For all you entrepreneurs, I’m sure you want to grow your business if it means being better able to help people. This is particularly true for coaches. That’s why I’m talking to someone today about how to improve your coaching skills in order to help your business grow.

 

LISTEN TO EPISODE 152 OF THE FED AND FEARLESS PODCAST

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About Amber Brueseke

Amber Brueseke is a wife, mom of four (ages 8-15), and a former RN who founded Biceps After Babies because she believes that being a mom doesn’t have to mean your fittest days are behind you. What started as a little Instagram account to share her fitness journey online has become a business focused on empowering women to achieve.

Her signature coaching program MACROS 101 has helped over 5,000 women use the tool of macro counting to build a nutrition plan that’s both effective and enjoyable. Amber also created a Transformational Fitness Coach certification that teaches other health and fitness coaches how to improve client results by getting to the root of their problems.

Amber loves chocolate and peanut butter (preferably together), lifting heavy weights at CrossFit, and hanging out at the beach with her family.

 

Where the Coaching Business Started

Many people face the difficult choice between pursuing a demanding career and managing the practical needs of raising a family. This often requires people to make significant adjustments, sometimes leading to a change in profession to find work-life balance. And just like many people, this was the case for Amber.

She initially worked as a nurse in a neurosurgical ICU while supporting her husband through medical school. When he entered residency, and their schedules became too hectic to juggle with two kids, she left nursing and decided to start teaching fitness classes. This became her gateway into the fitness and coaching industry.

She noticed that her physique remained the same despite all those years of gym time, and realized she overlooked the nutrition aspect. Soon after, she stumbled upon macro counting online and tried and tested it. Leveraging her science background, she quickly achieved her fitness goal in just weeks. This unexpected success sparked interest online, resulting in coaching inquiries, which eventually led to the birth of her own coaching business.

 

A Skill That Makes You a Good Coach

Just because you’ve gotten results for yourself, like in fitness, doesn’t automatically make you a great coach to someone wanting to get the same results. Those are actually two different skill sets.

Amber learned this the hard way when she started coaching and realized that giving people plans, even customized ones, wasn’t enough. She needed to figure out why people were struggling to stick to them.

Being a good coach isn’t just about personal success. It’s about having a whole different set of skills, like understanding the “why” behind things to actually help others get there.

 

How to Support Clients Who Self-Sabotage

So, how do you help others get where they want to go when they’re the ones holding themselves back? Amber defines self-sabotage as knowing what you need to do to reach your goal but hindering yourself from attaining it. In the industry, coaches tend to tackle surface-level symptoms and devise strategies to fix them. The problem with this is that it often doesn’t address the underlying cause—or, using Amber’s tree metaphor, “It never gets to the roots of where the self-sabotage is coming from.”

Getting new results means taking new actions. Often, we get so caught up in the actions themselves that we forget they don’t come out of nowhere—they come from somewhere deeper. And that’s where the roots lie: in the beliefs and stories we tell ourselves.

Amber explains that if we dig into the root causes of the symptoms and solve them, we won’t need to worry about the action steps, because we’ll have already solved the underlying problem that was preventing us from taking action in the first place.

 

Technique with Group vs. 1:1 Coaching

Understanding the root causes behind self-sabotage can actually help you when coaching groups and 1:1. For Amber, there are only a few main categories of these root causes. So even though each individual’s problem is unique and different, the solutions often come from dealing with the same few root causes. That’s why for Amber, the technique and approach to coaching in group or 1:1 is the same.

Over time, as your group gets bigger, you need to be more intentional with applying solutions to your audience. It’s important to clearly point out when something is meant for the whole group, and not just for an individual. In a webinar, even if you may be talking to one person, the message is still relevant to everyone else on the call, so highlight that for everybody’s benefit.

Essentially, group coaching is like a 1:1 with other people watching. That’s why it’s good to encourage people in the group to ask their questions, knowing that the answers will likely benefit others who are listening and facing similar challenges. This not only creates a learning opportunity for everyone, but it’s an efficient way to help clients achieve results faster. After all, it’s often easier to notice things in others than in yourself, right?

 

How to Coach Clients Effectively  

If you want to grow your business fast, then remember that you should strive to become a good coach first. Amber shares that her business success was largely due to her effectiveness as a coach, which led to positive word-of-mouth referrals from happy and satisfied clients.

It’s like a cycle. When you focus on improving your coaching skills and techniques – through learning, mentorship, and client feedback – it helps build your confidence in facilitating client success. This enhanced confidence then translates into a more effective marketing, even if it starts out simple. Better marketing brings in more clients, which gives you more chances to learn and improve your coaching, creating a positive cycle for your skills and your business.

 

Coaching Responsibilities for Results

If you don’t have a clear conversation with your clients about your responsibilities and theirs, you’re missing a critical step in the coaching process. It’s essential to establish these boundaries upfront, so everyone knows what to expect. Make sure to define your role clearly and also explain your client’s responsibilities, especially the need for action. Without active participation, coaching becomes ineffective. You can address this by setting up something like a 30-day refund policy if they’re not ready to fully commit.

It’s also equally important to listen to feedback and adjust your approach. You won’t get everything perfect from the start, and that’s okay. Pay attention to where your clients are struggling, and be willing to tweak your program. By doing this, you’ll improve their experience and help them achieve better results, which ultimately creates a successful and effective coaching environment for everyone involved.

Lastly, remember that everyone joins with unique reasons and is at a different point in their journey. As long as you leave each person a little better than when they started and allow them to have their own definition of success inside your program, then you’re on the right track.

 

Enjoyed this? You might like this topic: High-Ticket Coaching Programs: The Best Business Model For a Coach or Practitioner With a Small Audience

 

Unlock more than just coaching. Get the entire business blueprint inside the Nourished Business Accelerator Program. Get on the waitlist HERE.

 

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why working with difficult clients can be good business [11:05]
• Helping clients avoid self-sabotage by getting to the root causes of their beliefs [20:40]
• Managing group calls and sessions so they stay organized and effective [36:00]
• Why developing your skills as a coach is more important than marketing [46:40]
• What is the coach’s responsibility for their clients’ results [51:40]

 

QUOTES

“Being able to see people go through a transformation never gets boring.” [10:59]

“We, as professionals, have to be able to give good solid scientifically-based recommendations and be able to back it up by helping clients overcome the mental blocks that prevent them from accepting that scientific information and using it in their own journey.”[18:11]

“The reason my program took off was not because I was a great marketer. It was because I was a great coach.” [47:17]

“Allow clients to have their individual definition of success. It doesn’t have to be your definition of success.” [1:02:06]

 

LINKS

Sign up for the Practice Better training!

Find Amber Brueske online

Follow Amber on Facebook | Instagram

Sign up for Amber’s Coaching Program

Review Fed and Fearless on Apple Podcasts! Send a screenshot of your review to hello@lauraschoenfeldrd.com or send me a DM on Instagram, and I’ll send you my Overcoming Undereating eBook. If you post your favorite episode in your Insta stories and tag me @LauraSchoenfeldRD, I’ll also send you my 14-Day Calorie Challenge Recipe Guide!

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