Wendy McCallum (01:23)
You know how this goes. You're at a dinner party or a networking or professional event and someone asks you what you do and you say, I'm a coach. And then you get the look, the polite nod, the slightly confused smile. Maybe they ask, so you're a life coach or maybe worse they say, so you give people advice and suddenly you're stumbling through an explanation that even you aren't satisfied with. If you've ever struggled to explain what you do in a way that actually lands, this episode's for you.
Welcome back. I'm Wendy McCallum, host of The Coaching Edge, and I'm glad you're here. Today we're going to talk about one of these foundational topics that does not get talked about enough. Most of our coach trainings really teach us how to coach, but not how to talk about coaching to people who've never experienced it. And this is not just about being more comfortable in social situations and dinner parties. It's about your ability to clearly articulate what you do.
because that impacts your marketing, your discovery calls, and frankly, your bottom line. And this is something that has come up time and time again in the work that I've done with coaches, both in the group setting and in the one-on-one work that I do. Coaches do not know how to describe what they do in a really clear way. And even if they do know how to do it in a clear way, they struggle to do that. They find that really challenging and they stumble over their words. So we're gonna talk today about why this matters so much.
We're gonna talk about what coaching is and isn't. We're gonna talk about how to get really clear on what it is you do specifically as a coach, and then how to get better at articulating and sharing that with other people, both in a social setting and also in a direct business setting. So in a marketing setting on a sales call in a conversation with a potential new client. so why does this matter more than you think?
It's because yes, it's awkward when you can't explain what you do at a networking event. I've been there guys. Like when I first started coaching, I actually did more consulting than coaching in the early days because I was trained as a holistic natural nutrition consultant. So I was doing more consulting, more what you might consider advice giving and less of the pure coaching stuff. But I also loved the pure coaching stuff and I was doing some of that and I really, really struggled to describe what I did.
So it's awkward when you can't explain it, but the real cost is so much bigger because if you cannot articulate what you do, you cannot effectively sell it. That is the crux of this episode. And that's why I want you to keep listening because I'm gonna give you some new ideas around how to do this better and also how to answer some of the common questions that come up around coaching when you're talking to somebody about what you do. Clarity creates clients. I want you to remember that.
being clear is always going to win out over being clever. And with clarity comes clients and with clients comes more revenue. When potential clients land on your website, read your emails or get on a call with you, they need to understand what you do and why it matters to them. And if your language is full of jargon, which I call coach speak, we're gonna talk about that in a second, or it's confusing, they just move on.
Clear, specific language builds trust and makes it easy for people to know they're in the right place and to say yes, which is critically important. So let's talk about CoachSpeak for a second. This is my own word. I don't know if other people use this word or not, but I use it all the time inside my programming and when I'm supporting coaches. CoachSpeak is what we get from coach training. And I'm always trying to remind my coaches when I'm working with them, especially if we're working on marketing copy or like sales conversations.
Think about the words that you're using. Would those words make sense to somebody who is not a coach and has had no experience with coaching? And a lot of the time, the answer is a very clear no. We're gonna talk about the neighbor test today when it comes to copy and marketing communications. And that's really this really simple test, which is if I was talking to my neighbor about this, would they understand with great clarity what I was saying? And coach speak is the type of language
that we use all the time. We don't even realize we're using it. But it's the type of language that makes a fair bit of sense often to coaches themselves who both are in the industry and also most coaches have been coached. So it makes more sense to us, but I'm gonna call them lay people. So people outside of the coaching industry have no idea what this stuff means. It's like, it sounds nice, but it actually has zero substance to them. So for example, things like I help people connect with their inner mentor.
I guide women to unlock their full potential. I help people get unstuck even is very vague. I help people align with their life's purpose. That type of language might resonate with other coaches, but it does not resonate with potential clients. It's way too abstract and people don't know whether that's actually for them. So because of that, using too much coach speak, I guarantee you is costing you money. And so this is one of the things we're gonna talk about today.
how often and where are you using CoachSpeak and how can you train yourself to use plain language? I have been a plain language fan since I started practicing law. I learned about this movement, this sort of plain language movement in law and I was like, my gosh, yes, why is not everybody doing that? I can't stand legalese. I find it to be really just purposefully creating two different levels of understanding and it doesn't make any sense to me. It can be so confusing for people.
