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XNick Bolton E-mail: nick.bolton@www.thesmartschool.co.uk Web Site: http://www.thesmartschool.co.uk Info: Founder of the Smart School of CoachingPosts by the author (21)

Coaching Opportunities are Everywhere when you Open your Eyes

I know that blog entries should be short and sweet but sometimes they need to be long and direct! So I hope you’ll forgive this extended post.

As a coach, opportunities are everywhere for you but you have to open your eyes to them. And be prepared to act.

Let me tell a quick story which is instructive:

Now occasionally I still like an old fashioned English breakfast and on this particular day I went in to what looked like a less than salubrious café near to my office.

The café was empty other than one other customer and three members of staff looking somewhat glum.

I decided to play it safe (ie. avoid the sausages). To my surprise though the food was delicious. It was presented cleanly, the tea was hot, the scrambled eggs fresh as could be, the bacon crisp!

It was a pleasant surprise.

So then the question started buzzing around my mind – why is this place not busier? Why isn’t this place a centre of English breakfast activity?

I read my book and ate my breakfast all the while pondering whether I should stick my nose in.

On paying for my breakfast, I complimented the guy at the counter for his delicious food and asked if he was the owner. Indeed he was.

Now, here’s the thing….

Rather than plough into a discussion about how I am a coach and how I can help the owner raise his profits (and in the process making the owner feel like a failure), I simply asked “Why aren’t you busier? Your food’s great!”

What did this achieve?

Well for a start it sounds like everyday conversation!

But what else? It complimented a truth – that the food was good. It respected the owner that he might already have his own opinions. It raised the self-curiosity level high in the mind of the owner. And it engaged the owner in who I was that was taking interest in his business.

Next I offered a simple but powerful idea (not advice per se which breaks rapport) that would have an immediate impact and engaged his curiosity further. In this case I asked if he used Google Local and how it would be easy to be at the top of page 1 for “English Breakfast Victoria”.

At this point the owner was fascinated! He was hooked.

Now here’s the thing. I was just interested in the situation for him. I really didn’t want to get business from this conversation. It’s not my line of work and I don’t do one to one coaching in that way anymore.

But it was BUSINESS ON A PLATE! Just waiting to be snapped up and it made me reflect on just how many people are out there for whom coaching would be an amazing experience. And they are not always the ones that go to networking events! They are the everyday business owners whose idea of a coach is the thing that drops Japanese tourists outside there door occasionally!

Opportunity is EVERYWHERE! All you have to do is open your eyes and engage in a genuine spirit of curiosity and desire to help.

Here are some key lessons:

• Opportunities are everywhere
• They are usually where you are NOT looking
• You have to take the initiative
• Look around you for where people need help or aren’t getting the results they need
• Talk to them in a genuine and friendly way that shows you’re interested
• Get curious about what the problem is
• Create curiosity in them
• Help them early on with a nugget of a great idea

Demonstrate you can help early on and then move them to becoming a client.

I cannot begin to tell you how many clients you could have if you just see the world in this way.

Challenge yourself today!

Filed Under From the Director's Chair

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