Category: Processes

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E#237 Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

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Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

Today we’re talking about crafting irresistible offers as part of my season about business and revenue growth. I want to help you craft mouth-watering offers that make it super easy for clients to buy from you, following a simple process.

There’s a lot to think about when crafting offers, let alone making them irresistible. You might like to check out my previous episodes on the topic, such as Episode 65, Discover and communicate your value, and Episode 205, How to Develop a Magnetic Value Proposition. Both of these do a deep dive into messaging.

But what else matters, and how else can you create an offer that is irresistible, mouth-watering and exactly what your audience wants? These three tips will help you get it right.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Tip 1 – Make it Relatable
* Tip 2 – Make it Valuable and Selective
* Tip 3 – Make it Easy to Buy

Make it Relatable 

When you’re describing the offer, you might find yourself going into technical jargon, being verbose, or fumbling with your words. 

The easier way to talk about your offer is to make it relatable to the person and what they are going through. 

The offer that sells most easily is the one that talks about the specific emotional struggles and then the emotional benefits your audience desperately wants, using their words. 

Remember: your suffering is your story, and your strengths are your solution. 

Here are two examples – a very dry version and a more emotive and relatable version. 

The dry version that uses coaching language: This 6-week program is designed to counteract the energy and sleep challenges that new mothers face and helps them to create a vision and goals that they set for themselves.  

Here’s the more relatable, emotive version that uses typical client language for the same niche: Are you a new mum who is struggling to sleep and feeling anxious? This 6-week program will help you to create simple, practical routines to help you feel calmer, grounded and sleep better so that you can be a happier mum and a great role model.  

Can you hear the difference? 

Make it Valuable and Selective 

Value is in the eye of the beholder. If someone is desperate, ready, willing and able to change, then your offer will be more valuable by default. 

Just this week, a coaching student in my P2P course discussed her market research interview results. She was trying to gauge interest in a coaching program she wants to run, for her niche who wants to achieve some specific outcomes and needs help to develop the habits to get there.  

One person in her niche was desperate to change and lacked confidence that she could do it herself – she said she’d pay $1500 for a program to help her achieve the specific outcomes that the coach had mentioned her niche wanted to achieve. 

The other person she interviewed had the same desired outcome goals but was already doing some of the work herself. She said she’d pay around $500 for the same program – she obviously didn’t place as much value on the support being offered by the program. 

The first lesson is that the offer needs to mention the outcomes and benefits that are meaningful to the target audience (not the features, and not what you think they want). 

The second lesson here is simple – don’t try to make offers to everyone. Target the people who desperately want to change, right now, with your help. They’ll have a greater sense of value around the offer, will be more committed and will likely pay more. 

Not everyone will want, value or succeed with your offer. 

So, be specific about who it’s for, and not for. Be discerning. 

It’s no use trying to sell something to somebody whose heart isn’t in it, who is too busy, or who isn’t quite sure. They’ll more likely try to beat you down on price. They’ll more likely be half-hearted in their approach and get mediocre results. Then they’ll tell people about their mediocre results – or tell nobody about your business.  

You’ll feel like an imposter! And it will affect your reputation. 

On the flip side, if you are targeting people who are the right demographic or niche, who are desperate to solve a problem right now, and are ready, willing and able to do the work, then they’ll most likely succeed, and you’ll get great testimonials that attract more people like them. 

Simple, right? It works. I’ve built multiple 6-figure businesses this way. 

When I hear someone talking about discounts, I immediately think less of their offering. I think about the crazy ads on TV telling me about all the stuff I can buy for next to nothing. 

Make It Easy to Buy 

What makes something easy to buy? 

It solves the problem you’re desperate to get rid of, that you feel is huge, complicated and overwhelming, by taking you through a process that feels easy and simple and relates to the solution or outcome that you want. 

This comes to life in your strategy session, webinar, workshop or other lead magnet where you speak specifically to the problem you help to solve and outline the two or three steps that the client goes through to get to their desired endpoint. 

When people hear that there are three simple steps, they are flooded with relief that there are only three steps, not the thousand that were in their minds. It shows that you clearly understand what they need to do to achieve their outcome, and they’re also confident that you know what works. 

For example you might help “people who are disorganised and want to take back control of their schedule and life.” That’s the appealing webinar you might run. 

Your three-step approach that you talk about in the webinar or workshop could be something like: 

  • Step 1: Define it – Identifying the areas of chaos at work and at home so you have clarity on where and how to start 
  • Step 2: Plan it – Developing a foolproof plan to overcome the key areas so you know exactly what to do and when 
  • Step 3: Do it – Follow a simple, step-by-step schedule to get it done with the accountability and support you need to achieve 100% success! 

See how I’ve used some language that the target audience might use, including the outcomes that each step gives. It sounds like a simple process that makes sense to them – define it, plan it, do it. 

What the coach might actually do in the program is help them create a vision (what needs to change and why), then step 2 is to develop some 3-monthly goals (the plan), and then step 3 is where you support them to navigate small weekly goals and any obstacles that arise. 

In this example I’ve just given, you can see how using powerful words that are meaningful to the client to position the service. Foolproof plan, simple, step-by-step, accountability, support. 

This way of communicating your offer makes it way easier to buy! 

Summary 

Creating irresistible offers comes down to a simple three-step process. 

Firstly, describe your offer simply and clearly using the clients’ typical wording, to address the problem and solution that your offer can help them achieve. 

Secondly, make it valuable by only making the offer to people who are the right type of person – desperate to change, and unable to do it on their own. They’ll place way more value on your offer and be more committed to your program. 

Thirdly, make it easy to buy by describing simply the key milestones that your program will help them to achieve. This is about translating coaching language and methodology into what the client will get out of that methodology as a result, if they do the work. 

Need help crafting an offer? Hit me up on the contact page of my website to enquire about my June intake of private business coaching. 

 

 

 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

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E#236 How to Grow and Scale Your Business with a Virtual Assistant

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How to Grow and Scale Your Business with a Virtual Assistant

How does engaging a Virtual Assistant (VA) help you to grow and scale your business?

By taking over the tasks that frustrate you, or that you’re not good at – like marketing and being consistent online! A VA helps you grow and scale by freeing up more time and helping you get more headspace to focus on your income-earning work.

As the next episode in a series on how to grow your business and revenue, I talk to Kristy Smith, Founder of Virtual Elves, to discuss what types of tasks VAs typically complete, the benefits and value of using a VA, what’s required to engage a VA properly, and how to hand over tasks to a VA among other things.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* How Kristy Smith Started a VA Business
* How VAs can help you
* What onboarding a VA looks like at Virtual Elves
* How to hand over work easily to free up your time and energy

Kristy Smith is the founder of Virtual Elves and has worked with many businesses helping them to develop the strategies, methods and tools for effective outsourcing. She shows them how, with outsourcing, they can scale, grow and be profitable. She is known for her ability to see how businesses can operate in a more efficient way, and for walking business owners through the process. She uses her own business growth, mistakes and lessons learnt to give hands-on practical strategies that can be implemented immediately.

I’ll provide her contact details at the end of this episode!

Virtual Elves started in 2009 with just Kristy at the helm and now boasts an international team of over 50 virtual assistants, graphic designers, web developers and other various contractors.

Kristy is a popular expert in her field for guest podcasts and Entrepreneur education groups such as The Entourage and Her Business.

Prior to founding Virtual Elves, Kristy managed large teams and implemented front office processes and customer service training for private hospitals and 5-star hotels. A mother of two teens, she lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her husband and family.

If you’d like to connect with Kristy Smith and/or Virtual Elves:

www.virtualelves.com.au 

www.facebook.com/virtualelves

www.twitter.com/virtualelves

https://www.instagram.com/kristysmithinc/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/virtualelves/

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#235 3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

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3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

In this current podcast series dedicated to business and revenue growth, let’s talk about three proven strategies you can use to grow and scale your business – even if you’re relatively new to the business and have a few paying clients. Two of these methods discussed today do NOT require you to find new clients – which is often the most costly and time-consuming way of building your business. That means you can improve revenue immediately!

Background

When your business reaches a certain size, you might find yourself working at full capacity in terms of the hours you can physically work or the clients you can physically service in your business.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Upgrading Your Systems
* Changing Your Prices
* Increasing the Offers

You may reach an upper limit of income or find that your start-up business systems (e.g. manual invoicing) are inadequate and time-consuming to manage.

While there are no immediate problems with either scenario, a business that relies solely on you presents a level of ‘risk’.

What happens to the business if you get sick? What if you want time off? And how can you outgrow your expenses and start making a real profit?

These are just three of many considerations that might inspire you to grow or at least improve efficiencies in your business.

There is a saying that goes, ‘If your business isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.’

If you want to grow your business and revenue, there are several options.

Here are three of the easiest options for businesses in the early stages of growth (‘seed’) who have some customers and are ready to expand their reach, sales and profit.

Upgrading Your Systems

Upgrading your systems becomes a relevant growth strategy if you have reached a limit as to how many clients you can see, and therefore how much money you can earn.

Before you consider upgrading, you’d want to make sure you have regular cashflow and enough profit margin to cover the costs you will incur via systems upgrades.

Two ways of upgrading your systems include:

– Getting specialist help (outsourcing) and

– moving away from manual systems into more automated ones.

Either or both of these can free you up to service more clients. Let’s look at each in turn.

Upgrading by Outsourcing

Thinking about the outsourcing, hiring specialist contractors is an easy way to get qualified help when you are busy or need help in a specific area. This is known as a ‘business to business’ arrangement whereby you engage another business to complete specific work or tasks within your business.

It is also helpful if you don’t want the burden of buying and setting up software (e.g. accounting software) and just want someone to do it for you.

If you are considering outsourcing, you might not have the workload or cash flow to employ someone permanently, but they could do some monotonous but important tasks for you, or cope with irregular busy periods, so that your time is freed up to service more clients.

For example:

· Hiring independent contract coaches can be helpful for irregular work e.g.

  • busy periods
  • when you go on holiday.

· Alternatively, outsourcing allows you to hand over specific tasks or regular roles to an expert e.g.

  • virtual assistant
  • bookkeeper
  • accountant
  • marketing consultant
  • IT professional.

I will be talking more specifically about VA’s in the next episode of this podcast.

If you do any outsourcing, you would need to have a formal signed agreement in place before work commences, which clearly outlines the scope of work, specific duties and payment arrangements.

You’d need to have some clear policies in place about privacy, conduct and other things that state your expectations around quality of work and expected behaviour, and procedures to help hand over specific tasks.

Upgrading by Automating Tasks

When you start a business, you’re often doing a lot of things manually. For example:

  • Creating invoices in Microsoft Word.
  • Keeping track of clients in a log book, or an Excel worksheet.
  • Posting your social media posts one at a time on each platform.
  • Manually writing individual, separate emails to your customers, before, during and after programs.

When you switch these manual systems to automated processes and/or use software, you can save yourself a lot of time and mistakes, which frees you up to coach more clients.

Examples include:

  • Using dedicated financial software like WaveApps (free), Quickbooks, or Xero
  • Using a social media scheduling tool instead of manually posting (e.g. RecurPost, HootSuite)
  • Using an email system like Mailchimp or Mailerlite
  • Using a booking system like Calendly or Acuity Scheduling. For more info on these, you can listen to episode #105 Best Essential Business Systems or episode #106 Best Advanced Business Systems.

Increasing Your Prices

When your business reaches a certain level, a very simple strategy to grow your income without any cost to you, or without working extra hours, is to repackage services and/or raise prices.

For example, you might decide to:

  • raise prices by 10% and may also offer a bonus downloadable training course with your program – which raises the tangible value of your services and makes the increase more palatable with only a one-off labour cost, or
  • raise prices by 15% and re-position yourself as a highly experienced specialist in one area of coaching –raising your tangible value, or
  • creating a group coaching model to increase ROI
  • develop a premium (high-priced) specialty service.

There are many pricing strategies to choose from.

Pick the one that best suits your niche, your level of expertise and your business and lifestyle (working hours) goals. Work with a business coach to create the right strategy for you. You might also be interested in my podcast episode #202 Should I show pricing on my website?

Increasing the Options

When you start out in business, you’re often just focusing on doing one or two things well, becoming known, and getting a good reputation.

As you start to get more customers, you will start to see more opportunities to work with people in different ways.

By increasing the number of service options you have, you can grow your business and revenue.

For example:

– A short, DIY program with email support provides a low-cost entry point for people who are interested in working on one small problem they have (e.g. establishing a bedtime ritual for better sleep).

This means you are getting some income for very little live client time and gives them a step into your main program. This equates to more money for less time and effort (note: you would still need to promote this program regularly in order to sell it).

– A 1:1 program is now available as a small group program

This means you are earning more money per session, and also building a community of like-minded people who work with you and connect with each other. They are more likely to want to stay connected.

– Your initial 8-week program is now followed up with a 6-month maintenance program (VIP high-end pricing for individuals or mastermind, or moderate price for groups) or a membership.

This means you are keeping customers longer, earning more money and/or over a longer period, and helping your clients get next-level results after their initial program has finished.

– A higher value program where you add specific resources, a welcome pack, or package up other services or products such as meditation playlists, or a recipe book.

This means you can earn more money in the same amount of time.

One important caveat is this – keep your number of available services to 3 or 4, maximum. Otherwise, you risk entering the paradox of choice, where customers walk away without making a decision as there are too many options or difficulties in making the best choice.

Summary 

When you are coaching enough clients that you hit a ceiling of available time or income, or if you notice opportunities to help clients more or for longer, there are a few strategies you can do to take your business to the next level.

We talked about just three of the options today, including

  • Upgrading your systems
  • Increasing your pricing, and
  • Creating more options for working with you (but not too many).

If you need help developing business and revenue growth strategies to suit your business and niche, contact me to join my private coaching waitlist, which runs for five months in February and June of each year.

My private coaching programs usually sell out within a week of advertising, and you need to qualify to be a part of them. To enquire or join the waitlist, hit up my contact page and I’ll get back to you!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#234 The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

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The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

If you’re racing through your day struggling to manage your appointments and be present with your clients; if you’re stuck in your head worrying if you have enough clients, or whether you know enough; if you’re trying to get a lot done and procrastinating or experiencing overwhelm, then this episode is for you.

I’m interviewing Dr Joel Bennett, PhD, CWP, is CEO of Organizational Wellness & Learning Systems (OWLS), whose mission is to catalyse healthy cultures and communities from the inside out with science. OWLS programs, many tested in clinical trials, have reached over 250,000 workers.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

Dr Bennett’s programs, shown to reduce behavioural health risks and improve the work climate, have been recognized as effective by the US Surgeon General. Dr. Bennett is the author/co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles and seven books, including “The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence” (available for free at www.presencequest.life). He lives in Texas with his wife Jan and relishes mysticism.

If you’d like to connect with Dr Joel, please visit: Becoming present: www.presencequest.life Resilience Coach Training Certification: 

https://organizationalwellness.com/pages/resilience-coach-and-consultant-certification Stress management tools and toolkits:

Toolkits

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#233 Running Pilot Programs for Quick Revenue (and Growth)

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This episode is about running pilot programs for quick revenue (and growth)

Whether you’re starting out in business or thinking of a new service line, it can be tough to break into a new market. 

Pilot programs allow you to test a new service for the first time on a test audience in exchange for feedback but better than that – they are a great way to create business and revenue growth through live customer experience, results, reviews and referrals.  

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Why Pilot Programs?
* How to Create Value in Pilot Programs
* Building Revenue with Pilot Programs

Why Pilot Programs? 

Pilot programs are a low-risk opportunity for you to test and refine your coaching or other program using live feedback from people in your niche or target audience.  

But more than that, running a pilot program is a pre-marketing activity. It is essentially a soft launch that creates visibility, interest, engagement and excitement around your new program. 

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales. 

What I mean is this: by running a test version of your final program, you’re giving people a live experience of what you do, which generates positive feelings and other outcomes (which is what people actually buy – feelings).  

You are showing you care about the customer because they’re helping you to make it exactly what they want and need. 

It doesn’t have to be perfect, and there is far less pressure for you as you work out the kinks and bumps with a willing audience.  

In return, they feel wonderful about helping you and they’re also getting a result in a structured, step-by-step process.  Then, they are going to tell people about what they’re doing – spreading the word for you. 

You can also share wins, photos, insights and progress along the way with your future audience to build their interest and excitement for your next program. 

That means you end up with a refined product that exactly suits your target market – ready to go for a full launch – and with plenty of eyeballs on the next intake of your program. Much more fun than a pile of ads for something you’ve never tried or tested! 

If you choose the right people for your pilot program, you’ll get relevant feedback to improve the final product and glowing testimonials that will attract more people to your business. 

I covered how to get the right people for your pilot program in episode #134 Five Top Tips for Finding the Right Pilot Program Clients. I explained why being selective is important, and how to find the right clients for your pilot program. 

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales. 

Now that we know why pilot programs are great, how do you get people to join your pilot program? Well, you need to create value by communicating the problem you help to solve, and the solution or outcomes people will get by participating. 

How to Create Value in Pilot Programs 

Two previous episodes of this podcast do a deep dive into creating value within the program. 