I've always been a fan of plain language. I was a fan of plain language when I was a lawyer. If you go and read my terms and conditions, if you ever work with me, you'll see my contracts are drafted in plain language. I love plain language. Say what you mean. Exactly the same thing applies in the coaching industry. And it's something that I am really focused on in my own coaching business, making sure I'm not using CoachSpeak too often. So CoachSpeak is costing you money because if someone can't understand what you do,
They cannot refer other people to you. They cannot share the word. They cannot pass it on. They cannot help you build your business. If your website copy is vague because there's too much coach speak on it, somebody gets there and they just bounce right off again because they don't know what it is you do. And it's not clear to them that they're in the right place. And so they leave and look for somebody else who might be. If your sales or discovery calls are full of abstract language, people don't convert on those calls either. You need to be really clear.
This is what I do, this is why it's for you, and this is what it's gonna get you. Clarity is not just a communication skill, it's actually a revenue skill. Let me repeat that. Clarity is not just about good communication, it's actually about the bottom line. It is actually a revenue skill. So the goal of this episode is to help you talk about coaching in plain, specific language that anybody can understand.
Yes, it's going to make you more comfortable in social situations, but more importantly, it's going to help you sell your coaching much more effectively and grow your business quicker, which is obviously what this podcast is all about. So why is it so hard for us to tell people what we do in a clear way? Well, because we often get this sort of blank stare. People are not familiar with coaching. The coaching industry, I think, is becoming more more popular, much more well known now than it was when I started out 15.
plus years ago, but it's still for most people kind of a vague area that people don't know much about. So you often get like a blank stare when you tell people that you're a coach and it often leads to some assumptions and a little bit of confusion for people. And so it's not the type of thing that people have a really clear mental model for. And if they do have a clear mental model for it, their mental model is usually not right. So there are lots of misconceptions that go along with
being a coach. The first, probably the biggest one is that people will assume that you're like a therapist. And of course, coaching is not therapy. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Secondly, people assume that you give advice and coaching really isn't consulting or mentoring. Now that's not to say that coaches can't also be consultants and or mentors. I've talked about on other episodes, many of us do have blended practices because we bring into our businesses
variety of skills and experience that lead us to be doing more than just pure coaching. But if you are doing the pure coaching, you're really not giving people advice. That is not what pure coaching is. Sometimes people confuse it with like sports coaches, coaches for kids, for example. And a lot of the time you will find, at least I find this certainly in the circles that I'm in, that people are familiar with executive coaching and assume that I only coach C-suite.
types, which is not true. It's also not. do coach lots and lots of professionals and lots of the professionals that I work with are in those C-suite positions, but I'm not what I would consider to be an executive coach, certainly not in an exclusive way. But people will often assume that. So coaches really struggle to explain this because we're trained in coaching skills. But as I said earlier, we're not trained about how to talk about coaching. And we're so close to it that we forget.
often that people don't share our experience and frame of reference for it. And this is why CoachSpeak becomes such a problem. And we default to the language because it's language that we heard all the time, maybe in our certification, we're probably hearing it from other coaches out there marketing. And most of us are, you know, and there's, this isn't bad, but this is one of the downsides of, you know, sort of trying to do what other coaches are doing in the industry, because there are so many coaches out there who are so deep into the CoachSpeak that
trying to follow them and seeing them as a good example is actually leading us astray. And I think oftentimes too, when we're trying to explain what we do, we're afraid of sounding like too salesy. Or sometimes I think we're afraid that maybe it's gonna sound too simple and people are gonna be like, well, that's easy. I can't believe you get paid to do that, right? So we overcomplicate it and we get into all of this, well, I do a combination of somatic and cognitive behavioral, blah.
