Amanda asks Geeta: “What percentage of coaching is hands-on?”

Amanda asks:

What percentage of coaching is hands-on (face to face, phone calls, etc.) versus just giving your students materials, homework and resources? I tend to spend so much time with my clients. It’s hard to step back and let them be or give them stuff to do.

MY RESPONSE:

Amanda, what this says to me is that you’re taking on too much responsibility! Typically, when we overstretch ourselves, it’s usually one big pattern playing out that has two sneaky sides to it.

  1. We don’t trust ourselves. If we aren’t fixing problems or helping people, we don’t feel like we’re good enough.
  2. We don’t trust our clients. This is actually a projection of the same thought pattern. It seduces us into thinking our clients lack the motivation, depth, and discipline to do the work. So we feel the need to coddle, cajole, hover over or punish them.

Often when we have this pattern with clients, it shows up closer to home with our family and especially parenting relationships, so examine those for yourself.

The issue is that when you’re operating from this energy, no amount of work you do is going to make you feel good enough. That’s why at Impact with Influence, we do deep mindset work alongside curriculum design. You need to be able to have the tools and resources internally. This way, you can come to the table willing and able to hold space for your client’s pain.

And show them that you trust them to create their way towards the life of their dreams. Holding space for someone this way is hugely empowering to both sides because it focuses your energy and attention on capability rather than lack.

When you hold space for someone, your greatest gift to them is the gift of emotional neutrality.

You bring a level of calm and curiosity to the conversation that allows you to crystallize the problem, peel back the layers, and discover what the root issues really is. This engages your client in the process, and invites them to meet their pain with curiosity and creativity. But in order to work that magic, you need to make sure that your program is structured in such a way that your one-on-one meetings aren’t bogged down by repetitive conversations or busywork.

The way you do that is by balancing your curriculum around mini breakthroughs, Amanda.

There’s no magic percentage or number, it all depends on the larger transformation that you are moving your clients towards. Start with that end-goal transformation and move backwards, identifying the mini moments, breakthroughs, and milestones that compound over time. When you’re clear on what those baby steps are, you can identify which ones can be automated through thinking exercises, templates, videos, etc.

The best part about doing it this way is that it allows you to go at the pace that the clients bring. If someone is a beginner, you can go slower and take your time. But if they’re advanced, they’ll zoom through the thinking exercises because they’ve already figured it out. This way you can get into the meatier parts much faster.

These automated processes and exercises will also help diagnose your clients. They will allow you to maximize the one-on-one time you do have with them. If they can come to these mini revelations on their own, you can use your meetings to hold space for larger problems, peeling back deeper layers. And if they struggle with certain exercises, you’ll know exactly what to discuss and work through on your calls.

Think about it.

This allows you to automate the approximately 80% of repetitive work that you have to do with each client to effectively onboard them. Which then frees up 100% of your energy to focus on the 20% that is deeply customized and pure magic.

This is what drives results.

Now you’re much more likely to stay deeply engaged and interested in the work. You’ve set yourself up with time and energy to explore the real reasons any client is stuck. You will no longer get bored with the repetition and will protect yourself from drudgery.

What do you think this will do to your bottom line? All of this requires you to start with clarity of exactly what you want to create and what your deepest genius is. Want to get a taste of our main Impact with Influence program, but in a more condensed, affordable way that’s good for both brand new and advanced coaches? Use this link to get 70% off Impact with Clarity for a limited time.

And if you haven’t already, join our free FB community where we’re having deep, thoughtful conversations about the energetics of transformation, program design, pricing and much more.

© 2021 Geeta Nadkarni Media Inc.

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