How To Build A Successful Coaching Practice – Part 1: The Foundational Element

If you’re reading this, my guess is that…

You recently graduated coaching school, and you’re on a mission to change people’s lives…

OR…

You’ve tried hard to build your coaching practice but have yet to see any real traction…

You’re happily serving clients but need many more – or you need to restructure your offerings entirely ’cause you’re just too busy – to achieve what many call the “freedom-based lifestyle”…

You’d like a steady flow of income – that’s the goal – but right now, you’re stuck in a cycle where you have to find new clients every month, and that leaves you with little time for projects that will really move your business forward…

You’ve tried different tactics learned online, but a clear idea on how to bring it all together in a way that really delivers results? That’s just not clear yet…

You might feel a little overwhelmed at the sheer amount of information out there on how to grow your coaching practice and, frankly, wish you could simplify it all and know EXACTLY which strategy is really going to impact your business.

Annoyingly, you’ve noticed that a few people seem to be killing it online with multiple 6- or 7-figure launches. These superstars make it look like soooo easy, but you have a feeling that there’s more to it than meets the eye….

Here’s the thing:

There’s no such thing as an overnight success, and there’s no such thing as magical formulas. If there was, every coach out there would be successful – but that’s not the case, now, is it?

Building a successful coaching practice takes time and dedication.
It takes the same amount of care and devotion as a relationship with your lova’.

If you are yearning to make it work as a coach, you will have to learn the foundational principles of successful business-building.

And this is where most coaches fail.

Coaching is an art – and you may be excellent at it – but being a great coach doesn’t make you a great business mind.

And if you were to look really closely at the peeps who are doing really well in their coaching practice, you’d notice one invisible thing: The Entrepreneurial Spirit.

Now, I want you to notice when I say “Entrepreneurial Spirit” what that brings up in you.
Does that bring up negative or pre-conceived ideas of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? Any negative thoughts about money, marketing and selling?

Maybe you just don’t resonate with the “fake it ‘til you make it” moto or the sleazy marketing tactics ignorant marketers use. Maybe you cringe at the “work around the clock until you burn out” Vaynerchuk style, and you think it’s the only way to succeed, but you’re just not willing to do it this way….

Maybe you’ve watched too many Shark Tank episodes where crushed Souls leave broken, empty handed and humiliated at their failures. Or maybe you’ve seen too many well-intentioned people – good people who SHOULD have succeeded yet fail miserably and gave up (maybe too soon?), which makes you wonder if the entrepreneurial dream is just one more inaccessible goal…

If that’s the case, I want you to set that thinking aside for one moment and read on with an open mind, ’cause I have a fresh new perspective to share that will be immensely useful to you.

As an entrepreneur for the past 15+ years and someone who likes to surround herself with ambitious, driven and heart-centered business owners, I’ve seen and explored the different expressions of entrepreneurship, and I’m here to tell you that there is no “one size fits all.”

There are no rules to follow and often no clear path.

The beauty of the Entrepreneurial Spirit is that its core qualities and strengths are unique to each and every individual; therefore, your expression and embodiment of its genius is entirely yours to discover and play with.

In fact, the more fun you have on this journey and the more in tune you are with your wisdom, creativity and resourcefulness, the more successful you’ll be.

There are, however, key qualities that we want to look for such as resiliency, creativity and consistency. Being able to bounce back after “failures,” to be creative in finding solutions and consistency in our actions, will tip the scale towards success.

Here are some examples of what developing the Entrepreneurial Spirit has looked like for my clients:

For many, developing the Entrepreneurial Spirit meant being more bold and taking more courageous actions, even when it felt scary. It also meant building their inner strength and confidence to go out there and share their message with the world in a powerful way. (You can read some of the many success stories here.)

For others, it’s been about trusting their intuition and letting go of the constrictions of over-analytical mind. Their inner CEO™ invited them to let go of trying to control the outcome and to be more playful, to take things less seriously and to have more fun.

Your inner CEO™ might invite you to trust yourself more and to trust that Divine Intelligence has your back. It might invite you to invest in training, to learn about managing your finances, to master the art of marketing or copywriting. But whatever the invitation is, your inner CEO will show you how to make it work for you and how to express your own genius in a way that is unique to you.

It may invite you to make a deeper commitment to your business, to be FULLY IN (not halfway, not “maybe one day”… FULLY IN, NOW) and to stop procrastinating and do what you know will really move your business forward.

Here’s the good news: the qualities you need to succeed as a coach and entrepreneur are already within you.

And the cool thing? Is that, when you truly know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you have what it takes to create a flourishing coaching practice – or anything that you desire, for that matter- all of the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place, and you’ll see a clear direction forward.

You’ll take one bold action after another, and, a year from now (maybe sooner, maybe later), you’ll look back in awe at what you’ve created.

Caroline, XO

PS: How to Build a Successful Coaching Practice is a special 5 part series. Make sure you sign up to the list to be notified when the next articles come out! (Scroll down for the sign up box.)

2PS: The first group for the beta version of Launch & Prosper is SOLD OUT, and I’m pretty freakin’​ excited (and amazed) at what these entrepreneurs are up to in the world. I can’t wait to share their success stories with you in the coming months.

Learn more about Launch & Prosper