Ep #210: A Love Letter to the Coaching World

Hey, this is Lindsay Dotzlaf and you are listening to Mastering Coaching Skills episode 210.

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Hey coach, I am so happy you’re here today. I am just popping in with just a quick episode that is a little bit of just a love letter to you, to coaches, to the industry, and I’ll tell you what I mean and I’ll tell you why I’m recording this.

So right now I am in the middle of hosting Coach Week, which you may have heard me talk about already on the podcast. I have been promoting it the last few weeks to get everyone to come join us, and it has just been a week long of free trainings where people can come to workshops, get coaching, ask questions, all of the things. And we’ve had about six workshops and we are a little over halfway through at the point that I’m recording this.

But something has been standing out to me, which prompted me to record this for you. I was actually going to take one of the workshops and use that audio on here and repurpose it, use that as a podcast episode, but there’s a lot of kind of going back and forth with questions and stuff on the workshops. And it was like, oh, that doesn’t quite fit.

And it felt like this message was actually a little more important because I have been hearing all week from hundreds of coaches who, not hundreds that have said this to me, but hundreds of coaches are registered for Coach Week, right? And they’re coming to these workshops, like 50 coaches, a hundred coaches in a workshop and just working through these things with me.

And the things that people are saying are just fueling me to be a little louder about this and to talk to you about this. So I want to tell you a couple of things. A couple of standouts, like pop-outs for me that I want to share because they keep coming up over and over.

First of all, this is where the love letter comes in. I just want to tell you, you’re doing great. You’ve got this. You are meant to be a coach. You must keep going. The world needs your work. Nothing has gone wrong if your business results are down or if they’re up or if they are not growing, like you want them to. I think that right now there is a lot going on in the world. And this does not mean, like for some of you it might not be affecting your coaching business at all. I know that that is true for some people.

And for some of you, you might really just be feeling blah or feeling like the coaching, your coaching or your business or whatever has lost its, I say kind of like lost its sparkle, right? Or lost that like shininess that it once had. And partially that could be because, first, there are just lots of terrible things happening in the world.

Now, that’s always true. I do believe that. We could always find something going on that is not great, right? So it could be something that is personal to you or personal to the area that you live in. I have a lot of clients who’ve had some weird health things, or maybe their family has weird health things going on this year or have been involved in hurricanes or other natural disasters, mudslides, just kind of some crazy stuff that is awful.

And I just want to offer, if that’s you, right, if there’s a circumstance in your life that is feeling really heavy, or maybe in some cases making it even impossible to work or run your business, of course you feel the way you do. It makes sense. Do not beat yourself up or add anything on top of that that is just going to make it hard to like, turn that around, right? To come out of it when you’re ready, when you’re back up on your feet and ready to go.

So I know that’s the case for some of you. And then I think there’s another group of you. This is probably a bigger group because this kind of affects everyone. It’s not just someone that happens to be sick or in an area that has had flooding or in a war zone or any of the things, right? Any of those very specific things, but something that could be happening and affecting everyone, particularly in the US right at this moment, and it’s not lost on me that this podcast actually comes out on election day in the United States, which is really interesting.

But if you’re a person, sometimes like me, who’s affected a lot by seeing people just argue and seeing all the conflict and seeing all the division between all the humans and just the really hateful things that people can say, especially online, especially on social media. If that’s something that affects you, whether it’s in the US or just all the things going on all over the world, right?

I’ve definitely realized this is not just a US thing. I just mentioned that because as this is coming out on election day, I know that is something that has been on everyone’s mind, although a lot of the things I’m talking about tend to be quite connected, right? Like a lot of the issues have kind of become political type issues. They either are or they have become political type issues.

And if you’re a person that is really affected by that, just notice that that’s what’s happening. Because I’ve been talking to a lot of people about this and coaching some people on it, and I think that they just don’t even notice that that’s where it’s coming from. And then once they see it, once you see it, it’s like, oh, I can separate this. There’s this thing going on and then there’s also this business that I’m running and these clients I’m taking care of.

Or maybe a lot of your clients are really strongly affected so your coaching sessions feel a little heavier and it’s just all around heaviness. So that could be part of it. Maybe your business isn’t making as much money. Maybe you aren’t making as much money in your business this year as you have in the past. Maybe you’re making more money than you have in the past. I’ve heard both. Amazing.

And what I would offer is those results, whether you are a little down or whether you are making more than you have, just be careful to connect those results to your identity as a human. Now, we usually think about this when someone’s doing it with negative results, right? Like, okay, I’m not making, I’m not hitting my goals, I’m not making the money I want to make. That means all of these bad things about me.

You can also do it on the other end, right? Oh, look at me, I’m making all this money. I’m doing all these things. And this one for me is like, I’ve been in both situations and my mind definitely can go both ways, as does everybody’s, right? But taking those, I think this is something we don’t examine as often, making all those wins mean something about you, like attaching those to your identity as a human in a way that sometimes isn’t healthy.

