Hey, Melinda here. And this morning I just want to speak to why your understanding of your coaching business is just wrong.

You see, most coaches, it’s an inherent skill that you have to to help people, to create impact to coach and transform people’s lives – it’s a skill you’re born with, it just comes naturally. You use it in your your business that you had, or your job that you had, as an employee, maybe you bring those skills to your family, and it’s just what you do. And so you love doing this thing, and then the natural progression is “well if I love doing this thing, let’s start a business doing this thing”. And that’s where you are approaching this as what I call “the technician”: the doer, the person who is doing the coaching.

There is a big difference in being a great coach versus running a great coaching business. You must know that distinction in order to create success as an entrepreneur in your business. You see, coaching – that is just a third of the equation. There’s three things you must master when you are starting launching and growing your business:

You must master the skills of coaching : how you help people, the way you support them . You must hone and polish those inherent gifts that are are your zone of genius.

The second thing is you must master the marketing: marketing, selling, converting, enrolling. You must master those skills. A lot of us say we don’t like it, but when you really dig deep and look at marketing at its best, it’s just great coaching. Stop convincing; don’t manipulate; be of service to prospects before they become your client, to help them get clear on their next best steps for themselves. Marketing is just great coaching, so you have an advantage to master this second area.

And in the third area that you must master is the skills of business. You must understand you don’t have to be great at them, but you do have to understand what happens behind the scenes, what happens by the scenes to do marketing, to grow your list and find new leads; what has to happen behind the scenes to convert those prospects into paying clients; what has to happen behind the scenes to support your clients, to get referrals, to process payments – you may not like those things, but if you want a thriving business, you better understand it, and you have to be willing to create what I call this “enlightened discipline” to understand the business of coaching.

You must master those three areas to create a thriving and successful coaching business beyond your wildest dreams. If you simply come at it from the coach perspective saying “I love coaching. I want to coach people. Who can I coach?” you’ll only be focusing on where to find the next person to coach – that’s a technicians perspective. There’s so much more, and you’ll hit a plateau or you’ll wonder why you can’t find leads, why you can’t create consistent revenue, and why you can’t can’t create sustainable revenue. Because you’re thinking of it as a technician, as a coach.

So, master those three areas: the skills of coaching, the marketing of coaching, and the business of coaching. And then you have to infuse – as an entrepreneur – you’ve got to infuse all of that with the discipline of self-care and leadership; leading yourself on a daily basis because you are your own boss. You answer to yourself – that’s the hardest accountability that’s out there. That’s why you should have a coach, why you should be in a mastermind.

You also need to master the discipline of leadership when it comes to your team. Because, as an entrepreneur – yes! – you might start doing everything yourself, but you will need to bring on other team members. Maybe a virtual assistant, maybe other team members as you continue to grow, to take care of the areas that you are not skilled at, that aren’t your zone of genius. To keep growing you will need to bring on some team members. And you must master the discipline of leadership when it comes to leading your tribe. So, you’ve got to also be a great leader in addition to being a great business owner, and a great marketer, and a great coach.

So really those are the four areas that you must master. Take that approach, put on the Hat of the proactive business and – I promise you – things will be much smoother sailing than trying to create success only as the technician.

Here’s to creating the business beyond your wildest dreams, so you can live the lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams.