I love the simplicity of a fable. Ever read any? Some of my favorites are from Aesop (which has a pretty cool backstory). If you don’t recognize him, you’ll probably recognize some of his most famous ones including: The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Lion and the Mouse. But there’s a lesser known fable that I actually taught my class a couple years ago. It’s The Dog and His Reflection. Gist of the story is a dog crosses a bridge holding some meat in his mouth. It...
11 days ago • 3 min read
She let out a huff and said, “only one person signed up for my webinar.” She’s a mental performance coach and has gone through an all too familiar experience many coaches have relayed to me: Running into a brick wall getting clients. Several coaches have told me their clients can point to the differences their mental training brought them like composure under pressure, effective management of emotions, and more. The testimonials are real, the conversations all make sense to the person...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Until a couple years ago, I avoided social media like the plague. I was big on (and still to a large degree) a proponent of deep work. However, early on, I thought the slightest bit of distraction would ruin my efforts. But as I dove deeper into my solo business as a co-writer, I quickly realized that sharing your work is part of the work. For a lot of mission-driven coaches and consultants that’s where the tension begins. One coach shared with me, “I’m relational…and in-person. Online...
25 days ago • 4 min read
“I’m trying to get more comfortable at doing that.” This was his follow up to my question as to whether or not he was starting conversations with people in and around his niche. Several mental performance coaches have shared with me that it’s reaching out to local physical therapy offices, clubs, and performance facilities that take up the bulk of their efforts when trying to add clients. It’s not unheard of for coaches to send cold emails, letters, and visit these places in person. But since...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
My 5 first ever discovery calls with mental performance coaches could’ve gone smoother had I understood one big idea hiding in plain sight. It came from the book Read, Write, Own by Chris Dixon which I heard about on the How I Write podcast. I was immediately intrigued by the author’s description of how the internet has moved through different phases. Part reflection and part prediction is what’s made the book interesting so far. In only a couple of pages, there’s an insight that’s...
2 months ago • 3 min read
As I was folding yet another pair of underwear an argument broke out on The Real Housewives of New York. My wife was watching the show when I was busy getting our lives in order (jk). When I looked up one of the women was bragging about how many people she knew at a party. But to her friends, and later herself self-admittedly, those relationships didn’t mean anything. They lacked depth. Just something she said she had. This caught my attention for some reason and I’m a bit surprised I watched...
3 months ago • 3 min read
I think about her all the time. It's only been a couple of weeks, but her words continue to rattle around my skull. She said what I hear in some version from almost every coach I talk to. We discussed what's going on inside her business. What's going well, what's not. And then she unloaded this: "I feel like I've been building all this empire in writing, but not being able to feel confident...in my mind it's like okay, you need to be able to talk about it first in order to get clients." My...
3 months ago • 1 min read
A coach I spoke with recently said, "I'm not without my own challenges." She went on to unpack some of these difficulties. Not posting consistently because everyone's watching. She'd go back and forth on a post, delete it, rewrite it, spend two more hours researching because it wasn't good enough yet. And underneath it all: who am I to do this? After laying all this out, she followed with something to the effect of "I know I'm a mental performance coach, but I struggle with these types of...
4 months ago • 1 min read
"I haven't been on a field trip since like…elementary" one of my student's chuckled with a grin flashing across his face. I told them that we'd be going to the aquarium and part of their assignment was to notice the unnoticeable. This meant looking around at all the roles people have to fill to keep the animals alive and the people safe, educated, and entertained. I work with teens on their behavior and social/emotional skills, so part of the trip is an opportunity to engage in community as...
5 months ago • 1 min read