What I learned from 6 months of having no coach

Transcript

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

For the past six months, I haven’t been working with a business coach or inside a coaching container myself. And I think this is the longest time I’ve ever been since starting my business without working with a coach. In today’s episode, I want to share with you firstly, why I came to the decision to pause being in a coaching container myself. Secondly, the lessons that I learned during that period of time. And thirdly, why I’m now going to be working with a coach again. This episode is for you if you question the value of working with a coach.

It makes sense to start this episode talking about the reason why I decided to pause coaching for a bit. Last year spent a good chunk writing my book and earlier this year I launched my book Intentional Profit. If you’ve been around here for a while, you will know all about that journey.

Also, in the middle of last year, I was in a major car accident. I got rear ended while I was driving on the freeway by a semi trailer truck. And I was really severely injured. And so I was out of work or at least a much, much reduced capacity of how I normally work for a good chunk, if not the second half of last year. And on top of that, I was also going through the process of finalizing my book and of launching my book.

Now, the process of writing and launching a book is a really expensive one, I presume, maybe not if you’ve got a publishing deal, but for me, I was paying my copywriter, my ghostwriter. I paid the publishing house that I use a significant sum of money. I was also working with a publicist, which again is a really significant financial investment.

And I also was doing my book tour and the way that I was running these events, they were running at a significant loss. And even the ones going forward are also running at a loss as well. So you can see that there was a lot of costs piling on top of each other, particularly centered around the launching of the book, but also really relating to the fact that my income was significantly reduced from what it had been and what it should have been during that period of time due to my injury. So we had kind of this perfect storm where my income was down and my expenditure was up. And essentially what happened was I got to a bit of a cash flow crunch within the business. Thankfully, we had savings that we were living off personally, but within the business, being someone that teaches about profit and cashflow, I had to live to my word and reign things in a little bit.

So I made some tough decisions around my team, around delaying a part of the book launch. Around delaying re recording my audio book and around a couple of other things just to get my cashflow back on track. And when I was looking at my expenses, what are my most significant expenses? In fact, I think my most significant expense was my business coach at the time.

Now, usually my coach is my biggest expense that I have in my business at any point in time. And the reason for that is because I value coaching so much. I know that the person who is your right hand person is the one who helps to make you or break you in business. So it’s always been something that I’ve highly valued. However, when you come to a time like this in business, you have to really put all the cards out on the table and make some tough calls. So as I said, I looked at my team, made some tough decisions around the launch. And I also decided to pause working with my coach at the time.

Now I was really thinking it would be a very temporary decision and the months are kind of rolled on past my cashflow. My profit is back on track. My healing journey has come a long way from where it was even six months ago. And so I’m at the point now where I’m really, really ready to lean into coaching again. I have reached out to my previous coach and I’m really excited to be kicking off coaching with her again.

Now, the reason I went back to my previous coach rather than going out and finding a new one is because we have that existing relationship. I trust her. And it really makes sense for me to continue this next chapter with her as my coach. There are times on your business journey where it makes sense to move to a new coach. Perhaps you’ve outgrown a coaching container that you’re inside of, or maybe there’s a new challenge that you need support within your business. But for me, as I said, it was nothing to do with my coach or where I was at on my journey. It was simply a short term decision that I felt that I had to make.

What I wanted to talk about in this podcast episode is really about what I learned during that period of time of not having a coach. And I thought some of this might be helpful for you.

So the first thing that I’ve really struggled with over the past six months or so is that I’ve really missed having someone to bounce with. And I don’t mean bounce with at a high level, because of course, you know, I’ve got my husband, who’s an entrepreneur. I have a lot of very good business friends. I’m in several group chats. I talk to my biz friends every single day, but business friends are not the same as a business coach. The relationship that you have with your business friends or with any of your friends is not the same as a coaching relationship. So they’re your friend for a start, they’re not your coach. And by the very nature of friendship, they’re going to give you biased advice because they’re giving you advice as a friend. They’re not being paid to be there for you, right? And even for me, who is a coach, when my biz friends ask me questions. I’m giving them advice as a friend and not a coach. And also because you’re not being paid, you’re showing up in a different kind of energetic state, right? Like I think about with my clients and I’m like, right, what do I need to do to help them get the transformation? When I’m having a chat with a business friend, it’s, it’s a different kind of connection as a paid coach. My role is to help my clients make money and as a friend, you’ve got a bit of a different angle. So something that I’ve really missed is having that person, a paid professional relationship of someone who I can bounce with. And I know that they are coming up with objective advice. They are coming to me pointing out my blind spots in a way that might be as friends mine. I’ve really, really missed having that person there.

The second thing that I learned during this period of time is that it’s very short sighted not to work with a coach. So, yes, it’s enabled me to get my cashflow and profit back on track, but my progress, particularly in the area. So I hired my coach to really help me focus on creating evergreen funnels, which means that people can go and buy your course at any time, but because I haven’t been working with my coach. My progress on building out these funnels has completely stagnated. While it was a good decision in the short term to get my cash on profit back on track, it’s, it’s really been very short sighted in terms of progressing towards my long term goals and my long term vision for the business.

The next thing that I’ve noticed about taking a break from coaching is there’s been a real lack of accountability. And I’ve noticed that I’ve been playing into all stories. And all patterns, particularly around procrastinating on what is important. Like I said, strategically, one of the big things that I want to be doing in my business is creating these evergreen funnels, but because there’s no sense of urgency around the timeframe on it without that accountability, I’ve been letting it slip to the back burner.