In episode #154, the Why, What and How of Pilot Program workflows, I talked about how to map out the steps of signing up clients, onboarding clients, and the key steps in delivering the pilot program to those clients, so that you can prepare properly, and then deliver a complete and wonderful experience to your clients that cover all the bases. 

In episode #155, The Value of Pilot Program Content and Emails, I described how to create value for your clients in different elements of a pilot program – basically, how to create value within the content of the program that you can then test with a pilot group! 

Building Revenue with Pilot Programs 

Someone asked me recently – does a pilot program have to be free or can it be heavily discounted? 

The short answer is – it depends on the niche clients, the size and urgency of their problem, their ability and willingness to pay, and the importance of change to them.   

If you think about it, someone with a big, painful, problem that disrupts their daily life will be more willing to pay, pay more, and get help, than someone with a minor problem that has little to no impact on their life. 

Let that sink in for a moment – it’s important. 

How do you feel about paying for something versus getting it for free? Several people have told me that they want to pay me for coaching because then they have skin in the game and will be more committed.  

And on top of that – as the saying goes – nobody wants a free kitten. Because then the question is – why is it free? what’s wrong with it? 

So how do you price a pilot program? Firstly, I think language is important. If you talk about discounting as it devalues what we do as coaches.  

I prefer to say that “this first program as a pilot will cost $X, and future versions will be $X”. This can help people decide to buy now or wait until later.  

Generally, I charge about 1/3 to ½ of the retail price for a pilot program, with a clear requirement for feedback along the way (which includes verbal and surveys). So if it will eventually be a $1500 program, a pilot version might be promoted as a one-time-only price of between $500 – $750. 

Remember that even within a pilot program, the right clients will get incredible value, assuming that you pick a niche, you’re clear on the problem they want to solve, and that the aim/outcome/result is clearly defined and exactly what they’re looking for. That is where the value is created – the old ‘what’s in it for me’. 

People love to help, and they love getting a sense of value (which is simply a function of the results they get – and how important the results are to them – in exchange for their investment of time and money). If they can get a result in your pilot program, they’ll be incredibly grateful and will spread the word. 

This is how pilot programs lead to business and revenue growth. 

Summary 

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales. 

They are more engaging than the more formal and structured forms of marketing, in that they are experiential and give your customers a feeling. After all, that’s what people buy! 

I’ve linked you to two other episodes of this podcast to help you map out the steps, create valuable content, and take your idea to the world.  

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#232 The Work Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

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This episode is about the work habits of self-made millionaires

As a coach, you probably know about the power of keystone habits. But did you know that self-made millionaires share some keystone habits that helped propel them to success? This fourth episode about business and revenue growth highlights the importance of daily health-based routines as a foundation to show up with the right energy, mindset and well-being to achieve success more easily. 

It’s no surprise that being healthy and having healthy routines is the platform for business revenue and growth. 

If you think about it, how you treat yourself and what you do for yourself has a profound effect on your mood, attitude, energy, health, sleep and stress – and your ability to show up and do your work well, even on the hardest of days. And those things directly affect your business and revenue growth! 

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* 5 Habits that Millionaires have in common
* How to get started with your own success habits

So what are the keystone habits that could bring you success? A 5-year study of 233 self-made millionaires and 128 poor individuals by Tom Corely, author of the book Rich, found some common habits that helped them achieve their success. 

This episode is on the edge of a bigger project I am initiating which I think you’ll like – and I’ll reveal more in about a year after I’m finished. 

For now, I will give you a hint about my project – while the points I’m about to mention are keystone habits of a bunch of millionaires – not EVERY millionaire surveyed had all of these habits. And rather than just following this list, I encourage you to come up with your OWN success habits. 

So let’s dive into the list of key habits. 

While you listen, reflect on how many of these do you do. Or, what’s your version of these?  

Reading 

In Corley’s study, 86% of self-made millionaires spent at least an hour reading after work, usually self-improvement books.  Only 2% of the average income earners were doing that. 

I loved this because I start and finish my day by reading. Marketing and business books in the morning, and fiction in the evening, is how I like to roll.  

For me, reading something non-fiction in the morning sets me up with a positive, inspired and focused mindset for the day. Reading non-fiction at night (and sometimes in the morning) helps me switch off from work or get lost in a story when I’m feeling a bit fragile. 

I think the upshot is that reading helps you to feel positive, to grow, to engage in stories, and to separate yourself from the stresses of life. It boosts your vocabulary and helps you relate to others in a similar way. 

If you’re not a reader, you might be into journalling, podcast listener, or e-book listener. Work with your learning style on this one. 

Or if you’re not into any of these – totally ok!   

Exercise 

Consistent exercise was another keystone habit of the millionaires in Corley’s study. 

This makes perfect sense. After a busy day (or before one), exercise gets you up, out of your head and into your body. It helps you to maintain good physical and metabolic health and to release endorphins that help you to feel good.  

During exercise, you get time to reflect, plan, dream, collect your thoughts and step out of the day-to-day stuff. You get a chance to blow off some steam and release tension. 

Exercise helps you to get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, helping you to stay competitive with yourself and perhaps others, too. This obviously helps to build self-esteem. 

Last week I went for a 5km run with a friend. It was tough but there was a sense of ‘instant gratification’ when we finished. In that 30-minute run, I got myself to finish, therefore I got a tangible result (doing the run), and I felt strong, amazing, invincible even! 

Exercise also helps you get into the habit of creating schedules. You also bring in an element of discipline both within the workout and in getting yourself to do the workout. 

Do you exercise? Why or why not? 

How does exercise make you feel? 

What are some of the benefits for you? 

Sleeping 

The Sleep Foundation shares a list of recommended sleep hours for each age group. Adults need 7 – 9 hours per day to function optimally, or at least a minimum of 6.4 hours per day. 

Corley found that the millionaires in his study slept at least 7 hours per night. 

Sleep research shows that sleep gives the body a chance to undergo a tune-up. At different times of night, the body goes through cycles of physical recovery and repair, processing and embedding memories, and mental rejuvenation.  

It’s no wonder that the amount of time you sleep is linked to success. It affects memory, mood, cognitive function and physical health. 

Interestingly, each person’s bedtime is unique, according to their chronobiology. 

How is your sleep? What is the optimal amount for you?  

Thinking Time 

It’s no surprise that most of the millionaires in Corley’s study carved out time to think or brainstorm. We spend so much time in the micro details of each day, that we rarely sit back to reflect on life, our goals, where we are going or whether we are investing time and energy in the right direction. 

Since blocking out thinking time for myself, I have noticed huge efficiencies in the way I work. The realisations and mental links I make in my time out have saved me from spending hours on pointless tasks and making impulse decisions. 

These days, my time out (usually walking, with or without a podcast) gives me ample reflection to get clarity, direction and focus for my next burst of work. 

The Mean of the 5 

Finally, millionaires choose their friends and mentors carefully. They spend time with supportive people who hold space for them, who have experience, and who are calm and not pushy or overbearing. 

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn says you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  

If you’re running a business or just doing life, this could include the podcasts you have in your ears all day, the coach you hire, your significant other, your family, and the people you work with. 

If your people mix is not ideal, you can certainly make focused time with the right people, for enough time each week to keep your mind in the right place.   

This is something I’ve done, and it pays in spades. I minimise the people and social situations that drain me or add no value. I intentionally choose to spend my time with and cultivate relationships with, people who are smarter than me, better coaches, better critical thinkers, and who are thought leaders and knowledge leaders. That way, I know I am putting good fuel into my brain, having impactful conversations and building my mental and emotional energy. 

    Who are you surrounded by? How does that affect your energy? 

    How can you reduce your time spent with the negatives, and increase your time with the positives? 

    The Nutshell 

    While all these keystone habits are great, it is what they create that matters. 

    Effective habits are the ones that help you to feel inspired, invincible, strong, thoughtful, grateful, engaged, in flow, calm, full of zest, rational, creative, de-stressed, and empowered. 

    And why does that matter? 

    Because when you feel like that, you will show up with energy for your business, you will be consistent with the tasks that need it, you’ll be putting your best foot forward, you’ll overcome the hurdles more easily, you’ll be in a growth mindset, and you’ll feel the fear and do it anyway. 

    Summary 

    The habits discussed in this episode are based on a study of 200 people. We covered 5, but there were several more on the list. 

    The real point of this episode is that millionaires are committed to doing the habits that work for them. Their habits aren’t necessarily everything on this list – but their own secret formula. 

    As you reflect on what you’ve heard today, I encourage you to identify the habits that make you feel ready to tackle the world with the energy, enthusiasm and confidence you need to grow your business and revenue. 

    References 

    CNBC Online https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/tom-corley-top-10-common-habits-of-high-achievers.html Accessed 6.2.23 

    Cohen, Jennifer. Exercise is One Thing Most Successful People Do Every Day. https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/exercise-is-one-thing-most-successful-people-do-everyday/276760 Accessed 6.2.23 

    Corley, Tom. Rich Habits Study – Background and methodology. https://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-and-methodology/ Accessed 6.2.23 

    Loudenback, T. 2019. 17 habits of self-made millionaires, from a man who spent 5 years studying rich people. https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/good-habits-of-self-made-millionaires?op=1  Business Insider Website accessed 6.2.23 

    Suni, E. 2022. How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need Sleep Foundation Website accessed 6.2.23  

    https://anchor.fm/dashboard 

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541 

    Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

    Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

    Learn more here:

    Learn More

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    E#231 Annie Braendle on Health and Wellness Coaching with Athletes, an Integrative Clinic and Better Up

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    This episode is about Annie Braendle on health and wellness coaching with athletes, an integrative clinic and better up 

    Are you wondering if it’s possible to work full-time as a coach and earn the income you want? Are you interested in what a portfolio coaching career looks like? Are you interested in coaching athletes? Today’s interview with Annie Braendle answers these questions and many more. Annie’s working with clients in a face-to-face and global online capacity, leveraging partnerships, platforms and her own networks. This is the third in the season about business and revenue growth. 

    In this episode, I’ll talk about 
    * Annie’s Journey to Professional Coaching
    * Running her Own Business
    * Working in Integrative Medicine and with BetterUp
    * Coaching as a Lifestyle Profession

    Background 

    A lot of coaches think it’s not possible to earn a decent income as a coach. There are actually a lot of options available, and when you understand those options, it’s much easier to see the ‘how’ behind your what and why. 

    It’s clear to see Annie’s journey unfold – from pursuing a niche in her own business that aligned with her personal life circumstances to working with a similar demographic at the Change Room, before moving into an Integrative Medical practice and the BetterUp platform. The latter opportunities have reduced Annie’s time spent on marketing and given her a regular stream of clients. 

    This interview shows that coaching CAN be a lifestyle profession, that it is possible to create a viable career, that you can find ways to get variety in your work, that you don’t have to do it alone, and that marketing can be easier when you make the right connections. 

    Summary 

    Annie Braendle is a coach to watch. She is using her skills and strengths, such as her natural competitiveness, to set and achieve goals for herself and build a career that is rewarding, and satisfying and allows room for both personal and professional growth. 

    You can learn more about Annie here: https://sparkcourage.com.au/  

    You can learn more about BetterUp here: https://www.betterup.com/  

    https://anchor.fm/dashboard 

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541 

    Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

    Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

    Learn more here:

    Learn More

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    E#229 5 Quick, Effective Ways to Quit “Busy Working” and Have More Fun in Your Business

    Listen Now

    This episode is about 5 quick, effective ways to quit “busy working” and have more fun in your business

    This episode is the first in a season that focuses on growing your business and your revenue. 

    Are you a small business owner who regularly feels overwhelmed at all the things you must manage every day, every week, every month? Does it feel hard sometimes, and exhausting, and like you’re spinning your wheels? 

    Let’s take a step back and map out five quick and effective ways to significantly improve your work life balance and therefore, grow your business more easily. My goal for you in this episode is to help you have the impact you want in your business, more easily and with less stress. 

    In this episode, I’ll talk about 
    * Creating Clear, Specific Goals
    * Having More Fun at Work
    * Setting Clear Boundaries
    * Cultivating Hobbies (Flow) and Connections
    * Reframing the Day-To-day

    The Backstory 

    When I first started running a business back in 1996, I was a biological scientist who had no idea or experience about the ins and outs of running a business. But working closely with the founder, and being in a managerial role, I intuitively started seeing things we should and could be doing to be more efficient, effective, professional and profitable. 

    For example – not writing invoices out by hand on a pad of paper! Charging clients for photocopying and printing! Developing professional looking stationery and proposal templates!  

    As our client base and staff grew, I found myself flying by the seat of my pants in business, trying to manage all of the little details, and feeling like I was an imposter with no idea what I was doing. This was the dawning of the internet, when emails first came about, and the learning curve was steep. 

    The thing is, no matter when you start a business, it’s full of complexity and challenges that you can’t foresee. 

    For that reason, a huge part of the journey to succeeding without burnout is learning how to trust yourself, and back yourself, so that you can cope with all the curve balls that come up. 

    Right now, think about a time when you totally trusted yourself to be able to cope, to find the answer, to work it out, to get it done. 

    How did you feel? 

    And what’s the consequence of feeling that way? 

    For me, trusting that I knew enough and could cope, allowed me to take my foot off the pedal. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t slacking off – I just quit all the busy work and made more effective use of my time at work. 

    Busy work can include anything that sucks up time for little return.  This is a little avoidance rabbit hole that anyone can go down when they have fears, self-doubt or uncertainty. It’s our brain’s way of keeping us safe – but you often end up feeling like you’re groping around in the dark for an answer, and this creates more fear and uncertainty because you’re not doing anything concrete that’s getting you traction. 

    So what does busy work look like? It includes things like constantly checking emails or your social media profile, making website edits, poring over blogs, doing more courses, trying to perfect your elevator pitch, and anything else that gets in the way of marketing and servicing clients.  

    After all, it’s marketing and giving clients an exceptional experience that creates a profitable, viable and sustainable business. 

    So, what can you do to eliminate busy work, time-wasting or low ROI activities so you can enjoy your work, do it more effectively, and therefore improve your business growth, client base and revenue? 

    I’m going to share 5 things that have worked for me. And because of doing these things consistently, I now work fewer days and hours each week, I have greater clarity and focus on what needs to be done and where I’m going, and I work more effectively and efficiently.  

    Creating Clear, Specific Goals 

    It sounds like a no-brainer, but a lot of my business coaching clients have not set any specific targets for their businesses. 

    When you are really clear on the outcomes you want to realise in a specific time period, and the steps required to get there, it helps you to manifest the outcome.  

    How? Firstly, because you better understand the level of effort required to meet the outcome goal. Secondly, having specific outcome goals allows you to reverse engineer them to define the smaller milestones and actions that need to be taken, and in the right order. Go back to episode #227 – 90-Day Business Planning – for more info on how to do this. 

    In short – creating clear, specific goals and reviewing them regularly helps you decide in advance what you’re going and how you will get there, so you can then just follow the plan. 

    That is a MUCH easier way to work than trying to make it up as you go, or doing it on the fly. 

    Having More Fun at Work 

    I want to illustrate this point with a client of mine, who we’ll call Toni.  

    Toni was struggling in her coaching business with making videos and doing FB lives, as part of her marketing. She really wanted to do videos as she was good at talking, but she was super nervous about it. Wanted to be perfect. Did 100 takes of every video. Wanted me to review all the scripts she had written. 

    She kept telling me how hard it was. She told herself she was no good at it. These statements she kept making created and reinforced some limiting beliefs. 

    In one of our sessions, I asked her how she could leverage her strengths and make it more fun. 

    Toni found her solution. She realised that showing up nervous and fussy was creating a negative energy in her videos. They looked as awkward as they felt.  

    Toni decided that she would find a way to have fun with the videos and to show up with confidence and conviction. 

    It was as easy as tapping into her bigger ‘why’ – her passionate advocacy for women and women’s health.  

    As soon as she approached her videos with that energy, the words flowed. There was confidence in her voice. And funnily enough, her fears melted away and she started to look forward to recording videos! 

    And suddenly, this shift in energy created enquiries and engagement with her videos. 

    Just as importantly, Toni no longer spent hours preparing and perfecting scripts, worrying about the perfect lighting, hair and makeup. That was her busy work, and she let go of it, instead showing up with confidence and professionalism, on a mission to change the world.  

    This one shift saved her about 6-10 hours per week and she started sleeping better, feeling more energized and showing up with confidence. 

    Another coach I know decided that she didn’t like long, boring written business plans. She found them tedious, so didn’t do them. But not having plans was impacting her work. 

    Being a creative person, she decided it was more fun to create a one-pager with coloured bubbles highlighting her key goals, marketing processes and packages for the year. This was a fun way to plan, and it resulted in more ease, flow, clients and revenue. 

    Now she looks forward to planning and sees it as a creative process that allows her to have fun in her business. 

    Where can you have more fun at work? 

    Having fun creates flow, which helps you to feel just the right amount of challenge, play to your strengths, be more present in the moment, and experience positive emotions.

    Setting Clear Boundaries 

    If you are working from a place of fear, lack, uncertainty etc, then you might find yourself falling into the trap of working late, working weekends, seeing clients on any day or at any time, and being constantly on your marketing channels looking for leads. 

