You can’t be seen until you learn to see.

Hey everyone!

Welcome to a big influx of new subscribers this week. Every week, I share learnings, insights and perspectives from my week that can help you build your coaching business flywheel. I hope to sprinkle some seeds that may turn into actionable ideas, practical implementation and conversation starters as you build your business. Our focus is the Coaching world, where for 15 years, I’ve been helping people build businesses for more impact and more income. If this is you, you’re in the right place. Tune in every Tuesday!

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Ok, let’s get into our three thoughts for the week.

1. You can’t be seen until you learn to see.

Heidi is one of 2,700 Jay Shetty Certified Coaches around the world. She is also a kind reader here. She sent me a wonderful, thoughtful email in response to the newsletter. Her question in short:

Social media has levelled the playing field. There are indeed many smoke and mirrors. It is almost not legal and it is definitely unethical to make “promises” you cannot keep. Our work as coaches is uniquely tailored that we cannot make blanket promises because our clients experience us based on where they are individually at. 

The two-pronged strategy I offer here is a fundamental requirement for anyone that wants long-lasting success.

1. An archer is taught to spend more time pulling back the arrow, refining her focus, aligning the priority and target, quietening the noise, focusing on her greatest strength, before letting go.  This is exactly what we must do too. Continuously refine who you serve rather than a sporadic spray-and-pray approach.

2. Follow the subject of today’s piece, which is Seth Godin’s subtitle to his book titled This Is Marketing. “You can’t be seen until you learn to see”.  Are you as clear as you can be on who you want to work with and what you can bring to them? Have you seen them, where they are at? Are you slowing down enough to make them feel seen, heard and understood? Your ideal clients feel when they have been understood. The sale is so much easier. 

There is so much more I could write about these two points.

Now, armed with the real understanding and integration of these two strategies, the only true tactic that works is consistent content. 

Content delivers authenticity with empathy, expertise with understanding, and nurturing with presence. 

Consistency breeds confidence in the eye of your client. Consistency creates faith, unwavering trust and ascending authority. Consistency is a long-term game, and it’s almost always the only game that truly wins and sticks. 

What platform you choose matters less than how consistent you are and how good your content is. I could dive into specific content and platform advice in future newsletters. Would you like that?

By the way, I’ve loved recently doing Q&A pieces like this. Send me your question by replying here, and I’ll answer it in an upcoming issue. 

2. What it takes to create a remarkable course curriculum

Last week, I had a 1:1 coaching call with Mary Spio via the Intro platform. Mary is a former aerospace engineer, former Head of Satellites at Boeing and she’s been building the most fascinating VR headsets and event technology with CEEK. They offer live concerts, sports events and more. Now she is building a space education program for children for schools across the United States, all on Virtual Reality!

Considering I have built over 100 learning curriculums and online programs over the last 15 years, she wanted my guidance and advice. We had a delightful conversation about the structure of online curriculum programs for success, engagement and completion. 

Here are three takeaways:

1. Building a course today is very different to how it was done 10 years ago. There is so much competition for attention. Technology has moved on drastically. The course creator has to work almost triple hard for better engagement, student commitment and course completion. I do not say this to scare you, but to impress upon you that if you truly wish to build a program, be ready to invest all of your being into creating something that truly puts the customer first. Design for their success over yours. At every step of the design journey, think of what they need first and solve for that. 

2. And hence, begin your course/curriculum design with the end in mind.  What is your core objective? What problem are you solving for? What journey do you want to take the student on? The more clarity you have, the more effective your programming will be. You will know how to create different pathways and how to develop what they truly require.

3. Most essentially, embed community. Find ways to bring people together.  The world has too much noise so it is often too hard to find the signal. The easiest way is to bring and bond people over similar interests. Showcase success stories and role models. Run interviews. Organise meetups. Deliver a space for people to ask questions and share responses.

A successful course or program becomes a raving community people want to be a part of because you have offered them a chance to belong where it truly matters. 

3. Contentment over Complacency

Nearly every other week, in my role as CEO at the Jay Shetty Certification School, I send an audio memo to everyone inside my company. It is a new practice I have been cultivating this year.

This week I shared about contentment vs complacency.  It is my wish that everyone at work feels fulfilment and joy in the course of their career. My company is entirely remote so I am rarely face-to-face with people. My leaders do a wonderful job of guiding and supporting their teams.

The great killer of any work is complacency, and there is often a fine line with contentment. Sometimes, you don’t realise it, until you are at the mercy of hindsight and you know you were complacent. The only way to always keep contentment your true north is to pursue growth, progress and new improvement.  Keep asking what could I do or how could I better in the pursuit of my objectives. If you keep growth your focus, contentment will never slip into the black hole of complacency. 

That’s it for this week! Let me know what resonated and what you might like my insights on.

In your service,

Kavit Haria