Table of Contents
Are You a Coach?
This text is aimed mainly at strength and conditioning coaches and all the other people in coaching business who struggle with bad clients. By bad clients, I mean the clients that don’t respect their time, their advice and themselves. The clients who don’t show up on time, don’t pay on time, cancel, reschedule and question the coach every time they get valuable advice. The clients that show their dominance by disrespecting the coach.
The article is intended to induce a change of mindset of a typical coach. During the COVID era, it might be very easy to lose your own self-worth as due to decreasing number of clients and all the restrictions going on around, some of the coaches have quit and decided to change their occupation, some of them lowered their price and started attracting and accepting pretty much anyone which usually doesn’t end up well.
️Do Not Waste Your Time on People That Are Not Willing to Commit
If you want to bring great value into your clients’ life, you need to understand that those people must do their work.
If they are not willing to pay, not willing to work, if they doubt the process – they are not the clients worth your coaching.
Success requires sacrifice in form of money and time so stop wasting your time on people that don’t deserve you.
At the time of writing this article, a pack of Marlboro’s costs approximately 12 pounds. 12 pounds a day sums up to 360 a month. Even people living off benefits can afford cigarettes yet some prospects try to tell you that they want to increase their knowledge and improve their coaching skills so they can work with better-paying clients which in turn improves their income and quality of life but they are not willing to invest.
Seriously?
So…these people want to double or triple their income for life, they schedule a mentoring call with you knowing that it’s a V.I.P. offer but they’re telling you that they don’t want to invest a one-off payment to work with you 1-on-1 for the following 12 weeks?
Then let me be straightforward with you.
Why that fuck are you wasting your time?
You, as a coach, have to be committed and your clients have to be committed. If they can’t afford it, let them know that it’s ok and offer them instalments. If they still can’t afford that much, instead of lowering your price straight away, try to make some business. This is very simple. Lower the price in exchange for testimonials, references and recommendations, in exchange for bringing you a couple of clients or in exchange for resigning from a part of service.
If your client is strong, you will probably be better out training him for less than not training him at all as they can recommend you to other lifters but make sure that they give you the testimonials, references or recommend you to other prospects. You can also film a couple of session with them and use it as a promo on social media and it works quite well.
️Believe You Deserve the Best
If you want to be the best, you have to work with the best. Everybody needs to start somewhere and that’s understandable but you gotta set the boundaries.
If you want to work with advanced Olympic weightlifters, you have to stop accepting cookie-cutters trying to lose 5 pounds of weight!
…then what do I do if I get approached by people that are willing to pay but have different goals?
You refer them to someone else. Period.️
Remember that if you want to attract people that fit within your business plan, you have to actually work with them in the first place. If You want to be a specialist, an expert. If you are an MMA coach and you want to work with MMA fighters preparing for the nationals, you don’t just accept every single person as your client because, in no time, you will realise that you are surrounded by people that do not fall within your scope and you will end up as just another personal trainer that makes people lose 5 pounds of weight.
Specify who you are, who do you help and through what means do you help. Do it your way, know your value and know your dream clients. If you want to be a successful coach, you have to be sure what do you do and stick to that.
Do It Your Way
Stop copying others and promote your own style and start being yourself.
Would you want to work with a coach that pretends to be someone else?
Exactly.
Neither would I.
If you want your clients to be honest with you, you gotta be honest with them. Be yourself, be open to them, be honest with them and most importantly – speak to them as if you were speaking yourself!
You need to understand that you don’t succeed just by copying internet “celebrities”. You succeed by building your personal brand and it takes years. If you want people to know that you are good, you have to not only be good but also show that you are good and you can do it through posting, going live, paid ads, attending meetings and helping others. You need to gain knowledge and experience in the first place and then show the world what you can do. You will never become a famous and respected coach just like that. You need enough exposure and you have to work on that exposure by making people interested in your content and the only way to do that is to provide valuable content.
Summary
Plan your business, decide who do you want to work with and stick to that. Do not lie to others and expect them to be honest with you. Treat them as you would like to be treated. Be yourself and allow people to see who you are. They are not only interested in your coaching methods but also in your personality. If you are to become their mentor, let them get to know you first and make sure that they like you and you like them.
P.S. A little bit of daily or even weekly meditation can also help your clear your mind and deal with stress.