    This is ends up being a bunch of energy leaks that leave you feeling unfulfilled, drained and disheartened. 

    The better way is to set clear boundaries around your time. It might feel hard at the beginning, but that’s your brain trying to tell you that more time at the desk equals better outcomes. 

    We all know that’s a lie! 

    Having boundaries changed so many things for me. A few years ago I stopped working weekends, set a clear cut-off time on weekdays, and this year am only seeing clients and having meetings on 3 days per week as this allows me time to recharge my energy. 

      Now I’m actually making more money with fewer meetings and clients than I did previously. Most importantly, I feel calm, centred and energized.  

      That’s because having clear boundaries has allowed me to do more outside work to balance my intense focus of the day. 

      Imagine working without guilt or fear, knowing you have done enough, and having the time and energy to decompress and recharge. 

      It is a game changer. 

      It changes the way you show up to client meetings – calm, present, confident, assured, and professional. It changes the way you sleep – soundly and completely without a monkey mind. 

      And you love going to work each day, knowing that your way of working helps you to feel like this. 

      Cultivating Hobbies (Flow) and Connections 

      Leading on from the last point, creating time outside work means you have the time to cultivate hobbies, social connections and other flow activities. 

      Those types of things meet your needs in those other areas that are essential to your wellbeing.  

      I also believe that creativity is the opposite of stress. When you have creative flow in your life, it counterbalances the demands in your daily work. 

      On top of that, research shows that people with more hobbies end up at the top of their professions. The more diverse their experiences, the higher they go. I will share more of this exciting research in a future podcast!  

      Reframing the Day-To-Day 

      One last point is to keep watch over your mind. 

      A lot of the time, having a tough time at work is related to what you’re thinking, or in other words, the sentences you say to yourself each day. 

      When things get tough, the negative thoughts come out, and they create a downward spiral. They take up valuable time, space and energy. 

      By catching your thoughts each day, you can reframe them to change the conversation you have with yourself and with others, to make work more pleasant and enjoyable. 

      Here’s an anecdote. I recently started back at the gym after a long break. The long break was because I had a billion excuses not to go, and why I didn’t like it. 

      This thinking made it impossible for me to get there. I never found the time. 

      But then I changed the conversation I was having with myself, and I started looking forward to the gym. Now I seem to find lots of spaces in my calendar for the gym and I am desperate to fit it in. 

      One of the conversations was about becoming the strongest I can be at 51, to be a role model for other women of my age. To apply my love of challenge to see what is possible.  

      Another example is marketing. Years ago, I would say that I hated marketing. I was no good at it. It was hard. Guess where that got me? 

      Then one day I realised some important things. That marketing is a coaching conversation. That marketing is a creative activity. That marketing creates connections and offers hope and leads to services that offer real, tangible change.  

      Now I love marketing. I became curious about it, and it is one area that I research deeply on an ongoing basis because it’s so closely intertwined with both psychology and creativity.  

      What are the negative things you say to yourself? 

      How could you reframe those to totally change the game? 

      What will the benefits be of those reframes? 

      Summary 

      Sometimes work can feel like a grind. It can be hard or scary, and that can generate negative thoughts, feelings and a propensity to do busy work. All of that saps energy and affects your professionalism and presence as a coach and business owner. 

      But there are five things you can do to make work more enjoyable: 

      • Create clear, specific goals so you have a clear roadmap of steps 
      • Find ways to have more fun at work, to improve the way you show up 
      • Set clear boundaries, so that you get enough time off to recharge 
      • Cultivate hobbies and connections, so you can get into the flow, and meet other needs 
      • Reframe the day-to-day, catching and changing unhelpful thoughts so you can be your best every day 

      One last thought – don’t expect every day to be perfect, amazing and wonderful. Shit happens. Negatives are a part of life. 

      But if your day-to-day focus is on cultivating good, positive, fun and light-heartedness, you’ll be more resilient and better equipped with the inevitable curveballs in business and life. 

       

      Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

      Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

      Learn more here:

      Learn More

      Posted on by

      E#227 90-Day Business Planning

      Listen Now

      This episode is about 90-day business planning

      Are you struggling to get organised and stay focused in business, procrastinating, or simply feeling a bit stale? Developing a 90-day Plan is the secret to staying on track, fired up and productive. In Episode 5 of this podcast, I helped you create a foolproof 30-day plan. Today, I’ll reveal how I do one of the bigger picture steps, and how this helps me get more done, more effectively and efficiently. 

      Why a 90 Day Plan? 

      You might be wondering why a 90-day plan matters, and why not just a one month, or one year, or five-year plan? Or do you even need to make all these plans? 

      In this episode, I’ll talk about 
      * Why a 90-Day Plan?
      * My 3-step, 90-day Planning Framework
      * 30-Day Plan

      I consider myself to be a good planner, but for a long time, I planned mostly for other people and less for myself. 

      While I was getting some good results in my business and life, I found that by planning, my productivity, efficiency and effectiveness went to a whole other level. 

      I went from dithering around checking emails and wondering which task to start, getting scrambled and switching from task to task, to a very focused workday with clarity, clear focus and execution through the use of planning. 

      As a result, I was able to 10x my output, smash procrastination, create consistent revenue and achieve my goals more easily. 

      Saying this aloud sounds like a sell job – but I’m not selling anything except the benefits of good planning.  

      The 90-day plan is a subset of your bigger plans, like your 5-year, 3-year and 1-year plans.  

      The reason you create 90-day plans each quarter is so that you are super clear on what you are aiming for in the next little while, and all of the steps required to execute and achieve those outcomes. 

      But the REAL value of a 90-day plan is that you get to map out the medium-sized steps so that you can schedule enough time for the smaller steps within. 

      Think of it this way. You start with your vision, which is the outcome you want to achieve. That sounds easy in the big picture. But as you drill further down into the individual actions that you need to take to get there, you end up going from a simple vision statement into a long to-do list. 

      In other words, if you work backwards from an outcome, the planning tends to become more and more detailed as you get closer to the current date, and the number of tasks tends to balloon out into a huge list. 

      That’s why I think it’s good to keep your bigger-picture goals and your 90-day planning very simple and focused so that the weekly to-do list you’ll use to get there is achievable, not overwhelming, and very clear and possible. 

      My 3-Step, 90-day Planning Framework 

      Step 1 – Map Out One Year 

      Every financial year, create a 1-year plan. For each quarter in that year, establish one key outcome that is a milestone towards your longer-term vision.   

      These higher-level plans should be simple, less detailed, and focus on one key thing. This is the secret to your success because doing it this way feels less onerous. What I mean is, that it gives you a feeling of flexibility to make changes during the year as needed. 

      Also, rather than bogging yourself down with 1000 things to do and feeling overwhelmed, you feel 100% in control and organised if you just add the right amount of detail to the next 90 days ahead. 

      What I’ve noticed is that when people write super detailed 1 – 3 year plans with specific actions for every month, they feel like they can’t change it, or it feels to overwhelming, and they give up. I have never seen anyone succeed this way. 

      For example, my overall purpose is to bring the impact of coaching – and especially the skills of critical thinking and self-responsibility – to the world. 

      As part of my bigger 5-year plan, my one-year goal for this financial year is to establish a certain % of leverage in my business, so that I can work fewer hours, work more effectively, maintain my income and help many more people to become empowered and take charge of their health. 

      I have then mapped out one key milestone for each quarter, that will be broken down further in my 90-day plan. 

      See how simple that is? 

      Here’s what that might look like. 

      Your one-year outcome goal might be to secure three corporate clients who buy a package of health and wellness coaching programs or services for their organisation. 

      Let’s break that down into a single outcome for each of the four quarters. And let’s assume you are starting from scratch in your business, with a few existing relationships in the corporate space. 

      In the first quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to complete the research required to develop the framework of your offerings and develop the framework.  

      In the second quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to develop your sales strategy and content for your corporate wellbeing strategy and program, and you’d be getting opinions from people in your target market along the way (co-creating) to make sure it’s what the market wants and sees as valuable. 

      In the third quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to develop a marketing campaign based on core strategies and tactics, and then, start implementing the campaign. 

      In the fourth quarter of the year, your outcome goal might be to convert prospects to leads and leads to sales according to the sales strategy and tactics you outlined in your campaign.  

      In this example, and assuming you were starting from scratch and had some people in your network, if you were to focus on these four outcomes in this sequence, then you have done what is required to secure three paying clients. 

      This is just an example, but hopefully, it gives you an idea of how to map out the steps. Best of all, you have only laid out a high-level outcome for each quarter, so you have plenty of flexibility to change things if your circumstances change. 

      Step 2 – Map Out the Next 90 Days 

      Just before the start of each quarter, create your plan for the next 90 days.  

      Start by defining the outcome for that quarter. If you’ve completed the one-year planning step I just mentioned, then your outcome for Q1 could be copied straight across from that 1-year plan. 

      Write that outcome at the top of your page. 

      Now, break it down into an outcome for each month. 

      Let’s use the example we just discussed. Let’s say that your 90-day outcome goal is to complete the research required to develop the framework of your offerings, and then develop the framework based on your research. 

      You’ll start by creating an outcome goal for each month. These are high level outcomes that describe what you need to achieve each month in the quarter to reach the 90-day outcome. 

      • Month 1 might be: Complete 20 hours of research 
      • Month 2 might be: Map out the core components of your corporate well-being strategy, programs and sales process based on your research. 
      • Month 3 might be: Develop the outline of your corporate well-being strategy and programs. 

      From there, you break the first month down into a 30-day plan. 

      30-Day Plan 

      Now that you know the outcome you want to achieve for your first month of the quarter, let’s map it out in smaller steps so you can schedule them. 

      We break the first month of the quarter into weeks, then describe actions to be taken in each week. You’ll notice here we are no longer talking about outcomes, but actions. Make sure you allow enough time for each action. 

      In our example, we discussed the Month 1 goal of completing 20 hours of research (toward developing your corporate wellbeing strategy and program, and sales cycle).  

      You might think this sounds like a no-brainer, but as you unpack this, you’ll find there’s more to the task than meets the eye. 

      Ask yourself some questions like – what sort of research will I do? Where do I need to look? Who would I refer to? 

      Then you’re clearer on how to allocate those times, and what the tasks are.  Here is an example of how it might play out, based on the example I’ve described already: 

      Week 1 of Month 1: Schedule in your diary: 

      • 1 hour to develop a project plan where you will keep track of your research, outcomes and processes, 
      • 1 hour to identify similar competitors and write notes,  
      • 1 hour to review legislation or guidelines, and  
      • 30 minutes to list 3 people you could speak to about their experience with corporate well-being strategy and programs – then reach out to them to book a catch-up. 

      When it comes to legislation or guidelines, some industries are regulated or work with specific codes of practice, so you’d want your program to be aligned with those. 

      Week 2 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

      • 3 x 1-hour meeting times with contacts you reached out to in week 1. 
      • 2 hours to reflect on and document your findings. 

        Week 3 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

        • 4 hours to research competitors online and make notes about their processes, promised outcomes, fees, where they promote online, their target audience, types of messages they use, which posts/messages are getting the most engagement 
        • 1 hour to speak to governing bodies on the phone about their codes of practice and any new legislation. 

        Week 4 of Month 2: Schedule in your diary: 

        • 1 hour to review your brand guidelines and business position 
        • 2 hours to map out a draft corporate well-being strategy 
        • 2.5 hours to map out your corporate well-being program or programs 
        • 1 hour to map out the sales strategy you will use. 

        As you can see, we’ve fleshed out all the tasks within the 1-month goal across 20 hours and created scheduled, bite-sized steps that will lead to the achievement of that goal. 

        Now you have an actionable schedule of tasks to work through to achieve the goal. If anything comes up that changes the trajectory, you can easily rework your schedule and the tasks. 

        For example, the tasks you complete in week 1 might identify that some of the week 2 tasks are not relevant and need to change, or are redundant. Great! Simply review your outcome goal for the month, and if necessary, change it and/or rework the remaining week’s goals. 

        Summary 

        Today we walked through my simple process of 90-day planning to help you achieve business goals.  

        When people make complex, detailed, long-term plans, they get attached to following them even if things change. That’s why in my method, I intentionally keep it simple and focused on outcomes except for the first month, where you get specific on actions. Doing it this way saves planning time and allows for adjustments to be made.  

        Need help with 90-day planning? Hit me up on my contact page – I can offer a one-off session to help you solve this and get on with your quarter!  

        https://anchor.fm/dashboard 

        https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541 

        Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

        Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

        Learn more here:

        Learn More

        Posted on by

        E#225 Letting Go

        Listen Now

        This episode is about letting go

        This is the perfect time of year to make plans. It’s also the best time of year to let go of things that no longer serve you in your business. We know that 20% of our efforts generate 80% of our results. It totally makes sense to let go of some things, but it can be much more challenging than you think! Today we’ll talk about why it’s important to let go, what the obstacles are, and how to examine and evaluate your business, then execute your decisions without guilt or scarcity, and with full clarity, confidence and certainty that you’re making the right decision. 

        The Pareto Principle – Why Letting Go Makes Sense  

        Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? Named after economist Vilfredo Pareto, it states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. 

        The principle was derived from the imbalance of land ownership in Italy, and it’s often used to demonstrate that not things are equal, and the minority owns the majority. 

        In this episode, I’ll talk about 
        * The Pareto Principle – Why Letting Go Makes Sense
        * What Do You Need to Let Go of in Your Business?
        * Why It’s Hard to Let Go
        * How to Let Go and Feel Good About It

        This principle is very relevant in business. In teams, it tends to be a small group of people who generate the majority of outputs. In your business, if you look at all your income-generating activities, you’ll find that 20% of your services generate 80% of your revenue. 

        This is why letting go makes sense. 

        Imagine all of the little things you are doing to earn money as a solopreneur, and how much time and energy it takes to offer all of those things. Is it worth it?  

        What if you chose to focus on doing fewer things better? You might have less variety, but you’d also have greater depth, probably make more money, and be able to do it in less time as you’d be streamlining things. 

        Translate that into this moment, when you are looking at the year ahead. Most of us end up planning next year to continue as the last, or to not do any planning at all. 

        Without planning, you might end up doing the same old things next year including all the stuff that takes time and energy for little return (which could be money, meaning, fulfilment etc). If you are hanging onto things that don’t serve you, it can become unfulfilling and draining. 

        It can breed discontent, resentment and dissatisfaction. 

        By letting go of what’s not working, what’s outdated, or what’s downright uninspiring, you have an opportunity to change course, tighten things up, improve, plan a better year and create more fulfilment in your business and therefore your life.  

        For me, any sense of resistance in my business, and any sense of deep fulfilment and meaning, is a trigger for me to evaluate what’s going on. 

        So instead of just planning, I explore my feelings first and then create my plan. 

        What Do You Need to Let Go of in Your Business? 

        I’m going to talk you through a three-step process of examining and evaluating what you might need to let go of and executing decisions. 

        Before jumping into planning, examine what you of the past year. I discussed this my previous article, which talked about checking in with how you felt about the year, what worked, what didn’t, what felt irritating, and what your achievements were.  

        In other words, you’re finding out what’s most important and meaningful for you to continue and identifying anything that might be holding you back from those things. 

        Next, I recommend doing an evaluation of where your income is coming from. 

        If you use an accounting system like Xero, you can generate a report showing a breakdown of everything you sold and how much revenue you earned in each area, so you can evaluate that. 

        If you don’t use an accounting software, you could do the same sort of thing in Excel, or with your client booking system if you use Acuity Scheduling or Calendly or Google calendar.  

        If you book your appointments using standard session names, it’s easy to open your digital calendar and search for each of these session types, and it will bring up a log of what you sold over the year. 

        Then, having checked in with your own feelings about what you enjoyed and disliked doing, your financial data, and your session logs, you can clearly see where your 20% of joyful and productive work sits. 

        Do this work with compassion for yourself. Understand that sentimentality aside, we are all growing, improving, and sometimes outgrowing things in our lives. Our priorities and values change with experience and wisdom, so it makes sense to let go of anything that no longer fits. 

        Imagine how liberating it is to know you are working in alignment with your values and priorities! When you examine and evaluate everything from this lens, you become fully informed and have the clarity you need to make decisions about the next year – then execute on those decisions! 

        It sounds simple – but at the same time, you might find it hard to let go. 

        Why It’s Hard to Let Go 

        You might be aware of things that aren’t sitting right, so why aren’t you taking action? Why aren’t you executing on your decision? 

        Probably because your wonderful brain might be making ‘yes, but’ thoughts in your head like: 

        • Yes, but if I don’t deliver that service, I am letting down those four clients who have loyally been coming for years! 
        • Yes, but that program really has potential, and if I stop doing it, I might lose an opportunity! 
        • Yes, but if I stop doing those things, I won’t have as much variety! 
        • Yes, but if I stop offering those services, people will think my business is in trouble! 
        • Yes, but what if I’m no longer the go-to person for….? 

        Your brain loves the safe, comfortable and familiar. Stepping away from that into the unknown can bring up fear. Your brain is trying to protect you by getting you to hang onto things – all things – and that’s why you’re conjuring up all those reasons to keep doing those things that no longer serve you. 

