Think about when you’ve taken a vacation and seen a craftsman on the streets of the city. You probably stopped what you were doing to watch them right? You could see that this person has likely spent years perfecting his or her craft and becoming world-class at it. You stop because it’s unique and entertaining. These people have become experts in such unique work that you can’t help but stop and admire.There are so many crafts that are simply overlooked. But if you look at any craft, no matter the industry you are in, you will see a commonality. The people who have gotten to the top of their craft have spent endless amount of hours honing in on and perfecting their skill.
I’d like to think that’s what we as coaches should be doing as well. In our industry, anyone can be a coach. At the surface, it’s merely a title. But, the expert coaches out there aren’t just fit. They don’t just “know a lot of fitness.” No, the real experts get it. The real experts understand that you are not a coach simply by knowing biomechanics. You are a coach because you can pair both your knowledge and the ability to actually get someone to change their daily habits. THAT’s what we are trying to accomplish as a coach: seeing real change with our clients.
When I look at the most successful coaches I know, there seems to be three common things they do better than most.
Most coaches are looking for that secret recipe . . .
“If I just knew what they did to become so successful, I could do it too.”
I’ve heard so many people say something like this. But what I’ve now seen is that there is no special thing these coaches are doing that we don’t know about. What sets these coaches apart is that they’re simply doing the basics better than anyone else.
After studying why these coaches are so successful, we’ve come up with three pillars for successful coaching, or what we call the Coaching Formula.
The three pillars to success are:
Education, communication, and accountability.
Let’s break it down.
EDUCATION
Now, you may be thinking you want to stop reading right here. You are probably a coach, and so you know you need to be educated. I mean, this is a no-brainer! However, it’s not what you think. Yes, OF COURSE, we need to be educated, that’s what makes us the expert! But, that’s exactly where our problem lies. We think this is such a no-brainer that we gloss over it and do not look at it as closely as we should. We tend to just give our clients information overload and expect that to change their habits. Believe me, it won’t. I made these mistakes for far too long in my business and I don’t want to see you also go through it. Information alone will not change behavior. You can give your clients all the information you want but until you give your client practical detailed steps to obtain their goal and utilize the information, nothing will change. Your simply a mere Google search for them if all you give them is information. This isn’t what your client needs - heck they came to you because the Google searches weren’t helpful! If anything, the information on the internet just overwhelms us. You hear that just about every food item is bad for you in one way or another, and there’s always a new, better way for fat loss. You can’t win! You think you have it figured out and then you’re told there’s now a better way. You see now? Your client does not need more information from you. What they need from you is to tell them what to focus on - what information is important, and what’s actually not. Help your client put on the blinders and focus on the info that will actually get them to their goal. This is not an easy task but the best coaches out there take complex topics and simplify them into small actionable steps for their clients to take. Your client needs you to tell them what to do. It’s actually that simple.
COMMUNICATION
Most coaches believe communication is just sending some messages back and forth. Wrong, think again! Are messages with words important, well of course. But communication is so much more than that. Communication actually runs incredibly deep if you want it to. Think about all the small talk you do in a day. It’s probably a lot. That’s surface level communicaion. Now think of the people you have deep conversations with. You trust those people, otherwise you wouldn’t share such personal information. That is what we need to do as coaches: establish trust. Show your client they can trust you by demonstrating your credibility and making them feel comfortable. Assure them that they are no different than anyone else and that the struggles they feel are similar to what you have felt before. Once you’ve established your client can trust you, then you can start digging deeper and get to the root cause of their issues. Why has your client gained weight? Well they are stress-eating. Why are they stress-eating? Their job is stressing them out. See, by asking these questions and not just assuming weight gain is an easy fix can help you and your client establish real life change. The best coaches know what and HOW to communicate to help their clients take action.
As coaches, we want results for our clients. It’s why we do what we do. But we can’t want it more than them. And just telling them to do something isn’t going to help set them up to take action.
So what should you do? Ask questions - and a lot of them! The more we help our clients dig into the deeper roots of their problems, the easier it is for them to realize the solutions. We might know what it is right away but taking the time to dig in with them and help them figure it out on their own is vital. We aren’t just teaching our clients health and fitness, we are also teaching them how to handle the daily struggles of life in a healthy, beneficial way. We need to help steer the conversation and the thought process in a direction that helps them find the end solution. A lot of coaches miss this and just become advice monsters with their clients - telling them they need to do X and have to do Y to be successful. Stop that. Sure, it might work for a few clients but it will never last. You’ll just get frustrated and wonder why all your clients are just “tire kickers” who can’t stick to anything... sorry bud, but if you think that, you need to look in the mirror before complaining about your clients again.
