Ep #50: Direct and Indirect Value

You are listening to episode 50 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where you own all the value you have to offer, every bit of it. Let’s go.

Welcome to The Confident Coaches Podcast, a place for creating the self-confidence you need to do your best work as a life coach. If you want to bring more boldness, more resilience, and more joy to your work, this is the place for you. I’m your host, Amy Latta. Let’s dive in.

Hello, my Confident Coaches. How’s everybody doing out there? I hope you’re all doing fabulously. It’s October. We are straight up in the middle of October. It’s gorgeous. It’s amazing out there. I’ve got to tell you, October’s one of my favorites. Winter is not. So, I’m just going to hold onto this October vibe as long as possible.

Just as a little sidenote, we are in a little bit of some astrological and emotional and electoral chaos here in the states right now. So, I just want you, for a moment, no matter what is happening in your world, we are in the throes of Mercury retrograde, we’re in the throes of a presidential campaign, two weeks until election day, all that 2020 entails. So, I just want you right now, here’s a little moment of Zen. Just a little moment of Zen, my friends.

Everything’s going to be okay. We are all going to be okay. You are going to be okay. No matter what’s going on in your life and in your world right now, let’s just take an extra little deep breath, okay. We’ve got this. We’ve got this.

And I think about the work that we as life coaches do in the world and how this year has really pulled back the curtains on the value – a little foreshadowing – the value of what coaching can give our clients. So much more than just the thing that we tell them that we’re selling.

Like, right now, I’m totally selling the November class of the Confident Coaches Mastermind. Now, the Confident Coaches Mastermind is my group program. I open a new group every other month. You will learn how to create confidence and belief in yourself that you can do what you’ve never done before.

It’s to feel more confident and sign more clients. And the skills that I teach you in the Confident Coaches Mastermind, you will use it at every single level of your business. No matter how many levels you reach, you’re always going to hit a new level and your brain’s always going to tell you, “Oh, sure we’ve done that but we can’t do this new thing.” You will always come back the five basic steps of creating self-confidence over and over again, and that’s my thing. Feel more confident and sign more clients and get to that 8K a month business that everybody says they want, right?

I’m always thinking about the value that I offer my people. How can I make this more helpful? But there’s also some insight that I have where I understand that it’s not just feeling more confident to sign more clients. There’s so much more value that they’re getting than just that.

And this year more than ever, are we really appreciating all of the value that we offer? And that’s what we’re talking about today. All of it. Not just the one thing that you’re always talking about in your marketing and your copy, but all of the value of your coaching.

And really, I want to share with you something that one of my current clients in my July Mastermind, Lori was sharing – because we’ve been talking a lot about this in my groups of, like, all of the different ways that they have shifted and changed and grown in the time that we’ve been working together.

And she was saying that honestly, for her, one of her biggest places of learning is that she’s consistently turning to herself for the answers that she seeks. It’s always been her first inclination to go ask someone else, but she’s realized that it’s now her first inclination to ask herself first, what do I want to do? What do I think? What makes sense to me?

And if she finds herself looking for solutions outside of her own brilliance, she’ll pause, she won’t judge, and then she’ll come back to herself. She notices, “I’m doing that thing where I want an answer from someone else. What’s going on here? What am I afraid of? Am I really lacking information or do I just need reassurance? What do I actually need and want?”

This is her telling me this. These are her words. I’m like, these are brilliant questions, right? And then, Lori reassures herself or she goes and gets the information she needs, or she asks someone else to bounce an idea off of, but that franticness isn’t there anymore and she just trusts herself so much more.

Yay, Lori. And she’s made like $12,000 in three months. That’s not too shabby either, right? And that’s the kind of thing that we’re talking about today. So, yay, Lori, way to go, my friend. I’m so excited for this growth. And that is a perfect example of what we’re talking about today, which is direct value and indirect value.

Like, it’s such a buzzword in coaching, or any kind of self-help industry, like, “What’s the value that you have to offer?” But I really want to break this down into different kinds of value that we can be offering. So, let’s start with, what’s direct value? I want to offer you that direct value, this is the obvious value. This is, feel more confident to sign more clients. And then, you go sign more clients.

This is, “I want to lose 10 pounds,” you hire a coach and then you go lose 10 pounds. Stop overdrinking, and then you stop overdrinking. Direct value is the tangible result that clients are signing up with us for. It’s the thing that they are telling us that they wanted. It’s our niche. It’s our specialty. Our direct value is the thing that, “Hey, you’re going to come work with me. This is what we’re going to work on. This is the result I’m going to help you achieve.”

Direct value might also be the tangibles that you provide, the direct value, the coaching hours that you offer them. This podcast that you guys are listening to is part of the direct value that I give you guys. All of the modules that I’ve created in the Confident Coaches program, that entire member site that you get lifetime access to when you sign up for CCM. You know, all of the trainings that I’ve ever done, the workbooks that I provide for you. That’s also direct tangible value. That’s that exchange, that exchange of goods and services. Here’s this thing that I’ve created and I’m now going to offer it up to you.