        All of your emotional reasons start to come up.  

        There’s the sense of letting others down which leads to a feeling of obligation or guilt. 

        There’s the sense of having wasted all that effort of what you’ve previously built – the attachment and sentimentality. 

        There’s fear of the space left behind – the scarcity mindset, the uncertainty about the future including income. 

        But there are also things that may not align with your values, and which generate a general sense of discomfort. 

        There’s the sense of ‘who will I be if I stop doing that?’  

        If you are feeling any of these things very viscerally, ask yourself – are they serving you and your business? 

        Are they good enough reasons to hang on? 

        What is the cost of hanging on versus letting go? 

        These are some important questions to ask yourself or to work through with your coach if you have one. I encourage you to be kind and gentle with yourself, to be compassionate, and reflective. 

        Right now, think of all the other times in your life when you held onto things that didn’t serve you. The relationships that were unhealthy, the job that was unsatisfying, the tasks that you felt obliged to do.  

        What happened when you let those go? When you closed that door, which door opened for you? 

        What were the lessons learned? 

        I would like to share a little story about this. 

        When I moved from Perth to Mossy Point, I started out as a Personal Trainer and Bellydance teacher in my local area. I didn’t want big boot camps, I wanted small, intimate classes where we could focus on technique. I ran three classes per week, and a couple more in the busier summer months. 

        After 3 years of this, I didn’t have enough clients for a full-time income, and I realised that juggling a business coaching/consulting role with these PT and dance classes was pulling me in different directions and sapping my energy. I was spread thin, and not bringing enough energy to anything, consequently, I felt like I wasn’t doing a good job at anything. 

        BUT I had these loyal PT and dance clients! But we had a wonderful connection! But it was giving them value! But I was serving the community! But it was fun! But it was giving me exercise too! But what if I couldn’t make up that bit of income! (And let’s face it – it was only a bit of income).  Who will I be if I’m no longer the belly dance teacher? 

        As you can see there was a surprising amount of emotion tied up in this. I had a strong urge to let this go to pave the way for better opportunities, but a fear of letting go. There was a sense of losing my identity in the community.  

        But deep down I knew that my future was in another direction. I knew that the existing way of being didn’t align with my passions, my vision and my values. 

        My indecision and hanging onto what was no longer serving me was becoming an ongoing, low-level stress that was eroding my energy, enthusiasm and creativity. 

        One of my strongest values was showing up with energy and delivering an exceptional service.  

        Think about that for a moment – you can only really show up like that if you are fully invested in what you’re doing. I was feeling very inauthentic because I couldn’t show up, and that was actually my tipping point. 

        In other words, my decision was about two key things – living in alignment with my purpose and delivering exceptional customer service. 

        It was much easier then, to let the classes go. When I did this, everything changed. Relief rushed in to fill the space, and I felt inspired again. I was flooded with insights, creativity and energy for my next venture, which ended up becoming a 6-figure coaching business. 

        Hindsight is a fabulous thing. I can see now that if I’d been let go earlier, I would have still had that short period of uncertainty and fear, but I would have reached my goals sooner and felt more fulfilled and less anxious about money. 

        I wish I had used a process to examine and evaluate my business, and then execute my decision with full clarity and confidence, like the one I’m describing here. 

        This is why stepping out of the emotional stuff and looking at the facts, as I described earlier, is so important. 

        It gives you the chance to explore all of your logical and emotional reasons for your current activities and decide how you will go forward, consciously and intentionally.  

        How to Let Go and Feel Good About It 

        If you decide to let go of things in your business, how can you do that and feel good about it? 

        Firstly, you can examine your fears or other obstacles and ask yourself – is this real? Is it true?  

        And if so, what are all the things you can do about it?  

        How can you approach it? 

        What are the values that sit behind your decision? 

        What I recommend is that you write down all the reasons why you’ve decided to let something go, just so you’re clear on this for yourself. 

        Then, you have gotten your story straight in your own mind and it’s easier to communicate it honestly and authentically with others. 

        Here’s how I stepped away graciously from my PT and dance classes. 

        I worked out how much income I would lose. As it turns out, it wasn’t as much as I thought. Who knew! Knowing this meant I was able to figure out if I could survive without that income, and also make a plan to recoup that amount in other ways. 

          I did this first as financial security was a concern, so I needed to calm down my brain and help it to be rational and realistic about the money side of things. 

          Next, I worked out how to talk to my wonderful, loyal clients who had stuck with me for so long. 

          I decided to be honest and say something like this:  

          “You’ve been wonderfully loyal and supportive, but I have made the difficult decision to close these classes as of the end of this month (it happened to be December). 

          I’ve realised that I want to consolidate what I’m doing and move in a new direction. If I continue like this, I won’t be able to show up at my best, and that is really important to me. 

          I want to thank you for supporting my business, showing up to class even on the coldest, and darkest nights, and becoming my friends. You’re all wonderful people, and I’d love to finish our time together with an end-of-year party. Bring your friends and family so we can celebrate our achievements and our valuable time together!” 

          This came from the heart, and it worked just fine. Your version might be different, but the sentiment will be the same. 

          It is borne in gratitude, authenticity, honesty, and celebration. 

          Summary 

          Today we talked about letting go of things that no longer serve you in your business.  

          Thinking logically, we know that roughly 20% of our efforts generate 80% of our results. That’s the Pareto Principle. And while it logically makes sense, emotionally, you might end up holding yourself captive to activities that are draining your energy and affecting your business. 

          It can be hard to let go, for lots of reasons – guilt, fear, scarcity and identity. 

          But we can more easily let go by checking values, being compassionate, and by working out what matters most. 

          The three-step process I discussed is to examine the past to work out what’s important to you (previous episode), evaluating what you might need to let go of and why, then executing your decisions without guilt or scarcity, and with full clarity, confidence and certainty that you’re making the right decision. 

          Hopefully, you feel equipped to do this for yourself. 

          But if this feels challenging and you’d like some coaching, get in touch to enquire about my 2023 private client intake, or to get a referral to another business coach who can help you. 

          References 

          Investopedia, 2022. The Pareto Principle. Investopedia website, accessed 8/12/2022.  

          https://anchor.fm/dashboard 

          https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541 

          Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

          Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

          Learn more here:

          Learn More

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          E#224 Celebrating Success; Christmas Boundaries

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          This episode is about celebrating success; Christmas boundaries

          Today I’d like to congratulate you on a wonderful year and remind you of how you succeeded. I’ll also talk about how to set Christmas Boundaries in your business so you can get adequate rest and recovery, so you’re ready to charge again in 2023. 

          Congratulations on Your Success! 

          I just want to say congratulations on all of the hard work that you’ve put in this year, no matter what sorts of results you have achieved. The reason I say it this way is because by doing the work and following the process you get results in your life.  

          So if you have persisted and followed those processes, it means that you’ve made an effort on behalf of yourself to do something that is important to you – and to me, that is worthy of congratulations.  

          In this episode, I’ll talk about 
          * How to Celebrate Success in Your Business
          * Setting Christmas Boundaries

          Next, I want to say that no matter what results in you got this year, I want to applaud you on your successes and failures.  

          The successes that you achieved show what you’re capable of. Maybe you helped one person make a significant change in their life that affected not only their own life but the quality of life and the relationships they have with the people around them.  

          Even if it’s just one person, that is a significant achievement and it will have a ripple effect on the lives of so many other people.  

          Sometimes that one aha moment can lead to a decision that creates a cascade of events and an upward spiral that become life changing.  

          For example, one coach I know of made one decision just over a year ago that propelled her business into the stratosphere. If she hadn’t made that decision, she would not be the success that she is today.  

          Right now, I invite you to explore and recognise those single decisions that made a big difference in your life or someone else’s life this year.  

          I want to recognise and celebrate the failures you had this year, because these are the things that make you stronger, tougher and more determined.  

          Your failures give you the opportunity to learn about what you’re made of.  

          They give you the chance to show you that you can persist, to see where your blind spots are, and to learn new skills.  

          Failures show you that you are human.  

          Failures show you what your potential is. They show you that you have the opportunity to be bigger and better than you are right now. And these are some of the great things that failures can give you – they are lessons in business and life. 

          Here are some of the things I succeeded at: 

          1. Completing the accreditation process with ICF to gain my PCC level accreditation which was a huge undertaking and I feel really great about having achieved that. 
          2. Putting around 70 students through my Passion to Profit course which runs three times per year through Wellness coaching Australia. Some of those were in the planning stage and will  launch next year. Some have gone on to start viable businesses which I’m really excited about, and a couple have used what they learned to gain experience as a coach and subsequently get a job as a health and wellness coach. 
          3. Attending and speaking at the HCANZA conference earlier this year, which was a significant milestone for our industry. 
          4. Collaborating with the HCANZA board to develop an amazing and ambitious business plan for this current financial year, 2022/23 and we are really going to put health Wellness coaching on the map in Australia and NZ which is super exciting. 
          5. Increasing my income this year for fewer hours doing more of the work I love. 
          6. Finding new ways to bring coaching into other arenas and to innovate new service ideas which will become launched businesses in 2023 in the areas of mental health and menopause. 
          7. Supporting individual business coaching clients to stay motivated, to simplify their businesses, to systemize their businesses, and to clear the space for more effective thinking and planning. 
          8. Supporting my family when my dad passed in August through those difficult couple of weeks following. I was very thankful to be with my family at that time and to bring my strengths to complement theirs. My sisters had done a lot of heavy lifting during the year so I was grateful to be able to step in and help. 
          9. Made some amazing new connections with some really incredible people this year and I’m excited to be collaborating with those people further next year. 

          Setting Christmas Boundaries 

          It’s so great to celebrate all that you have achieved and I hope that you have found a lot of things to be celebrating and thankful for. If you want to be able to work at that pace and to produce great work next year, then you’ll need to think about setting some boundaries for time off over Christmas so that you can refuel, recharge, and get enough rest to replenish your own energy and resources. 

          So how do you do that? Here are my hot tips. 

          1. Contact everyone in your list and let them know when your closing dates are, thank them for being your amazing clients and wish them happy holidays. 
          2. If you’re on Google Maps or social platforms, then you can set your holiday hours there as well, so people are really clear not to bother you during that period. 
          3. Set up an out of office auto responder for the time that you will be away from the desk will stop I recommend making a commitment to yourself not to be checking emails everyday but to be clear that you might do that once a week to tidy up but otherwise take a very good rest. 

          4. You can also email your current client list or any new leads and invite them to work with you next year. Let them know when you’ll be starting again and ask them to let you know what they decide to do. For example, I have reached out to my existing clients and some new clients to offer the spaces that I have available starting on a certain date, from February to June inclusive. This means that before I wrap up for the year I’ll be clear on what the start of my year looks like. I have a 3 – 6 month work horizon at any given time, partly because I’ve prepared in advance. 

          5. The other boundary you need to set is with yourself. It can be tempting to go to your computer or check your emails or do things that he wouldn’t normally do while you’re on holiday. You might like to keep a notebook so you can jot down ideas and not have to turn the computer on, you might like to keep yourself busy with activities, or you might like to schedule a couple of hours each week to do some working on the business activities or special projects. 

          6. I highly encourage you to go out and have fun and find a hobby or a skill you’d like to learn, either of which you can start during holidays and continue during the year. Why do I suggest this? Simply because all of the tired exhausted and burnt-out entrepreneurs I’ve met have one thing in common- they don’t have a hobby and they don’t do anything for fun. I’m suggesting you invest a bit of time in your holiday to choose that hobby and find fun things that you can keep doing to maintain resilience, work-life balance, and a sense of ease and creativity at work. 

          Thank you for being with me during the year, for listening to my podcast, and for asking the questions that make these episodes possible. I choose to have no advertising on our podcast so that you don’t have the irritation or disruption of being sold to, and this is one way I bring value to the world and visibility to our profession. 

          This is how I can help you for free to build a business in life that you love, that’s built around sustainable habits that you enjoy doing and that will create the success that you want. 

          If you want to know more about my February intake of the Passion to Profit course so you can learn to set up your business your way, and in a sustainable way, click the link in the show notes to request a course guide.  

          If you’d like to inquire about working with me one to one, you can hit up my contact page and ask about my June client intake because February is fully booked – my books for 1:1 clients are closed until June. 

          Have a very merry and safe Christmas, I hope you get a lot of time to reflect on your successes, enjoy time with loved ones, and two feel excited and refreshed about what 2023 has to offer.  

          Remember that the world needs your greatness – I hope that you know that – and that you are working to realise your full potential in your business and your life. 

            Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

            Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

            Learn more here:

            Learn More

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            E#223 How to Prepare for the NBHWC Exam

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            This episode is about how to prepare for the NBHWC exam

            Are you registering for the next NBHWC exam intake and wondering how to prepare for the exam? I get asked this a LOT, so I wanted to cover the key steps I took to prepare when I sat the exam, and help you understand what to expect.  I have included some links at the end to help you navigate the exam prep resources that NBHWC provides. 

            What is the NBHWC exam about?  

            The NBHWC exam (National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coaches) is a process that qualified health and wellness coaches can go through if they have completed a recognised training course and want to be accredited with the international governing body. 

            In this episode, I’ll talk about 
            * What is the NBHWC exam about?
            * How do you prepare for the NBHWC exam?
            * What can you expect on the day?

            By sitting and passing the exam, you essentially get certified as a professional who has a certain standard of demonstrated knowledge and practical skills in relation to the core competencies of health and wellness coaching. 

            It’s a great thing to do if you want to work for a digital health/coaching company such as BetterUp, or if you want to work internationally where the qualification is recognised. In any case, a formal certifying exam proves your competence as a coach and that can be a credibility boost for you and your business. 

            The exam competencies cover four main areas: 

            1. Coaching structure 
            2. Coaching relationship 
            3. Health and wellness knowledge 
            4. Ethics and conduct. 

            The exam itself is a 4.5-hour session where you answer multiple-choice questions on a computer, in a secure and monitored test facility in your nearest capital city. 

            The questions aren’t about your knowledge, but more about your ability to know which skills to use and when in a variety of health and wellness coaching scenarios.  

            Now, I’m going to walk you through the resources and how I recommend using them to study. 

            How do you prepare for the NBHWC exam? 

            There are three parts to preparing for the exam: 

            1. Reviewing the requirements and study materials 
            2. Creating and implementing a study plan  
            3. Application administration. 

            To prepare for study, let’s start by walking through the exam resources that NBHWC provides, as this information will prepare you for study. 

            First, go to the NBHWC website and allow about 30 – 45 minutes to review the resources that I am about to describe.  

            To find them, go the top menu bar and find the Board Exam section, then click into the sub-menu area called Exam Prep Resources.  

            Let’s take a high-level tour before diving into the detail of study planning. 

            Upcoming Events 

            I highly recommend booking in for an upcoming NBHWC Exam Q&A to learn about the process of applying and examination in a live setting, where you can ask questions. 

            The Certifying Examination Content Outline 

            First, download the Health and Wellness Coaching Certifying Examination Content Outline. This is a booklet that outlines the content that will be examined. 

            Please note that this is not a test of knowledge, so you can’t rote learn for this exam. It’s a test of your ability to apply knowledge in a real-life situation. The multiple-choice questions focus on assessing your ability to take the right approach in different contexts. 

            I suggest you spend about 5 – 10 minutes looking through the content that is assessed so that you have a good overview. Here’s the nutshell of what’s in the guide. 

            The first section being assessed is about the coaching structure. In this section, you’ll be expected to demonstrate that you know how to prepare for a session, the coaching skills that you will use in a first or regular session, and how to close a coaching program in a final session. 

            In the coaching process section, you’ll be asked questions about coaching relationship, communication and coaching techniques. This is the biggest section as it covers multiple areas. 

            You’ll need to show that you know which specific skills are relevant and used in different scenarios, and sometimes, how they are used. For example, how do you use reflections and how often? It depends on the client’s stage of readiness to change, how they show up to the session, the focus of the session and possibly which session it is. 

            Next is the Health and Wellness section. This has a few more rote-learning style questions where your knowledge of specific guidelines and chronic disease is tested. You might need to quote guideline levels (note that it’s US guidelines being tested, no matter what country you reside in), plus an understanding of symptoms, different types of risk factors and basic facts about each condition. 

            The final section is about ethics and legal, and you’ll be tested on knowledge of professional conduct and ethics. Once again, the focus is knowing how to apply this knowledge in a real-life situation. 

            We’ll come back to this in a moment; for now, let’s look at the next resource that NBHWC provides. 

            The Practice Exam 

            Once you’ve had a look through the booklet, take about 10 – 15 minutes to look through the Health and Wellness Coach Practice Exam.  

            It is set up in the exact format that you will see at the testing centre.  You can come back to this during your study. 

            The Bulletin of Information (Application Administration) 

            Next, spend about 5 – 10 minutes looking over the bulletin of information. 

            It covers the logistics of the examination, including test delivery, test centres, scoring and reporting.  

            The steps in the application process are clearly spelled out on page 13. 

            I recommend using this Bulletin to schedule any key dates into your diary for actions that you’ll need to take in the weeks leading up to the exam. 

