#89: Your Single Point of Focus

Hello there health coaches! This is our third episode and a very special series that I've designed to help you make 2020 your best year yet in your health coaching business. So we started off with some mindset topics couple of weeks ago around smart goal setting for example. That's a big one. We talked about navigating the obstacles that are obviously going to arise as we move through next year. And we also talked about creating a power thought as I like to call it to help guide you through your year. So if you missed any of that, you can go back and listen to episodes 87 and 88 and then you'll be all caught up. But even if you haven't seen those today, I want to talk about strategy because way too often what I see our coaches and you might feel this way yourself or just kind of flailing in the breeze, just getting caught up in this or in that and basically just all over the place.

And I know exactly how that happens and I know exactly how it feels because I have absolutely 100% been there. I've done that flailing, like I own that flailing move of like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just going to kind of keep shaking my body like this. Like I, I copyrighted that. I've been there, I've done that. And um, you know, just kind of being all over the place with my business through the years. Like one day I would be tabling at a farmer's market and thinking, okay, this is going to be it. This is how I'm going to grow my mailing lesson, find clients. And then, you know, that didn't work out. The next day I'd be putting together a corporate workshop and putting all my eggs in that basket. And then after that I'd be blogging and trying to make a name for myself in the online space.

Just kind of all over the place. You feel me? I know you've been there and I think I know it happens because we're just not sure what the heck is going to work, right. So because we don't have a clue, we don't have a roadmap to follow. We're just kind of guessing and hoping and chasing this shiny object and that shiny objects and we just decide and I think no, fair enough. If that's the situation that you're in, we just decide I'm just going to do all the things. I'm just going to do everything and there's any opportunity I'm going to go after it. If my, you know, best friend's sister's cousin works at a company that may possibly have a health fair coming up. Well I'm going to go chase that down too and we just kind of hope that something eventually works out. Spoiler alert, I'm just going to put it out there right now.

It doesn't, none of it really works out when you're operating this way. I know. I'm sorry I had to say it and then nothing works out because as you might imagine, your attention, like the focus that you're putting on your business as a living, breathing, I mean your business is like, it's almost like a pet. It lives, it breathes, it moves, it does stop. Do you have to train it? But if your energy is split and your resources are split and your focus is split, nothing tends to work out because you're not, you're not caring for your business in the right way. So when I started my coaching business, and I talk about this a lot, so you guys may have heard this story before. Um, I used to teach yoga, so I was teaching yoga like I don't know, 10 classes a week, something like that.

And then I was also running my health coaching business and trying to get that off the ground. I think this is a pretty common story. Like how many of you are doing that are doing something similar, you know, personal training or whatever it is. I'm going to tell you for what it's worth, quitting yoga was the best move that I ever made by far. And that was like in the first year of my business and I didn't really do it on purpose, but looking back I'm like, Oh, that's why I've been able to get anywhere, because I was constantly splitting my attention between sort of the whole world of yoga and yoga teaching and workshops and everything that goes into that and then build the building this health coaching business, which is really quite different. So these days, let's say that somebody begged me to come teach yoga.

Actually somebody asked me to teach yoga the other day and I was just like, I don't do that anymore. Or if someone was like, please, please, please come and do a corporate workshop for my company, I'd be like, Oh, that sounds really great, but no thank you. No thank you. I'm going to actually turn that down. Not because there's anything wrong with these things, but because it's not part of my business strategy because I have one, because I know what it is and those things don't fit in. Those would be distractions. So in 2020 you guys, I want to challenge you to be ruthless in finding your single point of focus in your business, in us strategy. That's going to walk you in a straight line from where you are right now to where you want to be, let's say at the end of 2020 instead of going in a million little circles between now and then.

You know what I'm saying? And like I said, often we just don't know what that point of focus should be. We don't know what path one path we should walk on. If we want to go from here to there and because of that, that's why I'm here. Okay, this is good. This is good. You don't have to know. I've done that work for you. I already know the answer to the question. You guys have probably heard me talk about Healthy Profit University like here and there, if you've been listening to the podcast or whatever. Anyway, Healthy Profit University is my program that helps health coaches earn a full time salary. I don't talk about it very much on the podcast, but I do want to let you know that twice a year only I hold a live semester where I actually walk you through a very focused action oriented process.

We have live meetings together every single week and it's fabulous. And this is coming up in early 2020, which is why I wanted to kind of like put it on your radar. So if you already know that you're interested, you're going to want to get on the wait list. The wait list is not open yet, but it will be very soon. So this is just your heads up and once you're on the wait list, you're going to get a couple of very cool waitlist exclusive, some backstage sneak peeks into what goes on over here, you know, behind the scenes. Um, and I've got some great extra bonuses for you. So again, waitlist for healthy profit university is not open yet, but it will be soon. So keep your eyes and your ears open for that. So I'm going to tell you a story. How about choosing a single point of focus?

