Are you a new coach trying to create success in the coaching industry? Or, have you been coaching for a while, but struggling to gain traction in your business? In this episode, I uncover the top 5 mistakes that can sabotage your success as a coach and how you can avoid them. Whether it's falling into the trap of busywork or thinking that a heart for helping is enough, these common pitfalls can derail your progress. Join me as I share practical strategies and insights to help you build a thriving coaching business from the start.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

Welcome to the abundant coach. I'm your host Lauren brilliant Newton. This is a weekly podcast about creating full spectrum success with a thriving coaching business while making a profound difference in the world. Each week you'll discover insights, strategies and inspiration to help you attract your ideal clients, facilitate real transformation in their lives, and grow your coaching business while living your purpose.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

The true freedom and fulfillment.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to the Abundant Coach Podcast. Thrilled to be with you. I really, really love the topic of today. Now I say that every episode I'm like, Oh, this is the best, but these are the things. Guys. The reason why I'm recording these episodes is because these are the things I know from working with thousands of coaches building their business.

00;00;51;20 - 00;01;13;23

Lauren Brollier Newton

These topics are things that tend to hold people back. When you can free yourself from that, you can be so successful, so well, come on in. And today, our topic is top five Success Killing Mistakes that Most coaches make and how to stop doing that, how to avoid them. Our quote for today. Such a good one. Let's unpack it.

00;01;13;25 - 00;01;39;17

Lauren Brollier Newton

Never hide behind busywork. It takes just as much energy to fail as it does to succeed. That comes from augmenting. AUGMENT wrote a great book called The Greatest Salesman in the World. And in that book, he actually breaks down for you step by step, what you can do in this case to become a great salesperson. But I love what he has to say about busy work here, because busy work actually stops you from success.

00;01;39;23 - 00;02;01;11

Lauren Brollier Newton

You hide behind activities that aren't producing income, that aren't helping people, but you feel busy, so you think you're doing something. It's such a success killer. So today we're going to talk about how to avoid making the mistakes that most new coaches make. And I'll do my best as well to go into like, what are the energetics behind it?

00;02;01;11 - 00;02;26;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

Like, what are the self-limiting beliefs, the paradigms? What is it that's causing so many people to do these actions which actually don't produce results? Number one is starting from scratch. As a new coach, you do not have to start from scratch. Here's why. There are people who have done what you're trying to do that have a model for you that you can go after.

00;02;26;10 - 00;02;51;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

You want to be a life coach. There's a lot of life coaching companies, certification programs, mind RS at Break Thinking Institute being one of them that have done this model that know how to help people. There are fewer that actually know how to both help you to help people in terms of content curriculum, coaching, session guidelines, that kind of thing, and actually help you build the business.

00;02;51;10 - 00;03;17;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

But I want you to look for something that's going to help you do all of those things. That's going to help you to actually know the art and science of coaching, but also know the art and science of building that coaching business. And I don't care what modality is life coaching business, coaching sales, coaching, health coaching, fitness coaching, whatever you're doing, spiritual coaching, trauma consulting, whatever you're doing there are people who have created that already.

00;03;18;01 - 00;03;41;05

Lauren Brollier Newton

So rather than trying to be the Lone Ranger and creating it from scratch, get with someone who's done it, who knows how to do it to shorten your learning curve. I think of one of the times this is so funny. I might have even talked about this on another episode. It's coming to my mind that I was actually in a structure of support with a mentor and decided to make a large business decision.

00;03;41;05 - 00;03;56;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

It was a financial decision, it was a strategy decision and didn't consult my mentor and if I would have consulted him, he would have been like, Don't do this. This is probably not going to work. And let me help you find something that's more match to your vision. But I didn't ask for help and I ended up reinventing a wheel and that wheel didn't work.

00;03;56;29 - 00;04;21;01

Lauren Brollier Newton

It was more like trying to drive a car with cardboard boxes for tires. So not seeking the people who know how to do this and like give it up to yourself are listening to this podcast because you're listening to a person. I'm not perfect by any means, but that has built a coaching business. I'm not just talking philosophically about it, I've done it and I've failed a hell of a lot and I've succeeded a hell of a lot.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

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Lauren Brollier Newton

But when I started, I was on fire for the type of coaching that we do, and I saw how it was changing my life, the principles, and now I was going to get to help other people with it. And I was on fire for that. And I wanted everybody to have this newfound learning that I had. I wasn't pushy.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

I didn't force people who didn't want it, but people who were curious about it, people who were excited about it. I wanted everybody to have as much information as I could get them. And I think that passion for the topic led me to be just so willing, so willing to do whatever it was going to take. And I never want a day of my coaching business without mentorship.

