Be an Authentic Coach_Final

>> Hey, I have a question for you. Are you living and practicing coaching as your most authentic self? The beauty of being a coach is that, unlike most other health professions, you can truly be yourself and you don't have to hold anything back. To attract and deeply connect with clients, you can share stories from your own life. In fact, it's highly beneficial to freely share about your own story and your own experiences. This will help you come off as authentic and genuine to your clients. In this lecture, I'll explain the value of authenticity, demystify what exactly it means to be authentic, and share with you some of my favorite tips for how to tap into this amazing resource that can flow naturally from you and attract your ideal clients just by tapping into it. So what exactly is authenticity? Authenticity is about having clarity about who you are at your core and not being afraid to let it show. When you live authentically, you're very much in touch with who you are, your essence, what you value, and the things in your life that you're passionate about. When you're coaching authentically, you let this all shine through. Authenticity is the ability to know and celebrate your own uniqueness. You don't just know who you are, but you welcome, accept, and even celebrate it. When you're authentic, you operate from a state of harmony and focus, you're open and prepared to be the best version of yourself because you're able to see a vision of what that actually looks like. When you're an authentic coach, you attract your ideal clients, spark excitement in the people you work with, model authenticity to clients to help them embody their best selves, are a source of inspiration, and market yourself effortlessly with natural appeal. When we focus on coaching by the book and we don't infuse our own personality into our work, we create a generic product. Don't do that, it's boring. It's a common mistake of new coaches to hold back and focus on creating this professional stoic appearance. But this backfires because clients find this to be unrelatable and disconnected. This is because when we're inauthentic, we don't vibe and glow, but we want to stand out and radiate and make our clients wonder what the secret is to our awesomeness so they can feel drawn in to work with us and find out what our secret is. And really, that secret is that we're authentic. When I was starting out as a coach, I tried to be the generic Health Coach. I wanted to attract and please everyone, and I was more concerned with coming off as an expert and a professional rather than letting my own personality shine through. I shared very little about myself, yet I expected my clients to open up to and connect with me. I wasn't getting many clients. But then I started sharing about my journey. I opened up about my own story and started sharing my personal experiences, and all of a sudden, I had this booming target market. The one difference that causes profound shift was that I was now speaking directly to my audience. I was sharing my struggle and showing them how I went from where I was to where I am now. And by doing this, I created something that they wanted. They saw that I knew how to make this type of shift a reality and they wanted to know how they could have what I have. This made me able to relate to them better in turn. So now we're having this real dialogue, we're relating to each other as people and not as coach and client. The coaching sessions became more dynamic and we instantly became more connected. When we're authentic, we attract our ideal clients, and we serve them better. I like to call the state of authenticity "Coaching from the Core." Coaching from the Core entails the following, knowing and showing what you're passionate about, owning your personal style and unique attributes, believing in the work you do and in your clients' ability to succeed on their own, and tapping into and trusting your intuitive ability to be great as a coach. Underlying all of these components is a commitment to living in and being comfortable in our own skin. This is a process, and it takes work, but I promise it's something that we're all capable of. I encourage you to commit to being yourself as a coach, which means not being afraid of being incompatible with some people or even offending them with your style. These people are not your target audience. Focus on your tribe and attracting the people who, given the opportunity to see what you're really about, will be attracted to you. To help you tap into your most authentic self, complete the exercise on the, "Who Am I?" handout included in this module. I recommend doing this now while the topic of authenticity is fresh on your mind. What can you do starting today to be more authentic as a coach? Share with us in the comment section on the group Facebook page. That's a wrap. Bye for now.