Deep Dive Dialogues with Dan Woerheide

Breaking Through: Stand Out in the Coaching World

• Dan Woerheide • Episode 10

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In this episode of Deep Dive Dialogues, I’m diving into the essentials of building a thriving coaching business. This week, I had some great conversations and revisited a classic book, Selling the Invisible. It gave me a powerful insight: Be where they aren’t.

I’ll share what that means for us as coaches and how we can stand out by doing the work others avoid. We’ll talk about the two foundational elements every coaching business needs: coaching with intention and creating clients with purpose. These might sound simple, but they’re where so many of us get stuck or distracted.

I’m also breaking down ways to accelerate your progress—like hiring a coach, upgrading your peer group, and joining a mastermind.

If you’re ready to do the work that truly makes a difference, this episode is for you. Plus, I’ve created an exclusive video on my client creation process that I’d love to share with you. Send me an email at dan@danw.us with “Video” in the subject to get access.

Hit that follow button so you don’t miss future episodes, and let’s dive in!


Speaker 1:

Welcome back to Deep Dive Dialogues. I'm your host, dan Warheide, and I'm excited to be here with you For this episode. I wanted to share a few thoughts that I had. This might be a short episode who knows We'll see what happens once we get going, but last week, or this past week and a couple days, I guess, I had some really great conversations and I had been continuing my daily reading habit, and both of these got me thinking about the essentials of building a coaching business. I came across something that really hit home and I wanted to unpack that here with you.

Speaker 1:

So the other night I was reading a book called Selling the Invisible, and at this moment I don't have the author here with me as far as the name. Obviously he's not sitting next to me while I record this podcast either, but Selling the Invisible, you can find it. It's a little bit older book on selling in the service-based industry or service-based businesses, and it gives some really great examples from places like your typical not your typical, but your retailers, your restauranteurs, big names like Walmart, jcpenney, sears, and some of the stories that have transpired in those organizations and there's a few others, of course, but these are really many of the places that I think people will often think about when we talk about the service industry and the retail industry and where, you know, in my opinion today customer service is significantly lacking as a matter of fact. But that's a different conversation for another time. Anyway, at first I wasn't really sure how much in my reading that this book was going to be able to apply to the coaching industry, or to coaches, to the coaching industry or to coaches. But then, you know, I was about, I don't know, not even halfway through the book and I was I wouldn't say I was frustrated. I'm certainly sticking with my habit of reading from my experience with 75 Hard, and I'm really enjoying getting back into that habit, for sure.

Speaker 1:

But I wasn't quite enjoying this book. I wasn't seeing any real connection to something that lights me up, necessarily, but I found a nugget, y'all. I was waiting for this thing and the nugget showed up. It was something seemingly simple, but I think it was profound. It was a simple statement that said be where they aren't. Now.

Speaker 1:

This stopped me in my tracks because, as coaches, I think this phrase holds just tremendous power. It's about being able to stand out by doing the work that others aren't willing to do, leaning into the depth and commitment that is going to set you apart or that does set you apart from every other service professional, from every other coach that's out there. I think there's really two things that I'm going to come back to my point about the nugget here in a second and the being where they aren't. I'm going to try and tie this together, but I think there's really two things, when we break it down, that I believe are at the heart of every successful coaching business. They also seem simple, but it's where I see many people, many coaches, getting stuck, getting distracted and avoiding in some cases.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is coaching right. To get better as a coach, you have to coach. There's no way around it. Practice with anyone and everyone that you can. The difference between a good coach and a great coach is the constant dedication to improving our craft. You learn and you grow from every single session that you have and there's no shortcut that can be found to mastery like this.

Speaker 1:

The second thing that I believe is at the heart of every successful coaching business is client. That I believe is at the heart of every successful coaching business is client. Building a business means creating clients and charging for your work. It's not about setting the perfect price. You know that is an entirely different conversation. It's about starting where you are right now. Whatever you are comfortable charging other people and what other people are willing to pay you right now.

Speaker 1:

Rich Litvin he's one of the coaches that I've mentioned before and I'm definitely a follower of his work, so to speak, and I have worked diligently to apply the principles which I've've learned from the book the Prosperous Coach into my practice or my business. But my point has nothing to do with any of that. He's one of the coaches that I follow his work and I remember hearing and reading a story that you know he charged his first client 10 bucks a month. So the amount doesn't matter. What matters is that you start. You start coaching, you start working on building the business. These two things coaching and creating clients are what will make or break your coaching business. Everything else the branding, the logos, the fancy platforms, tools, websites, whatever all of that can come later. It can come anytime down the road.

Speaker 1:

The number one thing that you need in your business to be in business is paying clients. The number one thing that you, as a coach, need to do to continue to improve your business and your coaching is to coach those clients that are paying you and those that might not be coaching. Coach your butt off. So I wanted to come back to my original point and try and tie these together. But what? What does be where they aren't really mean for us when we consider this, and how does it tie into these two things? I think it's pretty simple. Really being where they aren't is about doing the work that too many others are avoiding today.

