I’ve talked about being in the right place at the right time before, and that’s kind of how I ended up with my own business coach, Theresa Loe. She has done phenomenal things with her business, and last summer she started offering group coaching so that it was affordable to more people. I was at the front of the line, due to my association with her and I jumped at the chance to work with her. (Previously she only offered one on one options that started at around $3,500.)
I saw her business savvy, her huge success in the digital space, and her understanding of the industry in which I work so I practically scream-emailed: SIGN ME UP!
Beyond right place-right time, here are reasons why I knew I needed to work with someone to up my game.
WHY WORK WITH A BUSINESS COACH
- I had put in place various marketing initiatives for clients, but few for myself. I was all word of mouth. I made opt-ins, I helped set up email lists, I did social media marketing for clients, but I did not take the time to do it myself. I needed accountability.
- I felt like I was a little tiny bit behind what was going on digitally and I knew Theresa was ON TOP OF THE GAME, so she was a natural resource to turn to.
- I needed to look at my whole business with fresh eyes. That’s hard to do when you’re in your business. You’re too busy juggling everything to step back and evaluate. It can be OVERWHELMING to evaluate by yourself. I needed structure to do this.
- If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. It’s great to have someone else look at your strengths and give you ideas about what you can be doing to streamline, focus, and generate more revenue in less time.
- I was scared to step out from behind the curtain. I’ve talked a lot about imposter syndrome and confidence as a freelancer, and I was scared to talk about what I really wanted to talk about and work with other people on it. Working with a coach helped me move past that. (NOT THAT I STILL DON’T HAVE EPISODES OF “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KATIE?” They’re just much less frequent.)
WHAT I GAINED FROM WORKING WITH MY BUSINESS COACH
I participated in group coaching, so not only did I get my fabu coach, Theresa, I got a group of colleagues and peers working through the EXACT SAME THINGS. We remain a tight-knit group today, 8 months after we started together.
Here are some tangible results I got from working through the Level Up program, and getting a great group of colleagues to work with:
- Focus: I was guilty of trying to do too many things at one time. I still do more than I should, but I’ve cut back by, probably, half. I also was able to hone in on what I like to do best and what I’m good at and focus on selling those products and services. My life satisfaction has never been better. I quit a bunch of stuff and cut back on selling other services. There was a class of work I was doing, event planning, that I’m good at, but had NOTHING to do with my end goals. In fact, it would take me OUT of my business stream for weeks at a time. I quit all of that. I thought I wanted to do slightly more with other initiatives I have been working on and through working with my coach, I realized I really DON’T want to focus on those things so I stopped focusing on those.
- Higher income: (My income has gone up for the same amount of work.) My hourly rates are double what they were when I started. My per project rates have gone up 50%. Working with a coach helped me realize the value of what I was giving my clients and the confidence to charge for it. That helps me, but it also helps my colleagues: a rising tide lifts all boats. When one person gets paid more, we ALL eventually get paid more.
- Accountability: From my coach and my group colleagues. We had homework. We did it. We reported back. We helped each other. I was paying for a class so I WAS GOING TO DO THE WORK. The live calls and schedule helped me commit to it.
- Digital Marketing Explosion: I don’t know what else to call this one! I already did a lot of digital marketing, but I learned the newest tips and structures and I learned about tons of great people to follow who also regularly offer tips and tools. It has upped my game and allowed me to up the game for my clients.
- Confidence to “Level Up”: I was already doing well as a small business owner, but when I looked around at other industries, I felt like I could be doing more and doing better, as compared to other marketers and other copy writers. I felt that I had exhausted the resources regarding technology and digital marketing from some of my immediate peer group. I needed someone who had leveled up. And I got her! By working with her, I was able to implement processes and strategies that would help my business and not feel bad about them. It takes a lot of confidence and nerve to do something different from what everyone around you is doing and to say, “This is how I do it. This is how it works when you work with my company.” Having a coach (A SUCCESSFUL COACH) makes doing that a million times easier.
Sometimes you need people to help you do more work (subcontractors) and sometimes you need people to help you do better work (a coach). I have benefitted a lot from both!
