Love should be at the base of your coaching practice.
Love for coaching.
Love for your clients.
I love my clients. Truly.
I love their projects.
I love their work in the world.
I love them.
I believe every coach should love their clients too.
It is totally OK not to love some people.
There are people who are uninspiring, or do not match with your standards, aspirations or desires. That’s OK, there are plenty of coaches out there who can serve them.
Your job is to find your people.
Here are some signs that you are in love with your client (which is a good thing):
- You leave each conversation with them with a deep sense of joy/gratitude/fulfillment. That happened to me the other day, after a conversation with a client, I just thought:
“Oh My God, I love this client, I love this job. I want every coaching client to be like that”.
- You secretly think they are an 11/10. Your job is to search, create and cultivate Elevens, and set the bar to slowly let go of clients below 8.
- You secretly would love to work more for them (could even think about leaving coaching to join their organization). Don’t get fooled, your job as a coach is to work less than your clients. Beware of role inversion here. You can create a consulting project if you want to work more, that is a great service you could offer your client if you want to.
- You would be willing to have these conversations for free (or even pay to work with them!). It doesn’t mean you should. On the contrary, remember that you signed up for coaching to enjoy your work so it doesn’t feel like work.
- They are out of your league (Check out Rich Litvin’s article on How to coach people who are more successful, intelligent or wealthy than you)
- They are givers: they don’t ask for much, yet feel and express so much gratitude for the work you do together. That warms my heart so much that I just want to give more. That pumps my Soul to get more creative in serving this client.
- They do the work: from one session to another, they get things done, they experiment and put the insights into action.
How can you create these clients?
Like any other client, they are Created. That is the basis of the Prosperous Coach Approach.
First, think about your ideal client? Be really specific about it.
In thinking about your ideal client, you can think about them personally: their story, what they have been through, what they want in life. And you can also think about their mission, their vision, what problem they are solving. This inspiration can come from any source. The other day, as I was in the garden, I saw a bee. I know how much I value and appreciate honey too. I love it’s golden purity, the sweetness, and the symbol the bee represents. And, I know how much bees are important for the environment and the planet in the critical role they play for Earth. So I thought: I would love to create a client which helps to sustain bees on the planet with the highest standards of ethics (some bees are farmed in an industrial way, and their beehives are transported with trucks that pollute, and thousands of them are killed once the honey has been harvested – these are not the people I want to work with.).
Then, take that thought further, and think:
“Who do I know?”
If you find out, connect with that person.
If you can’t think about anybody, think about someone you know who might know someone.
Otherwise, you might want to sit with that idea and keep it somewhere in your awareness or your subconscious. In the coming days or weeks, see how it goes and if anything magic happens. You might meet the right person, or come across exactly what you need.
Once you connect with a person ask them the following 5 questions:
What projects are you working on currently?
What is an impossible goal you have?
What are your biggest challenges right now?
What are your gifts?
What are the dark sides of these gifts? (for instance, if one of their gifts is that they are excellent at what they do, one of the dark sides might be that it is hard for them to delegate since they often notice that the job is not done as well)
And then, ask them: Would you like some help with that?
If they do, invite them for a coaching conversation with you.
To learn more about how to Create clients, read The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler. You can also watch the following videos on the steps of this approach:
Once you created a client you love, serve them so powerfully that they never forget this conversation for the rest or their life. That is the art of client creation.
Find ways to astonish them. Send them a book, or a hand-written note. Or a highly personalized gift. Not to get them as a client, but because you love them. Because you are a giver. Because you love their mission.
If they are committed to working with you, sustain your commitment and your relationship by serving them even more on the long term.
Who would you love to work with?
What client would have you wake up in the morning in excitement at the prospect of serving them?
By the way, I’m creating a group program for phenomenal visionary leaders who would like to create amazing clients while 10Xing their positive impact on the people, the planet and the psyche. If you would like to know more, send me an email with the title “Phoenix” and I’ll get back to you when the group opens.
Jean-Sébastien Simon - Conscious Business Coach 