So now that you educated them on what to focus on and communicated properly to get them to take action, how do we maintain that action over time?? One word - Accountability.
Most coaches I talk with think communication is just about the words you say. Sorry, wrong again 🙂
Is it part of it? Of course! BUt Communication goes so much deeper than that.
Looking at the big picture of communication there are many different levels. How are you listening to your clients? Are you digging deeper with them and getting to the root cause of their issues? What’s your tone? Are you prescribing actions or guides to what they want to do?
The best coaches out there know what and HOW to communicate to help their clients take action. And that’s really what communication is all about. It’s what helps set up the client to take action on their own.
Because as coaches, we all want results for our clients. It’s why we do what we do. But we can’t want it more than them. And just telling them to do something isn’t going to help set them up to take action.
A big part of this is asking questions - a lot of questions! The more we help our clients dig into the deeper roots of their problems, the easier it is for them to realize the solutions. We might know what it is right away but taking the time to dig in with them and help them figure it out on their own is vital.
We need to be helping steer the conversation and the thought process a certain way to help them find the end solution.
That is what communication is all about. A lot of coaches miss this and just become advice monsters with their clients - telling them they need to do X and have to do Y to be successful. It doesn’t need to be that way. And sure, it might work for a few clients but it will never last. You’ll just get frustrated and wonder why all your clients are just “tire kickers” who can’t stick to anything... sorry bud, but if you think that, you need to look in the mirror before complaining about your clients again.
So now that you educated them on what to focus on and communicated properly to get them to take action, how do we maintain that action?? One word - Accountability.
ACCOUNTABILITY
There’s a reason I saved this one for last. I truly believe it is the most important of all of them - and it’s the one that most coaches miss the most.
Education and communication are important. Very important. But, you can help your clients focus on the right things and build a great relationship/level of trust, however, if you’re not helping hold them accountable to the plan, most will fail. Results come from consistency over a period of time. And how do we achieve that? By holding our clients accountable! The reality is most clients do not have 100% motivation. If they did, they probably wouldn’t need you. Most need to be held accountable. We let down ourselves more than we let down other people. If your client has a 4 p.m. workout scheduled with you, you better bet they’re showing up even if they are tired. Why? Because you are waiting for them, and they do not want to bare the guilt of knowing you know they skipped the session. This is the part of accountability most of us are good at - getting our clients to show up for workouts. But is that really what matters most? You might see one of your clients for 3 hours a week at the gym. That’s great... but what about the other 165 hours of that week? What are you doing to help keep them accountable to their plan?
Most do nothing. It’s okay to admit that. You need to see that if you want to change your methods.
The best coaches have a system for keeping their clients accountable. It might vary but at the core it’s reaching out, tracking and coaching.
The best coaches reach out to their clients and hold them accountable. The method isn’t as important as the principle. If we just sit back and expect our clients to tell us how they’re doing, you’re missing out on a lot of people. Most people won’t report in unless you ask for it. If a coach has an accountability system in place, this is usually where they’re at.
However the next necessary step is tracking. It’s one thing to reach out to your clients but it’s a whole-nother level to keep track of those answers. See if your client struggles more during the weekends or week-days. Is summer easier to make progress or is waiting until routine hits in the fall better? It’s asking questions like these that can take your coaching to the next level and you don’t know these patterns unless you’re tracking data.
Once you have the data, you need to act on it! And this is where coaching becomes a little bit of an art. One of the biggest mistakes I see coaches make is sending out an automated email checking in with clients and thinking that’s an accountability system. I’m sorry to tell you but it’s not.
Why? Sure, you’re collecting information and reaching out to clients but most will just ignore it. There isn't’ a real human behind it. However, as soon as you change that up slightly and personally reach out about their progress/data so far... BOOM 
things change!
Real accountability has a human behind it!! I’ve written about this a lot in the past so I won’t rehash everything here but it’s essential for your coaching business. You can automate pieces of it (especially the data collection) but there needs to be a real person following up with coaching on that data. Without it, you (and your clients) won’t get the true benefits of an accountability system. Authenticity beats quantity.
There you have it, the three pillars of what we call the Coaching Formula.
Education. Communication. Accountability.
Do a quick audit of your own coaching this week and see how you’re doing and where you can improve. It’s never going to be perfect - but by focusing on these three areas, you’re going to help get your clients better results, increase your client retention and boost your revenue.