Art Credit: See more at Tyrus Strange
Why am I so stinking hopping mad?
I just talked to yet another client who had dropped a bucket load of money on a “coach” only to discover that the promised results were a big fat lie.
I keep hearing the same story but with different twists, so I thought it would be insightful to morph all those disappointed folks into one character: Seymour Payne.
Seymour was trying to get his life and his business on track, but he had no idea even where to begin. He had no clarity around his vision or his strategy, he was utterly exhausted, and nearly broke. So . . . he decided to hire a coach.
PRINCIPLE: Hiring the right coach or strategist is an investment in yourself. They can help you move to your next level of performance and achieve abundance — however you define it.
SUB-PRINCIPLE: Hiring the wrong coach or strategist is a costly mistake from which you may need a long time to recover.
In his first venture into hiring a coach, Mr. Payne fell for the one-solution-fits-all lie. This coach had the solution to Seymour’s problems. A super-high-energy sales pitch and some glowing testimonials made Seymour believe that this coach was just what the doctor ordered. However, this doctor only carried one pill — through-the-roof-energetic, aggressive sales. However, Seymour’s temperament was low-keyed, insightful, and dignified. He wanted to identify his niche market, develop more clarity, improve his money mindset, define his business strategy, and sharpen his company’s brand. But all he got was, “You have to call 100 people a week and don’t let them hang up until you’ve closed the sale!!”
PRINCIPLE: One solution–whether for sales, marketing, empathy, branding, or first impressions–is never the answer. The best coaches have a holistic and customized approach to helping you gain the abundance you’re seeking.
SUB-PRINCIPLE: Many coaches’ zones of genius are exclusively in selling to you. Not so good at delivering results once you’ve spent thousands on their sub-par coaching skills.
You’d think that Seymour had learned his lesson, but he took out a second mortgage to hire a coach who promised him that if he would “do exactly what I do, you’ll be making five figures monthly by week eight of working with me. And you’ll 10x your investment in six months.”
Oh, goody! Two lies for the price of one. Turns out that Seymour wasn’t a clone of that coach. Although Seymour had many exceptional skills and characteristics, they were different from the coach’s. Not only did Seymour feel like a phony fraud trying to imitate his coach, he realized after three months of not making a dime that the coach’s directives did not fit his personality, his image, his brand, his target market, his product, or his business model.
PRINCIPLE: You and your business are unique. Distinct. The right strategist recognizes and works with your strengths and your weaknesses. It’s nearly impossible to pretend to be someone you aren’t and a bad idea brand your company in a way that is inharmonious with the way you want and need to be perceived.
Poor Seymour. He was a sadder, poorer, but not much wiser man. The next coach bombarded him with glowing testimonials. The coach referred him to several of her ultra-successful protégés. She said, “John was stone broke, but he borrowed enough to get into my program and in two months, he’s quadrupled his investment.”
PRINCIPLE: As my father-in-law liked to say, “Even the blind squirrel gets an acorn once in a while.” Ask to speak to clients who are NOT the coach’s family members and best buddies. Ask to talk with a few former clients who didn’t hit the jackpot. You can probably learn more about a coach from his or her failures than you will ever learn from their successes.
By this time, Seymour was feeling like he was living his anti-dream. And then He appeared. He was young, handsome, and spoke with the coolest French accent. He drove a Lamborghini, wore a Rolex and an Ermenegildo Zegna suit, lived in Beverly Hills, skied in Aspen, and vacationed on a 140-foot yacht in the Mediterranean. BUT just two years ago, he was broke, in bankruptcy, and had suffered a complete physical breakdown. THEN in his darkest hour, he discovered the secret. If there was one thing Seymour longed for, it was the secret.
PRINCIPLE: There are no daggone secrets; there are only universal principles to success. Fortune 500 CEOs are still using principles from Plato’s Republic, from the Sermon on the Mount, from How to Win Friends and Influence People, and from Thoreau’s Walden. Unless, of course, outstanding customer service, kindness, hiring the right people, intelligent strategy, executing, exercising, wise money management, fostering relationships, and (heaven forbid) good, old fashioned hard work are secrets.
This has nothing to do with Seymour’s gullibility, but I have to share my favorite. It goes like this: “You don’t need to spend money on Facebook Ads to strike it rich like I did. All you need to do is buy my program.” As sold to you on FACEBOOK ADS!!
PRINCIPLES: Keep your eyes wide open. If it sounds too good…you know this one. Buy with your head, not your desperation or your emotions. Talk to many clients before making a significant investment in any one coach or coaching product. Be clear in your own mind that you have researched and are buying a well-defined product, not just a person. And make certain you have an “out” if your investment feels risky. Like I live by in my work: “Hire slow and fire fast.”
Why do these true examples bring up so much emotion in me? Many conservative estimates are that Americans spend more than $11 billion in the unregulated self-help industry. There are more than 70,000 coaches globally. And in the U.S., coaches are taking home a sum total of over $2 billion. Coaching is often stated to be the fastest growing profession in the U.S. second only to Information Technology. And ANYONE can hang up a shingle, call themselves a coach, which has filled the coaching sector with the good, the bad, and well, the downright dishonest.
I strive in every minute of my professional work–in my marketing, sales, and strategic service–to serve by the the highest standards of integrity and quality.
It’s beyond unfortunate that the unscrupulous give the excellent a bad name.
Coaches: Get educated, get credentialed, get your sound methodologies and frameworks in place, and build valuable, viable products and services that truly get your clients results.
And, come on, people, clean up the coaching sales and marketing and product/service integrity so I can cool off and completely enjoy my little corner of professional and personal paradise here.
|
 |
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
