Do You Need A Success Coach?
If you have goals you’ve not yet achieved or dreams left unfulfilled, a success coach might just be the answer. When one of my best friends hired a success coach, it seemed like a crazy idea. What a waste of money, I thought to myself. But when her real estate business went through the roof, in the middle of a recession, I had to reconsider my initial bias.
Many of us tend to be penny wise and pound foolish. If investing in a coach can make us more effective, more productive, then the return on investment (ROI) might be very high indeed. For $125 a month, I began meeting with her success coach. He put me in touch with a consumer advocate who recognized that my mortgage was an unethical ‘neg am’ loan. I had never even heard of such a thing and would not have known I had any recourse—but my success coach knew all about it. This one connection will save me tens of thousands of dollars over the next 20 years. That right there justifies keeping this success coach around for years to come!
My success coach helped me create a life plan. I went to him hoping to develop strategies for earning more money. He quickly identified my relationship with my young teenager as my real priority and we channeled my efforts there. “Nothing will cost you more in the long term than neglecting your vital family relationships,” he explained. “People neglect their kids who end up in $40,000 drug treatment programs.” Penny wise. Pound foolish. He immediately cut my daily working hours in half. Then we identified those critical few things I could do that would bring the highest ROI of my time.
You should also know that many “upline sponsors” in direct selling companies will offer free coaching to their downline team. Why? Because increasing the bottomline of those on their team increases their own bottomline. Leaders understand ROI – isn’t it time you did?
What do Success Coaches offer:
Resources – Coaches bring resources that you may not have or may not have thought of, because they have so many connections in various fields. As in the case of my coach, who was able to connect me with a consumer advocate. He also bought me the best relationship book I’ve ever read—an obscure book I never, ever would have found on my own!
Accountability – Your success coach has a vested interest in your success. He or she recognizes that if you do not get a great ROI, you will fire them! It will hurt her pocketbook and his reputation. So your coach will hold you accountable to specific goals and timeframes. For me, just knowing that I am paying someone $125 to help me set and achieve my goals, motivates me to actually achieve them. Again, this may sound like a “waste” of money. But we need to think ROI.
Think of sports teams. The fact that they are accountable to one another and most of all, to the coach everyone wants to please, is what drives their success. When you work from home, especially if you are in a solo business, the accountability a success coach can bring is truly priceless.
Fresh Perspective – When you work from home, it’s easy to lose perspective. You get locked into one way of seeing and doing things. You don’t have co-workers to bounce ideas off of and your isolation becomes a trap. Or you get caught up in the small stuff, the busy work that’s easy to do and avoid the big intimidating stuff like calling on prospective clients.
Motivation – Having worked at home successfully for 20 years, I can tell you one of the toughest things is staying self-motivated. The truth is, working from home can sometimes be very lonely. It’s easy to let loneliness deteriorate into lackadaisical.
Unless you have a specific outside deadline, it’s hard to find the motivation to stay on task. This is the #1 thing my success coach has helped me with! I’m motivated to accomplish specific tasks before my monthly meeting. When we meet, we set out my goals and strategy to achieve them. Then I’m motivated because I know my coach will applaud for me and acknowledge my accomplishments. Then he’ll help me stay motivated to set and achieve new goals for the coming month.
Some of my favorite coaches include:
Kimber King – coaches her Isagenix clients for free; provides paid coaching for those outside her business. www.kimberking.com
Susan Sly – Provides free coaching for Isagenix distributors on a daily call that is incredibly inspirational. Highly, highly recommended. She also provides paid coaching for non-Isagenix clients. www.stepintoyourpower.com
Dani Johnson – one of the top MLM trainers in the country provides paid coaching. www.danijohnson.com
