There’s one way to improve your coaching that will make you a better coach today and forever:
Get a coach.
It’s incredible how seldom we–coaches!–get coached.
Sure, we take occasional weekend seminars. We read books about theory. We watch every YouTube video right to the end. We watch and do.
We both know that’s not the same thing as being coached.
Getting a coach will improve your technique. You’ll learn a few new cues…sure.
You’ll also learn how to deliver your service better. For example, when Jay Williams wrote about the “Rule of Threes” this week, he shared a practice he uses in his gyms (CrossFit Thames and CrossFit Hale.) But he learned the concept from Kelly Starrett; applied it in his gym; and tailored it for his community.
You can also learn what NOT to do. For example, if you sign up for a remote coaching service, you might take note of which emails you receive are templated, and which are not. You might notice how often you’re texted by the coach (too often? Not often enough?) and how personal the service really is.
For example, imagine you sign up for a remote nutrition coaching program. You receive a welcome email with confusing instructions. Then you’re told to watch a welcome video, but it’s poorly produced, and the speaker says “Oh f***, I screwed that up” more than once. Finally, your coach sends you an encouraging text…but she calls you by the wrong name.
Pretty bad, right? Should you ask for your money back?
No! You’ve just gained incredibly valuable coaching.
Now that you’ve experienced it from the client’s side, you know:
That you have to write a clear welcome email
You need to shoot smiling, short videos to welcome your clients
You need to write your texts by hand instead of copying from a template.
You might also extrapolate:
Workout and nutrition programs can be templated, but not texts
That you can charge more for your service
That you have a massive opportunity to provide nutrition coaching.
Of course, the goal of coaching is to grow faster than you could on your own. Having a coach allows you sprint ahead, leapfrog over mistakes and cut out unnecessary work. That’s why my company, Two-Brain Business, is a mentorship program: we coach gym owners on business. I’ve had many business coaches. Some had perfect delivery; some had imperfect delivery. But even the bad systems were worth it, because they taught me what to avoid. Those lessons are worth many times what I paid for them.
Here are my tips:
1 – if you own a gym, go to your classes and get personal training from your coaches. Pay them as a customer. Hire them to do your nutrition plan and follow it as a customer would.
2 – if you own a gym and don’t have other coaches, hire a coach from outside your gym.
3 – if you coach at a gym, hire someone else to write you a program or give you personal training or nutrition programs. No freebies or trades, because you won’t approach it the same way, and you won’t learn from it.
The advice I give prospective authors? Read more.
The advice I give gym owners? Visit other gyms.
The advice I have for coaches? Get coached.
Always be a client of someone. If you own a business, get a mentor.