When was your last epic fail?
What did you learn from it?
I had an epic fail last year that taught me a lot. A lot about who I was at the time and a lot about who I wanted to become.
It showed me the lies that I was believing. It demonstrated how those lies were impacting my business and the people I was supposed to be helping. And it’s how I learned, on accident, that I didn’t have to believe them.
I wanted to share these lessons with you, so that you can start recognizing the lies you’re telling yourself.
I had decided that I wanted to apply for acceptance into the Master Coach Training program at The Life Coach School. I didn’t want to use savings or debt to pay for the program, so I decided I would fill my practice to pay for it, something I had never done up until that point.
A full practice for me would have been twelve paying clients. I needed ten paying clients to pay for the Master Coach Training. At the time, I was coaching just one paying client, who was about to finish up her program. I was in the process of building a whole new program, but I didn’t have any of the content finished yet. All I had was an outline.
Because I wanted to start all twelve on October 1, I gave myself until then, or about three weeks, to recruit those twelve. Based on history, it was a completely impossible goal. I hadn’t even sold twelve clients in the previous twelve months combined, let alone twelve in less than a one-month period.
But I wanted SO BADLY to go to that training. I first came up with a list of twelve people that I knew I could help with their money lies. And I invited them to a free coaching session. I would later extend that offer beyond those first twelve, but those are the people that I most wanted to help, so that’s where I started.
I did fully believe that I could help the people that I invited. However, I did NOT believe that I could convince them I could help them. I did not believe I was any good at selling. Rather than wait until I did believe it, I changed the circumstance.
The circumstance that I changed was the terms of payment. I offered them three months of weekly one-on-one coaching. I would help them work on their money mindset, so that instead of hiding and being stuck, they could help the people they were meant to help. In order to sell them on the program, I decided to let my coaching sell itself. I offered a VERY easy payment plan. They paid $0 down and just needed to pay a very nominal amount each month. They would pay the remainder at the end of the program, BUT ONLY if they truly wanted to and able to.
My thought process was by allowing them to pay at the end, it gave me permission to sell without worrying about the money objection. I could rely completely on my confidence in my coaching and skip the hard part of selling.
By the end of the three weeks, I had just three spots left, which I filled the following week. I had done it!! I had filled my practice and I had done it in less than thirty days!
What a win! I was ecstatic!
Fast forward to the epic fail. My epic fail was that I didn’t raise the money that I had wanted for the Master Coach Training. Of the twelve people, only two paid in full, three made partial payments. But as it turns out, my Master Coach Training application didn’t get accepted, so I guess I actually came out ahead. I raised more money than I might have had I not tried and I ended up with more money because I didn’t have to pay for the training. I guess you could say I held my own training.
Because the lessons I learned from this “experiment” were monumental for me. They were probably even more valuable than the payments I would have received. If you can learn even one of these lessons from my experience, it’s worth the time it took me to share this. Here are ten lessons I learned, in no particular order:
Lesson 1:
I learned that I didn’t want to build a business model by offering my clients the option to pay at the end of the program. I realized about halfway through my program that I was de-incentivizing my clients’ brains to succeed. Put another way, I was incentivizing failure.
Think about it this way. If you succeed, you pay. If you fail, you don’t pay. So, it’s almost as if you lose that money by succeeding. But, hey, if this doesn’t work, you don’t have to pay me. The motivational triad tells us that our brains will be more motivated to not pay. Less work, less pain (money), no loss of pleasure.
Lesson 2:
I had other fails along the way, which combined with the epic fail of not getting fully paid, proved that I can fail and still move my business forward.
Lesson 3:
I demonstrated that instead of just thinking about what to do, it really is better to actually do things. Even if I don’t know what I’m doing. Before that, I was thinking more than I was doing, which was not growing my business. I know you’ve heard this before, but keep taking massive action.
Lesson 4:
It me understand that what more experienced coaches had told me was really true: THERE is not better than HERE. There are problems no matter where you are.
Lesson 5:
I proved to myself that I can fill my practice, even though I had no idea what I was doing. News flash: so can you!
Lesson 6:
I can do my business my way and get result. Prior to that, I had a lot of thoughts like, “This is not the right way” or “They would not approve of me changing the circumstance”. It helped me realize that I can try anything and gain something from it. There’s no right way or wrong way to build my business, because it’s my business.
Lesson 7:
I proved that I can figure it out. I learned that what Marie Forleo says is true, “Everything is figureoutable.
Lesson 8:
I have to talk about my business, what I do, how I help. I have to keep sharing the power of coaching, especially when it comes to money. It’s such a touchy topic – who else can people talk about money with?
I can think about my niche and offer all day long, but until I actually talk about it and sell it to someone, I’m not building my business. Which means I’m not helping coaches get past their money drama. Which means they’re not helping people. Which means people are suffering.
Lesson 9:
I learned that I’m capable when it comes to selling. Stripping away the drama around selling, by letting them pay at the end, helped me see that I can sell what I believe in and I can believe in what I’m selling. Especially when what I’m selling is me.
Lesson 10:
Keep moving forward, no matter what. It doesn’t matter if I do it wrong. It doesn’t matter if I fail. It doesn’t even matter if it’s a waste of time. The biggest lesson I learned is that “experiments” move me forward.
All of these lessons came about because I stopped believing the lies about myself, about being an entrepreneur, about making money, about selling my program, and the list could go on and on.
What lies are you believing that are keeping you from building your coaching business?
Let me help you discover the money lies and give you some tips on how to stop believing them. Click below to book your free session:
#DiscoverMoneyLies #YouAreEnough