Right? Because we're trying to sell ourselves because we feel like we might be getting judged. I've certainly been there. Like I have had that feeling before. I don't have it anymore. But in my early days, I definitely did, especially coming from the profession I came from, which, you know, good or bad, right or wrong tends to get a lot of sort of automatic credibility, for lack of a better word. And then I would go to events or social things where
My peers from my past profession were there where I was socializing with lawyers, trying to explain what it was that I did now and really feeling like some imposterism, I guess, around all of it. So those are all the reasons why this is tough. So if you're here and you're like, this is me, you're putting your hand up, yeah, I'm constantly stumbling over my words when people ask me what I do, I get it. I think it's a very, very common problem for coaches. So what we need to get clear on first.
And what you need to get clear on first is what coaching actually is and what it isn't. Because before you can explain coaching to other people, you need to be crystal clear on this. This isn't about memorizing a definition, that's not what I'm gonna give you today. It's about really understanding the essence of what it is that you do and what you don't do. So one way to describe coaching is to describe it as a partnership that is focused on someone getting clear on where they are now and then helping them move forward to where they want to be.
And that's often how I describe it. I help people figure out where they're stuck right now, where they want to be, and then help them take the steps and hold them accountable to move towards that. Coaching is also a safe space for thinking, reflecting, and accountability. And I will sometimes describe it that way. I create a really safe place for people to come and reflect and think.
and get really clear on what they need to do in order to get closer to living the life that they want.
Coaching is a process that under, and it's underpinnings are we assume that our clients are already creative, resourceful and whole. This is something I've talked about a lot on this podcast. I explain that to my clients when I work with them and when I'm on sales calls with them. Look, my assumption is you are already creative, resourceful and whole. You are the foremost expert on yourself and what is best for you. It's not my job to come in and tell you what's best for you. You already know that. I'm gonna help you unlock that.
you get clear on what that is. And then I'm gonna help you take steps to move in a direction that's more aligned with that. Coaching is forward focused, less about unpacking the past, more about creating the future that my clients want. This is one of the simplest ways to distinguish therapy from coaching. I will often say that. I'll say, know, coaching is not therapy because we don't diagnose, treat, or focus primarily on healing past wounds.
I am not qualified to help people process trauma. That's not what I do. I am more focused on helping people get clear on where they are right now instead of how they got there and then where they want to be and helping them move forward towards that. It's not consulting. If we are in a pure coaching role, we are not coming in with answers or expertise to hand over. Now, again, little caveat here, a lot of us are engaged in both coaching and consulting.
And that's totally cool if that's your business model. That's what I do. So when I'm coaching, obviously around business stuff, I'm providing strategy, I'm providing advice, I'm providing, you know, all kinds of things to my clients that would fall outside the scope of pure coaching. Even when I'm coaching around burnout with the professional people that I work with or alcohol, I am often providing advice, strategies, tools, all of those things. So I do a combination of those things and you might too. But if you're engaged in pure coaching, it's not advice giving, it's not consulting.
It's not also mentoring if you're involved in pure coaching. We're not giving advice based on our own experience. Now, I would say I am definitely in a mentoring role as a business coach and on this podcast because I have 15 plus years of experience in small business and lots of experience in big business before that. And I am here to share what I have learned so that you don't have to make the same mistakes that I did and so that you can get to profit faster.
I do do some of that, but again, pure coaching is not mentoring or advice giving. Why do those distinctions matter? Well, they matter because if your potential client thinks that you're gonna tell them what to do, they're gonna be confused when you don't. So it's all about setting expectations with your client upfront because I think that leads to a far better coaching relationship. So I'm really clear when I'm talking to my clients, for example, given that I do do both of the things to say some of what we do is gonna fall into the pure coaching realm.
And if they're coaches, they often know what that means. If they're not coaches, they don't. So I have to explain to them what that means. Some of it will probably be advice giving strategies, helping you build a toolkit. My client, my past clients have found that to be a very, very helpful combination. That's the way I roll. If that's not what you're looking for, if you're looking for just entirely pure coaching, I may not be the coach for you, right? So, and that doesn't mean that I don't sometimes have coaching engagements that are...
completely peer coaching. have two right now that I would consider to be pure coaching. I'm not providing strategies or tools. So I'm sort of reading the room in a discovery call as to what I think would be the most helpful for the client on the other end of the call. And oftentimes it is a combination of the peer coaching and the, you know, more of the consulting role. But you just want to make sure that whatever it is you're going to be doing with that client, they're really clear on that. They're really clear on what it is and what it isn't.
