7: Why is Coaching a Hard Sell?

This episode might blow your mind. But I hope it OPENS your mind.You've probably suspected the truth of this already. It's been nagging at you but you haven't known what to do about it.Coaching is a hard sell.You don't want to have to sell at all, but you definitely don't want to do a hard sell on people!And, I hear you thinking ..."What the fork, Rhonda!I'm a coach and you're telling meit's not a good idea to sell coaching?What else am I supposed to do?"Bear with me, because there is an important mindset shift wanting to happen here.Yes, it is a super valuable skill. It absolutely does help people transform. And we — you and I — are completely sold on the idea of it.But most people are not.To help you understand the disconnect between what we know and what our prospects don't know, I'll share what I call my origin story. See if you recognize you're own origin story in any of this.I remember when the idea of coaching sparked in my mind and started burning like wildfire.I was a Marketing Director of a small corporation. From the outside, it seemed like a perfect job. Great salary, good benefits, weekends off. My boss was the President and an engaging leader. I had authority and a lot of freedom.Still, each day I came home from work feeling soul-less.I felt sick on Sundays and dreaded the coming week. When I got home from conferences, I'd cry in the airport parking lot. I was so spent.I decided I had to break free and deep down I knew that just getting another job wasn't going to do it for me.I summoned the courage to go my boss and I told her I'd be gone in 6 months and that, in the meantime, I'd like to shift from employee to consultant, train my replacement and work from home 4 days a week.To my surprise, she agreed to everything I asked. I think she valued me but knew somehow that I was a short termer.I had more bandwidth then to consider what my next steps were.During coffee with friends I asked what they thought my strengths were and we brainstormed entrepreneurial possibilities.One friend said: "You'd be a good coach, Rhonda."A tingle zipped up my spine and in days I was immersed into a year long training program.My life flipped over in the most exciting way.I became coaching's best advocate. I became obsessed. So you can imagine how confused I was when I talked to people about it their eyes would glaze over and they'd slip away from the conversation.In a not very subtle way I was trying to convert them. To convince them that coaching was wonderful and that they wanted it.In reality the only people who really wanted to hear about it were people who were thinking of becoming one themselves.I'd argue that it is an even harder sell now because there is exponentially more marketing for services out there than there ever was.And people don't pay attention unless messaging hits every hot spot for them.I wrote about topics like limiting beliefs and how to find confidence. There are sooo many articles out there on those topics so it wasn't surprising those topics didn't get read. I gave talks on similar topics at Chamber meetings and in libraries.What happened?Crickets.Much later, when a few clients did enroll ... (find more Show Notes here.)