If we rely on society, we might be dumber than we think.
Increasing the range of problems to solve helps us develop the brain. When we specialize in something and do not acquire wider general knowledge, our brain doesn’t need as much power and neurological connections as when we expose ourselves to a greater variety of problems.* As a result, it isn’t as developed. Why? Because general knowledge is outsourced to the community, we specialize in one thing; another person specializes in another. We achieve our goals, but we become less knowledgeable.
There is no risk in being dumb in a successfully developing community if everything goes well. But when society faces a crisis, we need more critical, well-developed minds.
*Joseph Henrich – Humans Defeated Smarter Species With Cultural Evolution
Nowadays, almost everyone dreams of crowds: people who will follow, be loyal and supportive. From a business perspective, it means to have customers passionate about their products, just like the users of Apple products are.
Crowds mean money. If you don’t use the internet opportunities to make crowds follow you, you might be leaving money on the table. Right?
Well large following does not always mean income, sometimes crowds love to stone the one they admired just an hour ago. Please do not desire Crowds.
If you want your business to prosper. You want a stable stream of income build your business and services with passion. Which passion? The compassion passion!
Here is an example from a history book.. called the Bible.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
From Matthew about Life of Jesus
There is no reason to doubt that Jesus was a genius in creating products, branding and marketing. That is why I love to learn from him. This quote is about his attitude to his clients. If you question why I call people who followed Jesus his clients, you should check the definition of the word. Check out, particularly the Mariam Webster. Let me mention only the etymology: client, clean, lean, where lean is “to rely for support or inspiration”. Clients are those who depend on us.
Yes, Jesus had Clientele. And you will have if you build your business using his principles. One of them is Compassion.
This above quote will not be complete if you have no idea what was after.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
From Matthew about Life of Jesus
To serve his clients, Jesus had to travel quite a while. He even said that he had no place to put his head to sleep. So intense was the schedule that sometimes he couldn’t find a hotel or room. Still he was compassionate to his clientele who were not able to get his service because there was a scarcity of time and people who could attend to those in need.
The harvest is plentiful if you are compassionate enough to see it.
You are not compassionate if you worry that no one needs your product. You started from the wrong side. Start with the needs first and then you will see how people will gather around you. Be not interested in Crowds but in their needs and you will see that those needs will be taken care of by God in you. Because he is Compassionate.
I have never dreamed of becoming a coach – I despised the idea of taking money to help out people, till one day I realized that:
The unpaid advice has no value in people’s eyes
Diary of The Coach – Kate Koronis
So sad that after asking for advice people rarely did what I advised them to do.
This was really frustrating.
It felt like a waste of time.
I felt devalued. It impacted my self-esteem.
It inspired my action.
I decided to not allow people to use my time without actually applying the advice.
Making them pay for advice felt like this would motivate them to act upon it.
I created my first coaching offer back in 2020 and got 10 clients who paid forward for coaching sessions within the first week. All the following month was booked!
I was inspired! But… I was inspired and excited all the month I was coaching. My students were excited too. That was exactly what they needed. However – No one actually did what I taught.
Waste of time, right? At least I was paid.
Still this outcome brought frustration and I stopped doing coaching for a wholeyear.
You see:
Coaching without having results to show – is unsustainable business
Diary of The Coach – Kate Koronis
If you can’t show the results of your coaching:
Who will be willing to investtime and money in your coaching sessions?
How will you have the courageto sell something that does not help?
Despite all my efforts, it did not work well. Imagine that:
some students were sleeping during the session and
one person just talked all 10 sessions about what he wanted to do.
I fell into a trap that, as I found out later, was caused by common misconceptions about the coaching business.
Let’s discuss what are the beliefs out there about coaching that is misleading or not quite true:
People believe that coaching is easy
People believe that coaching is easy. Because of this belief, I have not managed my energy properly.
I allowed to book as many as 5 one-hour back-to-back sessions a day 5 days a week. As a result, I:
Lost my voice after a month of constant talking
I found out in my 40s what a haemorrhoid means as a result of intensive sedentary work
And more (I can talk in more detail about my challenges of planning in another post)
So you can see that coaching is not easy.
For a successful coaching career, you need to have a good time management strategy and life–work balance
Diary of the Coach – Kate Koronis
As you may know by now, I was not able to continue at such a pace after 1,5 months. I had to change something.
Another common misconception is that it is just sharing your knowledge in a specific area.
Coaching is just sharing your knowledge
Sharing your knowledge is not what makes people have results. So if you package your knowledge nicely, create packages and sell it it does not mean people will be able to follow it.
I have purchased some courses myself without ever touching them.
The truth is that Life happens:
Circumstances,
Mental state (lack of motivation),
Lack of skills in time management and learning process…
And many other factors impact the ability of your clients to have results.
It is not only about sharing knowledge.
Coaching is creating the environment where the growth of your client is possible
Diary of The Coach – Kate Koronis
Another misconception is that you can start a coaching business because you have an idea
Anyone can start a coaching business
I do believe that anyone can coach. But it does not work like that: Veni-Vidi-Vici – You came, You saw, You won.
Coaching requires you to build systems for your clients.
The environment we spoke about above is about a proper system being in place that will allow your people to achieveresults.
I have seen many coachingbundles advertised in my Facebook feed that include Coaching tools. Those tools are the elements of the system. But the system is much more than tools.
Without the system, your coaching will be frustrating and very difficult. The system is what allows you to get predictable results. It has such elements as:
Support
Pacing
Environment
Reminding
Reporting and more
To conclude on the misconception: “Anyone can start a coaching business” – here is the takeaway
To start a coaching business become a person of Systems
Diary of The Coach – Kate Koronis
Let me summarize the main concepts I have learned and that I wish had known before starting the coaching business
Lessons Learned
Coaching has to end with clients’ results – otherwise, it won’t sell
Your coaching time has to be balanced – don’t kill yourself
Coaching is more than sharing knowledge – it is like being also a psychologist
Coaching is the ability to create and maintainsystems for your clients – you can’t do it with only your enthusiasm
I am happy I did not give up and I have managed to bounce back and build my coaching program which I run successfully for a year now.
We used to look for knowledge on how to do something when we wanted to get some results. Now in this world, we will have to look for knowledge on how to do something with AI when we want some results. Otherwise, whatever you are doing without using AI is taking quite a bit of time. And the time becomes more and more precious in this world.
A lot of distractions make the time more valuable.
