How not to be a life coaching muppet
If I see another life coaching video pop up on Facebook or YouTube where someone is trying to sound like the expert but is just saying a whole bunch of nothing, I may lose it…
“Muppet: In Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the word muppet has come to be used as a mild term of abuse, meaning a stupid, incompetent, or idiotic person, or the obvious interpretation of someone who is inanimated or somehow not there.” Wikipedia:Muppet
The thing about the coaching/personal development industry is that there is ZERO barrier to entry. There are no rules or governing bodies requiring you to jump through hoops or meet certain standards before you are allowed to sell your wares to the world.
This is both an incredible opportunity and an incredible challenge at the same time. It means literally anyone can be a coach. It also means that because anyone can be a coach, you have to work hard at separating yourself from the crowd and proving that you are not another muppet with nothing real of your own to say.
Here are 10 things to think about to help you avoid this problem…
- Develop your skill. Just because you did a course one time, doesn’t qualify you to be the world expert on a subject.
- Reference your ideas. If you didn’t make it up, give some love to the person who did.
- If you have nothing new, interesting or useful to say…don’t say anything.
- Solve problems. See a need in the world and find a way to meet it with a high quality solution. The world needs personal development solutions more than any other kind. Make sure what you are saying is an actual solution to a real problem.
- Keep learning. It’s grow or die. Just because you provided a high quality solution once, doesn’t guarantee someone else hasn’t already found a better way to solve that problem. Keep improving and developing your solutions.
- Fake it till you make it with integrity. This industry is ALL about backing yourself, you can’t wait for someone else to pick you. You have to start somewhere, and you need to believe you are successful before others will believe it. Just make sure that when you step up with something to say, that you are all in, not just playing around the edges.
- Smoke what you are selling. If your ideas are so good, make sure they are producing incredible results in your own life first before trying to sell them to others.
- Find your voice. Don’t copy others. You are unique. You are the only one of you on the planet. Be good at being you. Don’t try to be somebody else.
- Authenticity is everything. People want to see and hear the real you. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to have everything figured out to be useful to others. Keep it real.
- Add value. Always always always seek to add value to those who are listening to you rather than just flapping your gums and wasting the internet.