Welcome to the Masterful Coach Podcast with Molly Claire, where coaches learn skill mastery, business mastery, and life mastery at a whole new level. If you are serious about creating a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you are in the right place. And now your host, master life and business coach, Molly Claire.

Hey coaches, I am thrilled to be with you today. I'm talking with you about what a mission-centered coach is. And just to give you a hint, you probably are one, if you're here listening to this podcast and what that really means, and specifically what it means for you and your ability to grow your business.

So that's what I'm talking about today, and this is a bit of a follow up on what I started last week talking about some of the things in the 10K Accelerator program, which is really designed for coaches who are what I call mission-centered. And so I'm gonna talk about that today, talk about what it means and also talk about some of the nitty gritty of what this means for you specifically as a mission-centered coach in relation to your message, in relation to claiming your expertise, standing up for your mission and the confidence to do it. So that's our episode today.

And by the way, today, this is so fun for me because it's my dad's birthday today as I'm recording this, I actually wanted to share a few things, a few words of wisdom from him. So I did not get to be with my dad very much growing up and in my adult years, actually when I was first becoming a coach, I had the privilege of having my dad live with me for a few years, and so I find this really beautiful that I'm talking today about your mission as a coach and your journey and why it matters so much to you as I'm reflecting on him really being there at a time in my life when I was embarking on the beginnings of my mission as a coach. And really meaningful to me honestly, that I, again, I didn't get to have him much in my life earlier. And so to have him there at such an important time is just so meaningful.

So, when my dad was living here with me and my three kids, he would help me out as I was starting my coaching business. And I remember I would be in my room, this was like back before Zoom, and I would be on a conference line in my room with my notepad and I would be coaching someone and he would have my daughter - she was a preschooler at the time - he would have her with him and they would be eating popcorn and they would make shapes out of popcorn and do all kinds of fun things like that while I was on with my clients.

And I still remember. I would come outta my room after having a session and, you all know this feeling, right? You've been on with your client and you just felt this powerful change in them, and you're just on top of the world and you can't believe that you actually get to do this for people every day. And I would walk out and I would come into his room and he would look at me like, how did it go? And I would just give him five and I would tell him how amazing it was. And it was just such a meaningful experience. So I'll, I won't go on and on anymore about that anymore, but I wanna say happy birthday to my dad.

And I wanna share a few things as well that he offered up to me. So when he lived at my house, he would leave these little note cards, little three by five note cards around the house with little positive sayings, little insights. And so I picked a few out that I wanted to read to all of you before I get started with the content today.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams", and that was Eleanor Roosevelt.

"A head full of fears has no space for dreams." Not sure who that was. Some of these are credited to someone and some of them are just blank.

"Some see a weed, some see a wish."

"Don't look back. You're not going that way."

"What we love determines what we seek." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a beautiful place."

How about one more?

"You can't reach for anything new if your hands are full of yesterday's junk."

So those are a few words of wisdom from my dad. Happy birthday dad.

And let's talk about your mission, coach.

So when I talk about a mission-centered coach or a heart-centered coach, you are coaches who, yes, you want to make money in your business and I want to help you do that. But you didn't necessarily go out into the world and say, "How can I make some money?" And, "This looks like a great way to make money."

Now that might have been part of it. I know that definitely has been a part of my journey of wanting something that's a viable business, but most likely, you found and fell in love with coaching. You love transformation. You love helping others create a transformation. And so one aspect of a mission-centered coach is someone who believes in the power of transformation and has a deep desire to help transform your clients' lives. That's why I say if you're here listening to the Masterful Coach Podcast, you want to be masterful in your coaching. You want to master that art for yourself.

Another element of being a mission-centered coach is being driven by your own values and your own desires to create something meaningful in your life. So what this means is that most likely you have a bigger picture of a life that you want to create, and while your business in and of itself has a mission behind it, it's also one of your bigger, broader mission of creating a meaningful life, prioritizing the people and the things in your life that matter most to you. This is a mission-centered coach, someone driven by your convictions, by your desires, by your values, and you truly strive to expand who you are as a person and offer others the same thing.

So, mission-centered coaches, I love you. I love to be here and support you, and I wanna talk about a few specific things today that I do with my 10K Accelerator coaches and explain why it matters to you as a mission-centered coach. So the first thing I wanna talk about today is the magic in your message.

