Wendy (00:01.582)
Hello everyone, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I am your host, Wendy McCallum, and today we're gonna be talking about how to show up like a successful coach and why playing small as a newer coach really isn't an option. So I'm gonna go through various strategies, mindset shifts, and tools that can help you to show up.
owning your success and owning the expertise you already have. And yes, you already do have expertise, even if you haven't worked with a lot of clients yet. And I'm going to tell you why that is and help you to lean into that as a coach, because this is really, really important when it comes to creating a sustainable, maintainable business for the long term, which is why we're all here. Eighty two percent of coaching practices fail in the first two years, everybody. Eighty two percent of businesses fail. You're here.
because you don't want your business to fail. I'm here because I don't want your business to fail. I want you to be in that 18 % of successful coaches. And a big piece of that is showing up owning your space and showing up like a successful coach, even when maybe on paper you're not yet technically successful. So we're gonna talk about all kinds of different components of that in this episode. Before we get to that,
I wanted to let you know that there is a new workshop being offered for free on December 11th. So if you're listening to this podcast episode before December 11th, 2024, you can join me in what I think is going to be a really amazing, very valuable masterclass on December 11th. I'm going to help you create an actionable, realistic, slightly challenging, but doable plan for 2025 so that you can double your profit.
We're going to talk about goal setting, how to goal set in a way that actually leads to success as opposed to failure. I'm to talk about some of the common pitfalls of goal setting. We're going to do a little reflecting back on 2024, what went well for you, what didn't go well for you. And then we are going to create some really great personal goals for your business next year and reverse engineer those that we create an actual roadmap for success. What are you going to need to be doing?
Wendy (02:18.506)
on a daily, weekly, monthly basis in order to hit that end annual goal. So we're going to reverse engineer back to some monthly goals and then some weekly goals and we're gonna be doing that on a net basis. We're gonna be including consideration of expenses, which nobody ever talks about when they talk about their revenue. But in order to be successful, obviously you need to take into account your expenses and you need to be managing those as well. So all of that's happening in this free workshop on December 11th.
You can sign up for that workshop at wendymichellum.com forward slash two, that's the numeral two times, which is an X profit. So two X profit is where you will find the form to register for that free workshop. It will also be in the show notes. So the link will be in the show notes here. And I would love to see you there. It's a masterclass that I'm doing with my BBB members. And I wanted to open it up to everybody because I think all coaches have a much greater chance of success if they set.
really great goals and they put an actual structure in place to support the achievement of those goals, which is the piece that's missing for many, coaches. So love to see you there. Again, that's December 11th. Okay, let's get into this whole discussion of why it's so important to show up like you're already a successful coach, even when maybe it doesn't feel like you are. So showing up like a successful coach, embodying your success,
Owning your special sauce, your skill set, your brilliance as a coach, even when you're a junior coach is so critically important in all of the areas of business building. It's important when it comes to coaching with authority. So the way that you carry yourself in your coaching sessions, whether you're coaching one-on-one or you're coaching in groups, is impacted very much by whether you are owning your place, your space.
and showing up empowered. It impacts the way that we goal set. Again, this is something we're talk about more in that December 11th workshop, but if we don't show up owning our brilliance and feeling like successful coaches and owning our potential as coaches, then we're not going to set big goals. We're gonna set safe goals and safe goals do not.
Wendy (04:37.058)
lead to the profits that we need to be sustainable as business owners. So it impacts us when it comes to goal setting, it impacts us when it comes to how we show up as coaches. It also impacts us in terms of how we show up with all of our audience building. So in all of the places where we are trying to bring in new people into our space and our world as coaches, if we are not showing up as the successful coaches that we want to be.
even if we don't feel like we're quite there yet, we will not have the impact that we want to. We will not grow our audience in the way that we can grow our audiences. It will be a very, very slow grow. And frankly, for many coaches, it won't be enough to get you there because again, 82 % of coaching businesses fail. I don't want you to be that. I want you to be the 18%. And this owning of your space and your zone of genius, even when it doesn't feel like you quite mastered it yet,
is such a critical part to building that audience and the audience is where the paying clients come from. And then lastly, we're gonna talk about the importance of just showing up everywhere in your professional space as a successful coach. So this is where we're gonna talk about how showing up, owning your success, owning your brilliance as a coach is going to impact.
the types of offers that you get to collaborate, for example, or to guest on podcasts or opportunities, maybe reach out from the media for you to do some media appearances. And also how it's going to impact the likelihood that people see you as a possible solution to their problems. So we're gonna talk all about that. And I think by the end of this episode, you're gonna feel really motivated to stop playing small and to start.
showing up in the space that you are in as the successful coach that you will absolutely be and as the expert that you already are. Yes, I said already are. I know that many of you probably feel like you're not an expert yet, but you are and I'm gonna talk you through why that's the case. Let's start there. Let's start with that. Let's start with talking about how you can coach with authority. How can you...
