Hey, do you want more money and impact from your coaching business? Positive psychology can help.
Lots of people are interested in becoming a life coach, and anybody can do that. There
are very few barriers to entry. That's great news. It's also the bad news because how are
we going to differentiate ourselves from others who are entering the field? Positive
psychology is one way to do that, and it can help you to stand out from the crowd.
Hi, I'm Dr. Paul Jenkins. I'm a professional psychologist and I have made a transition in
my career from traditional psychotherapy where I hung out for about 15 years to life coaching,
personal development coaching, professional development coaching, family coaching.
Everything that I do now is coaching based on principles of positive psychology.
I get to stand out from some of the other life coaches out there because
I have a PhD in psychology and I've done all of this research and development into
models of positive psychology. What makes you stand out? What allows you to differentiate
yourself from all of the other people who are setting up a life coaching business?
Now, whether you have an answer to that right now or not is not that important.
I want you to be thinking about that because being able to differentiate yourself will
make a huge difference in your marketing, in your sales, in filling up your practice with
paying clients and whatever it is that differentiates you has to be impactful.
That's what will allow people to start sharing it and spreading the word about how you have changed
their life. So let's look at the difference between two words, trite and tried. And when
I say trite, I'm talking about fluffy platitudes like, just think positive. Which you hear from
motivational speakers or gurus from the stage, and it can be so annoying, especially if there's
no sound psychological principle that is driving it or if they don't understand what it even means.
You hear people touting this stuff all the time, live your truth. What does
that even mean? That's what I'm putting in the category of trite,
and you can jump on board with everybody else who's doing the trite, fluffy stuff, or we can
get to the tried and true principles that are backed up by solid psychological principles,
clinical experience, and a lot of application in different contexts.
One of the things that I've found that differentiates trite from tried is
the concept of ideas versus models. Now ideas are just kind of ethereal floating out there
thoughts. Whereas a model is something that can be reduced to a printed visual
format. It can be copyrighted, it can be shared, it can be licensed.
That's what I mean by a model. Whatever your ideas
are about how you can help people or have an impact on their real life circumstances.
What if you could reduce that to a model that you could share? That makes it even more powerful
than an idea like this one. Let me just give you an example of a model that I've created.
In fact, go to the URL on the screen right now, dr.pauljenkins.com/themodel
and you'll get a copy of my positivity model. This is getting past the trite,
fluffy just think positive into the psychology behind positivity
and positive thinking. Go look at the model and let that trigger your thinking about what you
might be able to create from the brilliant ideas you have about how to help people.
Now I've been training and certifying coaches for probably close to a decade now,
and one of the common errors that I see people make when they get into a life coaching business
is that they do it solo. I get that you're an entrepreneur. That's one reason that you
might choose this particular line of work, but you don't have to do this on your own.
What if you were to surround yourself with a community of people who understand you,
who get you, who know that you're called to this, and it's not easy,
but we can help each other out in this. You don't have to do this alone. Look for
a group that you can associate with. Join a mastermind, sign up for a certification.
Do something that puts you in the room with other people who can expand your
knowledge and who you can help along their path. This is not only essential to our
survival. I think it's something that enhances our own experience with this
business. Which can be so rewarding when we associate with other people.
Now, along those same lines, in addition to the community and the support that we all need,
coaches need coaching. Coaches need coaching. I have hired
several coaches to help me because I have a responsibility to coach all of my clients,
so I want to stay sharp. I want to be engaged in new thinking. I want somebody who can help
me to see some of my own head trash that gets in the way of moving forward to establish
effective business models for example, or to take courageous steps to innovate new
services or models that I can use with my clients, and I get in my
own way all the time. I'm a professional psychologist who's practicing coaching,
and I need coaches. Be humble enough to realize that you're going to need to hire someone to keep
you sharp and to coach you through and this is a little different from our colleagues.
Okay. In that community I was talking about. Get enrolled in some program or coaching process
that will allow you to do that, and I promise it will pay great dividends. And by the way,
while we're on this, I only hire coaches who are open to coaching.
So I want them to be getting their coaching too, so that they can help me the most.
I get a little resistance to this sometimes because a lot of people,
especially if they're just starting out in their coaching career,
they don't think that they can afford to get high level coaching of their own. Don't look
at this as an expense. What if you were to see it as an investment? It pays great dividends for
you to invest in you because you are the primary asset that you bring to your coaching practice.
So whatever you can do to invest in you is going to pay off in the long run. Now, before I turn
you loose today, I wanted to acknowledge also clarity. As you feel called to do this, there are
certain things you need to be really clear about in order to set up an effective business as a life
coach. There are seven clarity that I would love to share with you in the form of a quiz.
So jot this down or open it up in another browser, dr.pauljenkins.com/practitioner
quiz. You are the practitioner, the quizzes to help you assess your level of clarity
across seven domains that are essential for anyone who is setting up a life coaching
practice. Just go check it out, see where you are and when you've completed the quiz
click submit and I will provide the results to you immediately along with some steps that
you might be able to take. That will also put you and me in contact so that we can
have additional conversations about what might be next in moving you forward to
have more impact and make more money in your coaching business. Actually,
this is kind of cool because when you have more impact, you will make more money.
So the question becomes, how do I have that impact? And that's why we had this conversation
today. I hope that you found this helpful. Go take the quiz. Okay, that's up next.
Go take the quiz, submit for your results, and then talk to us. Talk to a member of
my team. Let's see if we can help you to take those powerful steps moving forward.
Thanks for coming by.