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How To Be Your Own Business Coach
Two techniques you can start using right now
This year, I hired a business coach. It felt extravagant, like something only high-profile Silicon Valley execs do. But I needed the help, and I’d set aside some money for it, so I pushed past my who-do-I-think-I-am anxieties and pulled the trigger.
And it worked. Months into the program, I gained tools that are helping me stretch my online writing business beyond what I thought possible. I learned how to identify where I’m stuck, remove obstacles that are hindering results, and compartmentalize to get more done. But the most important lesson has been this: The best coaching can only come from me. The most valuable tools my coach equipped me with are two techniques we can all use to guide ourselves throughout our careers as well as our personal lives.
Give yourself a monthly review
At the end of each month, my coach sends his clients a form to fill out. It’s tailored to their goals — on mine, there are questions about how much money I made, how many subscribers I gained, what worked this month, and what didn’t.
After the first month, instead of completing the form, I wrote my coach a long, detailed letter. It’s unclear whether my extremely thorough letter impressed him or frightened him, but it ended up being so profoundly helpful that I wrote one again the next month, and the month after that.
My end-of-the-month letter provides me with a real overview of how my business is doing — not just how I think it’s doing. I’ve been shocked at how divergent those two things are. I have a tendency to think everything’s okay, even when things are clearly not okay. Maybe I just don’t want to believe that things are heading downhill, or I’m so focused someplace else that I don’t even realize I’ve dropped a ball somewhere. Conversely, every once in a while, I’ll find myself certain that the sky is falling, when really, everything’s holding pretty steady. Writing allows me to take a dispassionate top-down look at what’s really going on.
It also puts me closer to the “why?” of my challenges. For instance, I had some angst in August. Nothing seemed to be working the way I wanted it to. I felt like I was spinning my wheels. It wasn’t…