Wendy (06:52.962)
How can you get to a place where you feel like you already are successful so that it's easy for you to show up as a successful coach in the early days? The first thing you need to do is you need to the expertise you already have. A lot of my coaches in the BBB, they'll come to a call and they'll be really kind of down on themselves and feeling sort of shaky about whatever the thing is they're trying to do. And they'll say, but Wendy, I haven't done this yet. I don't have any clients in this area yet. Or I've only worked with five people or whatever the situation is. And I'll say, all right, let's talk about this.
What makes you already an expert in this area that you're coaching in? Now, if you're like most coaches, you have been through whatever the thing is that you help other people get through. Because most of us as coaches develop a niche that is reflective of our own personal experience. So this is the best place to start. I, for example, am an expert in burnout. Right now, as a coach who's been coaching for 15 years, I'm an expert in burnout because I've coached hundreds of people through burnout.
and because I have done several different coach trainings and certifications and because I have my own history of burnout and my own story of personal recovery from burnout. But in the early days, I was an expert in burnout because I had been through it myself and come out the other side and lived to tell the tale. So I didn't have any of that other stuff. I hadn't worked with clients yet, but I was an expert at that point.
I had 12 years as a lawyer, the last four years of that or so as a partner in a very large law firm. had two babies within seven months apart. I was incredibly successful in my job, but incredibly exhausted and incredibly unhappy. And at the end of it all, very, very burnt out. And I did the very hard thing, which was to recognize that this career was not serving me and would never serve me and to leave it and then to kind of start again.
And I learned a whole bunch about myself, but also about burnout, what it is, what it isn't, what it requires, and all of the tools and strategies and tactics that I now teach my clients. So I was already an expert before I'd coached anybody on it. And my guess is you're already an expert in whatever this area is that you support clients in as well. Spend some time thinking about that. Journal about it. What makes you an expert already in this area?
Wendy (09:12.758)
Now, if you have coached some clients in this area, great. Now you can also look to that. How am I an expert as a result of the people that I've already helped in this area? Again, it could be practice clients. Doesn't necessarily need to be paying clients. All coaching counts, it all matters. Have you helped someone else get through this? Might be that you helped a friend get through this and you weren't even in the capacity of coaching, but what...
have you done already in this area that adds to your expertise in this area? And then another really important thing that I like to remind coaches who are having trouble owning their expertise, owning their, shall we call it genius, brilliance, whatever, as a coach, is that you are not just bringing to a coaching session or a group call the last training or certification that you got as a coach, which for many of you might right now be your first.
coaching training or certification. That's not really what clients are getting when they show up in a coaching session from you. Yes, they're getting the benefit of that and everything that you learned in that, but they're also getting everything that you did before that. And for many of us, coaching is a second career. I would suspect, I don't have the stats on this, but I would suspect that 90 % of coaches have done something else before they decide to do coaching. Which means that...
that coaches bring to the table all of their past professional experience as well. So for me, I was bringing to the table with those very first clients that I worked with, I was bringing like 12 plus years in the corporate world and I was working with corporate clients. I understood what it was like to work in a corporate environment, especially a high pressure corporate environment at sort of a higher level.
in the corporation and in a sort of managerial or partnership or C-suite position. I understood that. I knew what went along with that. That was expertise and experience that I was bringing to the table, right? Also, obviously, depending on the type of coaching that I'm doing, I do a lot of business coaching now. That's why I'm doing this podcast. I also have a lot of legal experience. I have seen a lot of things go wrong. I've seen a lot of deals go bad. I've seen a lot of contract wording that didn't stand up. I've seen a lot of...
