Don’t Stop, How Coaches Can Support Clients

Show Notes

As I’m recording this, it’s four weeks until Christmas. Now, it can be a really funny time of the year, especially in Australia, when we are getting ready to have our annual break. Most people close down a couple of days before Christmas, sometimes a week, depending on where it fits in the week, and then we basically don’t come back until February.

We take dribs and drabs at work, but no serious work is done basically until the beginning of February, or sometimes when school goes back in the first or second week of February. So it can be a really big time when people are spending time with their families, taking time off, and enjoying our summer weather, which is all very fine and great.

The Best Time of the Year for Coaching

During this time of the year, we start slowing down too early. We start thinking, “Well, it’s only four weeks to Christmas. I’ll get in that seasonal mindset.” The party times are happening, the Christmas parties and all that sort of thing. “I’ll just take my foot off the pedal. I’ll just slow down. Nobody wants to buy coaching at this time of year, especially in Australia.”

And I know you have some of the same issues in America with Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas. So people start thinking, “Oh, people are too busy. I want to do all other stuff.” But stop. Or more accurately, don’t stop, because this is the best time of year. People have got to this time and they are starting to think about change.

They are starting to think, “I don’t want next year to be the same as this year.” They are starting to think, “I need to make a change.” Things haven’t worked out as well as they could have, or conversely, they might have worked out better than expected. So they still need to make a change. “I’m ready to jump into the business. I’m ready to lose weight. I’m ready to get married,” or whatever it happens to be.

Whatever you are coaching, this is a fantastic time of year, so don’t stop. Think about the things that you can be doing, particularly in the next four weeks and then into January. What is it that you can be offering? Because here in Australia, a lot of people will be stopping.

Time for Goal Setting

They won’t be putting out those offers, they won’t be showing up, and they won’t be there for the clients who now have time off. And that’s the other thing—quite often, when we do take that break, we start doing that end-of-year reflection. We start thinking about what could have been, what wasn’t.

We start thinking about those New Year’s Eve goals and New Year’s Day goals that we made way back in January and didn’t achieve them. Why not? Well, one of the reasons might be that we didn’t write them down.

I have a great exercise called The Big Rock. It’s about putting your big rocks into a jar first. I’m sure you’ve all seen it—it’s all over the internet, with lots of videos. You can click here to read the full article.

But what it basically is, if you put the water, the sand, and the rocks in together, it’s never going to fit. You have to do it the other way around. You have to put your big rocks in first—your big goals, the things that you want to do that have to be done. Then you break them down—that’s the sand. You make them smaller. And then you put the water on top—that’s the daily tasks, the monthly tasks, the weekly tasks. You need to make sure you’re putting them in the right order.

This is a fantastic time for planning. If you’re a coach that helps with goal-setting, this is the time you should be putting out offers. These offers could be special, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be full price.

New Year, New Opportunities

Thinking about how you can support your clients, you might realise they now have time off. They are thinking, “I need to get things done. I don’t want to do it the same way next year.” The course or program that’s been supporting them may have come to an end, or they may have outgrown it. They’re looking for something new.

These opportunities are there if you are there—if you are putting out those offers, showing up, and talking to your ideal clients.

At this time of year, clients often feel overwhelmed. Your role as a coach is to simplify, to focus on their symptoms, and show them the result. Symptom: business not working. Result: thriving, successful business. Your job is to bridge the gap.