I had a really interesting email yesterday. A woman’s thinking about coming to the Million Dollar Coach Intensive – one of the workshops I run.
And she said, “Is the course accredited? Is the program accredited? Can I get a certification?” Or something like that. And it got me thinking about something I haven’t thought about in a long time – about certifications.
The reply I sent to her was, “What do you need most right now?”
Which is – you know, the perfect coaching question is, “What do you need most right now? Do you need a certificate? Or do you need coaching clients?”
Do you need a certification or do you need clients?
And the truth is, if you need clients, then forget about the damn certification.
I want to tell you about a couple of things…
In the last week, a couple of people have messaged me saying, “Hey, I want to become a life coach. Where should I go for my training?”
I used to have a really simple answer to that, and then now I’m not quite as sure. There are 2 reasons to go for a coach training:
One is for the skills. And one is for the piece of paper.
By the way, I haven’t shaved in a couple of days – looking a bit scruffy, I hope you don’t mind.
One is to get clients, and one is for the piece of paper.
Here’s the thing…
If you want to go to get the skills, I think going to coach training is fantastic.
Learning from coaches who have done this stuff before is going to just accelerate your progress a lot. And here’s what’s behind me, it’s kind of nice, right?
The skills is fantastic. But the certification is useless.
In fact, I have never once been asked, “Do you have a coaching certification?” – like, did you do a coach training yourself, Taki Moore?
The only people who asked, “If you’ve done coach training”, or “Where you got your coach training?”, or “If you’re qualified…” – or people trying to see your certification. Just saying.
Here’s the thing: clients don’t care whether you’ve been certified.
Obviously, they want you to be good. But the piece of paper doesn’t help.
Nobody cares whether you got the piece of paper or not. They care whether you can get them a result.
Clients hire you because either they’ve got a gold that they want but don’t have, or a problem that they have but don’t want. Think about that.
They’re hiring you because there’s some gold that they want to get that they feel like they can’t get as quickly as they can or as easy they can without your help.
So clients, they’re never going to ask you, “Where did you get your certification?”
They didn’t – A, because they probably didn’t know about the certification. And secondly, because they don’t care! What they care about instead your ability to get an outcome. Think about this.
The certification game makes sense in a bunch of industries. Frankly, if I’m getting an operation, I want a doctor who’s been at med school.
If I’m going to catch a flight, I want a pilot who’s done some training – hasn’t just read about it in some books. From a skills point of view, perfect, fantastic.
From a “growing your coaching business” point of view, the certification or the training’s going to give you the ability to help a client – which is great.
But if you think about what it takes to get hired – they got to know you, like you, trust you – and then you know how the process goes, like, trust, buy, repeat, refer – the other 6 steps.
What having great coach skills helps you with repeat and refer, it doesn’t help them buy; certainly, it doesn’t help them know, or like, or trust you.
If your question is about, “How do I get the clients quickly?” – certification’s going to be the least of your problems. Certainly, you want to have skills that actually help a client get a result.
Think about this. Think about the Pioneers – the Trailblazers. I think about Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers – the dudes who flew first.
First dudes to fly. They didn’t have a freaking pilot’s license, dude.
At some stage, you got to back yourself. You got to certify yourself. You got to step up, and knight yourself. Don’t wait for somebody else to give you permission to coach, to help somebody.
If you’ve got skills that can help somebody get a result faster, then you’re qualified to start this journey. Are you world-class yet? Almost certainly not. And our goal is to get to world class as fast as we possibly can.
But I don’t want you to wait until somebody else says, “It’s okay for you to start helping people” because that is just ridiculous. Does that make sense?
Know, like, trust, buy, repeat, refer. That makes sense. you missed one arc. I think repeat goes in there too. Yes, super exactly right.
I think that’s the deal. If you’re waiting for somebody else to dub you, “Okay, worthy, certifiable, not certifiable, crazy” – you know – but good enough to coach; I think you’re wasting your time. Don’t wait for somebody else to knight know, “World’s Number 1” – all like, “Good enough”.
Don’t wait for the piece of paper, just get on with the job of helping people get results. Does that make sense?
I’m here right now at Pier Autumn; my kids’ school is just over there – it’s probably time for me to get back. It’s always this – remember that stuff about being qualified many years ago.
The best advice I was given was, “Look at your past. Look at your normal skills, and use those. Forget being qualified.” Exactly. If you can help somebody get a result, fantastic.
Does that mean, don’t get further training? Of course not.
You want to be world-class, right? The way to get world class is to hang around people who are world-class and learn from them.
My podcast with James Schramko – salesmarketingprofit.com is a little bit epic, and it’s due for a comeback. Watch that space. Schrammie’s been overseas, I’ve been traveling a bit as well. We’re both back in Sydney. Watch this space. Let’s wrap this up – because I’ve got a meeting to get to with my wife.
Should you be qualified? Yeah! Dude, get some skills. If you want to learn how to grow your coaching business and get clients, get a list – and clients, and appointments, and money, and be out to help more people – then totally get training. But don’t do it for the certification. The piece of paper is the least of your worries.
Do it for the skills you get, do it for the network you build, and do it for the possibilities that you’ll learn.
Guys, I’m going to say it’s been fun hanging out. Thanks so much for being with me today. I’ve enjoyed doing Facebook Live. I think we need to do more of this. Thanks, guys. Take good care. I’ll talk to you soon.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your coaching business:
1. Grab a free copy of my book
It’s the roadmap to attracting prospects, signing clients, and scaling your coaching business. — Click Here
2. Join the Coach Dojo and connect with coaches who are scaling too
It’s our new Facebook community where smart coaches learn to get more income, impact, and independence. — Click Here
3. Join our Implementation Program and be a Case Study
I’m putting together a new coaching case study group at Black Belt this month… stay tuned for details. If you’d like to work with me on your client-getting and scale plans… just send me a message with the words “Case Study”. — Click Here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take you from 6 to 7 figures… just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! — Click Here
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