It’s the number of hours that I coach my people, you know, the Zoom sessions that we’re spending 26 Zoom sessions together over the course of the next six months together. That’s tangible value they can hold in their hands. Well, kind of. You can’t actually hold coaching in your hands, but you know what I mean. It’s the thing. It’s the benefits that you’re selling them on as well as the features that you’re selling them on and that they know, “I’m going to sign up with Amy and this is what I’m going to get in return.”

And direct value is the juicy stuff. These are the big wins. There are the testimonials that make people go, “Wow, I want some of that.” So, when I shared those podcast interviews from a couple months ago, testimonials of April Price or Jackie Skinner and they went from making $500 or $5000 total, to $12,000 a month or my client Denita Bremmer, who is now bringing in a fulltime revenue at only part-time hours, those are the kinds of things that make people go, “Oh yeah, that’s what I want. That’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

And here’s the thing. We will get desperate to create direct value for our clients because it’s the flashy stuff. We’ll start like, “Oh, where’s the clients that are getting the results that I can go share that thing, so I can say, here’s the direct value of what you want to sign up with me for.”

And it’s good stuff, don’t get me wrong. But we can, so often, overlook a different kind of value. And that’s what I want to introduce the idea of, that there’s indirect value of coaching with you, there’s indirect value to coaching in general, there’s indirect value to coaching with me, and there’s indirect value to coaching with you. And do you know what that is?

So, indirect value, this is the stuff that you might not have considered and that your clients may very well be overlooking. So, I love to think of it this way. So, when I became a coach, I was a weight coach. My first podcast, Businesswomen Losing Weight, which is super-fun because that’s now part of my bonuses section for my paid masterminders. You get access to that first podcast that I had.

So, the direct value of me signing up for coach training is I’m going to become certified in coaching. I’m going to learn the tools of coaching so that I myself can become a better coach. Now, even though I have never brought on a coach – because let’s be honest, after I got certified, I still hired business coaches to help me build my business, mindset coaches to help me with my own belief.

But even though I’ve only hired coach training and business coaches and mindset coaches, I have a better marriage today than I had before I started. I’m a way better parent than I used to be. There’s more fun in my life. I have more friends. But I’ve never hired a marriage coach. I’ve never hired a parenting coach. I’ve never hired a relationship coach and actually only until recently have I ever hired a general life coach who’s actually helping me on my general life.

Up until just a couple months ago, that didn’t happen. But I’d achieved all of those things without that. And why is that? That’s because of all of the indirect value that I got from the coaching that I was receiving. I hired business coaches, and yet I have a better relationship with my husband. That’s not why I hired a business coach, and yet that is what happened because I was getting that indirect value.

By working on my mindset around business, I was able to relate that mindset coaching to other areas of my life and I saw improvement in all the areas of my life, not just in the one area that I signed up with that coach for.

And let’s not overlook sometimes the really truly deep indirect value. Like, if I want to seriously think about the indirect value of the coaching that I have received, even though I’ve signed up for coach training here and busines coaching here and mindset and belief coaching over here, I have actually created generational change in my life. Because I am now a better wife than I was before. I am now a better parent than I was before. And I’m bringing that to my husband, to my children.

I’m more fun around my friends than I used to be. They’re like, “Amy, you’re more outspoken. You’re more you. We didn’t even know this is really who you were. Like, you’re just more fully-fledged than you used to be.” And I’m teaching that to my children. I’m teaching them how to speak up. I’m teaching them how to be okay with failure. I’m teaching my children how to interact with their friends and how to speak up for themselves in a way that they never felt comfortable before.

I’m the one that hired the coaching over here for my business and my mindset. And now, my children are showing up differently in their life. That’s generational change. That’s huge indirect value.

I think about the generational change to my money story because of coaching, that I not only have shown that I can put anything I want on the R-line but as I’ve done that, I’ve shown my husband what’s possible. I’ve shown my children what’s possible. Here’s the craziest thing; I’ve shown my mom. My mom is still here. My dad is gone. My dad didn’t see any of this. But I was able to show my mom, like, I’m changing her mindset around what’s possible. I’m changing her mindset around what is achievable in someone’s lifetime when you decide that you just want to go after something.

And my grandma wasn’t here for all of this. She did pass away three and a half years ago. But she started to see that, “Oh wow, I’d never considered this before.” And now, I’m influencing my children of what’s possible and they’re going to adopt these habits and they’re going to pass it onto their children.

Just right here, I have affected four to five generation with just a couple of years of coaching. That’s enormous indirect value that I never signed up for but I absolutely got in return. That’s the meat I’m talking about, right?

Another one of my clients – and I did promise to keep her anonymous because of the little sassy statement that’s getting ready to come in her statement to me. But she was sharing that not only has she signed five new clients. And don’t get me wrong, she’s super-excited about her five new clients. She was hoping that it was going to be more, to be completely honest.

