According to iPEC, I am now a certified professional coach. However, I don't have a single client, so am I really a coach? Stupid question, I know. Is a doctor still a doctor when they're not seeing patients? Of course they are. So yes, I really am a coach. But I don't have a coaching business right now. And I'm completely at a loss for how to create one. There are all these different things that I can do, from creating a presence through social media to finding ways to network with real people to who knows what else.
Part of my issue right now is that my confidence in myself as a coach is kinda low. Not that I don't make a difference with people when I coach them, because I'm clear that I do. But right now I don't have any clients, so I'm not getting to experience myself that way. Additionally, the confidence I have in my message as a coach is even lower. So when I start to have a conversation with someone about what I do, I feel like a blustering idiot. And yes, I know that to gain confidence in talking to people, I have to actually talk to people. And though it feels incredibly awkward right now, it will get less awkward as time goes on until I don't even think about it anymore because it's just second nature. Really, I'd like to skip all the middle part and just get to that last part right now. Any ideas how to do that??
I really really really don't want to sabotage this new business that I'm creating, and I'm clear that the only thing standing in the way of my success right now is ME. Part of the issue is that it's comfortable and easy for me to fill my time with other things. Lunches with friends, workouts, appointments...all sorts of things that take up my time and leave me with no time for building my coaching business. I did the same thing when I had FitnessWave, so I already have this image of myself as someone who doesn't successfully market her business. And of course, if I have no confidence in myself as a coach or in the message I'm spreading, and if I'm uncomfortable talking to people about what I do, it makes perfect sense that I would want to fill my time with other things and give myself a convenient excuse not to go out there and build the business.
Here's what I haven't said so far because it's an ugly truth for me: While there's a (large?) part of me that really wants to succeed in this business as a coach and really make a difference for a huge amount of people while bringing in a great income, I think that there's a (large?) part of me that has already decided that it's not going to happen, and I'm going to fail. Not be a bad coach, because that's not who I am, but fail to grow the business and thrive as a coach. And really, if there's ANY part of me that has already made that decision, then I'm kind of screwed.
Add to that the fact that I'm comparing myself to all these people around me who are finding great success as coaches and really working hard to build their businesses (and succeeding at it), and I end up in quite a funk.
So I find myself wallowing in this crappy headspace that I'm in, and thus far not finding my way out of it. I'm sure that this, too, shall pass. Ironic that as a coach I am totally equipped to get other people out of funks like this, but not myself! At least not so far...
