How to Invest in a Coach
How do YOU invest in a coach?!
I remember the first time I made a big investment in myself.
Yes: in ME......not in a home, a car, a holiday or my wardrobe.
Just in me.
I remember the very first time I invested in my potential, the first time I said to the Universe 'I believe I am worth this much'.
I was at a difficult point in life. I was stuck, and things felt like they were falling apart. After a series of losses, in the midst of a divorce and some tough life challenges, I was tired, overwhelmed and things felt like they were falling apart. I desperately needed support.
After meandering around the inter-webs, I came across a coach in Australia, and set up a call. I knew the moment I spoke with her my soul wanted to say yes.
It was $5,000.
More money than I had ever spent on ANYTHING. Yes, even a car at that point.
But I knew I could only gain, and I knew things had to change.
Since then, I have signed up for a number of high level group and private coaching programmes and hand on heart every single one has been worth the investment. Did I get what I expected?
Ha! No, not every time.... often I got something entirely different, often I simply didn't know what I didn't know, so I got things I wasn't expecting too. In fact I always got a LOT MORE than I expected.
For me, it's now much easier to invest in myself because I have a track record of seeing the return on my investment.
I also know that money and numbers alone are not the sole measure of my success - the shifts in how I feel and believe in myself & what I create (and even let go of!) are. Here's what I have learned over the past 4 years, and the mindset I adopt to make investing in myself easy.
10 Ways to create the Mindset to Invest in a Coach
1. Trust your Intuition
When I am guided to do something or drawn to a mentor, I trust that feeling. I see it as my Higher Self showing me the way. For me that typically looks like feeling a strong emotion or a sense of recognition deep inside me.
2. See it as an Investment
The best coaching programmes cost $$$ and I want to see a return on my money - whether that is in increased peace, happiness, shifting old patterns or creating more clients and revenue in my business. I usually have both personal and business goals but that will depend on what type of coaching you are signing up to.
What tangible outcome or results are you going to measure the success of the investment by? Establish upfront the goals of your Programme with your coach.
3. Be willing to take a risk
There are no guarantees in coaching. No guaranteed outcomes. No payment on results. Being an entrepreneur requires you to get more comfortable with risk. In fact, I'd go so far as saying that the journey of being human requires you to get more comfortable with taking risks.
You're betting on yourself here. And the best part? You get to control the outcome.
4. Remember almost all successful people have mentors and coaches
One of the fastest ways to speed up your success is to learn from those that have gone before you. Take their lessons, teachings and shortcuts.
Get in reality and stop pretending you can do it all on your own or with a few low cost online courses. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing courses out there, but here is NO WAY I would have made over £200,000 in my business in my first full time year as a coach if I hadn't invested £25,000 that year in high level coaching programmes and private one on one support. It's not just the information you need. It's the support to break through limiting patterns of thinking and old beliefs & fears.
A typical investment would be 10-15% of your desired turnover. I know people who have invested 25% or more and subsequently fast-tracked their business at a much greater speed.
6. Ask yourself "What will happen if nothing changes and I am in the same place this time next year?"
Be honest with yourself. If you know what to do, and you're just not doing it, or finding the time to do it, you need support and accountability. Stop beating yourself up and stop the self critical talk. Be willing to admit you need help and go seek it.
Be completely and utterly UNAVAILABLE for things to stay as they are.
7. Focus on the AMAZING outcome you desire
When you focus solely on how much money you are spending, or worry about if it will work, you miss the point, and lose perspective and lose your focus and energy. This isn't about the coach, this isn't about the money, it's about YOU and YOUR dreams. It's about YOU creating the life you truly desire!
You are investing in YOUR LIFE.
8. Know that you are responsible for the life you create
With that responsibility comes power. Great power lies inside of your to make all of your dreams and desires come true. There's no idea burning inside of you that you don't also have the potential to make a reality.
When someone else believes in you and supports you it’s a magical thing. You get connected to your own power, and own capability. Coaching is different to teaching, which is about someone else teaching you how to to it, and how to do it their way… coaching is about how to accessing YOUR own inner power & capability, something I am hugely passionate about!
9. Do not wait until you have the money 'spare'
Invest first, reap the rewards after. If you have spare money or savings available then awesome. For me personally it was necessary fund coaching programmes at the start with a credit card upfront and then pay off as the money came in from the increase in my business I created as a result of the coaching. Most coaches have a payment plan option to help you spread the cost of the investment.
10. Look at the time you will save
Coaching can help you massively CUT THE TIMELINE to your desired outcome– what I have invested in money I have not only gained in terms of time, but I have also effectively saved money, because I have got success and results much faster than I would have done on my own.
I am so much more productive when I have a private coach holding me accountable & supporting me in focusing on the most important things. No more wasting time on the wrong things.
Investing in coaching is all about saying that you are worth it, and you believe in your potential enough to invest the money, energy, time and support required to fulfil your potential.
Share with me in the comments below if you have invested in yourself through coaching and how you framed it to be able to make that investment...
{Photography by Maria Simon; Hair and Make up by Lauren Buckley}