Speaker 1:

Today, I see so many people coaches chasing shortcuts. They're buying all the courses that promise the fast results or they're looking for their hacks to build their business overnight. You know they see all the excitement and potential of these online businesses and you know people who are very great at marketing selling their courses, and you know it's exciting times to see how people have been successful in this space and it's really easy to look at that and think that there is a shortcut that's going to get you there. Now. You've got your certification or you've just chosen to put on a coaching hat. Whatever it may be. I'm not discounting how you got to this point today, but I'm saying that there's no shortcut, you know. Okay, so you've seen these strategies or these advertisements, right, the, your blueprint for a hundred thousand in sales in just six months. Or your, my exact client building strategy that helped me to build my million dollar coaching business. You know, taking your coaching from you know whatever number 5 000 to 20 000 in 30 days or less.

Speaker 1:

Uh, and look, my belief here really is the reason these programs seem so popular and for all intensive purposes they may do well. The first reason is they seem like a shortcut, which we just talked about, to what it is that you want as a coach. Right, you want to build your business, you want to create more income, you want to break out of that nine to five, whatever it is that you're looking for. These courses appeal to those desires. But if we examine them, these people are really good marketers or they have a bunch of really good marketers supporting them. I can think of some specific examples, but I'm not knocking anyone who's actually done the work and built their businesses examples, but I'm not knocking anyone who's actually done the work and built their businesses. So I don't want to go into names, but I do think that there's some really great business leaders out there who are offering some really great products.

Speaker 1:

But even if you go back and look at what they did, they worked to get there. They didn't just figure it out. There was no magic involved. There was certainly no shortcuts. So it then makes me question in some of these courses that I've just mentioned, what does their coaching look like? Sure, they were able to build these businesses, but was it by selling these programs? That is what really set them apart and not their coaching. Is what really set them apart and not their coaching.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, I digress from that. The truth is and you already know it, but it's worth saying here again and again and again there is no shortcut to doing the real work. We grow through coaching, we invest in our own development, we connect deeply with others. These are non-negotiables. If there's a shortcut to doing these things, then I'd love for you to share it with me, but that's it. I don't think they're negotiable.

Speaker 1:

Now that I've said that, I want to say I don't think there's a shortcut to doing the work, but there is a way to accelerate your progress, and here's three powerful ways to fast track your success when it comes to progress as a coach, not to be confused with shortcutting the work. So the first thing, that the first powerful way, rather, that you can use to fast track your success is to hire a coach. Every great coach I know has a coach. A good coach will help you to navigate challenges, avoid the same mistakes that they've made and that they've observed others making, and you'll be able to grow faster as a person, as a business leader, as a coach, than you could do on your own. The second powerful way to fast track your success is to steal from one of my coaches, cliff. You know, upgrade your peer group, find and join communities. You know that you can participate in with other like-minded individuals. But, you know, find these spaces where you can connect with others who are learning, growing and building businesses in a community environment right, sharing ideas, challenging each other. The people around you, I believe, can either push you forward or they're going to hold you back. So be sure to choose your people wisely.

Speaker 1:

And the third powerful way to fast track your success is to join a mastermind. Masterminds can be a game changer. In smaller, focused groups you can get personalized feedback, usually, depending on how they're structured, 8, 10, maybe 12 people. So every couple of weeks you get your own space to share something you're working on or your ideas and get personalized feedback that's catered to you and what you've brought to the table from the community around you those 10, 12, 10 or 11, I guess other people you get you know a different level of accountability. You gain perspectives from each and every other person in the room, whether you're joining one or starting your own. Joining a mastermind is a powerful way to grow, or not joining but being part of whether it's yours or someone else's being part of a mastermind is a powerful way to grow, both personally and professionally. In the end, there really is no shortcut, in my opinion, to doing the work, but you can improve your success rate by surrounding yourself with other successful people, by surrounding yourself with the right people, by investing in a coach and investing in yourself and leaning into the journey of perfecting your craft, building your business and doing the work.

Speaker 1:

So are you committed to doing what it takes? If this resonates with you, first of all, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can send me a message. Let's continue this conversation. If you're ready to explore coaching or join a community, I'd love to help you find the right resources for you. I want to say thank you for stopping by and I'll see you in the next episode, but before you go, I want to say a couple other things.

Speaker 1:

I've gotten a lot of questions recently about my approach to client creation and my strategy or the way I'm working to build my business. So I have actually created an exclusive video where I break down my process, what I've done to build my coaching business. It's based on the four principles of the Prosperous Coach and how I've taken them and adopted them and applied them to my process and my business. So these are my ideas, taken from the four principles that you can find in the Prosperous Coach written by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler, and I created this training video to share with you what that looks like for me. If you're interested in this video, it's available by request. Simply send an email to dan at danwus and request your copy. Just put video in the subject line and I'll be sure to send you the link. If you're not already subscribed to this podcast, hit the follow button so you don't miss any future episodes and we will talk again next week. Thank you.