Sometimes a coach comes into this space and they know exactly the people they want to help and exactly the problem they want to solve. This does happen and this can be a very powerful start to your mission. And I also know that even within those of you that fall into that category where you have specific people that you want to help, you may struggle to articulate that message in a way that actually connects with your clients, right?

You know how you can help them. You know, you have this mission, and yet when you speak, it doesn't seem to be getting the message across to your clients. Now, many of you, I would guess more of you than not, actually struggle to know exactly who you want to help and what your message is. Because I know when I started coaching, I was coaching people on all kinds of things: anxiety, their marriage, relationship, their motherhood and the struggles within that. So many things I was helping people with. And I loved so much of it, and that's where I would feel the passion. It was in the transformation, not in any one particular client or one particular set of problems.

And so I know many of you may struggle to narrow your niche, narrow your message, narrow your focus, and yet you hear all the time that when you narrow, everything's gonna be easier. That's how you have a clear message. That's how you get it across. And so what I want to offer all of you is those of you that are believing that you absolutely have to narrow your niche in order to succeed and fulfill your message, I disagree.

And I do agree that dialing in a way of messaging and speaking to people, to your potential clients, in a way that they relate to that explains to them that you can actually help them is super powerful.

Now, some coaches do have that niche, and in that case, you're narrowing that message, right? When I am talking to my client, this is what I want all of you to think about: "When I'm talking to my client, when I'm writing copy to my client or speaking in my podcast or telling someone what I do, am I speaking to them in the words that they use to describe their life?" Here is a very easy example of this.

If I'm talking to someone who is absolutely tired of overspending and they want someone to help them to start to set a budget and stick with it, and I'm telling them, it would be great for you to work with me because I'm gonna help you to process your feelings. I am missing the boat with this client entirely.

Now, it's very likely that you will help them with their feelings, and it could be that the entire meat of what you'll do with them is a focus on their feelings. But if you're telling the client how you're going to help them from the start, when all they want to know is that you can solve their problem, you miss them. This would be like meeting with a home builder who's telling me all about the tools they're going to use and the way they draw their plans, and totally missing out on the fact that what I wanna hear is your house is going to be beautiful. Your house will be done on time. Your house will be of the highest quality, and this is why that's going to impact you.

So that is a word about messaging for all of you. Okay? So if you have a niche, if you already are clear on that, continue to dial in your messaging and don't believe that you need to change your niche in order to convert clients. Instead, get in your client's head. There is magic in your messaging. When I work with my clients who have a very clear direction of what they want to do, but a very messy message, we spend the time dialing this in and it is work.

By the way, this is some of most challenging work that we do, is we look at the messaging and we push and we ask more questions, and we push and we experiment, and we do so much work dialing in. But here's what I will tell you, coach: taking the time to dial in a clear message that speaks to your client and that gets their attention is worth every moment invested because it is a huge difference.

One more thing on this before I move on to the topic of your expertise. And that is, if you are a coach who is not sure about a niche and maybe you want to help a general population, I hear a lot of coaches say, "I'm a general life coach". And I think this can be helpful for you to think this way, but I don't recommend any of you go around saying, "I'm a general life coach." I think it sounds much better to just say, I'm a life coach. So, if that is how you have defined it for yourself and that's helpful for you, amazing. I don't recommend you use that language, because it almost minimizes and dilutes even more what you do.

But going back to this idea, those of you that are a coach and you aren't prepared or ready to narrow your niche, you don't have to. And you do need to lean into some specific messages. I work with my clients to help them identify some of the problems they solve, and then we lean into one problem they solve. And no, it doesn't have to define your entire niche. And in fact, I don't think that will be useful if you are not ready for it. And, you can lean into speaking to how you solve one problem among many in your practice, and use that as a place to dial your messaging and reach people and be able to actually say something about what you do.

I hope this is coming clear to you that if you have a niche, take the time to continue to dial your messaging. If you don't want to claim a niche, you don't have to and think in a very clear and practical way about some of the problems you solve, and lean into that messaging, that is how you will move forward.