Wendy (11:27.212)
you know, problematic relationships between businesses. And I've learned a lot about the business of business. And I bring all of that to the table as well. So what do you bring to the table? What's your past professional experience? What's your past career life? And how are the skills that you've developed? Whether those are skills, those are sort of knowledge based, specific knowledge based skills, or those are people based skills, right? Because we've learned a lot of people based skills from our careers as well, like,
how to talk to people, how to interview people, how to ask great questions, how to be a really good listener, how to be empathetic. What are the other things that you're bringing to the table that contribute to your skillset as a coach? I want you to think about those. And then also, you may or may not also have some educational experience that you can bring to the table. So I've got a number of other coach trainings and also...
post-secondary education that I bring to the table. I have an undergraduate degree, I have a law degree, and I have three different coach certifications or trainings that I have done. All of those things now are the basis for what you get when you sit down in a coaching session with me. So what else are you bringing to the table now that contributes to your expertise and to your cachet as a coach, your special sauce? And you have the value that clients
get when they sit down in a space with you. That is going to really help you, I think, to start owning your own place as a coach, even as a new coach. Now, there are some other things that you can do in the course of coaching with your clients that can help you to show up as a successful coach with your clients, show up owning all of this, but can also like,
contribute to the likelihood that you show up that way. That sounds a little confusing, but basically it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy or cycle here. So here are some things that I would suggest every new coach start doing in their private coaching practice to help them feel more successful and in turn help them show up as a successful coach in their next session. These are things that I have been doing now for the entire time I've been coaching and things that I teach all of my coaches in the BBB to do. these are really, really simple.
Wendy (13:49.26)
And really it is around soliciting, consistently soliciting feedback and getting into a pattern of being a coach who consistently, regularly asks for feedback from the people that you support and work with and from your audience. Okay, so here are the ways that I do this. At the beginning of every coaching session, and I'll do this even with groups, but I definitely do this with one-on-one clients. I'll ask, how are you feeling?
What's happening? What's here with you today? I'll get a beat on where they are right now. Then we will decide what the topic is. We're gonna talk about that session where we're gonna focus our time and we'll go through a coaching session. And at the end of the session, I will always ask, how are you feeling now versus an hour ago? What's shifted for you, if anything? And I will get every single time a statement of value from that client. A client will think about it and they will say,
Well, actually, I'm feeling a lot lighter than I was an hour ago, or I'm feeling a lot clearer than I was an hour ago, or I'm just generally feeling a lot happier than I was an hour ago. Whatever that statement is, it is always a statement of value. I don't think I've ever had it not be a statement of value. They will tell me that something has shifted for them and there has been an improvement or a positive step for them in the course of that.
that helps me to feel successful as a coach. My clients are having movement if they're feeling better. I mean, what more can I ask for in terms of results as a coach? So asking for that feedback provides me with a statement of value at the end of every session, which helps me to build my confidence, which means I show up owning my confidence in the next client session that I have. The other thing that I do that can help to build this value for me is I ask them for their top two or three takeaways from the session. So I'll say, what are you?
What are a couple of things that you are taking away from this session that you can work on implementing between now and the next time that we meet? The takeaways are often surprising to me, frankly, and they are, so it's a really good way for me to get a sense of like where the client's at and what resonated with them in the session, but also another indicator of value because my client is saying, look, these are some things that I learned today about myself or.
Wendy (16:06.062)
shifts that happen for me that I think are really powerful and I'm going to take away and I'm going to practice because I think they'll serve me going forward. Again, statement of value helps to build your confidence as a coach. So those are the two kind of, they're informal, but they're still part of my structure in a coaching session. Those are the two more informal things that I do to solicit feedback regularly and consistently. Now I also have a formal system of feedback that I use. That's something that I share in the BBB with my coaches. It's quite,
complicated in terms of soliciting feedback at different times during the coaching journey and asking very carefully crafted questions that help to elicit useful feedback that you can actually then also use as testimonials in future marketing. So there's a more structured system of feedback that I also put in place. And again, that's something that I teach in the BBB. But for now, I would say just focus in on getting better and better at
this sort of less formal feedback cycle, which is every single session cycle. How are you feeling at the beginning? What's shifted for you at the end? What are some of your key takeaways? What are you going to take away and apply this week? The other thing that I do sometimes is I just ask clients what the value of the sessions are. Just curious, what's the thing that's like the most valuable to you from these sessions that we're having together? I will just ask that in a session because I always, again, get a statement of value from that and
That's how you build your confidence and you build your confidence early as a coach by doing that. So that will not only allow you to build your confidence, it will allow you to coach from a place of authority and it will help you to show up as a successful coach in your one-on-one sessions, which is going to impact the value of those sessions for the client. You can see how this is sort of a snowball effect here. Okay, now let's talk about how coaching with authority showing up
from a place of success, even when maybe on paper you haven't achieved some of the objective milestones of success in terms of revenue or number of clients, how that can impact the way that you goal set. So again, we're spend a lot of time talking about this in the goal setting workshop, but it is really important to goal set from a place of confidence and from a place of I'm already successful. Because when we don't do that, we play really small. We play safe.