            One thing I recommend you do as soon as you can is to book your exam date and time via the Prometric Test Centre link, because there are limited test centres in Australia, and spaces are limited and can book out quickly! 

            The Code of Ethics, Scope of Practice and HIPAA Privacy Rules 

            These are resources to help you study and prepare for the ethics/legal section of the exam. 

            Job Task Analysis 

            This paper gives some background into the NBHWC and the role of the health and wellness coach. 

            Studying for the exam 

            Once you’ve downloaded the Certifying Examination Content Outline, you’re ready to map out your study. 

            I prepared by studying for 2 – 3 hours each week over 15 weeks, and this was adequate time to cover elements being assessed. 

            Based on how you learn and how much time you have available, you can follow a similar or more condensed or expanded schedule. 

            The content outline contains 26 main sections, each with sub-sections. If you allow 2 – 3 hours to review and study each section, that’s roughly 52 – 78 hours of study. This helps you to work out roughly how time to set aside each week before the exam. 

            I suggest getting some of the standard coaching textbooks to help you review. For example:  

            1. Coaching Psychology Manual by Tshannen and Moore,  
            2. Wisdom of the Whole by Bark,  
            3. Motivational Interviewing by Miller and Rollnick, and  
            4. Wellness Coaching for Lasting Change by Arloski. 

            Each one of those will have a few pages dedicated to most or all of the sub-topics in the Content Outline. 

            I studied by getting my books together, finding the relevant sections in each book, then reading what each has to say and writing some summary notes into an A4 notebook. 

            I also went back to read over my notes and then reflect on what that might look like with a client in a first, third, tenth or other session, depending on how they might show up to the session (e.g. deflated, happy, etc). 

            What can you expect on the day? 

            When you enter the test facility, you will be asked to secure your possessions, prove your identity and show that you have no way of cheating. 

            You’ll be given a locker to store your wallet, any food you want and personal belongings, which will be checked first to ensure you have no cheat notes. 

            You’ll then need to show your driver’s license or other ID to prove who you are, and probably need to provide a printed record of your test application and fees paid (check the Bulletin to confirm). 

            Finally, to prove you won’t cheat, you’ll have to pull your sleeves up to show that you’ve got nothing written on your arms, then turn your pockets out, or pull up your pants legs.  

            You can take a break during the exam but there are rules about this such as only a certain number of people can leave the test room at the same time – check the Bulletin for current information. 

              I recommend flagging any questions you’re unsure about and keep moving on to manage your time properly. You can revisit flagged questions at the end, it’s better to keep going. 

              Once you hit submit, you’re free to go. While 4.5 hours is allowed, you might do it quicker. For me, multi-choice is easier than regular written exams and it took me 2 ¾ hours to complete it. 

              Summary 

              Today we talked about some of the things you need to do to prepare for the NBHWC exam. 

              Some key points I recommend are to: 

              • Visit the NBHWC website and download all the resources 
              • Diarise key dates for administrative actions, like paying fees, printing out confirmations etc, and especially to book your test spot as early as possible – remembering that you may need to travel to another city to sit your exam. 
              • Create a study plan for the 26 main sections, over a period of weeks (I’d allow 15 weeks at 2 – 3 hours per week, or a more condensed version if you prefer) 
              • You might need to buy textbooks to help you study – that’s up to you. 
              • If you’re travelling interstate, get there a day early to prepare mentally. 
              • On the day, take limited belongings with you and prepare to show identity and be searched for cheating notes! 
              • Take a deep breath and get started. 

               

              NBHWC Exam Prep Resources: https://nbhwc.org/resources-for-coaches/ 

              Selection of Recommended Text Books (Amazon.com.au links – non-affiliate): 

              1. Coaching Psychology Manual by Tshannen and Moore,  
              2. Wisdom of the Whole by Bark,  
              3. Motivational Interviewing by Miller and Rollnick, and  
              4. Wellness Coaching for Lasting Change by Arloski. 

              Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

              Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

              Learn more here:

              Learn More

              Posted on by

              E#222 What to Stop and Start Doing in 2023

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              This episode is about what to stop and start doing in 2023

              Do you have this nagging sense that there are things you should stop doing, and things that you should start doing in your business? Does business feel like a grind at times, sapping your energy and creativity? If so, then it’s time to create your business plan for the next year to work out the kinks and start getting what you want with more ease and flow. That’s what I’m here to help you to do by sharing my 4-step process to developing a 2023 business plan. 

              It’s that time of year I start to think about the year ahead and start creating some plans for my business. I figured that you would be doing that too and that you might be wondering what sorts of goals to set.   

              Sharing my process will help you get clear on not just how to create a plan, but how to make an exciting plan to get you where you want to be. 

              In this episode, I’ll talk about 
              * Two steps to get clarity
              * How to map out new ‘business habits’ for 2023
              * Defining your achievable outcome goals

              Step 1 – Reflect on the Past 12 months 

              A good starting point is reflecting on how this year went for you and what you’d like to do more of and less of. 

              When I do this process, I start by thinking about what I really loved doing this year and why I loved it, and which strengths I used. I sit with the feeling of my favourite types of work and the things that I’ve achieved and what I did to get there.  

              For example, this year, I loved doing the strategic thinking work behind projects and business ideas, because that taps into my strengths of creativity, innovation, problem solving and brainstorming. 

              Next, I think about the things that drained my energy and dragged me down or that I found awful and difficult. 

              For example, this year, I found it really draining to do very detailed intricate work, logistical stuff, and anything that required a lot of very deep research-based work.  

              I really sat with that and thought about why I didn’t like doing that work, and it was because it created a lot of anxiety and stress. It dampened my creative thinking. Anything with too many detailed moving parts create a sense of anxiousness that I might have forgotten something or not done something properly.  I do like some types of detailed work, but not many. 

              Thirdly, I look at where I earned money and spent time. I spreadsheet this based on time documented in my calendar. Funnily enough, the work I love to do most takes the least time and earns me the most money. The work I dislike the most takes the most time and earns me the least money – probably because I have to do the grind to complete it. 

              Finally, I reflect on my most important achievement of the past year. This is important because it shows you what your toil created that you are most proud of and gets you thinking about the bigger picture. If you don’t look at the bigger picture you might end up just planning another year of doing rather than thinking about your overall direction first. 

              My greatest achievement this year was fulfilling four important professional roles, and even though the juggle was hard at times, it gave me a bigger picture view and understanding of two important knowledge areas (menopause and mental health), and of three bigger macro trends (psychosocial risk legislation, supporting and recognising women at work, and improving mental health at work). 

              With this knowledge, I have a good idea of which business ideas will succeed in 2023, where the focus and money will be in the broader economy, and what my best opportunities are. Those insights allows me to set some tangible and meaningful goals that leverage these opportunities. 

              When you reflect on the past year, ask yourself these questions and write some notes; 

              1. What did you love doing in the past year and why? 
              2. What drained your energy in the past year and why? 
              3. For every type of work you were paid for, which was the best return on investment in terms of time and money? 
              4. What was the most important outcome you achieved this year? 

              This should give you a good summary of your past year, what worked and didn’t, in less than a page. 

              Step 2 – What did you learn about yourself? 

              When you reflect on what you learned about yourself, you can potentially see the work that you need to do and the obstacles you need to face, and the skills and strengths you can leverage. 

              I learned a bunch of things about myself this year. 

              Firstly, I am persistent and can work hard to get things done. 

              I’ve realised that I am a sore loser – and this costs me emotionally and energetically. 

              I’ve noticed I prefer to fly solo so I can create my own ideas, I tend to avoid groups, but I do enjoy collaboration if it is a bit hands off and not too intimate or intense. I’ve always known this at some level but have really experienced and felt it this year. 

              My greatest strengths are creative brainstorming at a strategic business level and with clients, and summarizing, simplifying, and creating processes to get things done. When I do these things I am truly in flow. 

              Finally, I can do about 10 coaching sessions or meetings a week before I start to get overwhelmed and find it hard to focus and be present. 

              Having given you some examples, I now invite you to reflect on your year.  

              • How were you operating when you were at your best? 
              • What are your greatest strengths and moments of flow? 
              • In which situations do you thrive? 

              Once you’re clear on steps 1 and 2, we start to consolidate. 

              Step 3 – Map out your new business habits for 2023 

              It’s one thing to think about what you have done and achieved and loved doing or being drained by in the last year.  

              The first two steps in this process allow you to evaluate the past, so you can look ahead with clarity and map out your new business habits for 2023. 

              In other words, it’s time to use your reflections define what you want to keep doing, stop doing or start doing next year.  

              Some people like to start with their outcome goals first, and you can certainly do that. To me it makes more sense to find my flow in the process – then decide what I will create with that new way of working. 

              I’ve learned in my first two steps that what’s important to me is to work more strategically, to simplify things, and to scale, so I can earn comfortably and remain in flow, and be at my best with the clients I work with.  This is how I will work. 

              Tangibly, to define the habits I’ll stop, maintain and start, my next stage of planning is to: 

              • Knowing I dislike some types of detail work, I will evaluate the detailed tasks I do each week and decide which ones I can delegate or stop doing. A really easy one for me is checking email once per day instead of 4 times. 
              • Knowing how I feel about being in groups, I’ll review the group work I have tentatively planned for next year and decide what I’ll commit to and how I’ll show up (this is both professionally and personally). 
              • Based on what I learned in 2022 (knowledge and market trends), I will decide which areas I want to focus on in 2023. 
              • I will rewrite my vision, mission, value proposition and elevator pitch so I’m clear on what my focus is and how I work with people  
              • I will ask my VA to update my online platforms to reflect the updated pitch 
              • To become a better loser, I will start journalling about challenging situations where I lose, or fail, to change my perspective and rewire my beliefs about those things. 
              • To manage my volume of appointments, I will change my booking calendar to allow a maximum of 12 meetings or coaching sessions per week, which should be achievable when I make the other changes I’ve decided on. 
              • To manage my volume of appointments, I will also put out an invitation to my hand-picked 1:1 clients with the terms of engagement for 2023. 

              What would your next stage of planning look like? 

              • What would you decide to stop doing, or delegate? 
              • How will you choose to work – for example more networking and groups, or more 1:1, more strategic or more detailed?  
              • How might your weekly schedule change as a result, and how will you maintain those boundaries? 
              • How do these changes affect your vision and value proposition? Do they need review? 

              Step 4 – Defining achievable outcomes goals for 2023 

              Having completed the previous three steps, you’re ready to think about outcomes you will be able to realistically achieve with this new way of working. 

              I personally feel it’s important to keep the goals simple and few, so you can do a few things really well. As Robert Kyosaki says – the word FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Successful. 

              My outcome goals for 2023 will be achieved if I do the things previously mentioned. Here are mine.  

              In my business, I will be: 

              • Working 20 hours per week, Tuesday to Thursday to earn my target income. 
              • Helping my VA to earn a comfortable living doing the tasks that I dislike, that she is good at 
              • Working collaboratively with intelligent, energized people for a common purpose 
              • Supporting 100,000 professional women to thrive at work through appropriate education, coaching, allied health services and resources 

                In the area of coach training and advocacy for our industry, I will be:  

                • Teaching 2,000 health and wellness coaches to create sustainable businesses that they love, in their unique way, leveraging the coaching methodology 
                • Advocating (through HCANZA) for appropriate standards, definitions and consistency in our industry, and promoting the benefits and quality of what we do as professionals 

                In my personal life, I will be: 

                • Tackling one hard thing each quarter, focusing on a consistent practice in a creative pursuit, and reframing my negative thoughts 
                • Exercising daily in nature to give my brain a break and recharge 
                • Completing 20 hours of personal or professional development (including working with my own coach) each quarter. 

                This is my plan, now over to you. 

                What are the outcomes you want to achieve next year in your business? 

                What are the impacts you want to have in the world? 

                What will you do in your personal life to grow and evolve, show up better and function at your best? 

                I look forward to seeing what you create, with intention and purpose, in 2023. 

                Summary 

                If a business feels like a grind at times, and you have that nagging sense that things need to change, you now have a four-step process to start getting what you want with more ease and flow. The steps to follow are: 

                1. Reflect on the highlights and lowlights of the past 12 months 
                2. Reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself 
                3. Map out your ‘business habits’ for 2023 – what you’ll stop doing, maintain and start doing 
                4. Define your achievable outcome goals 

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#221 How to Find a Good Small Business Coach to Suit Your Needs

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                This episode is about how to find a good small business coach to suit your needs

                When you’re running a business on your own, it can be super helpful to have someone to help you to develop your strategy, work out your priorities, learn new skills, and overcome the obstacles to taking action. But if you’re shopping for a business coach, how do you find the right person? Here are 8 things that can help you find a good small business coach to suit you and your needs. 

                By the end of this article, you will have a checklist of things that you can use to evaluate potential business coaches that you might want to work with to help you make the right choice. 

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * Why chemistry is essential
                * Key skills, traits and services to look for

                1. Check the Chemistry, Rapport and Coaching Presence  

                Like any close working relationship, chemistry is key. Check their being skills and presence in the conversation, the match of energy, and that they’re speaking the same language.  

                Your best business coach is someone who is not overbearing, they MUST be a good listener and able to respect and acknowledge your needs and ideas and understand your point of view. 

                Doing some sort of a strategy session or a good fit call gives you the chance to get the sense of their coaching presence and being skills, how that person is being alongside you. Here are some questions to ask yourself:  

                • Are they come to they help you to feel calm and settled?  
                • Do they show up with empathy and warmth?  
                • Can they be playful?  
                • Are they connected and truly there and listening to you?  
                • And what’s going on for you?  
                • Do they have that presence in the conversation?  
                • Do they match your energy?  
                • Do they speak the same language?  

                These are some of the things that you need to feel when you first meet somebody to see if they’re the right person for you. 

                Probably what I would steer away from is somebody who is more energetic than you to the point that it’s a bit overbearing or energy draining. That can be really challenging, if you’re working with a business coach they must be a good listener and they must be able to respect and acknowledge your ideas and needs and understand your point of view.  

                I say this from my own experience at having talked to potential so called business coaches who were much higher energy than me and were quite overbearing and pushy. And I decided not to work with them because I could see that they weren’t really invested in me and what I needed, they were more invested in telling me what they thought I shouldn’t do.  

                Any coaching relationship needs to have that two-way connection if you know what I mean.  

                I think the other part of that is it’s not just somebody who fits well and has that chemistry, but they also need to be kind of firm, but fair. And what I mean is that they’re honest with you, and then give you direct feedback.  

                It’s really important because you don’t want to be heading down the wrong path in your business, for example, but have your coach not saying anything. Or perhaps knowing that you have a knowledge gap or a lack of experience and trying to draw an answer out of you when actually they could tell you straight up that something is unlikely to work and then work with that. 

                Having said that, a good business coach has the skill of drawing out your own ideas, they honour your needs, your strengths, your skills and your wishes rather than trying to make you do things their way. 

                A good analogy of this is parenting. We sometimes see parents who want their kids to do the things that they could never do themselves. They end up steering their child to do things in a certain way or to be a certain thing.  

                This comes back to the whole idea of coaching presence. It’s really about letting you (as the client) to choose the agenda and helping them to use their skills, strengths and insights to do business in your way. After all, it’s your unique method, your unique persona, your personality, that makes your business different from everyone else’s.  

                2. You align with the service being offered – mentoring vs coaching vs teaching 

                When you’re looking for a business coach, you need to be really clear on and aligned with the services that they’re offering. People who call themselves business coaches often share different sorts of ideas and information and they work in different ways.  

                There are three main ways that a business coach works; 

                1. They mentor you and share what works from their own experience,  
                2. They coach you, drawing the answers out of you and helping you develop your strengths, or  
                3. Teaching which is instructing you how to do certain principles, processes and techniques.   

                You need to figure out what you want. To do that, ask yourself these questions.  

                • Do I need or want to learn from and build on someone else’s example? 
                • Do I want to have my own ideas bought out of me, and fleshed out? 
                • Do I want to learn specific principles, processes, skills and techniques? 

                You might want someone who is skewed towards a specific area, for example, you just want to learn how to run an Instagram profile and build a big following on Instagram. So that’s clearly around principles, skills, and techniques, and perhaps someone else’s experience.  

                But if you want to look at your whole business you might not be looking for that kind of a person.  

                Get really clear on what your goal is for the business coaching and then evaluate how suitable they are for you, by asking them questions about how they work with people.  

                Most people need a blend and also, bonus points for someone who is agile and experienced enough to coach you around confidence, self-care, resilience and mindset as needed.  

                After all, business is rarely independent of feelings and emotional balance. Your business and your emotions are intrinsically linked because your business is your baby, plus as a coach, you’re potentially dealing with vicarious trauma, health issues, mental health, and compassion fatigue.  

                So if you’re running a health and wellness coaching business, part of what you need is also to maintain that emotional balance. It’s ideal if your business coach has the skills and experience to help you around those softer skills of business, but also your own health and well-being so that you can maintain your own emotional balance and show up for your clients.  

                Some coaches do what’s informally known as ‘moaching’, which is they call themselves a coach but they actually mentor and coach.  

                In summary, consider whether you want mentoring, coaching, teaching, and mindset or health and wellness aspects as well for emotional balance. 

