How Open to Success Are You Really?

We’d all like to think we are completely open to success. However, the truth is some coaches are more open than others. Would you like to be a coach who is wide open to success? Read on!

Typically, coaches who think they’re open to success feel as though they’re doing the right things to market and promote their business. They are confident, competent hard workers. Usually they’ve already done a tremendous amount of work on their branding, website, message, and niche.

You’ve Put Out the Effort, So Why isn’t it Working? 

Maybe this has happened to you. Maybe you’ve worked hard, and now you’ve got a few clients, but not as many as you expected. And maybe those clients aren’t paying as much as you deserve to be paid.

Take Marla, for example. Marla just pushed on with her “marketing,” doing the same thing and getting the same disappointing results. Eventually, she got so discouraged she decided that the problem was the field of coaching. “It’s just too hard to create a successful coaching business,” she reasoned. She found others who agreed (you’ll always find them!), and she quit.

Coaches like Marla don’t seek help, because they’re sure they know what they’re doing. They’re sure the problem is the field of coaching.

Or, they may decide to put some feelers out there to a marketing coach. But here’s the problem: they’re still sure they’re doing most things right, and need only a few tweaks. They expect a marketing coach to reveal a change or two that will magically increase their results.

So that’s what they’re looking for, a few tweaks or a big tip. Here’s the last thing they want to hear: You need to go back to the beginning because the foundation you’ve worked so hard to build is weak.

What Don’t You Know about Marketing?

It’s not their fault. They don’t know what they don’t know. The challenge comes when they go to an expert for help with this attitude of certainty—believing they already know. How can they be truly open to wise advice?

It’s like that story about the Zen master who kept pouring the tea when his pupil’s cup was already full. The tea spilled all over the table. The pupil exclaimed “It’s full! No more will go in!” The master said “Exactly. You are full of what you already know. How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?”

The more we can empty our cups, the more open we are to learning what will help us succeed. The good news is, if you’ve read this far, you’re demonstrating the very openness you need to examine your marketing foundation and see why it’s not supporting your efforts.  

Maybe you’re like Marla. You’ve put in the work, but your coaching practice isn’t thriving as you’d hoped. Do what Marla didn’t do: consult a marketing pro, but show up with an empty cup.

Following these 5 tips will help you stay wide open to success:

1. Be humble. Consider that there might be things you don’t know that you don’t know, and that if you learned them, you could see huge results.
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2. Do your homework. Get maximum benefit from a free consult with an expert by checking their website ahead of time. Take the time to read, listen to, or watch what they offer for free. Then you can ask intelligent questions and dig more deeply into your challenges, instead of simply hearing what’s available on their website.
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3. Be curious. If you consult with an expert, be intrigued by what they have to say. Set aside your resistance to change, even big change, and be “all ears,” just for that one conversation.
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4. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to challenge what you hear, as long as it comes from a curious place and not an antagonistic one. If an expert really does know what they’re talking about and can help you, they’ll be able to give you logical, well-thought-out answers that make sense, with stats or experiences to back them up. 
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5. Listen to your intuition. Set aside your resistance, and tell that suspicious gremlin to take a hike. If you’ve done the first 4 steps, and your intuition is saying, “Yes, there’s something here,” go with it.