00;05;24;02 - 00;05;47;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

So I hired a mentor right away. I got certified at Brave Thinking Institute right away, and everything that they suggested I did. So if they said, All right, your first step is to build a workshop and go deliver that workshop and enroll clients. I did it. I didn't skip around and let fear get me. And I think the reason why I was so good at not letting fear get me is because I was so passionate about the freaking topic.

00;05;47;00 - 00;06;04;25

Lauren Brollier Newton

I just wanted everybody to have it, as I said. So that really helped. So this is going to be important for you. You can turn up the volume on passion so that you can follow what your mentors advices. Now, when you're picking the person who's going to support you in doing this, you don't have to start from scratch.

00;06;04;27 - 00;06;23;18

Lauren Brollier Newton

You want to pick someone you resonate with. You want to pick a person that you resonate with. You feel like they care about you. You jive with them like someone who just feels resonate with you, like part of your people. That's very important because then when they suggest that you do something, there's a level of trust there and there's a level of resonance.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

They're likely not going to ask you to do things that don't align with you. Whereas if you go with a mentor who you go, well, that person's made a lot of money. I don't really resonate with them, but I'm going to go with them because they're successful. That's when you're going to get yourself out of alignment and your mentors can be asking you to do things that actually aren't in line with you.

00;06;38;12 - 00;07;18;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

So that's really important. So the number two success killing mistake is busy work. I watch so many coaches and they're starting their business for themselves into thinking they're doing something. When they make a logo, when they make a website, when they type up their curriculum. And it's not that those things can't come in or an important, but sometimes I watch coaches literally for years getting ready to coach, getting their website ready, getting their funnel ready, getting their logo ready, and none of that stuff is required to get out there and start helping people.

00;07;18;04 - 00;07;57;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

It's actually distraction from being successful because I got to have it all worked out before I can be successful. That is not going to work. And so you want to look at the things that you're doing and ask yourself, is this actually getting me in front of people today that can become clients that I gain revenue from and I give impact too, because you could trick yourself into thinking, yeah, well, this funnel, yes, this is going to put me in front of clients, but when three months from now, do something today that puts you in front of clients and with this busy work, what often happens is the person will trick themselves into.

00;07;57;02 - 00;08;14;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

And by the way, this is not because they're not good people or they're not intelligent people. It's human nature to think this way without a mentor. This often happens or skipping the advice of the door. This often happens, but sometimes we get this field of dreams that if I build a website, they will come. If I build a funnel, they will come.

00;08;14;09 - 00;08;34;23

Lauren Brollier Newton

If I have a nice enough logo, they will come. And those things are actually not the things that attract clients to your coaching business. The thing that attracts clients, your coaching business is you getting in front of people, putting a website on the internet doesn't get you in front of people until you share it, market it, you have to drive it.

00;08;34;26 - 00;08;55;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

And so I watch coaches and this is why I'm so passionate, you guys. This is why I gave up my own multimillion dollar coaching business to come to break Thinking Institute because I wanted to have these kind of conversations. I don't want you wasting time on stuff that's not going to work for you. So number two, this busy work idea is don't do things that don't get you in front of people.

00;08;55;00 - 00;09;19;11

Lauren Brollier Newton

That should be about 20% of your time, You know, doing things like working on the website, writing blogs, whatever you're doing, the next thing you're going to do 80% of the time is get in front of people. Through social media, through workshops, through webinars, through networking, through your market, through going live on Facebook or TikTok or whatever you're going to do, get in front of people and you don't need money and you don't need a fancy website.

00;09;19;18 - 00;09;36;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

You don't really need anything to do that. So if you've been letting busy work get in the way or if you've been thinking one, my website's done, people are just going to flock to it. I'm giving you a hard, tough talk, right? I'm giving you tough love because I don't want you wasting time. Get in front of people today.