I think the distinctions also help you to screen clients for who's going to be a good coachable client and who isn't. So talking about that with clarity as the coach can be really helpful in determining, for example, in a discovery call, whether this person is a good fit for the type of coaching that you do. Are they looking entirely for a mentor, for an advice giver? Are they not maybe...
standing in personal responsibility at this point in time, interested in actually doing the work and making change themselves, they may not be a good fit for coaching or coaching with you, depending on what you do. Okay, so that's what coaching is and coaching isn't. Again, my favorite way to describe it is that we're really a team. It's a co-active partnership where I help you figure out, get clear on where you are right now, what's keeping you stuck, where you wanna be.
and then how to get you actually actively taking steps towards that so that you feel better. That's what I do as a coach. You have to come up with your own way of saying that. And it should roll off your tongue like it does mine. And the reason it rolls off my tongue, by the way, is because I've said it so many times and didn't roll off my tongue the first probably hundred times I said it, right? So you need to know what that is. You're also gonna wanna have like a more niche specific way of saying it. We're gonna get into that in a second. That's just a general sort of explanation of what coaching is.
Okay, let's talk about ditching coach speak for plain language. Let's talk about how we can do that. And I'm gonna leave you with like some things with this podcast episode to do as I always do, the coaching edge action items. If you're not subscribed to my newsletter yet, you can go download any one of my free lead magnets or low ticket offers and that'll put you on my coaching list, my newsletter list and you'll get the coaching edge action items every week. They come in the newsletter when I announced the new episode.
but I'm gonna give you a preview of those today, because I want you guys to be thinking about some things after you listen to this episode. And one of them is like, how often am I using CoachSpeak on my website, in my emails, and my social stuff, and in the conversations I'm having with people?
Here's what CoachSpeak sounds like. I help people connect with their inner inner wisdom. I help clients step back into their power. I support women in aligning with their higher selves or their highest selves.
And I gave you some other examples earlier on. Those phrases feel meaningful to us as coaches, but they mean almost nothing to somebody outside of the coaching world. Okay. I've said earlier, I think we default to it because it's what we've heard. I think it feels safer than being really specific. It can be really hard to nail this down. I get that. This is the work I do with coaches every day. It's helping them get really clear on it. And I think
Sometimes coaches think it sounds more professional and a little more valuable when we use language like that. But we have not done the work of translating that into our own plain language. And without that, I'm telling you, you're leaving so much revenue on the table. It's making your life so much harder as a small business person. The test, as I said earlier, is would your neighbor understand? If you explain what you do to a neighbor in the language you currently use,
this neighbor knows nothing about coaching, would they get it? Would they be able to say, my gosh, I know exactly the person who needs that. And I'm gonna go tell them what it is you do. If not, your language needs work. That's the test. And I want you to start applying that neighbor test to everything you put out there. Apply it to your social media, apply it to your newsletter copy, apply it to your landing page copy for your offers, apply it to the language that you typically use in a discovery or sales call.
So here's how we translate coach speak into plain language. I'm just gonna give you a few examples of like better, clearer, plainer language. So instead of reconnect with your inner mentor, you could say, I help you figure out what you actually want and make a specific plan to go after it. Okay? Instead of unlock your full potential, I help you stop playing small, everybody knows what playing small means, and start building the business you've been thinking about for years.
So much clearer. Instead of align with your life's purpose, I help you get clarity on what actually matters to you and make decisions going forward that reflect that so you can feel better, right? Specific, concrete, outcome-based. That's what we're looking for in terms of the language that we use.
