachable can help you get started because they do all of the heavy liftings when it comes to technology. You don’t have to worry about hosting, disk space, performance, video embeds, bandwidth limitations… none of that technical jargon will matter to you. 

There is some learning involved because you will need to use their Admin user interface to build your course and the sales page, but it is clear enough, there are video tutorials, and you don’t have to be a developer to understand it. There is also available support, but there are some concerns here with how fast they will respond. 

Take a moment and let this sink in, just how much Teachable takes off your hands. If you are not a tech person, building a website and maintaining it, and connecting with all the various tools you will need, can quickly grow to be your highest cost—both in time and money. 

Let’s talk money

The price for the basic Teachable plan is $39/mo. That can seem like a lot, but you don’t have any of the upfront costs you would have with building a website from scratch. And if you opt for yearly billing, you get a better price of $29/mo. That adds up to $348/year. But will not pay for hosting, or a template or a developer to help you build a custom site. (As an aside, even paying $99/mo for their professional plan is still a bargain compared to the costs of maintaining your own website).

If you plan to use this platform, you need to be serious about it. You cannot just start an account and forget about it. The monthly fee will continue to fly out of your pocket regardless if you make any sales or not. 

With a course or coaching session priced at $40, you would need to sell at least one copy per month to pay for Teachable. With a conversion rate of %1, this means that you need to bring 100 visitors a month to your course sales page, to get that sale. 

However, you will not buy the tools and spend the time to create a fantastic course to just pay for itself. You will have a monthly revenue goal much higher than $40. 

Let’s assume you are aiming for $1,000/mo. That means 25 sales, at a 1% conversion rate, it works out that you need to bring 2,500 visitors to the course sales page each month. 

This model is simplified because you will also have some refunds. And you will also have referrals that will have a much higher conversion rate. 

But you now have an idea of the size of the audience you need to generate this kind of revenue. 

And this brings me to an important point: whether you choose to develop a website or choose a platform like Teachable, you are responsible for building this audience and sending it to your sales page. 

The Marketing is on You

If you are starting from scratch, with no audience, I would suggest using Social Media to connect with people you could teach and build that audience. 

And you do that by sharing your expertise for free and being generous with helping other people solve their problems. At the same time, you build up a library of questions and answers, and you are continually asking for feedback from your audience. 

Eventually, you will get to a place where you can say: “Hey, it looks like many of you are looking to make quick progress in this [area]. Would it help if I create a course for it? Would that be valuable for you? And does a price point of $xxx make sense?” and see what kind of a response you get. Alternatively, you could ask if you set up a coaching program may be a better fit.

With this approach, you know immediately if you will have customers or not. And if you do, you will have a bunch of fans cheering you on, motivating you to get it done already! They will also be the ones to send referrals. 

When NOT to use Teachable

If you not yet sure what you want, I would suggest testing your idea with some free options, like building a Wix website or a free WordPress one. The problem here is that these options make it easy for you to set and forget about them since they don’t cost you any money. But this will not work. Testing means interacting with your audience, getting feedback, making changes, not just waiting to see what happens. If your plan is to wait, I can tell you what will happen: NOTHING. So don’t even start; you’re better of using that time elsewhere.

If you are good with web technology or have someone like that on your team, you can get much better flexibility and lower costs if you build a WordPress site. 

If branding, flexibility, optimization, and customization are critical to you, having Teachable as your “main site” will note work.

Finally, if your vision is to build a custom service, then Teachable is not for you. 

Alternatives to Consider

In case you don’t like Teachable, other platforms may work for your style: Udemy, Thinkific, Kajabi, Skillshare.

Wandering vs Leading

When you start a new project, you can find yourself on any point on the following spectrum: on the far left, there is wondering, and on the far right, there is going straight at a target.

When you are wondering, you don’t know where you want to go. You don’t have a destination. You try this; you try that, your ideas keep shifting, the way you talk about the project keeps shifting, your questions change.

You have this niggling feeling that you want to do something, but you cannot easily articulate what it is. And so you open your senses up for exploration until you discover what you clearly like and you dislike. And a vision starts to emerge. 

On the other end of the spectrum, you know where you are going. You have a map, a plan, and a guide you can call in case of trouble. You are super focused at this stage, your thinking is crystal clear, and your ideas are very stable. You know what is a distraction and what will move you along the path. 

Where are you on this spectrum? 

The way I see it, artists tend to be on the far left side. And they are comfortable in that space of exploration, of the unknown, of continually shifting ideas. It is a place where you are focused on self-discovery, on looking inside to uncover what that niggling feeling is about. 

On the far right side, you find the manager who cares only about the mission, about getting there as effectively as possible. The focus is no longer inwards because the vision is clear. The focus is on the team, on the project, and on being of service. 

In the middle of this spectrum is a place where you have found your vision, so you know where you are going, but you haven’t mapped out the road yet. 

