Don’t you resonate? I sure do; even though I’m really good at helping other people with their business, I’m in the same boat; I would love to “just do my coaching and not have to worry about selling and money.” That’s one of the things I loved about the Star Trek series way back when; they never had to worry about money! People did their work and went on with their lives .

This is a big issue for most of us and one that can’t be resolved in one article, post or conversation, but I’d like to make 5 suggestions:

• To very loosely paraphrase Buddhism, we can lessen our suffering through acceptance and detachment.

  Accepting that being in business in our society means having to sell and trade money.
  Accepting that everyone has money issues and that we will be on the receiving end of some of “their stuff” and detaching from the sting of what that feels like.

  Yes I know, easier said then done but when I remember to remember this, I’m able to take more action and feel less stress.

• One common mistake most of us make is that we are self-focused, and that’s the case even for giving practitioners or coaches who want to make a difference in the world.

  You see, we love our processes: they are fascinating, soul-enhancing, health-inducing. So we talk about them and hope to convey to others the power of our tools.

  Since other people aren’t interested in our tools, they tune us out especially if we use specialized lingo (which doesn’t sound specialized to us since we live it every day). I’m not only referring to health terms here, but also to coach-ese, new age-ese, or spiritual-ese.

  Instead, we should relate to them in their language, talking about their problems. Now that’s a conversation that would be interesting to them and to top it off, it naturally flows into how we can help. Doesn’t that feel better than a sales pitch?

• Remembering that people want a solution to their problems also allows you to feel more welcome and more confident. Doesn’t it feel better to think that you are reaching out to lessen people’s burden, than to think that you’re selling something to them?
• The dark side of being caring is forgetting that it is their decision whether to move forward with anything including our services. Now you might think that this sentence doesn’t apply to you but let me ask you; why do you take it so personally if they reject your offer? Yes I know, it’s darn frustrating when your work isn’t being valued and you need to eat and pay your bills.  Fact is, most people won’t be able or willing to hire us, which means we have to keep reaching out to many more people to find the ones who just happen to be ready to act.
• Reaching out with our message is one thing, quoting a price is another. Now that rattles our money and self-worth issues! I’m not an expert on that topic (well, I am an expert in the discomfort of it but not the solution ). I have come across a few people who do a very good job on this issue. One program that is coming up (and repeats every so often if you’re reading this post later on) is called “Transformational Fee Setting”. Isn’t that title intriguing?

  
  

  Intriguing enough that I’ve signed up; I can always use help in operating on a higher ground when it comes to money, as long as what they recommend is  practical in today’s world. I’d recommend you explore for yourself if this suits your needs by going to the transformational fee setting program page.

• The apparent reasons that may be true enough but aren’t the real cause of coaches’ lack of success.
• Three related reasons that relate to marketing fundamentals
• Three mindset reasons

Now it’s time to talk about the seventh and last reason why coaches and other spiritual entrepreneurs don’t make enough money.

Coaches’ work is quite personalized and often intuitive, and many coaches can’t translate what they do in their one-on-one work to a step-by-step system which they could then turn into group coaching programs and products. That prevents them from leveraging their time and creating multiple streams of income.

Even if they were happy with doing strictly private coaching, not being to explain clearly what they do limits the effectiveness of their marketing copy.

I see such a need there that I’m offering to a limited number of coaches (or even holistic practitioners and consultants who are in the same boat) a 4-hour program where we work together to create their coaching system. I intend to make that a group program but until then, the selected few will get private coaching at the group rate: 4 hours for only $197!!

E-mail me (info “at” WhereBusinessMeetsSpirit.com) with “coaching system pilot program” in the subject line if you’d like to create products and leverage your income but find it hard to describe what you do.

Here I’d like to cover three more reasons why coaches, holistic practitioners and spiritual entrepreneurs often have a hard time being as successful as they would like.

1. Heart-based service providers reject the money-grubbing, win-over-the-competition business world. They either suffered through years of soul-crushing corporate work or were allergic to that world from the onset.

   
   

   So what often happens is, they reject anything that smells of that world and they hate to talk about money, selling or business planning.

   And of course, both are necessary to success. That means that spiritual entrepreneurs need to heal their relationship with money and business if they want to make the kind of difference they dream of making.

2. Coaches love personal growth concepts, holistic practitioners love wellness topics, spiritual entrepreneurs could talk about spirituality for ever. And since many of them are uncomfortable about selling, they tend to write marketing copy, articles, and blog posts that are general discussions about their preferred topics rather than focused on selling their services and products. (Hey, I’m often guilty of that myself!)




3. Heart-based business owners are generally fans of the law of attraction, especially the visualization and meditation part. Few incorporate the part about taking targeted action to bring about their visualization. Somehow, spending a lot of time making vision boards, doing affirmations, reading inspiring literature and meditating creates the impression of working on the business. It’s a start, but we live in a physical world that requires physical action as well. (Though don’t get me wrong, action without a deeper connection is an old paradigm we don’t want to go back to.)

As you can see, those reasons relate to mindset and changing a mindset isn’t as easy as just deciding to do so.

That decision is the first step but change involves having the awareness to keep making that same decisions over and over again until new habits have set in.

That’s a lot easier to do with a support structure that keeps you in line such as being part of a program, having a mastermind group or a coach that bridges spirit and business (hint hint ).

Now there is one more reason to talk about in the next post, and that one has nothing to do with marketing basics or mindset.

One of them was that people aren’t willing to spend on coaching in this economy, considering it personal development that can wait for easier cash-flow times.

That’s true enough, but only if the following 3 conditions:

1. Coaches are offering their services to everyone rather than narrowing it down to a specific group or people they serve.
2. Coaches aren’t explaining concretely enough what they do
3. And specifically, they aren’t highlighting the specific problems they solve and the tangible benefits people get from working with them.

Let’s look at some examples.

A business coach’s website says that she helps business owners achieve their goals. That might get some takers. But I bet many business owners will think that they can do that without paying for a coach.

But what if she instead specified that she helps women entrepreneurs who have children at home organize her business systems and schedules so that she has time to enjoy her life with her children and her husband while still running a business that’s profitable rather than being just a hobby? Wouldn’t that motivate some of those moms to invest in coaching even in these uncertain times?

How about a wellness coach that says that he helps people feel their best and vibrant selves? We all pay lip service to the fact that without our health, we have nothing but we keep under-exercising and over-eating, so obviously, lots of us choose to postpone our investment in becoming vibrant.

What if the coach specialized in helping executives age 50+ increase their level of energy so that they can be as productive as they were in their early 40s and have a life after work as well?  Hum…I can hear them think: “Forget budget cuts, I need to feel that way otherwise I might be axed for a younger version of myself unless I can keep up with them.”

The first 3 real reasons heart-based entrepreneurs often have a hard time making enough money have to do with filling a real need within a specific niche. Business basics that aren’t so easy to apply in real life.

The next 4 reasons are a different kettle of fish, and that will have to wait for the next post.

• In this economy, fewer people are willing to invest in personal development
• People want a quick fix
• There are too many coaches
• It takes a lot of educating for people to “get” what coaching can do

I’m sure you can add a few more to the list, but that’s a good representation of what coaches (consultants and holistic practitioners) list as reasons for not getting enough clients.

I’ve called them “apparent” reasons in the blog title; does that mean that they’re not true?

Actually, it would be hard to dispute them.

But just because those statements are true doesn’t mean that they’re the real cause of a coach’s lack of success.

There are 7 “real” reasons for that, and I’ll describe them in the next 2 or 3 posts.