Plain language is not sophisticated. That's the whole point of it. It doesn't sound sophisticated. It doesn't create a tiered system of knowledge. It doesn't sound like elitist or like you're not in the club if you don't understand what it is. It's much more effective. And as I said earlier, I've been a fan of it my whole life. I love it. Don't use big words if you don't have to. Clarity over clever. Every single time I had a coach who used that language, something like that, clarity over cleverness or something, it was such good advice, okay?
Your job is to make it easy for people to understand what you do and say yes. That's it. You want them to understand what you do and say yes. And if you can do that consistently, you're going to find that that leads to more referrals, more clients, more revenue every single time. Okay. Now you do have to tailor this a little bit to who you're talking to. So what you say, you're going to be tailoring it to who you talk to.
I mean, how you explain coaching at a dinner party is gonna be really different probably than how you explain coaching to a potential client on a discovery call, right? The depth and the framing is gonna match the situation. So in the casual social setting, you're just gonna keep it really simple and outcome focused. You're probably gonna avoid all the jargon. You're not gonna use any jargon. And you're really gonna be sort of leading with who you help and what they get. You're not gonna be talking a lot about the process, okay? So for example, if it was me, I might say something like,
I work with coaches in the first five years of their business to help them get clients and build something sustainable without burning out or feeling like they have to be super salesy. Because that's really what I do. At a networking or professional event, you might add a little more to what you say, but you're still going to be really outcome focused. And what you're really trying to do is get somebody at a networking event or professional event to say, I actually have a
perfect person for you, right? So you need to give them enough information with enough clarity that they can say that, I have somebody I'd like to refer to you. So for example, I might say I help new coaches figure out how to actually make money doing this work. The business side that most coach training doesn't cover. So I help coaches make money because that is not something that is covered in most coach trainings.
In a discovery call, you're probably gonna go a little bit deeper. You might talk a little bit more about what it looks like in practical terms to work with you, what a session involves, what your role is, what their role is. This is where I get into the whole co-active kind of, you know, we're in this thing together. It's a partnership. And I very regularly deal with some of the common assumptions and misconceptions about coaching in the discovery call. So I might say, for example,
I'm not here to tell you what to do to hold your feet to the fire. That's what I usually say. I'm not here to hold your feet to the fire. My job is to help you figure out what you want to do and then support you in doing it. And I think probably the hardest person to talk about coaching with is always friends and family. In my experience, I don't know why. I think I always feel like they're a little skeptical. They usually don't know anything about coaching.
Oftentimes I don't know anything about business either. And I think we're trying to like convince them of our value. And so it just starts to feel really uncomfortable for me really fast when I'm talking to somebody that I know about what I do. So I will usually say something short and pretty concise. And I will like deliver it quickly because I think that that
It just is so much more confident when you do it sort of quickly. So, you I work with coaches in the first five years of business to help them make money in a way that feels like really sort of good to them and that keeps them out of salesy marketing tactics, something like that. Keep it super straightforward. I help people get unstuck and make progress on the things that matter to them.
It's like having a thinking partner who asks good questions and keeps you accountable, for example, like something that's simple that people will understand in websites, in your emails, in your newsletters. I mean, this is where this clarity really matters, guys. And this is why this is where I want you to go first. I want you to look for Coach Speak. Every single piece of copy should pass that. Would my neighbor understand this test? Would my neighbor know what I'm talking about? Am I using Coach Speak here?
Lead with the problem that you solve and the outcome you deliver and do not spend any time getting bogged down in the process. Now, I wanna be really clear here. Process is like, and I've seen this so many times on coaches' websites that I've reviewed, people start getting into their credentials, the coaching philosophy they use, the specific methodology they've been trained in. So they start talking about somatic practices and techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy and...
