Confessions of a 6 Figure Coach: The Inclination to Bolt

Business hasn’t always been easy and I want to help to shorten your learning curve by sharing my experiences with you. The inclination to bolt is something every entrepreneur is faced with at some point. When things get tough, sometimes running away seems like the best course of action. Let me share this story with you…

A few years ago I found business really really hard. I decided to sign up with a high level coach to support me and my business for 3 months in a bid to turn things around.

Around that time I did my first TEDx talk. I chose to stop taking on new clients in order to have the time and space to prepare for TEDx as this was very big for me.

After the talk, I was ready for new clients. I also wanted to slightly change direction. Previously I had worked in 4 different niches, and now I just wanted to work in business coaching. I worked on this with my new business coach.

But for some reason the clients weren’t coming.

Then one of my sons got quite sick. He needed a number of expensive tests done. We could have waited and used the free public health system, but that meant waiting until after Christmas and he was in a lot of pain. On top of that Christmas was coming and with 4 children in the house, Christmas can be an expensive time of the year in our part of the world.

So I decided to contact my coach to let her know I didn’t have the means to pay her. At the time, I felt my coach’s answer was quite ruthless. She aske me if it was my desire to break the contract and if I was aware of the consequences of this. It felt very unkind to me. The coaches I had worked with up to that point had been ‘really nice’ when things got tough.

But now I couldn’t run away even though I wanted to. I had to dig really really deep. I had to do what it took to get clients. I hit my biggest rock bottom and that week I signed 6 new clients at $ 2500 each! Christmas was back on the cards!

This was a huge internal shift for me, knowing that no matter how bad things get, I can pull it off. Half of those clients ended up working with me for about 2 years.

I’d like you to think about when you have an inclination to bolt. When do you do you want to drop it all and run. When do you need to dip deep and push on through? Working through it comes with a huge internal shift.

If you have clients who cut out on you easily or frequently, maybe it is time to start holding them to it and coach them around it. It’s an absolute game changer! I have always had a fear of being an ‘aggressive coach’. I have always been the ‘nice girl’ but being the ‘nice girl’ isn’t always best for your clients. There is no need to be aggressive. Really holding people with love and kindness and coaching them through sticky situations will allow them to grow and experience that invaluable internal shift.