                3. Qualifications and experience 

                Qualifications can be helpful but what really matters is that they’ve done it themselves, even better if they’ve done it in multiple settings.  

                This is because different industries have different ways of operating businesses and their depth of experience and knowledge is likely to be greater and less restricted.  

                For example, a health and wellness coaching business operates very differently to a traditional business. Many of the principles are the same. But until you’ve worked in a health and wellness coaching business, you don’t really see that it is quite unique. You might find a business coach who has worked in other areas (e.g. selling programs online, or working in another industry) but may not have the same relative and relevant experience.  

                I’ve even seen people who have very high-level business qualifications, like an MBA, Masters of Business Administration, not really understanding some very basic principles. I’ve seen that same thing in different areas of science too. In summary, qualifications can be a useful indicator that somebody’s done training and hopefully that translates to skills and knowledge that can help you.  

                But in my opinion, the most relevant qualifications are related to coaching, and experience in working with clients themselves and running businesses in the same industry is the best thing to look for. 

                4. Proof of success (and acknowledgement of failures)  

                Failure gives important lessons, so if someone hasn’t failed, they may not have as much depth of experience or be able to empathize and connect. 

                So many of my clients say they have felt heartened by hearing about my failures, and it’s helped them feel more hopeful about their own chance of success. 

                Similarly, though, proof of success is important. For example, a business coach might have run their own business successfully or helped others to do the same. They should be able to show examples of either of those.  

                An important point about business coaching and coaching, in general, is that success is actually dependent on the person doing the work themselves. So if you’re working with a client, and they don’t succeed, but they haven’t done all of the work, or they haven’t put in all of the efforts, or they haven’t been the kind of person who’s been able to attract people, it’s not necessarily a reflection of the person who was coaching them. 

                In any field, there’s going to be probably a small proportion of the total population of people who are successful. When you’re talking to somebody about their successful clients, as a business coach, what you can realistically expect is that only a small percentage will be superstars. Many will be in the middle of somewhere, and a few will have failed or not completed things.  

                That’s a really honest evaluation of the client base of a business coach. For the most part, there might be a few exceptions to that. But I would say the signs are in any coaching, area, even health and wellness, you might find a few people who are really significantly successful in their client cohort. 

                A good coach will be honest about that, and not promise you that you will be a superstar because of them. That’s a really important point because it is actually up to you to make the business work. 

                5. Connections and referrals 

                A good business coach can connect you with other people who can help them or help you find clients, and they can refer people to you who will refer you to others.  

                That means a good business coach has an established network of professional and personal contacts, who can somehow help you grow your business. Ask them about their connections and network to see what sorts of connections they have and how they are relevant to you. 

                6. Alignment with proven business principles – but flexible, not cookie cuttered  

                A good business coach will have alignment with proven business principles. But they would ideally also be flexible and not have a cookie-cutter mentality.  

                Think about it this way – yes, there are rinse-and-repeat ways that are successful, but they don’t work for everybody. There are principles that are proven to work and some that don’t. So being really clear about that is important.  

                You can ask the business coach questions like: 

                • what sorts of principles do you follow in business that are proven and reliable?  
                • how do you work with people? Do you make them follow a specific method? 
                • Do you have flexibility in how you help people set up their businesses?  

                A great example of this is I’ve been involved in groups with people who run, how to run Facebook groups or how to nail it on Instagram or to be a public speaker in order to build your business. But that’s all they do, and they say that’s the only way to do it.  

                That means if I don’t want to build a business in a Facebook group, I don’t have any other options for working with that person. They might say that they do work with people in other ways, but they tend to have these specialisations or biases towards certain methods.  

                Plus, these are specific marketing tactics, which often don’t cover other important aspects of business. 

                I believe that it’s better to work with someone that uses general principles but can draw on examples that might be relevant for you, or point you in the direction of specialist marketing courses so that you can build business your way using proven principles.  

                Having said that if you want to smash it on Instagram, then definitely get that specialty training. Just know that that’s about marketing and it’s only ONE part of running a business.  

                We know in coaching that when people come up with their own ideas, they’re more likely to stick to them, right. It’s this combination of flexibility within a proven framework. 

                7. Helps you create accountability around your goals 

                A good business coach helps you to create accountability around your goals. This means that you have clear SMART goals at the end of each session as in actions that you’re going to take an outcomes from the session, but also that you have a method of being accountable to yourself. 

                Now that might sound a little odd, because you might think that part of the role of the Business Coach is to help to keep you accountable, and it is. 

                But if you want to grow as a person, if you want to become successful in business then you need to learn to become accountable to yourself. A coach can help you to develop that skill of self-accountability is really important, as well as helping you be accountable to setting and achieving your weekly goals.  

                In other words, business coaching it’s not a forever relationship. It’s a relationship where you grow. And you might even outgrow that business coach after a period of time. 

                8. Has the strengths that you lack 

                Finally, look for a business coach that has strengths that you lack. The reason that you’re going to a business coach is because you have questions, you have stumbling blocks, and you have things that you’re finding challenging. Ideally, you’re going to work with someone who has really great skills in that area.  

                For example, when people work with me, they say that I helped them to get clarity, feel hopeful and excited and develop the systems and processes they need to make their work and their business run efficiently and effectively.  

                They’re all strengths that I have. I’m a listener and a summarizer, I like structure and I like getting to the heart of the matter quickly. That means I ask questions that probe and help people clarify what they want and need and why and how they’re going to get it.  

                I’m very process-driven myself, I like a few simple steps to achieve an outcome. That means the people that come to me tend to like structure or want more structure and want to figure out how to integrate their business into their life so that they can have a work-life balance.  

                So those are my strengths. And that’s what I tend to help other people with.  

                Whatever you’re looking for, it needs to be ideally with someone who has a strength in that area to counteract the challenge that you’re having. Rather than somebody who just can do a few different things and a bit of everything, but doesn’t really specialize in a certain area, you’re going get a lot more value out of your business coach, if they have those certain strengths that you lack. 

                Summary 

                There’s a lot to think about when you hire someone for any sort of professional service. And when it comes to building a business, there are several principles you can use to find a business coach who is right for you. 

                Today I shared 8 principles: 

                1. There’s good chemistry (rapport and relationship) and coaching presence 
                2. You’re clear on the offering: mentoring vs coaching vs teaching 
                3. Appropriate qualifications and experience 
                4. Proof of success (and acknowledgement of failures)  
                5. Connections and referrals 
                6. Alignment with proven business principles – but flexible, not cookie cuttered  
                7. Helps you create accountability around your goals 
                8. They have the strength that you lack 

                If you are looking for a business coach and are interested in exploring a potential coaching relationship with me, please reach out to book a good fit call to see if we could work together. I am taking on a few individual clients from late January, 2022. 

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#219 Becoming a Confident Coach

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                This episode is about becoming a confident coach

                Despite extensive training, a lot of professionals talk about having impostor syndrome and fear of not being good enough. But what do you do about that? How do you flip that on its’ head and tackle impostor syndrome so that you can become a confident coach?  

                Why you need to be enough 


                Impostor syndrome is rife in many professions – I know, because I’ve been through it, and I’ve spoken to a lot of people who struggle with it. 

                Today I want to talk to you about WHY you need to be enough and stop impostor syndroming yourself.  

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * Why you need to be enough
                * What a digital legacy strategy is
                * Four steps to creating your Digital Legacy Strategy

                I think the key reason that you need to feel that you are enough, good enough, worthy, and competent, is that then you can switch your focus off your own shortcomings and onto your clients. 

                Let’s face it, if you’re worried about your own performance, then you’re not giving all of your attention to the people you are purporting to help and support.  

                I think this is SO critical. This was a realisation I had when I started coaching. I was so busy worrying about what to do, whether my questions were good enough, whether they got something out of the session, whether they were engaged and so on, that it was taking up a LOT of real estate in my head.  

                I was feeling anxious and would be nervous going into each session. 

                THEN one day I reflected on how my feelings and energy would be seen and felt by the people I was coaching. What would they say? 

                By worrying about my performance, I was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. I was creating tension where there wasn’t really any. 

                But most importantly, I realised this behaviour was about me spending too much time thinking about ME and my shortcomings, rather than my client. 

                This aha moment flicked the switch for me and allowed me to totally change the way I showed up, coached and the impact of my coaching. It was amazing. 

                Here are some benefits and outcomes of dealing with your impostor syndrome. 

                Giving your best to clients 

                Firstly, when you invest in overcoming your impostor syndrome you become more confident as a person and as a coach. You feel good about what you do and your ability to give value. That means that you invest more time thinking about the people that you’re helping, rather than your own shortcomings. It means that you are flipping the switch from a focus on you into a focus on your clients.  

                Imagine how that changes their experience of working with you. Imagine how that changes their relationship with you in a coaching sense. And imagine how that therefore impact their results that they get from the coaching relationship. 

                Secondly, if you deal with impostor syndrome and start believing that you can do this, that you are good enough, you be willing to invest enough in your own personal and professional development – because you know that it is worth it for your clients, and that you are worth it. The ripple effect is more advanced skills that will make you a better coach, giving your clients better outcomes. 

                I think it’s really important when you’re starting any new career to know that you are not going to get it right all the time – ever. It’s important to manage your own expectations and to know that you will do things wrong and get things messed up along the way. And that’s totally okay. 

                What’s more important is your commitment to investing in your own self-belief, personal development and professional development so that you can deal with those mistakes more easily, with grace and candour. 

                So how do you get there? How do you beat it and become the best coach you can be, so that you can help people create their desired outcomes and impact the lives of more people? 

                How do you beat impostor syndrome? 

                Personal Development 

                Start by working with your own coach. That way, you will improve your own thoughts habits, well-being and sense of purpose, so that you can be a role model for your clients. Being a strong role model promotes self-confidence. 

                A reflective practice is also a must for all graduate coaches. After each coaching session, reflect on what went well, how you used your strengths, the verbal and nonverbal feedback from clients, and any areas for work. Write it down. Then, set specific goals to polish up any areas. One thing I like to do is focus on a particular coaching skill for all clients within a given month, so I can build and hone my craft. 

                Ask for feedback and testimonials from your clients. Their feedback is really valuable as it tells you what they liked and didn’t like. Make sure to ask how things have changed for them – not just an assessment of your skills (remember, it’s about them, not you). 

                Start hanging around more experienced coaches and having conversations and unpacking challenges so that you can more easily develop the habits and language of a masterful coach. 

                Professional Development 

                You can also do deep-dive training courses into specialty areas and practice those with your clients to become a better coach. For example, mental health first aid training if you are working with clients who have stress, anxiety and so on. 

                There is a caveat on that. A lot of people see education as a tick box thing and they get really interested and they do more and more and more courses but without actually applying the learnings. And I think impostor syndrome comes from this too.  

                I know some incredibly smart people who have numerous qualifications, who are full of self-doubt because they haven’t actually used their knowledge and practised with clients and seen the sorts of results that can be gained. 

                If you complete a lot of educational courses but you never apply it, then you become potentially a very good teacher but maybe not good at the practice that you have studied.  

                I recommend that you invest in practising new skills with clients. Ask permission to try new methods if you know them well, or find practice clients to test new skills and education with.  

                Always, always, do market research – keep asking your clients what they need and want – keep learning about other people and their lives and how you can help them – that’s where you can overcome your own self-limiting beliefs, shift the value to what your clients want, and find ways to give it to them. 

                Summary

                Today we talked about why you need to beat impostor syndrome and start stepping up to be a more masterful coach.  

                In short – if you’re focussing on yourself, you can’t focus properly or be present for your clients. 

                Flip the switch by investing time, energy and money as needed into personal development and professional development. 

                When you do this, you’ll feel more confident, and be able to truly serve your clients in a more authentic, impactful way – because your work will truly be about them. 

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#217 How to Describe the Benefits of Coaching

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                This episode is about how to describe the benefits of coaching

                How good are you at describing the value and impact of coaching to potential clients? In this episode, I am going to help you to unpack the benefits of coaching in a way that gets prospective clients interested in learning more and working with you. 

                Recently, I was having a conversation about coaching in a workplace context, in terms of mental health, seeking support and duty of care for your own wellbeing.  

                As I was describing how coaching works with an employer, his eyes lit up as he totally ‘got’ the way coaching could support his workforce. It got me thinking about how we often describe coaching, why that falls flat, and then what to do instead. 

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * How do you describe what “coaching” is? (what not to do)
                * What drives people
                * How to describe the value of coaching

                How do you describe what “coaching” is? (what not to do) 

                A lot of coaches struggle to sell their services because they find it hard to describe what they do and how it works.  

                I’ve done several previous episodes about this, such as episode 116 Explaining Your Coaching Services with Fiona Cosgrove and more recently, episode 205 How to Create a Magnetic Value Proposition. 

                And the problem is exactly what I’ve just said – we try to describe COACHING – not the value or benefits of coaching. 

                What I mean is this – we get caught up trying to explain what we do as a profession or HOW coaching works, so we end up talking about US and our modality or methodology, rather than THEM – the value, benefits and results that THEY want to achieve.  

                If we focus on how we do the method, then people are, therefore ‘informed’ about us and our method, but they have no idea what’s in it for them. So that’s what NOT to do. 

                The way to communicate value is to answer the question – ‘what’s in it for me?’ – and this is what I want to talk about today. 

                Back to that conversation, I had recently with an employer about coaching in a workplace context, the conversation was about mental health, seeking support and duty of care for your own well-being.  

                We were discussing psychosocial risks, and how they impact worker safety. I positioned coaching as part of the solution, by explaining that the two key goals of coaching are to raise self-awareness and to help people generate self-responsibility. By coaching around these two aspects, we could empower workers to be more aware and proactively seek help or take action themselves, therefore improving the individual’s duty of care and as a consequence, reducing mental health risks and incidents at work. 

                He really got the importance of coaching to HIS organisation. I used language that the employer was familiar with, and that tied into the ‘industry vernacular’ that he was familiar with – and showed how coaching can help him achieve the benefits and outcomes he wants. That said, he really understood the value of coaching and his eyes lit up.  

                The way you describe ‘value’ is probably different for different market segments, but the point is that you need to use the clients’ language and talk about what’s meaningful to them, to the results and benefits they are after so that the value of your services is really obvious. 

                It’s time to think differently about how you communicate value.  

                In the example I’ve just described, I thought about the fact that mental health problems are initially hard to see, so it makes sense that self-awareness is valuable. 

                Currently, workplaces are focussing on identifying mental health risks and priorities, so it makes sense that helping people self-identify is half the battle won.  I didn’t waste time trying to explain coaching – I described coaching in terms of the benefits and impacts it can create. 

                See how unpicking the market’s problem helps you talk about the value? 

                What drives people to change (and buy) 


                In what I’ve just explained, it’s clear that the value of coaching needs to be positioned around what drives people to change and to pay to get your help. 

                Have you ever wondered what those drivers are, and how to know when someone will pay? 

                Here are four conditions for change and for buying. 

                As you learn in coaching, the first condition of change is ‘a sense that something isn’t right’- in other words, self-awareness is the first step, because if you know or are self-aware that you have a problem you will more likely do something about it or seek help. 

                A lot of the general marketing a business does is to make people ‘problem aware’ – and some of the ways we do this are with quizzes, case studies, stories and questionnaires, and by inviting reflection. 

                Knowing you have a problem is one thing but doing something about it and paying to get help is another. 

                So the second point is, in my experience, that the problem the person has identified needs to be big enough that it is disrupting their daily lives – they can’t ignore it (and they describe the impact on families, relationships, work, and their own wellbeing). Most people are reactive, so they tend to wait until things get really bad until they seek help. 

                Thirdly, they feel they can’t tackle this on their own (and they use feeling words around this like frustrated, helpless, irritated, guilty etc). They have obstacles that are situational, behavioural, cognitive or emotional and often talk about what’s hard, or what’s getting in the way. 

                Fourth, feel ready, willing and able to get help to make the change (and there are positive feelings they want to have right now). 

                These are the four general things that drive people to buy and to pay to get help. 

                When you have spoken to people in your niche and truly understand these four elements from the niche perspective, using their ‘feeling words’, then you can use the information to formulate a statement of value that aligns with them. 

                How we need to start describing the value of coaching 

                To sum it up, we need to start describing the value of coaching by talking in more specifics about the things that matter to the niche client and how that feels, rather than talking about us and our tools or methods.  

                For example, when I used to coach in weight loss, a lot of clients talked about not being able to commit to themselves or be consistent and loathing themselves for that. 

                If I was speaking to one of those types of people, I’d be talking about how coaching helps you to make a solid commitment to yourself and then learn how to honour that commitment so that you can be consistent, authentic and living with integrity, feeling aligned with who they truly are, and feeling proud and confident.  

                Can you see how that very different explanation could be very valuable for someone who really wants to commit to themselves and be consistent and stop beating themselves up? 

                There’s no description of visions and goals or what coaching is – just a clear, feelings-based description of what coaching can help the person to achieve, using their language. 

                What I’m saying is this – think about the outcome that people want, because it’s a key part of the value of what you do – in your niche client’s eyes. 

                A final word 

                To really get into the client’s shoes – get coached yourself. This is essential for a few reasons – so that you can be a role model for change – but also experience what it’s like to make and honour a commitment to yourself. 