Wendy (18:31.116)
and we set goals that feel like absolutely no problem for us to accomplish, which means that we're not stretching ourselves at all when it comes to growth as a coach and a business, which means we're probably not gonna succeed, frankly. Coaches need to make a significant amount of money every year in order to succeed, in order to stay alive. As small business building, it's hard. And there are a lot of expenses that go along with building a business. We need to be able to cover those and pay ourselves a profit and pay our taxes.
So when we set two small goals as a result of showing up under confident, that does not serve us and it does not serve our businesses. So it is incredibly important to start working on building your confidence as a coach so that you can also set goals and build a structure around your business that's actually going to lead to that success. Also, it's going to impact, but the way that you show up in your self image is going to impact how
not only potential clients see you, but how other collaborators see you. So you have the potential to miss out on really great business opportunities because you're just showing up, not owning your space, as opposed to showing up and owning it. All right, let's talk about how you show up and own it. All right, other than in the client sessions, let's talk about for a bit.
this idea of showing up just generally publicly when it comes to your social media, your newsletters, anything else that you're putting out into the public domain, your website. How do you do that from a place of established success, even when you don't yet feel successful when you're a newer coach? Okay, got a few tips around this. I would say one of the biggest pieces of pushback, the biggest...
point of pushback that I get from my BBB coaches around this when I'm really challenging them and pushing them to show up with more confidence and own their space is they say, well, that doesn't feel authentic to me because I'm actually not successful yet. I actually haven't turned a profit yet or I actually only have two clients or whatever the situation is. There is a way for you to show up consistently
Wendy (20:51.306)
in a way that feels authentic to you, even when those things might be the case. So you may not yet have a busy practice. You may not yet have very many client sessions under your belt or have made very much money as a coach. And the way to do that, the way to show up authentic is to tell the truth. And this sounds so obvious, but I say this all the time in the BBB. Is it true? Because if it's true, then it's authentic. Now, where can you get true?
facts from, true content from when you are a new coach. You can get it from two places. You can get it from your own personal experience. And this is the power of shared story. And even as a coach with so much experience now, I still draw from my personal story all the time in social media content that I share because it is always gonna work and it always feels authentic to me.
And it's a really great way to build your brand and you like no trust. So you can do this even as a brand new coach. You can do it time after time after time. You can share little pieces of your own true story. And then you can share your success story. So your route or road to success from that. So what the problem was that you had, you can share that with a little bit of vulnerability, which goes a long way. And then you can say, but here's what I did to solve the problem.
and you can walk people through your path to success. And then you could say, this is why I went into coaching. This is what I can help you do too. I now have this roadmap and I love to share that with other people and help them affect the same transformation that I was able to affect in my own life, right? So that's an example of showing up. It's 100 % true. It feels authentic. And it also establishes you as an expert in your own life. And the other thing that you can do is you can share client stories, even if you've only had a couple.
And I am constantly encouraging coaches to mine their experiences, their client experiences. And you'll see me do this on my own Instagram page. I'll show up and I'll say, hey, here's something that we talked about in BBB today. Here's what a client, one of my client coaches raised. was such a great question. I want to share it with you today. It's an example of mining from client stories. They're true. When I share things with you guys on Instagram, it's always true.
Wendy (23:08.48)
It's also a way to establish my expertise because I can say, here's what I suggested or here's what we talked about or here's the advice that I gave or here's the coaching that I gave that person. And you can do the same thing even if your clients right now are practice clients. And even if you only have a handful of paying clients, you can use client stories. Now, obviously you need to be very careful. You want to protect confidentiality. You want to have permission of clients if you're sharing anything that is specific. But client...
Stories are great ways to build that expertise and to show up looking like a successful coach and feeling like a successful coach. And it's a way to combat that whole concern about why maybe I'm not gonna be authentic if I show up and pretend that I'm successful or pretend that I'm an expert. You are. And you absolutely have the right to own the truthful facts of your own story and the truthful facts of client.
stories in terms of how you've coached people through things. Again, being very careful to protect confidentiality. So that is what I would suggest in terms of how to show up as a already successful coach in your bigger role as a, I use the word influencer, but you're out there, your public role, whether you are.
whether we're talking about content that you create on social media, we're talking about newsletter content that you put out, we're talking about freebies that you create and give to people at the top of your funnel. Show up as like you're already an expert. Ask yourself, what do I know? What is true? What do I know for certain? What can I speak to and speak to those things and own it, own it with confidence? Okay, talked a little bit about.
how you show up can impact the opportunities that come your way as a business owner. Again, these opportunities are the things that can become like really pivotal moments for new business people. Having somebody reach out and say, hey, I'm wondering if you can help us. We're running into this, my organization is struggling with this thing. Is this something that you might be able to help, a gap that you might be able to help us fill? You want people to be reaching out to you. And if you're not showing up with confidence and owning your...