Just to better help you absorb this and hopefully create it in your own life. I already told you about quitting teaching yoga, but I think this idea really plays out in our personal lives as well. So I'd be interested to hear like where in your life, your personal life or in your business, you find that like your energy is just getting split in too many directions. Cause once you can recognize that, I think that's a real skill. You can recognize that that's happening and then you can like bring it back. You can cut out the extras and bring yourself back to where you need to be. So I see this all the time with moms and I'm thinking about a very good friend of mine now. She's a very good friend of mine. I didn't know who she was when we first kind of rolled up to the bus stop together in our like pajamas first thing in the morning with the kids.

But um, my friend Sam has a very, very full time job. She does a ton of travel like all around the world and she's also absolutely stunning. She's like a fashion plate, you know, like yes, the first thing in the morning might be in our pajamas, but then she gets like dressed for work and looks amazing. I don't know how she pulls it off consistently like that. And she's got two little boys just like mine, about the same ages as my kids. So, um, was it last week or whatever week it was now we were there and we put the kids on the bus around like, bye sweetie, have a good day. No, as soon as that bus door shuts, we both like bolt cause we need to get to work and we have appointments and things that we have to do. But in that moment we're just like the best moms ever.

We're like, Oh bye, I love you, blah blah. And that day it was like the bus door shut. We looked at each other and then our eyes just went, Oh no. Because we realized it was the last day of school before Christmas break and neither one of us had given like a card or a gift to our kids to give the bus driver. Ah, like I forget stuff like this all the time and so does she. Were always like, you know the one who like forgot about the parent teacher conference or whatever. Because we are very career focused moms. Like we have a lot of priorities going on and like what goes on at the kids' school. Like it's not that I'm not interested, but like I trust the school to get it done and like I'm going to do my job. You do yours. Like I'm not super involved with the school and neither is she.

So our energy is just split and then things start to fall through the cracks and we're just like, Oh my God, I totally forgot the gift for the bus driver. And I find that, you know, other moms who don't work or who choose to, you know, make the school stuff, the PTA all like a bigger part of their life, which is awesome. Like they're the ones that do the gifts, they do the chaperoning, they do all that stuff and they do it so, so very well. But like Sam and I, that's like definitely not something that you want to rely on us for. We're always kind of reminding each other good enough is good enough. You know you can't be all things to all people. Oh the mom guilt, right? So listen, in your life it's going to happen. You're going to have like a give and take.

You're going to be like, Oh, I didn't do this thing but I went to this holiday party but I couldn't do this other holiday thing. We can't do everything. And the same thing is true, but like within the structure of your business, you do not want to have your attention split. It will be the difference between being profitable and not being profitable. I don't know how else to say this. You guys, you want to know, okay, this is who I serve. This is the problem myself. This is what I sell and this is how I sell it. Simple questions. Not easy questions though. You want to build an engine for your business that once it's running, it can run and run and run and you oil it now and then, but it just keeps working for you because you are taking care of it. You're earning money and you're doing the work you love and you're killing it in one particular area without killing yourself.

And that's the other thing that I just want to mention why it's so important to have like a single point of focus with your business when you're doing it the other way. And uh, you know, you might call it like the kitchen sink approach. You get burnt out really fast. And I think that's the biggest reason the health coaches give up and quit because nothing's working. You're running yourself ragged, you're not making any money. And then poof, that's the end of that. So in 2020, and you might want to write this down, we will come back to these ideas. Who will you serve? What big problem will you solve? We're going to talk a lot about that actually in the next episode. And then after that I'm going to teach you how to create an audience of the right people who are ready, willing and able to work with you.

So that's coming up. And then finally I'm going to figure out - we're going to help you figure out what exactly you should be selling. I know, I know we're all selling health coaching, but that's really hard to sell because it's really vague and it's easier if you have something that feels concrete, a package, a program, something that's unique and your signature that you can sell. It works better. Just trust me on this. So if you can, um, have a specific program, it's going to help your sales and it's going to solve the specific problem that your audience wants to solve. And that's kind of where all the magic happens. So I will be sharing much more about all of those topics in the next couple of weeks as well as walking you through this process and holding your hand personally inside my live semester of Healthy Profit University. If you decide to join us there.

Remember if you are at all interested in joining us in early 2020 for the live semester of healthy profit university, you're going to want to get on the wait list when it opens, which should be about next week. Okay. It's a great time this week right now between like Christmas and new year's. I know it can be kind of crazy today. I just took down the Christmas tree, tried to clean up the mess of wrapping paper in my living room, but it's a great week because somewhere in there there's usually some unexpected quiet and I hope that's true for you as well. Just a little time for reflection so you can consider how you want to walk into the next decade of your business or the first decade of your business if you're just starting out. So, I know I am going to be on a plane tomorrow flying to Puerto Rico for the new year, just decompressing and enjoying a big splurge to end the year to celebrate a great year and I'm definitely, definitely doing this work with you, like that plane, that plane ride.

That's going to be a little bit of extra quiet time for me, so that's what I'm banking on. I hope you can find some too, to figure out your focus. Do some planning, do some goal setting and walk into January with me. Super, super clear. So big thumbs up. Hopefully I can't see you, but you can see me if you're watching thumbs up for you and I hope that you're here with me for the next episode, which will be coming after the new year. I'll be back to hang out with you then. Happy holidays. Happy new year everybody. I'll see you soon.