I feel extremely uncomfortable on the left side, the wandering side, where you need to face “not knowing,” making mistakes, and “wasting time.”

I am used to being an A student, which means always having the “right answers” and not making mistakes. 

Being on the extreme right, where you are the manager and just executing the plan, feels more comfortable, but it can also be a place to hide. There is little risk involved. There are little unknowns. And if you fail, you can blame the map or the plan. 

As you move towards the left, things become more and more uncertain and risky. It’s a place fit for adventures—those who are OK with going into dead-ends and having to backtrack and try again. 

No point on this spectrum is better than the others. You can subjectively feel differently about it, as I don’t enjoy the wandering around part, but a project goes through all the phases.

Getting stuck is the problem.

You could wander forever and look busy in your constat search, but how will you sustain that? How will you take care of your family? Or how will you bring positive contributions to your communities?

You can also get stuck in the middle, looking for the “perfect plan” and trying to avoid mistakes. 

The best way to make sure you are making progress is to base your “why” on the good of a larger community. To try to find out how your endeavors will help others, not just you. And then, maybe, you can seamlessly move from crystallizing your vision to efficient execution.

So I ask you again: where are you on the spectrum? And are you making progress, or are you hiding in your favorite place? 🙂 

(credit: ideas inspired by Jonathan Stark – The Business of Authority )

Is this the best way to accomplish our goals?

Have you ever tried to coach a team towards an end goal but failed? Either because you can’t get your point of view across or because the discussion gets sidetracked continuously into things that are not that important? 

I have tried to send documentation to be studied that points at the right solution. That did not work. 

I have tried to use my experience and authority to give them the best solution and move on to the implementation phase. That did not work either. 

I have tried allowing them to learn on their own and to figure it out eventually. That also did not work because of time constraints. 

And guess what the common denominator is to all the failed attempts? Me! 🙂

My thinking says: if they only had the right information, they would see things like I do. Unfortunately, that is not true. As I am discovering, each one of us sees the world through a different lens. Our views may be similar, but they will never be the same. 

Today I was studying Seth’s book “Stop Stealing Dreams.” And I was fascinated with how many ideas he can share, without giving any advice on what to do! And not only that, but almost every paragraph had me stop and ponder what was said. I could feel the cogs in my brain getting a good workout!

I had to digest the entire book to figure it out finally. And the answer is now simple and obvious. Seth asks a lot of questions, inviting the reader to think for herself!

And the most potent question was:

“Is this the best way to accomplish (…insert goal here…)?“

This question serves double duty:

1. It makes sure that we know and agree on what the goal is. If we don’t, we need to go way back in our discussion and check and decide on our goals again. 

2. Once we agree on the goal, asking “is this the best way” opens everybody’s mind to contribute in a focused way towards the goal. 

The key difference for me is that I no longer dish out my solutions but instead invite everyone to contribute. The best way that the group finds may be way better than what I had initially thought the correct answer was. We all learn, and we move forward together.

I will definitely give implement this one in my communication.

Developers like us do things like this…

Developers like us use version control because we understand the value of being able to roll back.

Developers like us do backups because we understand our customer’s need for safety and insurance.

Developers like us have a process because that is key for delivering quality results consistently.

Developers like us ask questions because we understand the pitfalls that come with assumptions.

Developers like us understand business because the perfect solution, delivered too late, is no solution.

Developers like us are good communicators because we don’t expect the client to navigate technical jargon.

Developers like us are honest, simply because honesty is good for business.

Developers like us own our mistakes because it is the way to build trust and get hired again.

Developers like us don’t hide bad news because it shows care for the client to let them know you will not meet the deadline. It gives them time to plan accordingly.

Developers like us value privacy because the client needs to know their private data is safe in your hands.

Developers like us are generous because helping others along the way makes things better.

Developers like us are flexible because it is not always possible for the client to adapt to our workflow.

Developers like us are more expensive because we always deliver more than we got paid for.

Developers like us minimize risk because they understand the client has their reputation to consider when she places it in our hands when we deliver a solution.

Developers like us work fast because we don’t reinvent the wheel and use the best practices available in the field.

Developers like us never stop learning because we know first hand how fast the software world changes.

Developers like us future proof their code because it is never safe to assume how it will be used later on.

Developers like us prioritize customer needs because the final product is for them, not for us.

 

Note: this is a manifesto based on Seth Godin’s idea of “Tribes”: people like us do things like this.

What does the client want?

Some time ago…

Some time ago, the conversation with a potential client would be something along the lines of:

“How can I help you?”

“I want a website to sell my products.”

“OK, great, this is a price and you’ll have in a month.”

A month later…

I’d show her the site, and the reaction would be: “Well, this is not even close to what I had in mind…”

I had to change the game and ask more questions 🙂

“What colors do you like?”

“Red and blue.”

“Great, and font wise?”

