Ten years ago, my role as principal of a day school in Atlanta ended and I immediately hung my “Impactful” shingle.
Voila, I was now a coach/consultant… of exactly 0 clients!
This meant that I had no idea how I was going to 1. pay for my family’s relocation to New Jersey, one of the most expensive states in the nation, 2. make meaningful and consistent income as a new-to-market coach/consultant with a freshly hung shingle, 3. put myself through graduate school to complete my doctorate.
Baruch Hashem, I managed through that difficult early phase, and can now count many thousands of people who I have been blessed to serve through coaching, consulting, training, keynotes and talks, and my books and articles.
Here are ten lessons I learned along the way:
1.Get as much advice as you can. It can be easy to assume that you know what you’re doing on Day 1. I certainly thought I did. But why reinvent the wheel, figuring out the best way to (fill in the blank here) when you can speak with people who are years ahead of you in your chosen industry and can share their insights and experiences? And don’t fear that they won’t; most will happily “pay it forward.”
- Give yourself as much runway as possible. Making a career change is hard, even with a lot of time to prepare for it. I had about seven months, which wasn’t so long considering I still had a job to do, a family to relocate, and so much more. The more runway you can give yourself, the better.
- Start from a position of strength. When I started, I had a strong network and worked hard to leverage it. But I had no existing clients. In retrospect, I would have benefitted from building a paid client base while I was still a principal so that my transition would have been smoother and less stressful.
- Don’t wait until you’re fully ready. Often, we don’t start until everything is just so. That’s a mistake. While I would advise against winging everything, once you have it somewhat together, it’s best that you start and have faith that things will work out.
- Don’t overvalue technical skills and knowledge. At first, I tried to out-skill and out-credential my competition. I figured that if I was the best, people would flock to me. So I went back to school for a doctorate, took coaching training, etc. But I quickly learned that people have only one interest: can you help me solve my problem?
- Get great at sales and networking. Before this journey I rarely sold anything. I didn’t really need to. Now, if I don’t sell, I don’t eat. I’ve learned how to describe what I do in a way that speaks to others’ needs, as well as how to lean on my network to connect me with people I can serve.
- Spray and pray (or hope and pray) is not a strategy. I used to focus very intently on content creation. I would write, post, etc. and hope that spraying it out there would attract clients. It worked, but not nearly enough. Only when I developed a proper business strategy did the situation start to take off.
- Delegate before you can afford to. Often, we start on shoestring budgets and try to do it all ourselves. I did as well, and it was a big mistake. Leveraging other people’s time and skills will save you time and energy so you can focus intently on building your business.
- Find/create your avatar and become relentlessly focused on it. At first, I resisted niching. I felt that I could help almost anyone in a leadership position and did not want to limit myself. But because of that, I stayed general with my messaging and couldn’t make meaningful inroads. Now, I use avatars to keep my marketing targeted and focused.
- Keep learning and upskilling. As a new principal, I was offered the chance to join a training cohort. I already had two master’s degrees and figured it would be a waste of time. I was dead wrong. The concepts and skills I learned continue to serve me (and my clients) years later. I took that lesson to heart as a coach and made sure to learn something new every day. And I keep researching and writing. Whatever it is, I know that I can never stop learning if I’m going to keep serving others.
Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, is an executive coach and president of Impactful Coaching and Consulting (ImpactfulCoaching.com). He can be reached at 212.470.6139 or at [email protected].
