I've always knew that I was meant to be wealthy, have a lavish lifestyle, travel the world, have homes in many countries and be in a position to help my family financially...but why wasn't it happening quicker for me? I come from an entrepreneurial family, and have always been involved in small business. I spent many years as a trainer in the IT industry, but I knew that true success could only come from having my own business. I found an opportunity that I liked in the form of an international business coaching franchise. I bought the franchise, trained as a business coach, and set to work on my coaching business. It was one of the best and worst decisions that I ever made. It was the best simply because it moved me so much out of my comfort zone, and forced me to learn the skills of marketing, sales, copyrighting, networking, and cold-calling as well as coaching itself. It was the worst because I quickly discovered that I hadn't bought myself a business - I'd bought myself another job... My mentors have taught me since that in order to succeed in business, we have to master leverage...in other words - "do the work once - get paid forever'. However I found that I had to create the marketing, do the marketing and sell. Then when I got clients, I had to juggle sales, marketing and coaching. I loved creating the marketing and coaching my clients. The one part of all of this that I disliked intensely was the cold-calling. I was able to outsource some of the marketing calls, but if I was going to take on clients, I had to ensure that I spoke with them, find their frustrations, develop a relationship with them and take them through the sales process. I had a home office, and I still remember clearly pacing the landing outside my office before making my first call to follow up on marketing material I'd sent out. Eventually, I got to accept that it was an inevitable part of the work. I became really competent at it, but still never enjoyed it. There were many, many days that I forced myself to take up the phone and do my follow-up calls. In addition to this, even though I'd bought a business franchise, I certainly hadn't a business. If I didn't turn up to coach, I didn't get paid. I found that what I had was even worse than a job. The whole success of the business depended on me. Coaching others to take action and achieve success is a specialised skill. The results achieved depend very much on the relationship between the coach and client. Therefore, clients weren't that enthusiastic about someone else replacing me when I was away. I found it difficult to get away and certainly for no more than a week at any one time. I found myself travelling hundreds of miles a week, spending time trying to convince business owners to invest in a coaching programme. I knew that they'd get results if they participated, but getting them across the line was hard work. This was not the life or the business I had envisioned for myself. This certainly wasn't the vehicle that was going to provide me with the time freedom and financial rewards that I wanted. So, I had to ask myself...what did I really want? The answer to that was... A business where I could achieve leverage - where I really did 'do the work once and get paid forever'. I didn't mind putting in the groundwork, as long as I was actually building something for myself. In the coaching, every time a client finished the program, I had to go out and sell to another client.A business that provided huge financial rewards through multiple streams of income, and could also generate passive incomeA business that allowed me plenty of free time to spend with my family and friendsA business that would allow me to travel and work from my laptop anywhere in the world.A business that would still allow me to coach, help people achieve their goals and teach.And probably more importantly than anything else, a business where I didn't have to cold-call and try to 'sell' my product.I knew that internet marketing was the only vehicle that could provide the framework for me to achieve what I wanted and live this lifestyle. After a number of false-starts, I was lucky enough to come across an opportunity that's allowing me to achieve all of the goals above. I no longer cold-call prospects, trying to coerce them into meeting with me. I've taken my marketing skills online, became more competent and now I'm only interested in speaking with prospects who really 'want' to speak with me. They're the ones chasing me down now. My precious time is spent teaching people who really want to be successful, not having to tolerate tasks that I hated doing. I love what I do. My experience in business coaching has been a fantastic grounding in my journey from business coach to internet marketer. A question I asked as a coach that I still ask potential clients as an internet marketer is 'On a scale of 1-10, how motivated are you to make the necessary changes that you want to make in your life?'. The way they answer this question is always a good indication of their potential for success. If the answer is any less than a 10, I tell them that maybe I'm not the person that they should be talking to, and to come back to me when they're at a 10. It's like this, if I have to try to convince or motivate anyone to make the necessary changes, it shows that I care more about their success than they do...and whether it's offline or online, I can only show you the strategies and guide you...YOU are the one that has to take action.
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