Ep #25: Coaching Masters: Your Questions Answered

Hi, this is Lindsay Dotzlaf and you are listening to Mastering Coaching Skills, episode 25.

To really compete in the coaching industry, you have to be great at coaching. That’s why every week, I will be answering your questions, sharing my stories, and offering tips and advice so you can be the best at what you do. Let’s get to work.

Hello, I’m so happy you’re here. I hope your day is amazing. I wanted to hop on today – I’m kind of recording an impromptu episode. I had something else planned and, after last week’s episode about strategy and about my evolution of how I built my business, and I talked a lot about how I created my mastermind, I’ve been getting a lot of emails and lot of messages and a lot of texts and all the things asking so many questions about my mastermind.

And I just thought, I’m just going to record a quick podcast answering some of those questions and really talking about why I created it. I did talk about that a little bit on the last episode. But really diving into what it is, who it’s for, and answering the questions that I’ve been getting. Because honestly, I’m having a hard time keeping up with you guys.

I love it. It’s amazing. It’s the best problem to have. And I’m just so grateful that you are finding this useful. So, here we go. This is what I’m going to do. It’s going to be a little bit almost like I’m interviewing myself because I’m going to ask a question that you guy have sent, or a form of the questions that you have sent. And I will then answer it. So, let’s just dive right in.

So, I’ve had a couple of people ask me recently why I created the mastermind that I did. Why did I create Coaching Masters? And I will tell you why. There are several reasons. I’ve also been thinking about this for myself ever since I recorded last week, this has just been on my mind. So, here are the reasons.

One, my super, kind of, altruistic, big, huge vision of the world answer is because I think people deserve great coaching. I think, in the life coaching industry, there is a low bar to enter. I don’t think that that’s a bad thing, but literally anybody can be a life coach. You, anyone listening, even if you aren’t a coach, you could decide today, “I’m going to be a life coach.”

And you could go out and tell people you’re a life coach, and they could hire you and pay you money. I take this very seriously. I think if people are going to pay you money for coaching, they should get what they came for and they should feel confident that they’re hiring a coach that knows what they’re doing and that takes their clients’ results very seriously.

So, that’s kind of the overall, like, when I think about the impact of my business in the world, that’s where my mind goes. People deserve great coaching. To me, there’s so much motivation behind that. Mostly because, if you listened to the last episode, coaching changed my life. So, to me, it’s like everybody should have what was available to me.

The next reason is because I just see a gap in the industry. I see a gap between learning how to coach or getting a certification and making all of the money as a coach. I see that there is this space there that’s like, “But what about the everyday day-to-day of your business, the everyday working with clients? The everyday facing real life client situations that you aren’t totally sure how to handle?”

So, I know the certification I went to, and from what I’ve heard from many other people who are certified, certifications are amazing, I’ve said this before. Don’t take this as, like, “Don’t do it.” For sure, do it to learn the skills that the certification teaches you. But there’s a little bit of, a lot of times, you coach your peers and you coach the people that are immediately around you when you’re getting certified.

And those people already know what coaching is. They know, especially if you’re practicing on each other, if someone else is in your certification program, they already know what coaching is. They already have this idea of what’s going to happen when they get on a call. And that’s just very different than getting on a call with a real-life human who is like, “Please help me.” There’s just a gap there that I saw it and I was like, “This is my thing. This is what I want to address. This is the gap I want to fill. And I’m so glad that I leaned into it and that this is what I’m doing.

And I think I mentioned this on the last episode, but it took a lot of bravery. On my part, it took a lot of, like, “I don’t see this in the industry. Do people even want this?” Because I saw – I’m sure that this is not the case. I’m sure that there are other people doing similar things to me. But what I had surrounded myself with is people who are helping clients make money.

Which, again, amazing. I love making money. I love for my clients to make money. And so, I had to lean into that bravery of, “I think people will want this and I think that this is a valid thing to teach coaches.” Which is kind of funny because truly the next answer to, “Why did I create this mastermind?” is something I’ve been thinking about a lot.

It’s that for you as a coach, your coaching skills, which is what I do here, we talk all about mastering your coaching skills, your coaching skills are your number-one asset in your business. So, it’s always funny to me when I hear coaches say, “Well, yes, but first I need to learn to sell,” or, “First I need to learn to be better at marketing,” or, “First I need to learn funnels,” or whatever it is.

No, coaching skills, it’s your number-one asset in your business. When you are an amazing coach, like a drop the mic, I nailed it today, every call, I have no doubts about what I’m doing, if you feel that way about your coaching, your marketing is better. It doesn’t matter if anyone has taught you how to market yourself. Your marketing is just better because you believe those things are true, which means you tell people, “I’m an amazing coach.”

Maybe not in those words, but it just shows up in your energy. Your sales are better. You don’t have to be amazing at nailing every single consult or every single sales call or every single anything to make money when you know that you’re an amazing coach. Everything is easier when your coaching skills are top notch.