You just, a whole bunch of process-y related stuff. And I'm telling you, people get so bogged down. People like fog, you can see them. Like they're fogging up, they're moving on. They're not even listening anymore. So you wanna ditch discussion about process and philosophy, but I wanna clarify, cause if you're listening to this podcast and you've been here for a while, you know that I really believe in a coach's, the importance of a coach being able to say something about their special sauce. What makes them unique? What makes them...
stand out. What their clients, coaching clients would say makes them a really great coach. And that is not process-based ever. So I'm not talking about process or methodology here. My clients would say I'm a great coach because I'm direct, I'm kind, and I'm incredibly practical with all the advice I give. That's my special sauce as a coach. I am honest, very honest, but I am also very kind in my delivery and I'm practical.
in the advice and support that I give, right? So that's my special sauce, but that has nothing to do with the methodologies that I'm trained in. So when we're talking about clarity on your website and your other marketing copy, you wanna be talking about the problem you solve and the outcome you deliver. And you can mention a little bit about your special sauce too, but not the methodology and the process that you have been trained in because that's where people just start to like, they're they're drifting away at that point.
Let's talk a little bit about elevator pitches. This is something that we practice inside the BBB. There's actually a little module on elevator pitches and how to get clear on this. And I know most coaches have been introduced to the idea of an elevator pitch at some point in their coach training or in some business training they've done. So we're talking about is like, you're stuck in an elevator and you're literally just going one floor up with somebody else. You need to be able to explain what you do in a clear and articulate and compelling way.
before they get off the elevator. That's really what we're talking about with an elevator pitch. Very short, very concise, very clear, very impactful. So if you say something like, I help people transform their lives, that's just way too vague. What does that mean? I help people transform their lives. Sometimes, again, people get too focused on the process. They might say, I use a blend of like CBT and somatic practices. That's just, people are again, glazing over at that point.
Or they're just way too long. Your pitch is too long. You're stumbling. You're all over the place. You're adding all these extra words. And there's no way to even deliver it in the time that you have to get to the next floor. So your elevator pitch needs to be really concise, really clear. Who you help, what they're struggling with, what they get. So who I help, what I help them with, how I do it, how they feel at the end. Keep it to one or two sentences and make it
Specific enough that it's memorable. It really just needs to be short, right? Again, I help coaches in the first five years of business get into profit Pretty simple But that's what I do That's who I help right if I add to it I help coaches in the first five years of business get into profit without burning out or having to rely on salesy Tactics that don't feel good to them. That's who I help
coaches in the first five years business, what's the problem? Making profit in a way that doesn't burn them out and make them feel salesy, right? And so I have got it all there in one sentence. You wanna have a clear sentence that just rolls off your tongue. So it might be, help, I work with women in midlife who are figuring out what's next after a big career change. That's pretty clear. I help high achievers who are successful on paper.
but feel stuck, figure out what they actually want. That one's a little, I feel like that's even a little bit coach-speaky to be honest. But what you wanna do is you wanna work on this, you wanna refine this, you wanna practice it out loud, you wanna be saying it all the time when you're driving in the car by yourself, start practicing your elevator pitch. And then if you have a couple different versions of it, figure out which one feels the most comfortable to you. I love, I help coaches in the first five years of business create profit without burning out.
That's the simplest one for me because I do have a focus really on helping you do this in a way that feels joyful, in a way that feels doable, in a way that doesn't feel totally exhausting. Because I am obviously on the side, a burnout coach in my personal coaching business. And so I kind of pull those two pieces together in the business coaching that I do. Keep it simple and just notice what feels most comfortable to you. What can you deliver the most comfortably and where does it need refinement? This is something that takes time.
to get clarified. And it's also gonna shift. my elevator pitch now is different than my elevator pitch was five years ago, than it was 10 years ago, than it was 15 years ago. And that's okay, that's actually really good. You also need to learn how to own what you do. You are not selling snake oil. That's not what coaching is. You're actually offering something incredibly valuable. How do I know that? I know that because I get emails or texts almost every day from somebody telling me that, right?
Got a text this morning from a client who's in, or an email from a client who's in the current CCSI, which is the Confident Coaching Skills Intensive. There's a coach led version of it running right now. And she's on a plane this week, traveling with her family. And she said, I'm really gonna try to get to the live call from the plane if I can connect in. And she said, I just wanted to let you know that even the first couple of modules and the first couple of calls have been incredibly helpful for me.
and I'm already leaning into this part of my coaching practice that I had felt uncomfortable in before. I mean, that's great feedback for me. I'm not selling snake oil. What I do is really valuable. I'm really good at what I do. You need to get to that place where you feel that confidence too, because if you don't own what you do, it's not ever gonna come out in a confident way or a clear way. You're going to stumble.