So just notice if you’re on either side of that. And if any of that is coming up, just notice it, maybe release some of it if you’re able or get some coaching on it, get some support through it. And if this is you, and if you’re just feeling a little blah or a little whatever, and you do feel like it’s affecting your business, I urge you to find support and to find a community or find some friends or find whoever it is that’s going to lift you up.

One thing that I’ve noticed this week while hosting Coach Week and just being surrounded by so many incredible coaches is that I feel transformed. We’re not even on the other side of it, but I feel transformed because of it. Just being surrounded by so many coaches who want to do so much good in the world. It has really gotten into my soul and lifted my spirit in a way that I can’t even tell you.

So if you have been participating in Coach Week, or if you have been, you know, supporting me participating in coach week, whoever you are, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. One reason that I do Coach Week every year, this is the third annual, and I’ve already decided we have to keep going because it was, it’s been so great. But one reason that I do it is I really do love giving back to the coaching industry and just offering this as like, here is this week where you get to come and get coached as much as you want.

Now, of course, if you’re there, you know I do talk about The Coach Lab. I go into all the details about The Coach Lab because Coach Week is kind of like a preview of Coach Lab. So if you love Coach Week, right, which is like all crammed into one week, The Coach Lab is just continued support around that.

So of course I want as many of you as you know, are looking for that support to come join us. But I actually said this on one of the workshops today, but if that’s not for you right now, if that’s not in the cards right now, that’s okay. Like still come get the support, whether it’s from me or from somewhere else, just make sure you’re finding that and make sure it’s not in a place where the focus is on all the bad things happening and it just drags you down further.

Now, I’m not saying don’t put yourself in groups where people are talking about things that feel heavy. That’s really different. Sometimes you do that because things feel very important to you and you want to put your time and attention there. I’m not saying don’t do that, right? I want to be very clear. I’m just saying, if you separate out your coaching business from all of that noise, just make sure you have that support around your business. If you know coaching is for you and that you’re meant to keep going, just be sure that you find that support somewhere.

I just felt like I had to drop in and say this today because as I’m coaching so many people this week, I have realized how many of you are really craving that right now. And not even craving it in a way that’s like, here’s exactly how you coach your client, or here’s exactly how you do a consult or assign a client or whatever else it is that you’re doing. But just the support of someone saying, oh yeah, I feel that but also I’ve got you.

I could not be more proud to have The Coach Lab right now because through Coach Week, we have a lot of new people joining us. We have a lot of new people coming in and just watching the community really embrace everyone and just support them and lift them up and talk about all the transformation they’ve had from being in The Coach Lab has been, I mean, this is so selfish, it has been everything I have needed this week.

Honestly, it is what keeps me going. It is just so fun to see. And I really feel sometimes, if you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t go look for it, but sometimes you can go on the internet and see people either talking badly about the coaching industry, sometimes it’s even coaches doing it, which I think is strange. But talking badly about the industry or about certain aspects of the industry or I don’t know, whatever it is that you see.

I try not to see it, but sometimes it finds me or sometimes people send it to me because they think I need to know. And if that’s you and if you are feeling down because you’re seeing stuff like that, just make sure that you find the other side of that, right? I feel so convinced in this moment that there are so many coaches out there doing such incredible work. I know this because I’ve been working with them all week.

I’ve been coaching them all week. I have been talking to them about what they do in their businesses and they are so client-centered and just have such a heart for who they work with and what they’re doing that it really, for me, is starting to drown out that noise because sometimes that noise can be very loud.

Like even if you’re hearing this, and maybe it’s just like a couple voices that you’re hearing, it can still be really loud. Or it can be the voice that’s kind of playing in the background in your mind when you are making your own business decisions or doing things that, whatever it is that you’re doing in your business. Like if there’s just that little voice in the back of your head that’s like, nobody wants this or whatever it is that it’s saying, it’s probably just not true. Especially if it’s someone else’s voice.

Just let it go and find the other voices, I promise you they are out there. And if you don’t know where to find them, come to The Coach Lab. We have got you. We have been talking about this all week. And I mean, my clients couldn’t agree more, at least the ones that are posting about it this week and talking all about it in Coach Week and inside The Coach Lab where it’s just, we’ve all kind of realized, oh yeah, like we need this positivity.

So just a little note for you on election day. If you’re in the US, first, I hope that you voted. And also, I hope that you are making it sane through the day. And if you would love to see all of the things that we did in Coach Week, obviously, when you’re listening to this it is now the next week, Coach Week is officially over, but we have packaged it up for you. And we’ll be offering it in a package where you can go through, watch all the things that I’m talking about, watch the replays, feel the love, like feel all the things. We have that for you.

So we will put that in the show notes, and we’ll put a link to it. And hopefully you will find it, you will love it, it will fill you up. But either way, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. And I will be back next week. Goodbye.

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.