00;09;37;00 - 00;10;02;14

Lauren Brollier Newton

Start networking with people today. Start talking about your coaching business today. Start rolling clients today. So success, killing mistakes. The first one was thinking you have to start from scratch and not taking mentorship. Second one was busywork. The third success Killing mistake is very similar to number two, but it's more the delay of it. Number three is ducks in a row syndrome.

00;10;02;16 - 00;10;26;13

Lauren Brollier Newton

I've got to have all my ducks in a row. So before I can go to the networking meeting though, Lauren, don't I have to have the website set up? And if I go to the networking meeting and I don't have the funnel, then how am I going to channel these people into coaching? And, and, and so it's like, not only am I doing busy work, but I'm thinking that everything has to be perfectly in place like an advanced multimillion dollar coach before I can get started.

00;10;26;15 - 00;10;53;05

Lauren Brollier Newton

And that is such a falsity. You actually don't need much to get started. You can go to the networking meeting with no website, no social media, no logo, no business card, no funnel. You chat with someone there interested in what you do and they're like, Oh, do you have a website? There's not. You say, Let's just text each other, I'll text you what's your number and we can get together.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

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Lauren Brollier Newton

Now, he was an executive. He was very successful. He had a six figure salary bordering on seven figure salary, and he gets his coach certification at Great Thinking Institute. And Mary Morrissey, our founder, asked him, So when are you going to start coaching? And his interest to her was six months from now. She was like, Why would you wait six months to start coaching?

00;11;46;08 - 00;12;08;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

And John said, Well, this is a six month coaching program that I want to do. So I have to go through the six months of the program and memorize it and get it perfect and create all the stuff. So in six months I'll be ready to create my first client. So she says to John, How far ahead of your clients would you have to be just to teach the first week, just to do your first week of coaching?

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Lauren Brollier Newton

How far ahead of the clients would you have to be? And he's like, Well, I would just have to know the week one stuff Mary's like, Great start next week Network right now sign people up have your first call next week. I love that story so much because we really don't have to have it all worked out in order to be able to be super successful and help people, which is the mission and get some income coming in.

00;12;32;24 - 00;12;49;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Because what's going to happen is if you do the busy work and ducks in a row thing number two and three combined, you're not going to have income coming in. I guarantee you 100%. You won't have income coming in. Then six months will go by and you'll start to do the thing of I'm such a failure and this isn't working for me and I've done all this work and it didn't work.

00;12;49;03 - 00;13;11;17

Lauren Brollier Newton

So maybe this coaching thing is bogus and it's not. It's just that you didn't do the thing that was actually going to create the result. You want it. I love giving you this tough love. You don't okay with my tough love here. All right. Success killing, mistake number four, thinking that having a heart for helping people is enough to have a successful coaching business.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

This one's really important Now. There people come become coaches for all different reasons, for monetary reasons, because they want time, freedom, all of that for most people who become spiritual coaches or practitioners of things like hypnotherapy and LP life coaches, transformational coaches, those kind of things. Most people who go into that kind of a coaching modality go into it because they feel a call to make a difference in the world.

00;13;37;12 - 00;13;58;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

That's why I wanted to do it. Now, let me tell you a little something about us difference maker people. We are often the most heart centered people and more uncommonly business people. Now, that's not everyone. A lot of you are therapists and counselors and or you've had an executive career or something and you were caused to want to become a coach.

00;13;59;01 - 00;14;16;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

And so you do have some business chops because you've been an entrepreneur or you've been a CEO or whatever it is, but the majority of people don't actually have a ton of business building skills who want who are heart centered, who feel a call to really help people. And so what I can see sometimes happens is can be a success.

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Lauren Brollier Newton

Killing mistake is thinking that the call itself is going to be enough to make the business successful. Now, important, we want the calling that we feel inside to make a difference, to be center stream, center stream to our day to day why we get out of bed. I was just talking to love and relationship coach, co founder of Brave Thinking Institute, amazing marketer Matt Boggs.

00;14;42;04 - 00;15;05;23

Lauren Brollier Newton

I was just talking to Matt the other day and we were talking about how something that those of us who are high level embracing institute, those of us who have executive positions or high level faculty positions, all of us do what we do primarily because we are on a mission to change this world. That's primarily why we do it.

