Forget Coaching, This is What I'm Really Selling.

I recently spent many hours on a plane and found my mind wandering in the best of ways. Nowhere to be, no emails to answer, just time floating in space with the constant hum of a jet making the best white noise. I found myself questioning, “How can I get more people to understand what we’re offering at Collective Gain? What do they need to hear to see the value? Where are the people who can benefit from it most?” That’s when I realized I am selling the wrong thing. It’s not coaching that I need to sell. I’m selling what happens during and after coaching to the human spirit and mind. And I realize some people may be uncomfortable about my direct use of the word sell…. I mean, shouldn’t I say offer, or how we serve, or what we provide?

No. At Collective Gain we sell access to yourself, which not only benefits you but also benefits everyone around you.

Meanwhile, we are all stuck in a world that wants to stay on the surface. There is an app to measure, track and optimize just about everything in our lives: perfect your productivity, become financially savvy, optimize your heart rate, improve your sleep cycles, boost your fertility, lower your sugar levels, scale your social influence.

Spend all the time and money on the surface stuff and I promise you will just be going in circles. It will last for as long as you put the effort in, but once you stop, all that progress goes away. I know because I’ve fallen for it too. When you get to know who you really are and remember what you’re capable of through coaching, it never goes away… It’s a new center of gravity from which you operate that pays off for decades. I have several clients who have told me that what they learned in coaching they use every day of their lives. They approach life from a new place that helps them make better decisions and feel empowered in the most challenging situations.

Just think of what this way of being could do for you. The fog, the discouragement, the lack of clarity that keeps us ruminating and stuck… all transformed into a clear focus, knowing what you want and having the experience of being self-empowered to take the steps toward it. Ask anyone, and I mean anyone, who hired a vetted and recommended coach to work with them one on one about the value they received, and I know they will say it was life-changing.

That’s what happened to me. When I first turned to coaching, I was numb, apathetic -- half dead spiritually and emotionally. And my life was perfect from the outside; I was not in a state of survival or financial struggle. Yet, it was hard to find true joy. Life felt heavy and hard. It made no sense. I have so much, but I felt so empty. After coaching I had a newfound sense of self. I felt empowered and courageous. I took responsibility for my life and began to make changes. I created healthy boundaries at work, I connected with my husband to heal our marriage, I got inspired to start Collective Gain and landed my first clients, I grew this business and now employ (read: created financial flow for) over 30 people, I created a new home with my family in a place that feels so good with zero financial debt (yup -- mortgage free), and stopped looking at my body as something to improve (this is a very recent development). My heart is open to life, my mind aware of my genius and superpowers, and my spirit receptive to miracles and generosity.

It’s not about perfection, it’s about perseverance. I can finally see the forest and the trees because of the vantage point I developed through coaching… one I will have forever. Oh, did I mention I now have a horse and ride five times a week?? Dream come true for my 12-year-old self via my 40-year-old self.

I have had countless people tell me that if I could figure out how to use AI or technology to replicate the experience of coaching, I’d be a billionaire. That people want the results and the experience without the cost and inconvenience of having to get on a call with someone two or three times a month. Plus, there is some level of intimidation or “I don’t know what to ask or how to start” that keeps people at bay too.

But the honest and hard truth is that we are shells of ourselves without deep and personal human connection. And that is what I am selling: the opportunity to connect to yourself and another human being in a space that is so special and so rare, that in my 40 years of life I have only found it in coaching.

An unbiased, focused, loving, and totally honest space to be all of who I am without any judgment, without any holding back, and without any fear of rejection. I believe that it’s only through each other that we can become ourselves. Spending all this time, money and effort on the surface of who we are is a distraction from what we are really craving. A feeling of being at home within ourselves. With no need to be better, to be thinner, or to be richer. To literally be so aligned that we are perfectly content in any moment, able to feel all our feelings without judgment, be honest when it’s needed, and allow for all the joy life can offer without feeling unworthy or tone deaf.

What we need more of is heart-centered connection with another human being. A stranger is even better than someone you know, because when you connect with someone you just met, you see how easy it is to love another. To feel so grateful for the generosity of someone’s time, completely focused on attending and caring for you and your goals that you have a grinch moment: your heart grows two sizes bigger.

The experience of coaching is an experience of yourself. You are buying access to a vantage point that will be with you for the rest of your life -- the best sunset you’ve ever seen, the prettiest vista, does not compare to seeing the whole of who you are and feeling confident and clear on how you will move forward in life to align with your inner truth. This is where happiness is found. In the ease and effort of being yourself without the shoulds and pressures of fitting in or wishing you were different.

The outcomes of coaching are often very visible:

• New jobs

• Career changes

• Relationship changes

• Raises

• Moves

• New projects started

• More powerful presence

• Better management skills

• Actually having difficult conversations

But those outer results stem from the shift that happens within -- the shift to remembering who you are with such conviction that joy and elation feed courage to go after what you really want.

I have cried with clients many times. It’s a release I have witnessed over and over again when someone sees the lies they have believed and instead chooses their truth. Forgetting who we really are is a side effect of modern life. We remember in all the little moments when life is talking to us, but we often aren’t present or open enough to hear it. That’s why coaching was born, and human beings who felt called into the field are there to create the space so you can hear.

It’s the best job and the most agonizing I have ever had. It's the hardest thing to sell and yet it’s the one thing that provides the most value. So forget that I am selling coaching, forget how well coaching works, forget that coaching is even a thing. Instead, buy something that will make your heart two sizes bigger, have you fall in love with yourself again and give you the perspective that will forever empower your next best step.

PS - want to feel more connected to spirit, God, the universe… take a step in faith and courage and watch how life rewards you. Get started with a coaching trial. It’s a no-risk way to see if coaching is right for you. Learn more here.