We help people get clear. We help people make better decisions. We help people take action. That's what we do. And that is valuable and it's a real service. The clearer you get, the more confident you become. The more confident you become, the easier it is to talk about what you do. The more you talk about what you do, the better you are at attracting clients. And the more clients you attract, the better your revenue or your bottom line is, right? This is a skill that directly impacts your revenue.
In fact, I think there's an argument that this is the most important skill that impacts your revenue, is being able to talk with clarity and confidence about what it is you do as a coach. This is one of the reasons why I started the CCSI, because I was working with so many coaches who were certified or trained in coaching and have been out there doing this for a while. Some of them are brand new, but a lot of them have been out there for a while.
and they could not speak with confidence about the value that they actually created for people. And so the Confident Coaching Skills Intensive was built, you know, there were a number of sort of motivators for me in building that course, but in large part, what I wanted was to have coaches coming out of this program after the 12 weeks or whatever it is, feeling super confident about the value that they are able to bring to every single client session and to feel really confident.
in their ability to go with the flow in a coaching session. So confidence is key and being able to talk about what you do in a really clear and confident way is really critically important to succeeding as a coach, to succeeding as a business owner. And listen, you don't have to convince everyone. Who cares if the guy at the cocktail party, you know, wants to work with you or not? This isn't about like selling. It's not about converting total skeptics. That's not what it is. It's about
making sure that if the person on the receiving end of the information is somebody who would be a good fit for your coaching or who is looking for support or who knows somebody who would be a good fit for your coaching, that they're really clear from what you say that you are exactly the person for the job, right? That's really what we're doing. Eventually, I promise this gets easier. Eventually, it becomes second nature. But I really wanted to talk about this topic today because again, this is something that comes up all the time inside the various coaching containers and coaching relationships that I have.
with coaches trying to build their businesses. They cannot speak with clarity and confidence about what it is they do. And so I wanted to just come on here today and talk through this whole thing and get your wheels turning on this. And what I wanna leave you with in terms of some action items. And again, these are the Coaching Edge action items that get included in the newsletter every week. If you're not on my newsletter list, go and download one of my free resources. You'll find them on my website at wendymcallum.com. There'll probably be some in the show notes that you can grab.
I want you to really think about these items. And I do include three coaching edge action items every week in the newsletter. don't often share them on the podcast episode itself, but here are the ones for this week. Look at your website, your social media, your bio, or the last email that you sent to your list. Would someone outside the coaching world understand what you do and who you help? Or are you using CoachSpeak?
that sounds good, but actually doesn't land, doesn't mean anything to anyone. Check for coach speak. That is the first action item. Number two, this week, start working on your elevator pitch. If you already have done it or you did it five years ago, go back and take a look at it. Can you actually deliver it? Does it even feel true anymore? Is it full of coach speak? Is it clear? Is it too long? Try to nail that thing down.
I want you to practice it in the car. You could practice it with your partner at home. You could practice it with a friend. Or you could even like practice saying it out loud, you know, on a Zoom call or into your phone recorder. Like, just practice it. Notice what feels natural. Notice where you're stumbling and tweak it. And if at the beginning it's simpler than you would like it to be, but it's clear, great. Stick with that for a while.
And eventually, you'll probably feel more comfortable adding a little bit more to it if you feel like that would give even more helpful information to people. But clear is always better than clever. Remember that. Clear is always better than coach speak. And as coaches, we have a tendency to fall into the coach speak. Okay, the third little coaching edge action item is to write a couple different versions of the what I do answer. So when somebody asks you, what do you do for a living? Have a version that you could use at a...
dinner party, for example, and have a version that you would use maybe a longer explanation that you might use on a discovery call or some kind of a conversation with a potential client or a referral. And remember, it's just a starting place, right? So you're not married to it, you get to change it. So don't get too precious with it. Just do your best with it and then get out there and start practicing it.
