3 Insider Tips to Choosing the Right Coach for YOU

It’s a fact. The most successful coaches use coaches themselves, particularly in the area of creating and building a successful coaching business. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

If you believe enough in coaching to become a coach, then it would follow you’d hire your own coach to help you achieve your most important goal: your ideal coaching business.

Here’s an interesting twist: Every time I’ve signed up for coaching, I’ve had an immediate surge of new clients. This increased flow of clients always happened before I even began to implement the new strategies I learned from the coaching!

I believe that happens because energetically, when you’re open and willing to invest in coaching, then you attract others who are also open and willing to invest in coaching—through you!

It’s important to spend your money wisely though, which means carefully selecting a coach that will meet your needs and give you the value you’re looking for.

After 14 years as a coach working with many different coach/mentors, I’ve learned some important tips on what to look for when selecting a coach for yourself.

The most important basics are: make sure the coach you select has clear, well laid out boundaries, is flexible when appropriate, and has a track record of successfully helping others achieve what you want to achieve.

And of course, make sure you resonate with him or her—check your intuition.

Other items to look for aren’t as obvious if you’re relatively new to the game. Here are 3 important insider tips to steer you toward finding the right coach for you:

1.  Do they specialize in you?

Choosing a niche works both ways. The more specific a match they are to you, the better.

For example, there are a number of marketing coach/mentors out there that specialize in helping seasoned coaches reach multiple 6 figures. The coaches they work with often have businesses currently bringing in 75k-100k a year.
I’ve seen a lot of newer coaches reason that these coach/mentors must be better, so they invest in their programs, rather than in someone who specializes in helping newer coaches.

Big mistake.

In fact, it’s like taking an advanced calculus course without taking the beginning and intermediate classes. If you’re a newer coach, chances are you’ll be lost, floundering, and less likely to get your business to where you want it to be.

Taking a business from 75k to multiple 6 figures requires different strategies than taking one from zero to 100k.

As attractive as it sounds, life coaches rarely have “their first 5 figure month” overnight when they are starting from scratch, although with the right market, it is possible. It’s just not likely.

The best way to determine who a coach/mentor works with the most is to read her client spotlights and testimonials.

Read between the lines. What results did her ideal clients achieve? Where did they begin before achieving those results? Realistically, are achieving those same results your next step?

Once you’ve determined who a coach/mentor’s ideal client is, make sure that’s you!

2.  Where’s the beef?  
     
Offering coaching programs that leverage the coach/mentor’s time is all      the rage these days. It’s a wonderful way to give clients the value  they’re looking for, and earn the money we deserve for our services.

However, this strategy can be abused. It’s very possible to put together a program that sounds wonderful, juicy and exciting to an unsuspecting coach seeking a mentor, and promote it in a way that dazzles you.

If you don’t know what to look for, you could get caught up in the excitement and then, once you’ve made the investment, discover it’s mostly fluff—without the real substance and solid help you need to grow your business.

So examine a program carefully. How much personal one-on-one time do you actually get with the coach who is making the offer, vs. a “fill-in” coach, group masterminds, teleseminars, on-line forums, and other perks?

There’s no substitute for personal, one-on-one time with your coach, and you need a reasonable amount of that in addition to the rest.

3.  Do they tell you the truth, even when it’s not what you want to hear?

Some coaches can’t stomach being the messenger. They are human, just like everyone else. They have the same fears of rejection, of not being liked or popular, and of course, of losing the sale.

But when a coach puts those considerations above your welfare or the success of your business, it doesn’t serve you.

You want a coach who considers being honest with you part of their job, and values that more highly than personal concerns.

And make no mistake—withholding information that could affect your success is the same as not being honest in this circumstance.

There are some wonderful marketing coaches out there, and now that you have an idea of what to look for, I know you’ll find the perfect one for you!