And then my last honest answer for why I created the mastermind that I did is that it’s what I wanted when I was growing my business. I still am. Like, it’s still something I focus on. Even the year I made $100,000, let’s just go there because I know for a lot of coaches, a lot of you listening, you think that that’s like the holy grail of like, “I’ve made it.”

And what I will say about that year for me and why I addressed it on the last episode a little bit and why it was one of my hardest years is because I was really looking for that feedback of, like, “Am I doing it right?” And I wanted a way to be able to measure what I was doing.

I wanted a way to know that my clients were getting results. I wanted just more feedback from my clients, but also knowing, like, I can’t just ask them, “Am I doing it right?” I am just a person who likes to be good at things. This is just a think about me that’s always been true. It’s part of my personality.

And if that is also true for you, you would probably love my mastermind because I have so many clients who come into my mastermind, who work with me, who are used to being good at things. They have lots of degrees. They have lots of schooling. They love to be educated. They love to be smart. And they love to be good at things.

Or even if it’s not degrees, they have some sort of mastery in something. Like, that is what they like and this is what I offer within the coaching world because it’s what I wanted. It’s what I was looking for that I was like, “I don’t see this anywhere.”

So, the next question that I get a lot is some form of, “Is it for me?” And so, I just want to answer, like, who is it for. Who is my mastermind for? The answer is any coach that wants to be amazing at coaching. That’s the shortest answer. But I’m going to give you so many other examples of why Coaching Masters would be for you.

So, one thing that I love personally about Coaching Masters – I know I created it, but I’m like, “This thing is so cool.” I think it’s so fun. I have coaches from all over the coaching industry. I have coaches that are certified through all different schools. I have coaches that are not certified at all but have been coaches for a while. I have coaches that are working in corporate America as a coach and are wanting to branch out on their own. Or to just even be a better coach for the company or employee that they work for.

And this is one thing that is very different, I would say, about my mastermind, than any mastermind I have ever been in or heard of is that it’s just very diverse as far as backgrounds, experience, place that you got certified, place where you learned to coach, all of the things. There are coaches from all different walks of life, literally, all different niches, non-niches, all of the things.

And I think what’s so fun about that is I do encourage, at least at this point while I’m recording this podcast, I do encourage peer coaching and I think it’s really fun for people to learn from each other, especially if you are a coach that went to a certification program and you learned one very specific way to coach, there is a whole world of coaching out there, I promise you, that you don’t know about.

Which is really fun to experience when you’re in a group of other people, Not that you need to learn any other methods or you need to learn how to do this thing that this person does, or how to do this thing that this person does. But it really helps open your mind to all of the possibilities within coaching.

Coaching is so much more than, “Let’s put this person’s thoughts into an equation,” or whatever you do in coaching, the specific thing you do, I promise you, there is so much more to the coaching world and all of it is amazing. And also, what you do and what you know right now is perfect.

You don’t need to learn other skills. You have the skills You just need to learn how to harness them, how to really make them work for you and make them work for your clients. So, that being said, I want to give you some examples of why you would join Coaching Masters, if it’s on your radar, or why you would join any program that is a continued learning type situation of coaching, or focusing on your coaching skills.

I would say one of the top reasons is because you just love mastery. You think excellence is important to you. Being excellent at something is important and you feel like your clients’ results are important to you and you don’t feel great about going into the world being a mediocre coach. Which I get it, that was me.

Or you just love continued learning, which is kind of the same thing. You learned to coach somewhere. That was just the beginning. And you’re ready to learn more; learn more about coaching, open your mind to all the possibilities that coaching can be.

Another example of clients that join Coaching Masters are people that are already very good making a lot of money at something else and they’ve dabbled with adding coaching into it and now they’re wanting to transition into mostly coaching.

So, I’ll give you an example. I have an amazing client, Amy, who is in one of my masterminds now that’s currently going. Amy – I’m going to butcher her last name. It’s either LaLiberté or LaLiberty. And she is amazing.

She made a lot of money in her business working with people’s money, being the CFO for people’s businesses. And she knew that included some coaching. And she learned to coach, she got trained in coaching, started adding it in, and now she’s learning a lot more into, “How can I do this, the same thing, but mostly with coaching?” Instead of just running the numbers for people and doing numbers in businesses.

Because she understands that their mind is the most important piece. It’s the most important piece of their business. And the numbers are great. But the numbers without the mind part, she says, not always the best. It’s so much better to include that mindset part. And so, that’s a really good example of someone who joins the mastermind because she knows how to coach, she knows she has this skill that she’s already amazing at, and now she just wants to turn it more towards, “And I’m a coach who just does this.” Which she’s already doing by the way. She’s killing it, making all the money, which is so fun.

Another example of someone that would join the mastermind is someone that coaches for someone else or has the goal of coaching for someone else.