“I want something elegant, precise!” 

“For images?”

“Oh, something joyful and warm…”

“Excellent! This is the price; you will have the site in a month”.

A month later…

I’d show her the site, and the feedback is: “This red is not red enough, and now I realize the red and blue are a bad combination! Can we try yellow instead of blue? And the font is too girly for what I have a mind. We are going to need new images as well. The top one is ugly, and the rest don’t match the brant at all.”

Oh, the frustration.

At some point, I’ve spent two weeks back and forth, trying to nail down the shade of blue. That was a waste of my time and the client’s time!

I had come to believe that the clients don’t know how to communicate (I had a much shorter description for this). I had resolved that I would never even discuss with someone who could not write a technical specification that we can agree on, and that I could deliver. 

This decision blocked many customers, but more importantly, blocked important learning. 

The Breakthrough 

I was watching a video from Chris Do. He’s a designer who also teaches business, and I admire his style. To me, it feels like he is talking to me specifically. The kind of decisions you need to make in design apply in software and for anyone who uses creativity to solve a problem. But I digress. 

Back to the video. 

He was taking questions from the audience, and someone asked: “How do you deal with clients who don’t know how to communicate what they want?” Ah! The golden questions! I had the same struggle. I perked up, waiting for the knowledge to be bestowed on me. 

Chris looked into the camera, and you could tell that the question was really testing his patience. Hm… And he said: “How many times do I have to tell you that the good-communication is on you! It is your responsibility to help your client articulate her problem and then discover if you can help her.”

All the pieces began to fall into place in my mind. I suddenly understood that in blaming the client, I was not only asking the wrong questions, but I was not developing a critical communication skill. 

In the present time…

When a client wants to work with me, they better be ready for a ton of questions :). As someone jokingly said, they need to feel like they’ve been to the shrink after the first discovery session. 

Here is how the conversation might look like:

“I want a site that can help me sell my products.”

“Sure, that is something that I specialize in, but out of curiosity, what problem are you trying to solve?”

“Well, I need to increase my revenue, obviously”

“OK, that makes sense. How do you know that having a website is the best way to solve this problem?”

“I don’t know… everybody does it… what other options are there?”

“I am glad you ask. Before I can answer that, I’d need to know more about your business. It’s OK if I ask you a few questions?”

“OK…”

“At the moment, how do you generate your revenue…”

And this would go on for a while. 

In the end, what I need to know is:

– what is the biggest problem that this customer is facing 

– how can I help them discover this problem if they don’t know it

– how can I help them articulate their underlying needs 

– in the end, are we a good fit? Can I help her with what she really needs? Can she afford me? Do we like each other well enough to work together for a few weeks or months? 

And by the end, the client would also need to know

– how do I work

– can she trust me

– what is my price range

– what kind of a solution can she expect

– is hiring me the right choice for her

In Conclusion

Make sure you correctly diagnose the problem before you prescribe a solution. If the solution you’re thinking of is not the right one, you need to find out as soon as possible, not at the end of the process.

If you found value in this article, let me know in the comments below or on Facebook. This feedback will help me understand what to focus on in the following posts. 

Go create the New Paradigm today!

Can I get some time back, please?

I am bored, and I want to kill some time! Let’s binge watch Netflix or YouTube!

I used to think like that in the past. But in the last few years, I don’t remember a time when I could get bored! 

There are so many things I would like to do, to explore, to learn, to create! So many things… and so little time. How can you get bored?

When I look at where does boredom come from, for me, it had to do with something that I did not care for: like learning in school about a subject that was not interesting to me or having to do chores around the home. Then I would get bored. 

How does this apply to web apps?

Sooner or later, you will have this realization. No matter how much money you make, you cannot buy more time or lost time. You can lose money, and you can make more money. But lost time remains lost.

Once I had this understanding paying for coaching and mentors and specialists made much more sense. I was living with the illusion that I have an infinite amount of time. That I can do it all by myself, that I don’t need help, that I can eventually learn! But that is so very slow! 

If you do enjoy learning, then, by all means, do that in some areas of your life. But when it comes to realizing your goals, it is much more efficient to pay for help. You cannot buy more time, that is true, but you can use the money to save some of the time you got.

Get a coach, find a mentor, hire a specialist. And if you can, outsource the tasks that are boring for you. 

A note about outsourcing 

It was challenging for me to imagine that someone else might want to do the thing that I am bored with. But I have discovered two things:

– some people still prefer to trade their time for money, even if they don’t like the job (and if you need to keep the lights on, I understand, do what you need to do)

– and, more interestingly, some people find boring the things that I do with excitement and gusto (like dealing with complex online systems) 

I am glad we are all different; we each enjoy different things. This diversity means we can collaborate in projects where we do what inspires us, so we don’t feel like we are wasting our time, but we are fully living our lives instead.

Spend your time wisely!