Day 5 (I learned 3 lessons on my 18th B-Day)
Yesterday was something! For my 18th birthday, I did a lot. This year for me has been difficult, and I was hoping to either end it on a really high note, or very mellow. Luckily my friends have made it the best birthday I've had. So let's get into what I learned that can apply to coaching. 1. I was writing more of my Ted Talk with another english professor, and she had said that all of the language I used was too complex for the audience I was going for. She said I should use language that a 3rd grader could understand, since over half of the American Population can't read past a 6th grade level. This is not to insult anyone, it's just that I realized that when you coach, you have to use language your audience understands. More than likely, if you want more clients who are starting off on a lower threshold, it's your job to cater towards their intelligence, which means dumbing down the language. If I started talking about EBITDA, Churn Rate, and Employee Satisfaction Statistics, some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. But if I were to use more common language like, revenue, how many people stop buying, and how happy the employees are, even a 3rd grader can understand what I'm talking about. 2. I've been working on a secret project for over 2 years now, and it's soon to be released next year. I won't talk about exactly what it is, but yesterday I had to go into training for it. I learned that as a coach, it's not just our job to change belief and to educate, but really to expand the coachee to be able to do something they thought was never possible. So it's not just helping them see their belief is unrealistic, but that the coachee can shatter their beliefs without even realizing they could do so. 3. I played poker for the first time yesterday. Of course with this game being with my friends, they had a couple tricks up their sleeve. Mid-game, 3 of the 7 friends jumped up and pulled out airsoft pistols from their suits (it was a very formal game of Poker lol). I've always known how important it is to build a deep connection to be able to get to the level that we can joke around like that. But it does bring up a good point with coaching, I have never been able to build a deep connection like that with anyone else because I'm a military kid who didn't have technology until 3 years ago. I legitimately only had 3 years to build a connection only to move and lose it again. I saw for the first time legitimately how important it is to build those deep connections especially with friends and clients. If you build those connections, it really goes a long way!