Wendy (25:25.394)
abilities and skill set and special sauce as a coach, people are not going to reach out to you. So you've got to be doing that. And this is something that you want to be doing everywhere. So as simple as like, what does my website say about me? Does my website say this is a really successful, amazing coach? Or does my website say this is a new coach just starting out who's not really sure what she's doing? Go back and look at the copy on your website. Are your photos professional?
Do you look like somebody who's excited and confident and really, you know, feeling like they are the solution to the problem or do you look like somebody who is underconfident? Are your photos professional? Are they clean? Are they bright? Do they convey the brand image that you want to be conveying? All of these things are actually really important in terms of you showing up.
or being seen as an expert or as a successful coach. And then when it comes to like,
conversations that you're having with people. And this is where I think this is gonna be my last tip that I share with you today in terms of how to show up as though you're already successful. A lot of times in the BBB we'll be talking about these business opportunities that might be there to work, for example, with a corporation or work with a group of employees. And people are really underconfident in terms of what they can offer them because they haven't done it yet.
and I always say the same thing. Don't offer them anything. First, ask them where the gap is in their organization and what you might be able to do to help fill it. Ask them. Find out where the gap is and then come up with something to fill it. Instead of showing up, selling yourself and some program, presentation, something that you have not done yet and you don't have experience in it, you don't have any testimonials for it, you don't even know is the right thing for them,
Wendy (27:31.048)
ask them, where's the gap for you? I did this so much in the early years and I still do it now. If I get a call from an organization, I will ask them, what is it you're struggling with? Where's the place where you see people are getting stuck the most or what's the gap or what's the problem or what's the pain point? And from there, I create the solution. And it's absolutely okay for you to say to people, okay, thank you, that is so helpful. I know that I can help and what I would love to do is go away and put together a little
as to how I can help you and send that back to you. Take your time, go away, think about it. You don't have to have the answer on the spot. But if you're asking them what the problem is, that already denotes that you know what you're doing because we are problem solvers. That's what we do. We help people to solve problems as coaches. We help people to get unstuck. We help people to overcome challenges and obstacles. We help people to shift their mindsets.
The first thing we need to do before we can help them is find out what that gap or pinpoint or sticking point is. So great thing to just put in your back pocket as a question. What is the gap? Right? Find the gap and fill it. Find the gap and fill it. You're be doing this in these types of opportunities, maybe with like bigger organizations, but you're also gonna be doing it with your one-on-one clients. Find the gap and fill it.
Write that down, make that your mantra for 2025. Where is the actual gap for these people? Because so many coaches are creating programs and solutions for problems that their people don't actually have or don't have yet. What's the actual pain point they're struggling with right now and how can you meet them there and how can you help them move through that? So that's a really important and.
to keep in mind, I think, as a business person. And it's also directly connected to this whole showing up with confidence piece, because you don't need to show up with the solution. You need to show up with the right question to be seen as successful and confident and as an expert. So remember that, please. Ask the right question. What's the gap and how can I help you to fill it? Okay, all of these things are connected to showing up with confidence as though you are already a successful coach. And all of these things, I hope you can see.
Wendy (29:47.404)
are directly connected to you making the money that you need to make to survive as a coach. They're directly connected to your bottom line. So I want you to have a think about this. Am I showing up this way or is this something that I need to work on? And if something that you need to work on, please do the work. This is the type of thing that a community like the BBB can really help you with that.
Having a coach like me in your corner can really help you with. So if it's something you're struggling with, but you are bound and determined to be part of that 18 % that succeeds as a coach, I wanna help you. You can find all the information about the BBB at wendymcallum.com forward slash BBB. You can send me a DM, send me an email. I'm happy to meet with you at any time. Join the next open house. Come and join us and let's build your confidence and expertise together. But don't forget, you already have it.
You already have expertise. Don't fall into this trap of thinking that you don't just because you're a new coach. Own that and I promise you it will pay off.
