Are you still waiting?
Are you a certified health & wellness coach who’s been thinking about starting your health & wellness coaching business but you just keep nudging it back another week… month… year? Or maybe you’re currently on the outskirts of coaching, selling a nutritional product and using the “coaching” label in some form, but you’re now ready to step into true coaching? Or perhaps you’ve garnered a decent following of your personal health & wellness journey and giving some advice on social media. But while you love sharing what has helped you personally, you realize you could offer so much more if you were a trained coach. I get it. Believe me – I get it. This little board we have in our home is proof that I get it. That hesitancy usually comes down to one of 3 C’s: Clarity… Competence… Confidence.
I’m Dr. Bradford Cooper of the Catalyst Coaching Institute where we partner with current & future health & wellness coaches in moving toward #BetterThanYesterday. So we understand how you’re feeling right now. You’re pondering the idea of moving forward in becoming a coach or starting a coaching business but you’re not… quite… ready. Or at least that’s what you keep telling yourself. By the end of this video, I hope you’re ready to tell a different story.
Speaking of stories, in the fall of 1990, I was in grad school for physical therapy and met a woman with the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen in my life. I remember saying to my classmate Julie “I’ve got to meet that woman.”
But then I didn’t… and still didn’t… and didn’t some more. Finally, a full year later, I stopped stalling, and moved forward to meet this person who would truly turn out to be the woman of my dreams. We will celebrate 29 incredible years of marriage next month and my life has been exponentially better than anything I ever imagined because of the woman with whom I’ve spent the past 29 years.
So what does that have to do with pursuing a career in coaching or starting a coaching business? Far more than you might realize, as those 3C’s I mentioned earlier – Clarity, Competence and Confidence – play a key role in both settings.
Let’s start with Clarity. When I first saw Suzanna, I was – no exaggeration – head over heels. But I didn’t know her. I didn’t realize the depth of who she was as a person, that her incredible smile was simply an outward expression of the most amazing person I would ever meet. Initially, she was just another very attractive woman in a sea of very attractive women at this particular school. So there wasn’t any clarity about the value of pursuing a potential future together. She was – depending on her thoughts about me and what happened with the other 2 of the 3C’s on my end – just a potential option for the future.
Maybe that’s where you are in terms of coaching. It’s one potential option you have available to you among a sea of options. You see coaching as attractive, with a fantastic smile. But, you know, there’s also this other option over here. And then there’s that other thing. Maybe it’s time for you to get some clarity about whether or not coaching is for you at this point in your career. We have a full library of resources here on the coaching channel that may be helpful. Or head over to the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching website, as they have plenty of additional resources. If you’re serious about moving forward, start with clarity about whether the profession is more than just a beautiful smile.
The 2nd C is Competence, something that clearly slowed me down when it came to asking Suzanna out on a date. I’d dated a decent amount during undergrad, but when it came to competence in approaching someone who elevated my heart rate 20-30 points when she walked by, I was sorely lacking in the competence area. Eventually I was handed a gift in the form of having a class together and an excuse to speak with her initially about a different subject on which I was competent, so I did.
When it comes to coaching, you’re not going to have it handed to you on a silver platter like I was. You’re going to have to take purposeful steps to develop your competence in the coaching arena. The good news is that you aren’t required to change your life to start this process. There are many coaching certification programs that allow you to pursue your training very part time in just a couple hours/week, if desired. You don’t need to move, enroll in a university or quit your job. If you’ve established the first C about this career or starting your own business – C #2 is there for the taking.
The final of the 3 C’s is Confidence, something I can fake, but is often lacking more than most realize – and when it came to asking Suzanna out on a date, was running on empty. So I leaned on 2 strategies to elevate this final C. The first was to expand my confidence – wearing a shirt that made me feel confident (MJ) and sitting with supportive friends who help buoy my confidence. The 2nd was to decrease the dependency on confidence – sharing with a few close friends my plans to ask her out. I knew they’d then be pushing me to do so and thus I had not choice but to move forward, confident or not.
I don’t have an MJ shirt to loan you, but if your confidence about moving forward in the coaching realm is less than optimal, perhaps the friends strategy would be beneficial. Talk through your ideas about coaching with a couple of close friends to get their thoughts about your abilities to take the next step. And then, make a commitment that you’re going to move forward by “such and such date” with a couple of those friends. Maybe the friends will talk you out of it. I’m glad mine didn’t 😊
If you’ve been sitting on the fence about your coaching pursuits, consider tapping into the 3 C’s. It could make all the difference. Here’s that plaque that represents our journey heading into our 29th year of marriage. Maybe you’ll have a similar plaque about your coaching career or business if you’re willing to put the 3C’s into practice and move forward.
If you’d like additional resources, you can find an entire toolbox at CatalystCoachingInstitute.com. Plenty of videos here on the coaching channel to help with next steps – especially a few of our new playlists. Here is a great one to look at next if you have a few more minutes to spend with us.
This is Dr. Bradford Cooper of the Catalyst Coaching Institute. Here’s to your “happily ever after” in your coaching pursuits.