But she goes, “Do you want to know what I’m realizing? I’m a completely new person. I’m posting consistently, which I was not doing before. I’m doing Facebook Lives for the first time. I’ve started creating challenges. I’m making way more offers than I ever made before. And I’m dressing better and I’m calmer and I’m a better parent to my daughter because I’m calmer. I’m just closer to my people in general. I’m closer to my husband. We’re having better sex.” Talk about I’ll have what she’s having. Seriously, right?

She signed up to feel more confident, to sign more clients, and yes, she has signed more clients, but she’s completely changed her life. That’s’ the direct value and the indirect value all in one. I have another client who was really struggling to see how she’d gotten any value out of the coaching that we’d done and she was so beating herself up that she wasn’t getting enough from our work together.

This was a story that she had, “I’ve wasted my money because I’ve not achieved the result that I signed up for.” And think about that, “I’m wasting my money,” and how that thought feels and how she was showing up. You kind of get into this graspy, desperate, needy kind of energy. And I was like, let’s wait a minute here.

Is this really true, that you haven’t gotten enough value? Think about this. And so, what we did is we went back, like, “Let’s go back to where you were when you signed up and where you are now. And what have you done in that time that you were not previously doing?”

And she admitted it. She now tells people, on her Facebook page, that she’s a life coach. She wasn’t doing that before at all. She’s now sharing her opinions on Facebook to her audience, what she believes in, what she stands for.

And she’s had kickbacks. She’s had some people say, “I don’t agree with what you’re saying here.” Which to her previously would have been the worst thing that would have happened ever, right? But she got coaching on it. She wanted to delete it, but she did not delete it. She let that person have their opinion about themselves, about her. She allowed it. And now, she’s no longer letting those things stop her.

And it was so funny because in our conversation, she’s like, “Well, I mean, I guess when you put it that way, that’s pretty awesome.” I’m like, damn straight that’s pretty awesome.

Really think about all of the value that your clients are getting, even the ones that they struggle to see themselves. We cannot overlook the direct and the indirect value of coaching. Both the direct and indirect value of the coaching that you have received and the direct and indirect value that your clients are getting by coaching with you.

So, here’s what we’re going to do from here. How do we practically do this? What’s the practical takeaway from this? I’m going to help you find both the direct and the indirect value of coaching with you, okay.

So, first of all, when you’re thinking of value, that’s such a vague word. Like, there’s a furniture store here, I don’t know if it’s nationwide, but here in the St Louis area called Value City. And we’re like, “Oh, so it’s just like cheap furniture.”

But when we think of value, people think of different things and what does that really mean. And so, what are we really talking about? Here’s how I want you to think of the word value. I want you to think about what is helpful, what is useful, or what’s transformative. And ask yourself, what’s the value of coaching with me?

You ask you that. What’s the value of coaching with you? What’s the value they get just having a consult call or a mini session with you? What’s the value that they get just by signing up with you? That’s a fun question to consider. What’s the value of working with you for your entire package, you know, six weeks, three months, six months?

And answering that, what’s the obvious value, you know, the direct value, the pounds lost, the money made, the mess arguing with your spouse or whatever it is that you’re specifically selling them? And then, what’s the less obvious value, the indirect value? How will their life change?

And let me offer you some specific areas to consider. So, here are eight areas to consider when you’re thinking about value, indirect and direct. Their career or business, their work area. Their money and finances. Their health, their physical health. Their family life. Their parenting. Their personal relationships, like their social life and their friendships. Their recreation, their fun and their hobbies.

Your direct value is probably one of those areas, and then the indirect value would address all the other areas, right? So, you can just even see, of those eight areas, what’s the value of working with you directly and indirectly?

And I want to offer you that if you were to spend time journaling about the direct and indirect value you offer as a coach and continue to go deeper and continue to find new ways and fresh ways that you are useful or helpful or transformative, by coaching with you in all of these areas – like, spend a full week or even longer. Watch how differently you show up. It will change your mind set about what you are offering. You will become that much more convicted in the value of what you offer.

And here’s what’s going to happen, my friends. You are slowly going to realize that them coaching with you is such a freaking no-brainer, they’d be crazy not to work with you because you truly understand, you have been sold on the value that you have to offer and all of the ways that their life is going to elevate just by showing up and working with you on the one thing that they are telling you that they want to work on.

And one last note that I want to offer you, this right here is all the more reason to celebrate every damn win. So, every single Monday morning, I invite my clients – well, every single Monday morning, my clients do an evaluation that I’ve created for the program in general. And one piece of that evaluation is, what are your wins? What are three wins from the past week?

They don’t have to be business wins. And a lot of times, they’re not. They had a tough conversation with their mom. They said no when school as asking for volunteers and they really didn’t have time. Maybe they signed a client. Maybe they signed a $10,000 client. Maybe it was all of the above. But celebrate every single win with your client, big and small, direct, indirect, the big wins, the small wins, and every single thing in between and help them see all of the value that they are getting by showing up with you week after week and doing this work together.

Alright, my friends. I cannot wait to see the value that you create this week when you put your value caps on. My Confident Coaches, remember, until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.

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Thanks so much for listening to The Confident Coaches Podcast. I invite you to learn more. Come visit me at amylatta.com and until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.