This is one of the great things about a coach. A great coach will hold you responsible for your commitments. They’re going to help you progress towards your goals, helping you to stay on track and keeping you motivated. They’re there to provide encouragement and constructive feedback to get you towards your goals. And without that accountability, you’re not I’ve noticed myself really slipping into old patterns. So I’m really excited to be stepping back into a container again.

The next thing that I’ve really noticed has been lacking during this period of time is the networks and connections and recommendations that come when you’re working with an amazing coach.

So one of the things that my coaches have done for me over the years is introduced me into circles. and their connections. So for example, my coaches have had me come on their podcast. and share my success story of, of working inside their container. If I’m stuck on something, they’ve recommended courses to me. Oh my gosh, you need to go and do this, or you need to follow this person. If I’m looking to hire, often my coach will have someone, Oh my gosh, this person’s amazing. Or do you know who might be someone great to connect with? One of the benefits of working with a coach or in a container is that you have access to their connections and something that I’ve noticed over the past six months is that I’ve really been lacking the growth and expansion of my network. There’s so much power in who people know. And it’s definitely something that I’ve noticed missing in the short term.

Another thing that I’ve noticed is that when it comes to coaching, there is no such thing as a quick fix. So recently ‘ really feeling this gap in my business and this, this need for support and accountability. I went and did a strategy session. I needed to get my energy back on track. I spoke about this on the last episode. So I did this red carpet day or a VIP day, and it was so fantastic. It was such a beautiful way to get my energy, excitement, passion back, but a strategy session and you know, I offer strategy sessions, I offer VIP days and they serve a really powerful role. They absolutely have a space, but a strategy session is not the same as working with a coach. Like in a strategy session or a VIP day, you sit down, you get a fix, you get a strategy, a framework, whatever, but it doesn’t translate into the ongoing work.

It’s different to an ongoing coaching container. So while they serve a really powerful place. It’s not the same as having a coach or someone there going, Hey, how are you progressing with this? Keeping you on track. It’s not the same as having someone there to throw ideas off, to bounce off all the time. These things that I have shared with you today. I’ve shown you a little insight into what I’ve learned from being without a coach. And let me tell you, I am so excited to be stepping back into a coaching arrangement again. I can’t wait to get my focus back, the accountability back, and I’m looking forward to having a professional person to bounce my business opinions off as compared to my beautiful business friends, love you guys, but it’s a different kind of relationship.

This experience of taking a break has been a really good refresher for me about the power of coaching and also about what a good coaching relationship should look like. The coach’s role is to empower and support you, but the client, I also have a very important role to play in a coaching arrangement, which is that the client has to take action because even the best coach can’t do the work for you. And I know coming back into this kind of relationship that it sits on me to show up and do the work as well. If you are listening to this episode and you are thinking, Oh my gosh, I can really see the value of working with a high accountability, high touch point coach.

I’d love to tell you a little bit about my mastermind. Because this is a really fantastic space where you not only have the power of a network and community, but you have me as your coach in an intimate high touch point setting. Inside my mastermind, we have fortnightly calls. But we also have this Voxer, which is an app where we can voice note and text each other. I’m not just chatting to people like, Hey guys, how are you doing? This is a really transformative part of the mastermind container. I am chatting to my clients every day, if not multiple times a day, people can pop in and share something for feedback. They can share that a team members quit and ask for some guidance about what to do next. They’re celebrating their wins. And it’s not just me in there as a coach. It’s the other people inside the container as well, who are jumping in and celebrating and sharing their viewpoints as well. The doors are closing on Friday, the 21st of July. And inside there’s a couple of bonuses as well. You get access to both of my courses, the Profit Academy Foundations, which is my course where I teach. All about business finances. You get all of my templates for budgeting, cashflow forecasting. It is the one Oh one of what you need to know about business finance. And my second course, which is the profit Academy accelerator, which is my all inclusive money mindset course. We are also doing an in person networking lunch so we can all get together face to face, have a really beautiful, abundant and expansive day and take our online relationships to that next level, the power of an in person event.

So if this is piquing your curiosity, go and click on the sales page. You can also send me an email or a DM and we can have a chat about whether this is the right fit for you. But this is a high ticket container. This is not for people who are just getting started in business. This is for people who are ready to create that next level of scalability and change inside their business. If it’s the right fit for you, I’d love to welcome you inside and doors are closing on Friday. So make sure you jump in if you are keen.

So to sum up today’s episode, I’ve just spent the last six months of my business time not having a coach. And let me tell you, I’ve missed it. The main reasons why is because I miss having someone to bounce with. I also learned that it’s very short sighted not to be working with a coach. And the reason for that is There’s been a real lack of accountability and I’ve noticed that I’ve been procrastinating on some things and stagnating in some areas. I also really miss the networks, recommendations, and connections that you get from having a fantastic coach. And I also recognize that there’s a lot of power in having that regular support on an ongoing basis in business. So. Lesson learned.

I’m really excited to dive back into having a coach being inside a coaching container. And if you’d like to have me as your coach, please make sure you go and check out the Profit Masters Mastermind.

Thanks so much for tuning in today’s episode. It’s so great to be back recording podcast episodes again. And I look forward to chatting to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio