Why Hiring a Business Coach May Not Be the Best Move for You (Yet!) | IP 194

Hiring a coach can absolutely change your business. Lord knows it has mine! It can also challenge your identity, your habits, your leadership, your willingness to change, and the stories you’ve been telling yourself about what’s possible.

Yeah. ALL of that.

So in this episode, I want to slow that conversation down a bit.

Because before you start searching for the right coach, the more important question to ask yourself is: are you actually ready for coaching - at all?

In this conversation, I’ll walk you through 5 great questions every private practice owner should ask themselves before making that leap — whether your business feels stuck, overwhelming, wildly successful, or somewhere in between!

In this episode, you’ll learn…

1. Why coaching is about way more than strategy or accountability.
2. The uncomfortable truth about growth, leadership, and change. (You know this part!)
3. What it really means to be “coachable”... (Are you?)
4. Why timing matters when investing in this level of support
5. The difference between looking for rescue… and learning to lead. 😎

We’ll also talk about how to evaluate the fear you may be feeling, so that you can make a thoughtful, grounded decision about whether coaching is actually the right next step for you right now.

Take some time with these questions. Journal about them. Talk with someone you trust. Be honest with yourself about where you are and what you really want next.

And if coaching does feel like the right next step? I got you covered. :) 
 
In the next episode, I’ll help you figure out how to evaluate whether a coach may be the right one for you.

Good stuff, this. :) 

~Wendy

P.S. If you’d like a low-pressure way to experience what coaching (with me, at least!) is actually like, learn more about the Quick Start Consult below…

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MENTIONED 

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here.
  
   

Transcript

Wendy Pitts Reeves 0:00

You're listening to Ideal Practice episode number 194. All right, guys, how many of you have thought about hiring a coach? Y'all know that's what I do, right? I still have an active psychotherapy practice, but I also coach private practice owners across the country. And I have worked with lots of coaches myself. I am a huge fan of and believer in the power and support that a good coach can bring. But how do you know who to hire? How do you know when to hire? How do you know if this is the right move for you? Well, today I'm going to tell you exactly that. Stay tuned.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 0:50 Wendy Pitts Reeves 0:50

Hi, I'm Wendy Pitts Reeves, and with over two decades of experience in the private practice world, I've built my six-figure business while learning a lot of lessons the hard way. This is the first podcast that shows you how to apply the principles of energy, alignment, and strategy to build a practice that is profit-centered, but people forward. This is the Ideal Practice Podcast. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Ideal Practice Podcast.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 1:24 Wendy Pitts Reeves 1:24

This is Wendy, Wendy Pitts Reeves, your host. And as always, I am really excited about hanging out with you today. I have to say, it is a small miracle that I am even here today because what was that movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once? That's kind of what it feels like in my family at the moment. Over the last several days and the upcoming days, I think all the things are happening at once. Major holidays, lots of birthdays, wedding anniversaries, high school graduations, and one very happy teenager who just got his first driver, first, his driver's license, his driver's license. Lots of good stuff to celebrate around here, which is making me a little nuts, but in a good way. And I hope wherever you are that you are finding things to celebrate, even if it makes you a little nuts, also in a good way. Yeah.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 2:17 Wendy Pitts Reeves 2:17

Today I want to talk about coaching. I may share a little bit more about what coaching is in a moment, but for now, I just want to start by talking about the concept of hiring a coach at all. You may find that your practice just isn't working. And if you can relate to this, I gotcha. I gotcha. Maybe you've read all the books. Maybe, like me, you've watched tons of videos and you've downloaded every free how to make it offer that you can get your hands on. And you know you're smart. Surely you know that. You know that if you just keep at it, maybe work a little harder, maybe give up another hour or three of sleep, that you will figure this stuff out. You know that it's just a matter of time until you unlock the magic door.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 3:12 Wendy Pitts Reeves 3:12

But if, like so many practitioners, I know that hasn't worked. Know that you've got company. Is your business stagnant? Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels? Does it feel like clients and income just aren't coming in the way they should be? Does it feel like the opportunity to share your gift, to shine your light, to bring your brilliance to the world just isn't happening quite the way you thought it would when you made this crazy decision to launch a business?

Wendy Pitts Reeves 3:46 Wendy Pitts Reeves 3:45

Or maybe, maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe the opportunities are there. In fact, maybe the opportunities are coming in so fast you can barely keep up, and you are working 24-7 just to keep your freaking head above the water. I get that too. I get that too. I once told a coaching client that the level of success that he was trying to manage was like trying to ride a wild herd of Mustangs, all of them at once. That's what it felt like.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 4:14 Wendy Pitts Reeves 4:14

The truth is it's tough either way. If business is rocking or if business is stuck, either way, it's hard. It's just hard in a different way from one or the other. And it may be that no one around you gets it. If you tell your friends that you're having trouble figuring out who your ideal client is, they look at you like, huh? If you tell, if you tell them that you've got more business than you can manage, they just say, aren't you lucky? And if you say you don't have enough, they say, Well, maybe you should quit and get a real job, right? And your mom just wants you to get that real job with a real paycheck, please, soon. Thank you very much, preferably with benefits. Am I right? You know what I'm talking about, right?

Wendy Pitts Reeves 5:03 Wendy Pitts Reeves 5:02

But if you and I have anything in common, that's just not who you are, is it? It's just not. You have a vision for the kind of lifestyle you want to create, for the way you want to show up in the world, for the way you want to serve, and you already know you're not gonna find it in a nine-to-five cubicle or some small office in a hospital somewhere. So if you are one of these places, not enough business, too much business, stuck, overwhelmed, whatever it is, maybe, maybe it's time to hire a coach. Maybe. Or maybe not. Because hiring a coach, y'all, is a big step, and it is one that done well can make a huge difference in your business. And I'll say not just your business, but your life. Because y'all know what I feel about this. Like the way you do anything is the way you do everything, and your business is a perfect reflection of your inner world. And so whatever's going on in one, it's gonna be affecting the other. And hiring a really good coach who is the right one for you can impact all of that. But it also involves a significant investment of your time, your money, yes, and your energy.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 6:33

So in the next episode, I'm gonna teach you how to find a coach who is right for you at all. We're gonna talk about that for sure. But before we get there, let's just make sure that you are ready to begin this journey at all. I mean, like, really, really ready. And as I say that, I think maybe I shouldn't say that, because in a way I don't know if we're ever ready. But hopefully this will make sense and you'll know what I mean by the time we finish. So I'm gonna give you five questions I want you to ask yourself. I want you to have an honest conversation with yourself about these things before you take the step of beginning the search, interviewing, vetting, and hiring a coach.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 7:21 Wendy Pitts Reeves 7:20

Question number one: Am I ready and willing to make the changes I need to make to move my business forward? See, growth, y'all, means change. It means evolution. I talk about that a lot too. It means that you will be developing new systems, trying new strategies, even changing the way you think. And for some, that can be really, really exciting. For others, it can be super uncomfortable, scary even. And sometimes it's both. Often it's both. But your coach cannot help you if you are not honest about your struggles, and you're not gonna grow if you cannot accept that coach's honest feedback in return. So here's my question for you which is more uncomfortable for you? The fear of change? Is that what make you really squirm? Or the fear of staying right where you are for yet another year? Yeah. Which one scares you the most? Staying where you are for another year? Or, you know, you might have to change a few things.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 8:33 Wendy Pitts Reeves 8:33

Okay, question number two. Am I willing to commit the time and energy it takes to do this work? I'm just gonna shoot straight with you guys. It does no good to pay somebody for guidance if you are not going to listen to what they say or do the work that they suggest you do. And when I say this, I do not mean that coaches have all the answers. They don't. But when you're hiring the right one, you are hiring them for a reason. And if you're not willing to listen to what they say, then why are you hiring them? This isn't grad school. It doesn't mean hours at the library slaving away on a thesis, but it does mean steady, weekly work on short-term, doable actions. And it does mean setting specific goals and allowing yourself to be held accountable to those goals. And y'all, I'm gonna tell you that much of the work is thinking work. Sometimes the hardest work we have to do at all doesn't look like anything on the outside, but there's a lot going on on the inside. The good news is that consistent action brings consistent results. The bad news is that nobody's coming to your rescue. My favorite coach that I ever worked with used to say, hey guys, the Calvary is not coming. If you want this, it's gonna be up to you to make it happen. I'm here to help. I'm here to guide, I'm here to show you the way. I'm here to help clear some obstacles from the path. I'm helping to help you figure out how to get where you want to go. But nobody's coming to rescue you. Okay? Your coach is there to support, teach, guide, and mentor. But it's up to you to do the work. Are you up for that? Need to ask yourself. And for the record, I grew my practice when I had little kids. Life was insane. So it's not about what's going on in your life as much as it is about what's going on in your head and your heart.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 10:34 Wendy Pitts Reeves 10:33