00;15;05;23 - 00;15;28;18

Lauren Brollier Newton

We do not that we don't like the money. It's not that we don't like the free time. It's not that there aren't other drivers. Of course there are. And if it wasn't for this thing, the want to serve people, I would I would have quit a long time ago. But when I think about you can do this with yourself, you think about getting to the very end of your days and we're going to just pretend it's far out in the future.

00;15;28;20 - 00;15;49;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

You get to the end of your days and you didn't serve the calling that you feel to make a difference in other people's lives. Would that matter to you? You're on your deathbed and you didn't do it, if you could, to no to that. Being a coach is probably not right for you. But if you get a yes to that, like I would be devastated if I spent this lifetime and didn't answer this call and didn't make a difference.

00;15;49;04 - 00;16;07;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

That's the thing that you want getting you out of bed in the morning. So I am not saying that being a heart centered person is not important. It is important. I serve it every day. I remind myself every day. I mean, full transparency. This morning I'm going to record these podcast episodes and a lot of times I'll sleep it out a day.

00;16;07;14 - 00;16;25;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

I'll record like, you know, six episodes in a day. There is a rhythm and a tediousness to that. There's a rigor to that that is, you know, you've got to be on your own, but you make a bond, do your hair. Speaking of, I don't know why this lipstick color is coming up like bright on the screen, because it's not in real life, but it's cool.

00;16;25;02 - 00;16;49;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

I'm down with it. I'm helping you guys set aside the vanity for a moment, but there's a rigor to getting up, putting your makeup on, slating out the episodes, outlining them, recording them. There is a little bit of a rigor to it, especially when I'm sitting in here in my office by myself, talking to myself. I'm imagining all of you guys while I'm here, but there is a rigor to outputting a certain number of episodes a week.

00;16;50;00 - 00;17;06;10

Lauren Brollier Newton

The solo episodes are, I don't want to say less fun, but I will say when I get to interview someone, it's interesting. I'm with another person here. I'm just like sitting here by myself. Somebody said, You like, are you in your den? You know, you're in your cave recording your podcast. So why am I saying all this to you?

00;17;06;12 - 00;17;34;20

Lauren Brollier Newton

Because it's the heart that I have for helping that causes me to be rigorous enough with myself to have this kind of output and motivation. It is the heart for helping people. Okay, so I've given you a long preamble to number four, but why is being heart centered not enough? Because in this coaching business there are things and there are times where you will not get the result you want.

00;17;34;22 - 00;17;56;24

Lauren Brollier Newton

You'll put out some great Facebook ad and you think it's going to perform and you just waste a bunch of money on it. Or you set up to have a workshop and nobody shows up or you enroll a client. They're painful, they're all gung ho. And then a week later they're like, I want a full refund. This there are things that occur in the course of a coaching business and the heart for helping people isn't quite enough.

00;17;56;27 - 00;18;14;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

I have to also fall in love with being an entrepreneur. I have to fall in love with the fact that that there are ups and downs because there are going to be the ups are great. They reward us, they feel amazing. The downs give us all the learning we need to have. The next up, I got to fall in love with that.

00;18;15;02 - 00;18;38;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

You're going to be doing some things like taxes and bookkeeping and things of that nature. Probably when you first start, you won't have outsourced it yet and they won't be your favorite thing and you'll feel like, I don't want to freakin do this, but you do it because the entrepreneurship is what helps you to help people. So you fall in love with the vessel that helps you get where you want to go.

00;18;38;05 - 00;18;52;10

Lauren Brollier Newton

It's like, I want to go to New York City. I live in Cody, Wyoming. Let's say I want to go to New York City. I'm not to take a couple of planes to get to New York City. What I really want is New York City. But I am not going to hate on the plane that gets me there.

00;18;52;13 - 00;19;16;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

Now, many people do. Many people complain or whatever, but is like, hey, this is the vessel that is getting bigger. Thank you. And so I am suggesting that having a heart for people is not enough. You also have to fall in love with being an entrepreneur because there are going to be moments and things that you don't love doing, but you will teach yourself to love them because they fulfill your mission of really helping people.

00;19;16;25 - 00;19;38;10

Lauren Brollier Newton

That would be my thought there. All right. So let's go over our success. Killing mistakes. Number one was starting from scratch. Number two was busywork. Number three was ducks in a row syndrome. Number four was thinking a heart for people is enough. Number five, it's very similar to some of the other ones, you guys. But these are these are really the things.

