What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Coach

Before you assume you need to quit your job to become a coach, let me save you years of trial and error. I'm Peter Swenning and after helping 750 leaders transition into coaching, here's what I have learned. Brilliant leaders keep making the same customer mistakes when becoming coaches, but I've also seen the exact approach that lets you transition safely while keeping your good reputation intact. In this video, I'll show you the hard won lessons I wish someone had told me at the start so you can create a meaningful coaching practice without quitting your job or gambling your security. Let's start with the biggest mistake that cost me five years of my life and how you can avoid it completely. Last night I did something that might sound a little crazy. I closed my eyes and I imagined myself meeting my younger self, the guy who just started coaching 20 years ago. And I picture myself giving him a warm hug and then saying, buddy, you're about to waste five years of your life chasing the wrong people in the wrong way. See, I was stuck here on this drawing I made where I call it the Ow, which is the Pain Island. I had all this wisdom and experience because I've been a monk for five years. I've been a leader for years, but I had no clue on how to turn that into a meaningful coaching practice. And over there was the dream island, the wow island where I could help people transform their lives and feel that deep sense of consciousness contribution that I was longing and craving for. But I had no bridge between these two islands. So I spent five years swimming in circles and exhausting myself when there was this simple bridge that I could have built for myself. And here's that bridge. Oh, by the way, I'll go deeper into this in my new book, From Leader to Coach and you can get it for free. The link is in the description, so I'll show you that bridge I was talking about. My younger self made the same mistake I see everywhere. The young Peter starting to coach was so focused on finding new people that he completely ignored the massive network he already had that trusted him. And these were people who had been buying my leadership training and programs for years and knew that I was a monk before. Did I reach out to them about my coaching? Nope. I ignored them completely. Instead, I changed strangers. Cold outreach, social media, marketing, the whole circus. Just like a potential client. Hannah told me yesterday. She said, I don't know if I should become a coach or if I should just keep doing what I know. But when I asked her if she had five leaders in her network, who might want some coaching from her. She lit up and she said, absolutely, yeah, just grab a pen right now and just jot down five names of people who already come to you. But things get tough in your life and that's your starting point. Hannah said to me, exactly what everyone thinks. Who am I to call myself a coach? I don't have a psychology training, but here's what I told. Always had those deep, trusted conversations, didn't you? That was not luck. That's your edge. Trust it. Your experience is your qualification. You're not becoming someone new. You are already the bridge between where people are stuck and where they want to be. Five years after I started, I finally sent that one email to my network with a question. What's your biggest leadership challenge right now? I got 40 responses immediately. And that feedback created my best selling program. The difference is that I followed up with them and I asked them, where are you stuck right now? The island, you know? And then I listened deeply. That's it. No sales pitch, just deep connection. This is where most people mess up on this bridge. They think that coaching is about giving advice. It's not. It's about truth bomb conversations. That changes everything. This is the second step on a bridge with a heart, which is about creating deep connection. When I finally learned to ask the right questions, like, huh, you told me you're stuck here and you want to go there. But what if the thing stopping you isn't something outside of you? What if it's a hidden anchor inside of you, protecting you from gaining what you really want? That's when everything shifted when I said something along those lines. But I felt into it intuitively. People would go silent and sometimes tears would well up in their eyes and I would say, how did you know that that feels true? That's when they felt so happy. They just couldn't bear it. They had to share it. So they called up their friends and said, hey, listen, listen, I had this breakthrough. I had this fantastic coach asked this and that and this happened to me and this is how I feel now. And the friend said, wow, that's amazing. Congratulation. Who's your coach? And then it started sending their friends and that's when your dream island becomes your new reality. My younger self thought that he had to quit everything and go all in immediately. Terrible idea. So just try it out with just two clients on the side. Like Hannah realized the other day, ah, I can do this safely and still keep my job. That is a safe transition. And that clarity is available for you too. So there's your bridge from the pain island and over to the dream island. Number one map your network. They're already there. Number two create breakthroughs with truth Bomb conversations. Connect authentically and ask about where they're stuck and where they want to be and find out the underlying hidden anchor. And number three change their lives in the very first conversation and then see them sending you their friends. So start your coaching practice in a safe way so that you can have this calm experience before you leap into full time. I'll show you exactly how in my book From Leader to Coach and you can get it for free if you'll use the link in the description. But having the bridge is one thing. Knowing exactly what to say at each step of the bridge, that is what builds your coaching practice in the safest, most proven and predictable way. Watch this video next where I'll show you exactly what to say step by step to get coaching clients and change their lives. So watch this now.