5 Best-Loved Books to Grow Your Coaching Business

February 15, 2015 1 Comment

Are you developing your plan to grow your coaching business this year? When I coach my Create 6-Figure Courses community, we often start by getting reconnected to your personal vision. And, our conversations inevitably focus on  these powerful questions that encourage bigger thinking:

How do you want to feel as you grow your business?
How do you need to “BE” to stand out as the expert in your space?
What’s working in growing your coaching or consulting business?
How can you do more of what is working?
What do you need to let go of to make space for new opportunities and growth?
Where is your biggest opportunity to quickly generate a big revenue leap? (The answer is usually surprising.)

Here are “5 Best-Loved Books to Grow Your Coaching Business” that I frequently share and recommend to friends, clients, colleagues and cool folks I meet on airplanes.

What do you want to focus on this year? What’s your big opportunity for growth? Choose the book recommendation for your business growth opportunity and settle in to ponder what’s next for you:

1. Your Opportunity: Do you want to enjoy what you are doing more?

“Your desires reflect what’s truest about you. If your current reality is nowhere close to the life you want, dreams are the fuel that will move you forward. If you want to access your full range of power, then commit to dreaming about your ideal life.”-Danielle LaPorte

In Fire Starter Sessions, Danielle LaPorte takes you on a magical journey to explore and celebrate your weaknesses, remember why you are here in this world and make choices that feel good.

One idea you can apply:

Rather than focusing on the number of clients or the revenue you want to generate, ask yourself, “How do I want to feel”? Focus on doing more of what makes you feel that way.

2. Your Opportunity: Are you focused on building your tribe and finding your “voice”?

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” —Brene Brown

In Daring Greatly, How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead, Brene Brown explore what it takes to move from “What will they think?” to “I am more than enough.”

One idea you can apply:

To create belonging and to belong, we must lead, coach and inspire as our most authentic selves “because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” Be who you are in your brand, your marketing and your life.

3. Your Opportunity: Are you overwhelmed and know that focus is a big opportunity in growing your coaching business?

“Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.” —Jay Papasan

In The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan provides a simple method for focusing on what is important to create the results you desire. The method shared applies to planning your to do list, your year and your life. This is one of those rare books that combines brilliant insights with simple action steps.

One idea you can apply:

Ask the Keller and Papasan’s focusing question in relation to a result you want to create, “What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”  I work with expert coaches and consultants every single day and when we strip down to the one thing they need to focus on everything moves FAST (including revenue).

4. Your Opportunity: Do you feel awkward “selling”?

“Identifying a problem as a way to move others takes two long standing skills and turns them upside down. First, in the past, the best salespeople were adept at accessing information. Today, they must be skilled at curating it … Second, in the past, the best salespeople were skilled at answering questions (in part because they had information their prospects lacked). Today, they must be good at asking questions …” —Daniel Pink

In To Sell is Human, The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, Daniel Pink lets us know that we are all in the business of selling. If that doesn’t feel right, you can swap out the word “selling” for “engaging.” It doesn’t matter if your big sales opportunity is selling seats in your  online course or selling your child on doing his homework, this book gets to the truth about how we move others.

One idea you can apply:

Ask the 5 “Whys.” To sell, you need to solve a problem. When you want to figure out what kind of problem someone has, ask a “Why?” question. Then, in response to the answer, ask again. Repeat 5 times and you will get much closer to the real problem that your client needs solved.

5. Your Opportunity: Do you want to make more revenue from the clients you already have?

“Customers are notoriously unequal. If you have 30 customers, their capacity to spend money with you looks like this: The first customers generates 20 percent of your business the next two largest give you the next 20 percent, and so on.”-Perry Marshall

In 80/20 Sales and Marketing, Perry Marshall  puts the power of the Pareto Principle into action. This is a focused way to look at how you can capture more revenue from your existing customers.

One idea you can apply:  20% of the customers you already serve are looking for a deeper level of support from you. Delivering that offer can double your business profits.

We will be putting all of these concepts into action in Your Big Leap Revenue Retreat.

In one day online, we will  build a business plan for your coaching or consulting business that makes this your best year ever. Join me.

It’s Your Moment,
Jeanine