00;19;38;12 - 00;20;05;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Number five is over branding under serving. Let's talk about branding over time is brand important when your business gets bigger and bigger and bigger? Yes, it is. When your beginning coach is branding important? I would say not at all. That truly is my my opinion is it really isn't important because you can start to work person to person and let them get to know you.

00;20;05;03 - 00;20;35;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

You are the brand as a coach. You're the brand. Your logos, not the brand. The colors you pick are not the brand. You are the brand. Now you can do the fun stuff of picking the colors and creating a logo and all of that, but that is not going to help you to serve people. And so we want to be careful about over branding and under serving because really, truly you in your authenticity is really the brand and it doesn't matter really what else you do outside of that.

00;20;36;00 - 00;21;00;15

Lauren Brollier Newton

But the other thing about over branding is sometimes you will get gung ho about branding. In the beginning, but then when you start serving clients, you will see, Oh, that really isn't the brand I want and I got to go change the whole damn thing, put service first. How can I get out and serve people today? How can I get out and serve this two day this week in the next 24 hours and put the branding to the side a bit?

00;21;00;17 - 00;21;26;11

Lauren Brollier Newton

Doesn't mean you can't put up a website, have it look good, do whatever. But really you are the brand you in your authentic self, being as vulnerable, as authentic, as fun, as whatever you are as possible is actually what is going to attract people to your business. Do you want to stay a stay away from over branding and under serving for the purpose of actually serving clients?

00;21;26;11 - 00;21;47;14

Lauren Brollier Newton

Because having great branding and no clients is not what you set out to do. I know this is true, so you can see that there's a theme to all of these success killing mistakes and you can see that what it is, is spending time on the wrong things. And that's why we started with the quote Never hide behind busy work.

00;21;47;17 - 00;22;07;20

Lauren Brollier Newton

It takes just as much energy to fail as it does to succeed. Busy work actually blocks you from success. So now I invite you. Let's put this on. I've been tough on you. I've been tough loving on you for this whole episode. Okay, so let's put on the dream. Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this?

00;22;07;23 - 00;22;28;16

Lauren Brollier Newton

My guess is you want to generate income. You want to have a career that you absolutely love. You want to feel fulfilled, you want to make money, you want to help people. So go out there and do the things that help people. Go meet them. Put yourself out there. Go do the things that are going to help you to help those people.

00;22;28;19 - 00;22;47;23

Lauren Brollier Newton

That's where it's at. That is where it's at. And now, at the very least, when you're thinking about taking an action in your business, you have some things to measure against. Oh, is this this ducks in a row thing? Is this the busy work thing? Is this the branding over branding under serving? Am I trying to start from scratch and do this all by myself, all alone?

00;22;47;26 - 00;23;15;21

Lauren Brollier Newton

This is hopefully going to just put your feelers up enough that if you start doing some of these things and they they don't, you know, you're not seeing the fruit of them. You can come back to this episode and you can know, you know, there's a different way to do this. So my highest recommendation, get the mentorship, because the mentorship will help you get in front of people in ways that produce income, ways that are proven through a mentor that you resonate with.

00;23;15;23 - 00;23;36;26

Lauren Brollier Newton

That would be my high recommendation because reinventing the wheel, like I said, is no fun. Nobody wants to do that. I don't want to do that. To this day, as high level as we are, embrace Thinking Institute in terms of the number of people we help and the amount of revenue we bring in and all that great stuff, we are always seeking people who know more than we do just such a great benefit to that.

00;23;36;29 - 00;24;09;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

Teach me everything you know, so avoid these mistakes and just know this. No one gets it right all the time. I didn't. You can stumble your way to success, but at least you'll be helping people along the way. All right. I love you. I'll see you soon. Thanks for joining me This week on the Abundant Coach. Visit our Web site at Brave Thinking Institute dot com slash coach dash certification where you can dive even deeper with additional resources and exciting opportunities.

00;24;09;03 - 00;24;32;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast so you'll never miss an episode. And while you're at it, if you loved the show, please rate and review to find out how to jump start your abundant coaching career and more about my journey to seven Figure coach. Check out our Free Meant to Be a Life Coach quiz available at Beat Icon slash Coach Quiz.

00;24;32;05 - 00;24;34;01

Lauren Brollier Newton

I'll see you in the next episode.