I was squirming in my seat, sympathising with the challenging questions a fellow entrepreneur was struggling to answer. She had volunteered to go on stage in a so-called “hot seat”, whereby my business coach and today’s event host was grilling her about her business and what might be holding her back from greater success.
It was in no way meant to be mean, though it was challenging, as this small business owner was nudged to not only think hard but admit to herself where and how she may in fact be sabotaging her own success.
This made me think that working with a business coach has many similarities to getting psychotherapy. (Don’t ask how I know that…)
I have been working with business coach Odette Laurie as part of her group coaching program for the past 14 months, as well as a few months with Jason Reid for one-on-one coaching.
I too have squirmed, questioned, resisted, and faltered. I have also had many “a-ha!” moments, made changes and improvements in my patterns, received excellent feedback from colleagues, prospects, and new clients, and experienced personal growth and business successes.
Business coaches of course share their wealth of knowledge and experience as successful business owners themselves, and yet working with one ends up being about so much more than your sales and marketing strategy, your client conversations, and business goals.
You are asked to ‘dig deep’ about your motivation for being in business, have to identify and work through inner demons and past baggage that may be holding you back from success, and implement strategies and new ways of working that will help you succeed. Our past baggage can be anything from low self-esteem, fear of failure (or fear of success!), not feeling worthy, downplaying our successes and skills, fear of public speaking, and a ‘scarcity syndrome’, which can be the cause of under-charging for your products or services.
Pretty cool actually; not only have I received incredibly valuable business tips and guidance from my business coaches, I’ve also had indirect counselling!
When we grow as a business owner, we also grow as a person. I highly recommend working with a business coach, even for a short while.
References:
Odette Laurie, Business Women On Top, www.businesswomenontop.com
Jason Reid, The Rechargeable Entrepreneur, www.rechargemymojo.com
Martina Rowley is the Chief VA of Beach Business Hub Virtual Assistance Services. She can handle many of your recurring or one-off administrative tasks, client and project management, organisational challenges and more. Let this VA give you a hand! Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter
