[Platform Online Book Study] You are your product. It’s uncomfortable, awkward and pressure-filled, but it’s true.
So, when Michael Hyatt says the cornerstone of building a platform is creating a compelling product and baking in the ‘wow,’ he is talking about more than what we do. He is talking about our very way of being.
We are supposed to be a wow!
How I Choose a Coach
I’ve had many coaches over the years, and each of them has been a wow in her own way. One was particularly gifted in cutting through all the fluff (my excuses) and getting to the meat of the matter. Another excelled in active listening. My current coach wows me again and again with her extraordinary spiritual discernment.
But it was not a surprise to me that they had these capabilities. That’s exactly why I chose them.
Picking a coach is a big decision, and I never take it lightly. My coach needs to be trained, qualified and certified. She should be a Christian, share my values and be excellent in everything she does. But frankly, thousands of coaches match that description.
My final choice is always based on something else. It’s not what they have or what they do; it’s who they are. Something about them makes them a wow.
Who Are You?
How about you?
You’ve devoted years to learning and practicing your coaching skills. You’ve spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars on your marketing efforts. Good for you. Those things are important, but ultimately that’s not why someone will choose you as their coach.
They will choose you because of who you are.
So, who are you?
Is your life the very fragrance of Christ? Does joy permeate everything you do? Are you admirable? Likeable? Do you walk your talk?
Do people experience you as a wow?
Wow doesn’t come accidentally. Like all good things it is the product of planning, goal-setting, sacrificing and persevering. But it all begins with visioning. Not just envisioning what you want your business to be. But dreaming with God about who you want to become.
A vision grounds you, motivates you and takes you places you would never have gone without it.
It doesn’t have to be elegant, beautiful or flawless. It just needs to be prayed through and written-down.
As an example, here’s my latest vision of the future me.
My Vision
I want everyone, everywhere to know, experience and be constantly growing through the power of Christian coaching.
To make that happen, I need to be a coach who is more than a coach. I must be a coach-trainer who is more than a trainer. I want to be a God-saturated, masterfully-skilled, market-minded coach trainer who births new coaches that outrageously succeed in the church and the marketplace.
I want to know God’s heart, understand the human mind, master the marketing skill-set and relentlessly pass it on.
I want to bring totally new ideas, fresh energy and clearly delineated marketing competencies to all Christian coaches everywhere so they can be all that God called them to be.
I want to make hard concepts simple, complex tasks manageable and turn random activities into systems that ceaselessly serve those who implement them.
I want to know the latest information, stay on top of the budding trends, master the difficult skills and communicate this in the common tongue.
And through it all, I want to provide more than information; I want to be an artesian well of inspiration. Always trusting, always believing, always knowing that the God who called is the God who will provide a way.
What is Your Vision for Wow?
You are your product.
What is your vision for yourself? What will make you a wow?
WOW, Kim 🙂 You’ve provided a very helpful model for me to begin to articulate aspects of my thoughts, callings, purpose. Writing/committing a vision to paper used to seem so task oriented and artificial (and there are times when it would have been artificial because I wasn’t clear). You’ve brought the process to LIFE. I like LIFE — and don’t like fake. (Sometimes I can even tell the difference!) You’re the real deal 🙂
Hi Renee – I am humbled by your comments. Thank you.
And I’m especially thankful that it is sparking some new thinking in you about articulating your vision!
I hope you will share your rough draft (they are all rough drafts for me until I get to heaven) with me when you get it down on paper.
My vision is to be the most effective and God-honoring man, husband, dad, friend and coach I can be. Similarly the mission of Matthew Reed Coaching is to make the WORLD a more effective and God-honoring place through coaching.
My deepest desire is that people, from that first free strategy session through to our final coaching appointment together experience God and the fullest life possible.
I agree with you in that it must be written. What I love about my current vision/mission statement is that it is the first one that I’ve written that was totally free from the ‘approval’ of others (except God). A big lesson that my first coach, no-nonsense, similar to your experience Kim, helped me to discover!
Thanks for articulating Hyatt’s concept of WOW through a coaching lens. I was having a hard time with this. I mean, as coaches, WE are the product.
Hi Matt – love your vision of both you and your coaching practice making the world a more effective and God-honoring place. What could be better than that?
It’s good to hear that writing it down has helped you as well. Somehow there is power in the written word. Thanks for sharing your vision.
I love how the book and Kim’s blog have sparked different but related responses in us. My particular response to the book was to realize how common and generic my presentation of my coaching is/was through my website. I’ve already taken some steps to remedy it by updating the look and concept. I will continue to make updates. I have finally gone on record on my website as targeting Christian leaders. Previously, I was more generic and not specifying Christian. Michael Hyatt’s thoughts really challenged me to delineate who I am and offer the very best. I’m much happier with the target niche I have defined and now feel like I can create better WOW to meet their significant needs. To be honest, I feel a bit relieved. Thank you Kim for the blog-along. I posted on my blog just now. Here is the link http://www.pattilarson.wordpress.org
Hi Patti – Good for you. I stopped by your website and read your revised web copy. I really like the nice crisp languaging targeting Christian leaders and the clear call to action at the bottom of the page. I think this will really resonate with your niche.
BTW – It could just be my Firefox browser but some of the graphics and words overlapped on my screen. I thought you would want to know.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Kim, I can’t find my original info on the book blog-along. What chapters for this Tuesday? 3 and 4? Let us know.
Hi Patti – Yes – we will be reading Chapters 3 & 4 for next week. I’ll try to develop a master schedule so it will be easier for everyone to stay on track.
Thanks for bringing it up 🙂