Question number three, and this is a really, really good one that I hope makes you think a little bit. Question number three is Am I willing to be the leader in my business? Am I willing to be the leader in my private practice? Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or whether you are running a group or whether you are a member of some kind of a collaborative, whatever, are you willing to be a leader in your private practice? A good coach will always be way more than a cheerleader. He or she will challenge you to see where you are getting in your own way. They will call you out when you're playing small. They will not buy into the stories that you have been telling yourself for years about what you can and can't do. And sometimes that feedback can make you a little squirmy. Speaking from experience here, I've been on been on both sides of those conversations. It is so much easier to blame things around us when our practice isn't working. But when we give up the complaining, when we come when we claim our response ability, that is our ability to respond to the circumstances around us, we step up as leaders. We become at cause in our lives and our business. And that's a great place to be. If that scares you a little bit, that's okay. That just tells me you got some common sense. If it scares you too much, or if you are arguing with me in your head, you may not be ready for the success and the challenge that a good coach will bring. Because a good coach will bring both.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 12:25

Question number four. Am I willing to invest in my own growth and development? And I mean this very seriously. I have worked with one coach or another since, I don't know, 2003, 4005, somewhere in there. And every single time I have made a decision to hire, the financial commitment alone was absolutely terrifying. Like I'm talking sitting in the car, sobbing my eyes out because I knew I needed to join this program, hire this coach, be a part of this mastermind. And it scared me to death. And it cost more money than I had ever spent on anything in my life. Not gonna kid about that. In the years since then, the 20 plus years since then, I have spent thousands of dollars, year after year after year, for very high-level coaching. And you know what? Over time, I got to where I never even hesitated at the cost because I learned firsthand the incredible value of that investment in my business and in myself. When you make a significant financial investment in your own growth and development, well, you're gonna you're gonna do the work. You're gonna make sure that you get what you paid for. Just like your clients do when they invest in themselves, when they invest in themselves by hiring you, right? But this is one of those areas where you will get what you pay for. And you're not gonna find what you need on some kind of a coupon site, you know? This isn't gonna be a $2 Amazon deal. It is not a small thing to commit to this kind of work and to hire the kind of expertise that you may need. Does that mean that some people go overboard? Does that mean that you have to spend $20,000 on somebody? No, it doesn't. But the odds are good you're gonna be spending more than you're used to spending because investment brings rewards. And this work requires investment. And the last question, and then I'm gonna have a bonus.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 14:40

Question number five. What do I want to accomplish by partnering with a coach to begin with? Do you have an idea for your business, but you just don't know like where to start? Do you already know where you want to go if you could just figure out how? Um, is it just that like something's not working, but you don't know what and you really, really, really need help figuring out what that is? Or that you already kind of have an idea. You just aren't sure how to make the changes you need to make. Or is it that you are actually quite well established, you're on your way, you're doing fine, um, but you find yourself kind of wandering off course, or you're getting distracted, or you're getting stuck at roadblocks. Or, like I said at the beginning, the success is happening, the clients are rocking. You've got people asking to join your practice, and you're kind of like, yikes, what do I do now? It's all grist for the mill in my world. A coach functions like a cross between a laser-focused accountability partner, and I'm really good at that, y'all, and a super creative brainstorming partner. A good coach will listen while you think out loud, and they will help you separate what matters from what's getting in the way. And they will be really good at helping you recognize patterns and also giving you like real, I mean, theoretically, a good coach should be able to give you real strategies for addressing whatever it is that needs to be addressed in your practice. Does that mean every coach knows everything about everything out there? Google Ads and SEO and how to set up your website? No, no. But a good coach will know what you need most now, right? That said, that coach is not the one who chooses the destination. That's your job. So, what I mean here is that if you just want someone to tell you what to do, Wendy, just fix it. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. You may not be ready for this because that's not how this works. But if you do know what you want, and I'll have a little caveat to that in a second. But if you know what you want and you're eager to roll up your sleeves and get to work, well, you are ready for this. And that is a really exciting place to be. Now, that caveat I wanted to say was if you don't know what you want, sometimes that's where you start. It's interesting to me how often when I am doing uh my original consults with folks and we are just kind of sort of figuring things out. If I ask people what they want, often they can't tell me. And but if I say, well, what do you not like about your practice right now? What's not working? What's driving you nuts? They can say that. And sometimes that's okay. Sometimes that's where you start, and that will help to clarify things a little bit.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 17:30