Okay. Let's talk about expertise. I am a big believer that you, as a coach, need to establish your own expertise. Now, some of the issues that come in, or the ways that your insecurities come up is you think, "Well, I'm not an expert", or you have all of these ideas about what it means to be an expert. I come up against this all the time with my clients.

They come in and we talk about setting yourself up as an expert. And the minute I ask them how they feel about the word expert, they say things like, "Ooh, I feel like a fraud. I feel like an imposter. I'm not really sure I can claim the word expert." And so I wanna offer you listening that yes, you do want to claim your expertise, and stand tall as an expert and get clear for you what that even means.

I'll give you a great example. So one of my coaches helps women to ditch the dieting drama for good. No more yo-yo diets and helping them to really make peace with themselves, make peace with their body. And of course, that's gonna result in them being healthier overall, right? Physically, mentally, emotionally, all of it.

So if for example, she's believing that her being an expert in helping people to do that, means that she has every credential in weight loss, every credential in fitness, that she is a nutritionist, that she is a physician, that she is all the things, she's always going to feel like a fraud. But in reality, when I ask her, when I lean in and ask, can you help this client? If this client is yo-yo dieting and hating herself and she's tired of it and she's ready to move, can you help her? And her immediate answer, of course, is yes.

And then I ask further, right? Tell me why. Tell me what you're going to do for her. And essentially what we're doing is it's valuable for you to look at all the things you are believing an expert is, and then write down a separate list that actually identifies and clarifies for you what you are an expert in.

So this is my takeaway. Establish your expertise. You do this by dialing your messaging, and even if you don't have a niche, leaning into some of the things that you are an expert at doing. People do not care about all of your credentials and all the things. What your clients want to know is that you can help them take the time to see and release all the expectations you have on yourself. And then, take the time to focus on how you help your clients and really embrace that expertise.

Okay, coaches, the last thing I wanna focus on here with you is confidence. Confidence in your ability to help your clients is crucial. If you're not really that skilled as a coach and you don't have any training, and you don't have any expertise, and you really have no reason to be confident, then I recommend that you go and build those skills, right? Absolutely, a hundred percent. I am never going to tell you that all you need is confidence to help people, because I believe that you do need to have ability, skill. You need to be able to actually help people.

And what I see way more often than not, is I see a coach who is so capable of helping your clients and you just bury all of those abilities in doubt, in believing you should be more believing, you should know more, and you squash out your ability to have the confidence you need. So yes, you do need that skill. You do need that ability. You need to actually be able to help people, and you absolutely have to ground yourself in the confidence that you can do it.

This means paying attention to the ways you can help your client, focusing on it, emphasizing it in your mind and to your clients. It means challenging the beliefs you have about your ability to succeed or not, and it means challenging the noise that's probably in your head about you not being enough about being a fraud. All these things that we as humans experience.

So if, coach, you know you have some skill and you do doubt your confidence, today's the day to look at how you can help your clients. Think about your client right now, wherever you are, if you're in the car, don't close your eyes. But if you can pull over, do it. And this is what I want you to think about. I want you to think about one of your ideal clients. Think about what they experience that they're tired of. Where do they feel stuck, exhausted, frustrated, beside themselves? What is it that they are really desiring?

And as you think about that, your client wanting that, really be honest with yourself, without all the shame, without all the doubts, without all the fears. Can you help them? And if so, in what ways will you help them? Are you willing to step into confidence? And help your client who is struggling to help her to feel more empowered, to feel more confident herself, to feel capable, to improve her life, to improve her relationships.

You have the ability there. Are you willing to step into confidence? Coaches, that is what I have for you. Thank you for being here with me. I support all of you in your mission as a coach.

If you are interested in working up close and personal In the 10K Accelerator, applications are open. Go to mollyclaire.com and click on the work with me button and you can get more information and apply as well.

Thanks for being here. I'm gonna talk more about some of these important things you can do as a mission-centered coach on our episode next week. I'll talk to you then.

Thanks for listening to the Masterful Coach Podcast. If you're ready for complete support as you build your coaching business, check out Molly's collaborative community, the Masterful Coach Collective.

It's a place where you'll have access to the best experts in the biz, community support, and guidance as you build your perfect business 90 days at a time. Visit www.mollyclaire.com for details.