                Then you can authentically talk about the value of coaching from your own experience.  

                When people want to know HOW coaching works, you can speak honestly about what it’s like to make a commitment to yourself, how it feels, and how you develop certain skills (e.g. self-regulation, self-discipline, consistency, scheduling, self-accountability) that can transfer to other areas of life. 
                 
                When people want to know WHAT the RESULTS are, you can speak emotionally about the feelings and changes you experience. For example, you will finally stop quitting on yourself and feeling guilty. You’ll be aligned with your values and dreams. Having some wins in one or two areas builds your confidence to do more and build on those wins. And how, when you are living in line with your values, it is living with integrity which gives you a sense of self-respect and self-worth. 

                In other words, we are communicating how forming a few simple habits can give important skills and insights that can be applied to other areas, so they don’t have to doubt themselves anymore or rely on experts anymore. 

                Now, how would you feel if someone describe coaching like that to you? 

                Summary

                Today we talked about how we often get caught up describing “coaching” when we should be describing the VALUE of coaching. 

                To do that, you need to know what drives people in your niche, and even better, get coached yourself so that you have the lived experience. 

                Then you can more easily craft a statement that describes the value of coaching with such richness that people are excited to join you on the journey.  

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#213 How to Set Up a Co-Coaching Agreement

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                This episode is about how to set up a co-coaching agreement

                If you’re a coach, it is essential for you to have your own coach. But what if you can’t afford to pay a coach? Co-coaching – or swapping sessions with another coach – is a great way to give and receive coaching and gain the benefits. Coaching is much more effective if you are working with the right person – and today I’ll describe how to set up a productive, connected co-coaching agreement with a fellow coach.

                Why Do Coaches Need to be Coached?

                A lot of coaches finish their qualification and start looking for clients but have not been coached themselves.

                Why is this important? There are a few good reasons.

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * Why coaches need to be coached
                * How to do a ‘good fit’ call
                * How to set up a co-coaching agreement

                Firstly, if you’re going to communicate the value of what you do as a coach, you really need to speak authentically and from experience. Imagine trying to sell a car if you didn’t drive one yourself? Imagine trying to sell a skincare product that you didn’t use yourself?

                Being coached yourself gives you authenticity and credibility.

                Secondly, when you decide to be a professional coach, you are pretty much committing to your own personal growth.

                Once again this is about authenticity. If you are not willing to grow and change yourself, how can you be trusted to help others to develop new habits and pursue their own personal growth?

                As one professional coach in the US says – you can only take a client as deep as you have gone yourself.

                Thirdly, everyone has blind spots. Yes, you can coach yourself through the process of self-talk, reflection and journalling, but there are things about yourself and limiting beliefs that you can’t see. So, no matter how good of a coach you are, you can’t do it all on your own.

                Finally, it is through the process of coaching and experiencing the discomfort of change that you really appreciate what your clients are going to go through, how to describe the benefits and value of coaching, and to gain lived experience in problem solving, navigating a journey and defining success on your terms. By working with another coach, you might also learn a few new coaching techniques as you get to increase your skills and go deep on areas that are important to you – perhaps deeper than you would on your own, or with your own clients.

                All of this leads to greater resonance with your audience, more impactful marketing, and better coaching skills.

                To work with a coach, you have a couple of options.

                You can hire a coach and pay a fee for service which suits some people.

                Alternatively, you can find a peer coach to work with and do a barter, swapping sessions with each other – which I like to call co-coaching.

                The great thing about co-coaching is that the coaching itself is often easier because you are both familiar with the concept of coaching, the language of coaching, and how a session is run. This makes things feel more comfortable and it’s easier to get into a flow. Great if you are new to coaching and lacking a bit of confidence!

                Also, co-coaching has zero cost. If you are on a budget, co-coaching is a cost-effective way to help you get some practice, experience and personal growth.

                Like any coaching relationship, it’s important that you make sure you have a good fit with the person you are going to work with.

                You can identify a co-coaching partner through your coach training school and/or alumni, or through your industry association (e.g. HCANZA).

                Once you’ve identified someone you might like to work with, it’s important to make sure you are a good fit for working together.

                I like to have a good fit call with any prospective client, and it’s great practice to do it with a potential co-coaching partner.

                How to do a ‘good fit’ call

                A good fit call is a short conversation (usually around 30 minutes) where you gauge your suitability for working together.

                You can use this same process for a co-coaching relationship or to qualify your prospective clients!

                The goal is to see if you have the right chemistry – that is, rapport and relationship – and both feel willing to coach each other.

                There is no set-in-stone way to run a good fit call, but it might generally involve asking each other some general questions to get a sense of who the person is and what is important to them.

                Here are some sample questions you can ask:

                · What’s the main area or habit you’re looking to work on right now?

                · What are your objectives for the coaching partnership? (e.g. to help you achieve…..)

                · How do you want to be coached? (e.g. plenty of silence, direct, empathetic etc)

                · Tell me about yourself and your life right now? (e.g. looking for common ground)

                · What are your top two values, and why do they matter to you?

                Asking a few questions like this is usually enough to get a sense of the person and how aligned you are in terms of demographic, personality, values, priorities and stage of life.

                Be very present in the conversation so that you can do the essential piece – which is checking in with yourselves about the chemistry you have with the other person (somatic awareness).

                There are three questions you can ask yourself during the conversation:

                · How is my body responding in this conversation?

                For example, do you notice tightness or tension in your body, or a tingling, free-flowing feeling? Where do you feel that?

                · How do I feel in the conversation?

                For example, do you feel overwhelmed, tentative or drained, or do you feel calm, open and energized?

                · What am I thinking during the conversation?

                For example, are you thinking this person seems like hard work, or I’m not sure about them, or they’re too soft/driven for me, or are you thinking this person is aligned, we are getting on well, I feel good about this?

                This checking in process leads to one of two outcomes – you’re not a fit, or you are a fit.

                There’s really no in between.

                If you feel that the two of you are not a fit, that’s ok, you can decide together openly and honestly. In this case, you can be honest and let them know that you don’t think it’s the right fit but it was lovely to meet them and have the introduction.

                If this was a client, you might say that you feel there is another coach who would be a better match for them and be able to give better and more relevant support, and would they like you to pass on the other coach’s details?

                If you feel you are a fit, you can establish an agreement – I would recommend for a set number of sessions and then review. Allow enough time and sessions for the person to establish (or get back on track) with at least one habit

                How to set up a co-coaching agreement

                Once you have established that the rapport and relationship is suitable, it’s time to set up a co-coaching agreement.

                With a client, you would normally agree on the terms, payment and duration of coaching, and it’s a similar process for co-coaching (without the payment).

                It’s important to have agreement up front so that you can ensure you both achieve your goals and are committed to the process. This can be even more important when no money changes hands; as financial investment can strengthen commitment.

                The last thing you want to do is start cancelling or postponing sessions, losing enthusiasm and getting to busy.

                Treat your co-coach with the integrity and respect that you would a client.

                You could either ask the coach to complete your normal client agreement, or, you can establish a less formal written agreement in a document stating the terms of the arrangement so you are both clear on the expectations and commitment.

                Your agreement would normally be a minimum of 8 weeks (at least 5 sessions) for working on one or two new habits.

                If you were just getting an existing habit back on track, you’d be looking at a minimum of 6 weeks (at least 4 sessions).

                You can decide on the cadence of sessions depending on how much support you feel you would need. Starting weekly is a good idea for at least 3 weeks, then you could continue that way, or perhaps move to fortnightly at the time if you both agree.

                It’s also a good idea to schedule at least three sessions in advance so you both clear your schedules to make time to focus and give your energy to the coaching relationship.

                Summary

                Today, we discussed the many reasons why it’s so valuable for coaches to work with their own coaches, including depth of experience, skill development, authenticity, personal growth and marketing insights.

                We also covered how to conduct a good fit call to ensure there is suitable rapport and relationship between you, including sample questions to ask each other, and three questions to ask yourself to honestly reflect on the chemistry and suitability of this partnership.

                If you’re not a fit, be honest and thank each other for the conversation.

                But if you are a fit, you can set up a co-coaching agreement that covers how long you will work together, the cadence of sessions, and which days and times suits both parties. Having something in writing ensures the commitment of both.

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#212 What’s the Difference Between ICF & NBHWC

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                This episode is about what’s the difference between ICF & NBHWC  

                Are you a qualified coach who is wondering how to gain professional credibility and endorsement? You might have been looking at ICF and NBHWC accreditation but aren’t sure which way to go. By the end of this episode, you’ll be clear on the difference between ICF and NBHWC as professional associations, what the process is for getting accredited by either, and perhaps some clarity on which option is better for you.

                If you’re a qualified coach of any type, then being a member of a respected industry association gives you professional credibility, visibility and a measure of competence as a coach. There are various professional coaching associations around, and the two most talked-about in health and wellness coaching are ICF – the International Coaching Federation – and the NBHWC – the National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coaching association. Let’s compare the two. 

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * What is the difference between ICF and NBHWC?
                * What is the process for getting accredited by either?
                * Which option is better for you?

                What is the difference between ICF and NBHWC? 

                Let’s start with the International Coaching Federation.  

                ICF is a global organisation for coaches and coaching, which has been around since 1995 and has over 50,000 members. ICF aims to advance the coaching profession by defining and upholding coaching ethics, standards, core competencies and professional conduct.  ICF also provides independent certification and a worldwide network of trained coaching professionals. 

                ICF members are typically life coaches, executive coaches, leadership coaches and similar.  

                Having been around a long time, ICF is well known in Australia and in corporate settings, having at least a PCC qualification helps you get in the door as a coach at executive level.  ICF promotes itself as “the most globally recognised, independent credentialling program for coach practitioners.” 

                Now let’s compare the National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coaches association.  

                NBHWC is an American-based association that has collaborated with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) in the US, to provide a robust board certification exam that assesses competencies in trained health and wellness coaches. NBHWC defines and upholds health and wellness coaching standards and core competencies at an international level, allowing the profession to advance in all aspects of healthcare and wellness.  NBHWC was developed and endorsed by some of the major players in health and wellness coaching. 

                NBHWC been around since 2016 and is linked to the medical and Medicare system in the US – but not elsewhere.  Still, NBHWC is considered by many to be the gold standard of credentialling for health and wellness coaches specifically, and at an international level.  

                NBHWC is not as well known in Australia as ICF at the time of writing but is becoming better known as more coach training organisations register as recognised providers with NBHWC and promote this status of their program. 

                Aside from advocacy and maintaining standards of training and coaching competency, both associations play key roles in advocating for our professions, creating a community for coaches, and for approving training courses that qualify coaches to sit the respective exams.

                What is the process for getting accredited by either? 

                ICF Accreditation process 

                ICF has recently (early 2022) updated their credentialling exam, process and levels. What I am about to describe covers this new process. 

                The ICF accreditation process involves submitting a portfolio of evidence first and an application fee. ICF assesses your application and then decides whether you are eligible to sit a three-hour multiple choice exam which they call a Coach Knowledge Assessment.  

                The portfolio of evidence varies according to the level of qualification you are pursuing, but all levels include certain types of information: 

                • Proof that you have successfully completed an ICF-approved course of a certain number of live (real-time) hours and evidence of successful completion*, 
                • A coaching log with certain number of hours depending on the level you are applying for,  
                  • At least 75% of hours must be paid hours 
                  • At least 25% of hours must have been completed in the 18 months prior to your application 
                • Completion of at least 10 hours of mentoring with an approved ICF mentor, and  
                • Submitting 1 recording of a coaching session and a transcript, which demonstrate you have met the ICF core competencies (this is a different session structure to HWC).  This only applies to PCC or MCC level applications. 

                As you go higher up the qualification levels, you need more hours of everything before you can sit the exam. 

                The bottom level is Associate Certified Coach or ACC, where you need to show evidence of completing 60 hours of coach-specific education and 100 hours of client coaching experience (e.g. coaching log). 

                The middle level is Professional Certified Coach or PCC, where you need to show evidence of completing 125 hours of coach-specific education and 500 hours of client coaching experience. 

                The top level is Master Certified Coach or MCC, where you need to show evidence of completing 200 hours of coach-specific education and 2,500 hours of client coaching experience. 

                *Note that If you have not completed ICF-approved education, you may choose the portfolio pathway for any of these three levels. This requires you to provide specific details of all the courses you have completed, including continuing education courses and the number of hours related to each core competency. 

                For example, I completed the PCC application process. I had completed one ICF-approved course, but to make up the 125 hours of coach specific training, I also provided evidence of four other courses I completed, each showing the curriculum, number of hours on each competency, and learning outcomes. It was a BIG job to do this, but I got through. 

                If your application is accepted, you will be notified and invited to sit the exam which can be done online from your home computer. The range of possible scores is 200 – 600, and a passing score is 460 or more. 

                I’d recommend about 4 weeks of study for the exam, given that your 10 mentoring sessions and private client coaching should have prepared you adequately, and there are no health metrics that need to be studied and learned. 

                Your application and the exam are all entirely accessed by a secure online portal in the ICF website. 

                NBHWC Accreditation process 

                The NBHWC accreditation process is similar to ICF’s.  

                You are required to submit a portfolio of evidence first and an application fee. Then, NBHWC assesses your application and decides whether you are eligible to sit a 4.5 hour multiple choice exam. 

                NBHWC lists a calendar that shows exam application periods each year. They have 3 intakes per year at the time of writing. 

                Once you have applied you have a window of time to submit a portfolio of evidence and then, if that is accepted, to book in and sit your exam and pay the associated fee. 

                The portfolio of evidence includes certain types of information: 

                • Proof that you have successfully completed an NBHWC-approved course of a certain number of live (real-time) hours (e.g. Wellness Coaching Australia’s Professional Certificate course), 
                • A coaching log showing 50 hours of health and wellness coaching sessions  
                  • at least 20 minutes long,  
                  • at least 75% of the session being coaching and not education,  
                  • not including sessions with friends, family or classmates, and 
                  • must have been completed AFTER completing your recognised training course. 
                • Submitting evidence of a health-related Bachelor’s degree, or alternatively, that you have completed 4,000 hours of work experience in any field.   

                The NBHWC website includes plenty of great resources including a sample coaching log. 

                >> Here is a link to the exam study materials and information 

                If your application is accepted you will be notified and invited to sit the exam, and will need to find a secure test centre location near you. 

                I’d recommend allowing about 12 weeks of study, 2 – 3 hours per week, covering their core competencies and learning the American medical metrics (these are tested). 

                Once your exam is completed, you will receive your score about 8 weeks after the closing of the testing window. 

                In both cases, the multiple-choice exam asks you to answer questions about specific situations.  

                For example, in the NBHWC exam, you might be asked what you would do if your client in their 10th session came in and was lacking motivation to continue. There are also specific questions about US medical metrics. 

                In the ICF exam, you might be asked what the best possible or worst possible action might be as a coach if your client presented with low motivation and reluctance to discuss specifics. 

                In other words, knowing the theory of coaching isn’t enough – the exams are testing your knowledge of how to implement the skills you’ve learned in real life situations, and related to the stage of change, size of obstacle, scope of practice and ethical considerations. 

                This is an overview of the two assessment processes – visit their websites to gain more specific detail of what is involved. 

                Which option is better for you? 

                The best option depends on your situation. 

                For some health and wellness coaches, NBHWC is more relevant as it is more specific to health and wellness coaching and is often desirable or essential for international coaching companies who employ health and wellness coaches (e.g. Noom – though they have an internal training program for this, possibly BetterUp). 

                While the general public in Australia don’t recognise NBHWC at this point in time, the credential is becoming better known. Plus, it is more specific to health and wellness coaching and the assessment considers a more specific model around habit change. 

                For some health and wellness coaches, ICF is a better fit. This is probably relevant if you want to break into corporate coaching, where ICF is recognised, and PCC is often the minimum standard.  

                ICF is more broadly recognised, although the credentialling system does not specifically assess knowledge of health and wellbeing metrics or development of habits. 

                Either way, being credentialled by ICF or NBHWC is good for your credibility but possibly involves a whole new suite of qualification courses, time and cost.  

                For many coaches starting out, it is better to work with clients and get proof that you can help people to build credibility and trust, before considering a formal credentialling process. 

                A Third Option 

                There is a third option – joining HCANZA; Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association. 

                This industry association is not a credentialling body, but it performs many of the same functions and ICF and NBHWC and upholds the standards of ethics and education of those two associations.  

                HCANZA provides community and connection in our local area, as well as advocacy for health and wellness coaching professionals and creating visibility and employment in our field.  

                HCANZA does not have a lengthy, costly examination process, just a requirement to show successful completion of:  

                • an NBHWC-recognised training program, or  
                • an ICF-recognised training program plus appropriate health and/or lifestyle education.  

                Other levels of membership are available if you: 

                • Are an allied health professional with an advanced degree and coaching experience and training 
                • Are a current or prospective student of a health and wellness coaching course, or 
                • Have completed a coaching program with health and lifestyle training meeting the criteria set by NBHWC. 

                There are three levels of membership: 

                • Professional membership 
                • Associate membership, and 
                • Student membership. 