So, sometimes I get clients who already are working in someone else’s business as a coach. Or they are working in corporate America as a coach and they just want to be better at their coaching. So, they’re not necessarily an entrepreneur. This isn’t a lot of my clients, but it just sprinkles in every now and then, and I love it. I think that this is amazing.

Or they have been doing this and they want to transition into their own business. So, they’re like, “I learned this way to coach in a corporate setting, or I learned this specific way to coach from another coach whose business I work in.” Like, wherever they learned a specific way to coach, and now they’re maybe entering into their own business and feeling a little scared about it. That’s an amazing reason to join the mastermind.

A very large percentage of people, of clients that join Coaching Masters are those of you that really get in your head about your clients’ results. You get in your head about, “Is it working? I don’t know. I’m not sure how to set goals with my clients. I think my clients should have huge breakthroughs on every call and that’s not happening. I don’t know.” There’s just a lot of, “I don’t know,” or, “I think this could be better.”

If that’s you, I have got you. It’s literally my jam. It’s what I spend all of my time thinking about. And this is one of my favorite things to talk about, to tell stories about. If you’re a client of mine and listening, shoutout to you. I told a story about laser hair removal this week in my masterminds. And if you’re listening and you’re a client, you know what that means and you know how funny it is. But truly, every experience I have in my life, AKA laser hair removal recently, I relate to, like, how can this help my clients?

I had the biggest breakthrough when I was thinking about this. If you’re lucky, I’ll record an episode on it because it’s pretty funny. But it’s also very powerful. But this is what I do. Literally, this is what I spend all of my time thinking about; how you can be a better coach, how I can help you master your coaching skills, how you can go into the world and just be better for your clients no matter where you are.

No matter if you’re already making money and you just are like, “I don’t really know. I’m having these issues in my business and it feels kind of bad and I just want to feel great about my business.” I’ve got you.

If you are a newer coach and you have some clients, you know you feel continued education, continued learning is very important, I’ve got you. All of you. Anyone that is just ready to really focus in on their coaching skills and really see how creating that mastery can create so much confidence for you, so much feeling better in your business, feeling amazing about your business, I’m here for you. That’s literally what I do. It’s what I think about all the time.

Okay, so I have two more ways to know that Coaching Masters is a good fit for you. So, one of them is if your brain gets a little freaked out when you set money goals. I used to have this. It’s a legit thing.

I had to learn how to set goals that weren’t focused so specifically on a money amount. I can do it now, but I didn’t used to be able to. Of course, it was just my thoughts. And yes, I worked through it and I’ve been working on it for a long time. But I think there are so many other ways to set goals in your business.

Even if you make a lot of money, even if you’re already making so much money as a coach, there are so many other ways to set goals in your business that don’t include, “This is how much money I’m going to make this month, or in this launch, or in this year.” Which can include, “I’m going to be an amazing coach. I’m going to coach this many people. I’m going to learn how to incorporate my personality into my coaching. I’m going to learn how to show up as my authentic self without dimming it down, without muting myself and my coaching, without thinking I have to be like someone else.”

There are so many other goals. Those were just a couple of examples. But there are so many other ways to set goals in your coaching business. I know a lot of people focus on money. And again, I love it. Nothing wrong with it. I love money.

But for me, for my brain, I had to really think of, like, how can I set other goals that aren’t so focused on just a number? I think partially because my brain loves math so much that when I get super-focused on the number I’m like, “Okay, numbers, yes, got it. It’s all calculations. It’s all math. I can do this.”

And I totally forget about my clients. I totally forget about what you guys want. I totally forget all of the things that really make my business what it is. And the same is true for you.

And the other reason is if you’re looking for an amazing community. So, one thing that I really pride myself on is creating a very strong community within my mastermind. I talked about this a little bit on the last episode about me kind of finding my coach friends, my coach people. And I encourage this.

If this is something that you think you’re looking for in your business or that you don’t have right now and you also think it’s important, this is something I really encourage and love to cultivate within the mastermind.

So, there are all the reasons, so many reasons you should join. If you have any other questions, please send them to me. Email is at the end of the episode, lindsay@lindsaydotzlafcoaching.com. And I just want to say this. I know I say this all the time, but literally, I appreciate you so freaking much, it’s insane.

So, that’s it. That’s all I have today. And I hope that you found a little nugget, or like 10 nuggets of goodness in this episode. If you did and you’re listening in real time, my mastermind is open right now. Go to my website, lindsaydotzlafcoaching.com to find more information, or my Instagram to find the link. And I will love to see you there. If it’s already full, we’re going to take names, you can join next time.

I love it. I love you guys. See you next week.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Mastering Coaching Skills. If you want to learn more about my work, come visit me at lindsaydotzlafcoaching.com. That’s Lindsay with an A, D-O-T-Z-L-A-F.com. See you next week.