Okay, so that's okay too. The bonus question I'm going to ask you is what James Wedmore always asks, which is, are you coachable? Are you willing to learn? Are you open to trying things that maybe you haven't tried before? Are you willing to tolerate the discomfort of not knowing how to do something so that you can practice and get better at it? Are you willing to be different than maybe some of the folks around you? Because you take being a practice owner seriously, and you really want this to be an ideal practice for you. If that's true, then you may very well be in just the right place that it's time to hire a coach.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 18:16

So I'm just gonna stop with that for now. Next time in the next episode, I'll tell you what to look for when you are choosing a coach. We'll talk about that. But for now, I'd really just want you to think about this question. Are you ready to hire someone? Is this the right step for you at this point? And these questions that I've laid out for you today, that will help you figure it out. So go back and listen to this again, make a note of those questions, do some journaling, meditation, talk with a colleague. You might even ask a colleague what they think about your answer to these questions. Because sometimes and especially a colleague that you can trust to tell you the truth. And um, if you're not, if this isn't right for you, that's perfectly fine. Timing is important, the right timing has to be important. That's part of it too. But sit with it, think about it. And uh, if this does feel like it might be something that's right for you, the next episode I'll tell you how to figure out where to go next. Okay? Okay.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 19:13

That's what I got for you today. This is quick, quick and clean today. Hope you enjoy it. Hope you will do something with this. Would love to know what you think about it as you process it. And uh I should mention that, because I almost forgot to say this, which is really bad on my part. But if you do, like if you already know this and you kind of want to at least sort of get a taste of it, it is true you can do that with me, but that's not my main point here. I really just kind of want you to understand this principle. But it is true I do offer something called a quick start consult, which many of you have heard me talk about before. It's a really great way to sort of try this on, to just get a taste of what it's like to do a little coaching with somebody. Um, you can learn more about that at my website. Go to wendypitzreeves.com forward slash consult, or just click on the start here button that you'll find on the website, and you can read all about that. And if you're interested, it's pretty self-explanatory, you'll know exactly what to do. But that's not my main point here. My main point here is I just want to introduce the concept of coaching and I want you to think about is this something that might be a good idea for me? And if am I ready for that kind of that kind of work? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Fun to think about. All right, y'all. I gotta go to graduation. Have an awesome, awesome week, and I will see you next time right here on the Ideal Practice Podcast. Bye now.

Wendy Pitts Reeves 20:41

Hey y'all, if this program has become important to you, if ideal practice matters, it would mean so much to me if you'd be willing to take just a minute to do one or two of the following things. First of all, would you follow or subscribe to the show here at Ideal Practice? Following me helps you because you'll never miss an episode, but it helps me as well for all kinds of reasons. To do that, all you have to do is go to the show page for Ideal Practice on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. There, just click on the plus sign that you'll usually find in the top right hand corner, or click on the word follow that you're gonna find somewhere there on that page. Of all the things, this really is the most important thing you can do for the podcast itself. While you're there, it would be extra special if you would be willing to give me a five star rating, and even better than that, a review with your own words. Your words matter, and when you write what you feel, what you think, you uplift and encourage others. And I love that if you want to go a step further than that. Take your favorite episode or two, one of the ones that has meant a lot to you, and share it with a friend. Could you do one or two of those things for me? I promise I will love you forever. You guys matter to me, and I value your support more than I can possibly say. Thank you, sweet friend, for anything you can do to help me out and support the show. I'll see you again soon.