                To apply for HCANZA membership, you need to provide evidence of training as mentioned above, professional indemnity insurance (or cover note), code of conduct and scope of practice documents, and an online application form and fee. 

                Summary

                It’s clear that you can bolster your professional standing, credibility and visibility by being credentialed by an industry body such as ICF or NBHWC, or by being a member of an industry association such as HCANZA. 

                Any path you take requires you to have completed a certain standard of training by a training provider who teaches and assesses core coaching competencies.  

                In the case of NBHWC and HCANZA, evidence of health and lifestyle training is also required. 

                For ICF and NBHWC, allow around 4 – 12 weeks of study and evidence preparation. 

                If you are new to the industry and not sure where to start, your best option may be to simply join HCANZA, get some practice and experience as a coach, then decide on your future direction before committing to a credentialling process that costs time, energy and money. 

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More

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                E#210 How to Start a Health Coaching Business

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                This episode is about how to start a health coaching business

                When you’ve qualified as a health coach, what are the steps you need to take to get started? Should you set up a website, or hire a coach? What should you do first? It can be really confusing, especially if you’ve never run a business before. By the end of this episode, you will have an outline of how to start a health and well-being coaching business, so that you can get clear on your priorities and start taking action.

                Before you start your business

                While this episode outlines how to start a health coaching business, you need to consider a few important factors if you want your business to be successful!

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * Before you start your business
                * The first three essential, foundational steps
                * Developing your marketing materials and sales funnel

                Imagine your business is a new puppy. It needs to be fed, toilet trained, cuddled, trained and nurtured so it can grow into a happy, healthy dog that knows how to behave.

                Think about the responsibility involved in raising a puppy. If you want to succeed in your business, you need to clear the same amount of time, space and effort in your life to dedicate to your business and ensure it works.

                A lot of people are ok with planning in business, but they struggle to implement perhaps due to life circumstances, personal trauma, trying to do too many things at once, or simply not dedicating enough time or being realistic about what they can achieve.

                Others don’t research, define or commit to a niche and a clearly defined problem, which means they don’t have a clear value proposition and that their marketing efforts are ineffective.

                If you want to start a business, make sure you have set aside at least 6 hours per week, increasing over several months, to start and develop your business.

                The three foundational steps

                1. Define what your business stands for (vision and values)

                Like any good roadmap, you need to start with the end in mind.

                If you know what your business stands for and what it brings to the world in terms of the results and outcomes it can create, you will be able to attract the right clients, and get your daily work priorities right and feel motivated to show up each week.

                For me, my vision and values create the compass that help me work out whether something is worth pursuing or not – be that a program I develop, a contact I am introduced to, or a client enquiry.

                2. Define your value proposition (what will they get from your program?) and offer (what is the thing they buy?)

                This is really important for explaining the value of what you do and feeling a sense of value in your own work, and confidence in your ability to invite clients to work with you.

                In the words of one of my recent Passion to Profit students, who worked on her value proposition:

                “I have actually enjoyed it; I go back to it regularly just checking in on some of the points. It centres me back into the why and what. Kind of helps get those creative juices going, thinking of how to place together information for marketing.”

                Each service you offer has its own value proposition.

                For example, an 8-week coaching program might have a value proposition that is about creating a transformation of some kind and a path to rapid change.

                In contrast, a monthly membership that follows the program might have a value proposition about helping people stay on track and be consistent and develop deeper insights and changes that help them step into their future self.

                These are very generic examples, and you would want to be way more specific and relevant to your niche. But what you can hear is that the value of each is very clear and will appeal to different people depending on their stage of change.

                In order to get your value proposition right, you need to speak to your target market and understand the results and support they want, need and will pay for. Your value proposition is based around that. You can do this in casual conversations, free coaching sessions, or social media conversations.

                3. Outline what you will charge per program/membership and how many you need to sell to meet your income goal (simple math)

                The third foundational step is to be really clear on what your income will be and also the timing.

                For example, there are many ways you can earn $100,000 per year.

                You can sell 2 x $50,000 programs (they’d be one year long for that price, and highly transformational).

                Or you can sell 10 x $10,000 programs (probably also around 12 months long and transformational, or very personalised).

                Or you can sell 100 x $1,000 programs, which might be a series of groups each school term and/or a few individuals.

                Or you can sell 208 memberships at $40 per month (assuming 12 months).

                Or it could be any combination of these. These are examples, but it’s important that you get clear on what you’re offering initially.

                It will likely be one core program that you offer, with a group and a 1:1 pricing, and you’d focus on selling that and becoming good at it, and known for it, and to learn more about your audience.

                Once you have these steps mapped out, you can get on with other business building tasks.

                Developing Your Offers, Marketing Materials and Sales Funnel

                Once you know who you are talking to and what you are selling, you are ready to develop your marketing materials and sales funnel.

                4. Create a splinter/taster service – low risk way for people to try before they buy (< $100)

                The marketing gurus say that if someone spends as little as $1 with you, they will more likely buy something more expensive.

                Your splinter service is your first, lowest cost offer. It should be priced between $27 and $97, and it should offer tangible value to the audience. That value is likely to be creating an aha moment (the first condition of change), and perhaps an outline of the steps they need to take.

                With this information in hand, your target market will be positioned to decide if they are ready, willing and able to change right now or not – and whether they want to do it with you.

                5. Decide on your free thing (is it a FB group, a challenge, a webinar you run or talk you do regularly etc?)

                Most people need to spend time getting to know you before they will spend anything with you, especially for a personal service like coaching.

                Create a free thing that gives people the chance to get to know you – this is your free, no risk offer.

                Make sure your free thing is something that plays to your strengths so you can keep showing up and offering value. E.g. don’t do a group if you hate FB. If you love speaking, do Youtube or Insta reels or live workshops or challenges instead.

                Make sure it offers value to the audience. Don’t give away everything, but help them start forming a specific habit, such as giving up alcohol, developing a meditation practice, or something else that will help them achieve their ultimate aim.

                If they can get some quick wins on this free thing, they are more likely to want to continue the journey in your full program or at least consider your splinter service.

                6. Create a marketing schedule for VISIBILITY/awareness

                Once you have your offers mapped out you are ready to create a marketing schedule. This schedule has three aims:

                1. To help you become visible and build awareness of how you help people,

                2. To ensure you show up consistently with your marketing so that you build trust, rapport and interest that lead to enquiries, and

                3. To ensure you are regularly making free and paid offers so people have something to try or buy.

                Depending on whether you are marketing online or offline, your marketing schedule should include:

                1. Regular posts or content that offer value to the niche and/or

                2. Regular networking events that introduce you to your niche or niche referrers (and book follow up coffee chats)

                Don’t try to do 100 things in 100 places, just start with one or two tactics for at least 6 months. Give it enough time to see what works, and test and measure as you go.

                Focus on building connections first to build the audience over 1 – 3 months, then start promoting offers once you have an audience.

                When you these activities, you will be experimenting to see what sticks. You will shape your content around that feedback and then start building your audience.

                Then when you have built the audience you are ready to start making offers (not before – know the audience first to fine tune the offer so it is relevant – and give first in order to receive).

                After you have built some trust and a following, you can do fortnightly to monthly promotions for

                c. Your free lead magnet (e.g. challenge, group, webinar, talk etc), and

                d. Your program / membership or whatever your core service is.

                Remember that people who sign up for your lead magnet should be offered the next level of service after the lead magnet has been delivered.

                For example, if your lead magnet is a downloadable ebook, you would make another offer e.g. for a good fit call within a few days.

                If your lead magnet is a live challenge or a workshop, you would make the next offer e.g. for your program at the end of the challenge or workshop.

                Notice that trust, rapport and relationship are built more quickly in a live environment so it’s easier to make a bigger offer.

                With some careful planning, you could do an ‘intake’ (offer with a start date or week) so that you can manage your work time if you are working at the same time as building your business.

                E.g. you know you can handle one group on a Saturday morning, so you promote that, fill the group, then run it and use feedback to refine the program if needed.

                Then, decide if you will take paid or unpaid leave for the next group – or run two on a Saturday morning and afternoon.

                7. Make sure your systems are in order to deliver the above elements.

                Finally, once you have these elements in place, you can look at the systems you will need to deliver the essential parts of your business, such as:

                – Email systems

                – Invoicing and bank reconciliation systems

                – Client onboarding processes

                – Program delivery processes

                – Feedback and improvement processes.

                This overview covers the key things you need to do at a high level to build a successful coaching business.

                Summary

                If you want to build a successful health coaching business, you need to get a few things in order.

                You’ll need to complete some foundational tasks to make sure you are ready and committed to building your business.

                Then, you’ll need to do some research and foundational tasks to create a vision, mission and define a viable niche who is ready, willing and able to spend money with you to solve their problem and meet your business and income goals. By doing research with your target market, you will be able to create some specific value propositions for each service that you offer.

                Finally, with a clear knowledge of who you are speaking to and how you help them, you are ready to create your offers, marketing materials and sales funnel to help people get to know you, like you and trust you enough to work with you.

                If you feel like you are ready to do this now, check out my Passion to Profit course which starts on 27 September.

                https://www.wellnesscoachingaustralia.com.au/business-resources/passion-to-profit/

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

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                E#208 How to Interpret Sleep Data

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                How to Interpret Sleep Data

                Are you trying to get better quality sleep and want to know what your sleep data means? In this episode, I’m going to explain sleep hypnograms and how to use them to understand your sleep and help you sleep better.

                Sleep is becoming recognised as a national health priority because it affects so many areas of life. More specifically, sleep quality and quantity are strongly linked to mental health, cognitive function, and physical injury. Sleep is regulated by multiple systems in the body including your circadian control as influenced by light and dark exposure (see previous episode).

                So if you want a good night’s sleep, where do you start? Let’s consider sleep data and how you can use it to make positive changes for a better night’s sleep.

                In this episode, I’ll talk about 
                * What is sleep data?
                * What is a sleep hypnogram?
                * What does your sleep data mean?
                * How can sleep data and hypnograms help improve sleep?

                What is sleep data?

                Sleep data includes any information collected about sleep.

                It can range from information that you manually collect or write down, to data you can collect from a wearable device to data that is collected by experienced practitioners in a sleep lab.

                Manual sleep data could include a sleep diary, where you write down information such as:

                – the time you went to bed,

                – the time you woke up,

                – a subjective rating of how well you think you slept, and

                – any factors that might have influenced your sleep (e.g. caffeine intake, alcohol intake, medications, use of devices, or any worries or anxiety).

                The data is relatively subjective compared to other methods.

                A wearable device can be used to capture physiological data while you are asleep. The data captured may include:

                – the time you fell asleep,

                – total duration of sleep

                – sleep phases and how long you spent in each phase,

                – sleep quality,

                – movement during the night,

                – heart rate during sleep,

                – oxygen saturation during sleep,

                – the time you work up.

                These data may be available on a wearable itself, or in an app that syncs wearable data. Commonly, these data are combined using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide an overall sleep score that is visible on the device and/or on a related app. Examples include Whoop, Oura Ring, and Apple watch.

                Other ways to capture sleep data can include nearables (non-wearable trackers that are placed near the bed which measures motion, temperature, respiratory rate, and other data), or mobile sleep apps (that detect motion in the night and/or may wake the person at the right time in their sleep cycle).

                The data collected by devices like the ones mentioned may be more accurate than self-reported data but are likely to be 50 – 60% as accurate as data collected in a formal sleep lab using purpose-built equipment, according to some studies.

                Many consumer wearable devices and apps use AI that is built purely from subjective data such as questionnaires, which may be biased and affect accuracy.

                There is an emerging interest in wearable devices and apps such as PhiliaHealth, whose algorithms are based in actual physiological studies in a lab, and who report other unique and more actionable data. In comparison to wearables, clinical sleep studies monitor aspects such as:

                – limb movement

                – respiratory flow

                – electrocardiograms (heart signals)

                – electroencephalograms (brain activity and eye movements)

                – electromyograms (muscle movements).

                For most people, it is that manually-collected data or data from a wearable that is most relevant and accessible, empowering you to take action to improve your sleep.

                What is a sleep hypnogram?

                There are a few different ways to look at sleep data, and a sleep hypnogram is one of them.

                A hypnogram is a graphical representation of your sleep cycle. It is a graph of polysomnography (PSG) data that is collected during the hours that you sleep.

                The data is captured by a wearable as an activity, about every 30 seconds while you sleep. While not very precise, it allows you to capture data for different stages of sleep and graph them. These stages and the time spent in each are:

                · Times you are awake and moving

                · Non-REM 1 sleep (lightest sleep) (10% of sleep time)

                · Non-REM 2 sleep (slightly deeper sleep) (50% of sleep time)

                · Non-REM 3 sleep (also called deep sleep or slow wave sleep) (20% of sleep time)

                · REM sleep (rapid eye movement, dream state, increased brain activity) (20% of sleep time

                We cycle through these stages of sleep around every 90 minutes (plus or minus 20 minutes), and each person typically has 4 – 6 of these cycles each night.

                Overall, 20% of sleep is spent in the REM, dreaming phase, and about 80% is spent in non-REM (also known as N-REM).

                The hypnogram plot of your sleep cycle data looks something like this:

                In a normal hypnogram, we might see more N-REM (Stages 1 -3) or deep sleep in the first half of the night (early sleep). Our hormonal balance is such that stimulation effects are lower at this time. 

                Then, in the later part of sleep, we might notice more REM sleep in the hypnogram. During this time, the hormone acetylcholine increases to help you to process information and memories without disrupting sleep.  

                People who have disruptive sleep show variations from the normal graph. They might have multiple awakenings, shorter or irregular sleep cycles, less deep sleep, and/or absent sleep stages. These changes can indicate psychiatric disorders, narcolepsy, sleep disorders, or medication effects (for example). 

                Where can I find my sleep data? 

                If you are using the PhiliaHealth app, your hypnogram can be found by clicking on the sleep icon on the daily dashboard, then scrolling down and click on your sleep session. 

                The sleep icon shows an overall score, with total sleep time and your resting heart rate during sleep. 

                Below that, the score is explained in terms of: 

                • contributing factors to good sleep (time spent in each stage and efficiency) which are colour coded in a traffic light system to show good, ok and not so good, and 
                • penalties that lower the score (restlessness, elevated heart rate and number of awakenings). 

                Scroll down to see your hypnogram including the % time spent in each stage. Remember that 20% of time spent in deep sleep is ‘normal’. 

                Below that, the other biometric data collected during sleep, and data on your sleep disturbances (based on arm movement). 

                The traffic light colour system used in the sleep score section and the biometric data section make it easy to differentiate the positives (green) from the negatives (red). 

                What does my sleep data mean? How can hypnograms help improve sleep? 

                Sleep data can empower you with information that can help you make better choices to improve your sleep. According to Villanova University, sleep data can be used to: 

                • Improve knowledge and treatment of sleep conditions 
                • Identify root causes of sleep disorders 
                • Link behaviours to sleep quality 
                • Improve mattress design, and 
                • Personalise recommendations for better sleep. 

                Even without going into the detail of the hypnogram and without the accuracy of laboratory-based methods, you can work out whether there are issues with your sleep and when they occur. 

                • Using your hypnogram, biometric data, sleep scores and disturbance data, you can figure out whether you’re getting enough deep sleep, and when there are potential sleep issues. 
                • You might notice that your sleep score, hypnogram and biometrics are abnormal on days that you do certain things like work late, drink alcohol, experience anxiety, use devices before bed or have noise or light nearby.  
                • Your hypnogram can show at a glance whether your sleep cycles are normal or not. 

                With this information, you may be able to experiment with modifying your daytime or evening behaviours or situations to improve sleep. The data might reflect positive changes in response to behaviour change. 

                By looking at trends over time and whether behaviour changes cause improvements, you can work out whether you are on track or need to get professional help from a doctor or specialist. 

                Summary

                This episode was a deep dive into what sleep data is, what hypnograms are, what the data means, and how you can use it to improve your sleep or identify a need to get help. 

                References 

                1. Lavery, Michael & Stull, Carolyn & Kinney, Michael & Yosipovitch, Gil. (2016). Nocturnal Pruritus: The Battle for a Peaceful Night’s Sleep. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 17. 425. 10.3390/ijms17030425.
                2. How to Use Sleep Data to Effectively Improve Rest. Master’s in Data Science.org website https://www.mastersindatascience.org/resources/sleep-data-to-improve-rest/ accessed 23/8/22.
                3. Neubauer, David N. MD. (1999) Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center, Baltimore, MD in American Family Physician, 59(9):2551-2558, May 1, 1999.
                4. 4. Schellenberger Costa, Michael & Born, Jan & Claussen, Jens Christian & Martinetz, Thomas. (2016). Modeling the effect of sleep regulation on a neural mass model. Journal of Computational Neuroscience. 41. 10.1007/s10827-016-0602-z.
                5. 5. Wahaj Anwar A. Khan, Russell Conduit, Gerard A. Kennedy, Melinda L. Jackson, 2020. The relationship between shift-work, sleep, and mental health among paramedics in Australia. Sleep Health, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 330-337, ISSN 2352-7218, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2019.12.002.

                Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

                Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

                Learn more here:

                Learn More