Yeah, we’re about to get REALLY real.
The truth is, I’ve felt this way on and off for awhile, but it wasn’t until I went to dinner with a fellow entrepreneur last weekend who I told I was going through a “I hate the coaching industry” phase and she hugged me and nodded in TOTAL agreement, offering “Girl, I get it. Happens to me all the time”, and then one of my own clients mentioned her occasional disillusionment with the coaching space that I KNEW I needed to talk about it.
So #letsgetreal
Sometimes I seriously hate the coaching industry.
Sometimes I feel like everyone is full of crap.
Sometimes I feel like we’re SO obsessed with results but NOT obsessed (or transparent) with what goes on to get them.
Sometimes I feel like there’s WAY too much pressure on coaches to create results and sometimes I feel like there’s not ENOUGH.
Sometimes I feel like it’s all a little multi-level-marketing-ish.
Sometimes I feel like there are A LOT of people not meant to be entrepreneurs.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m one of them.
*hides head under covers and considers deleting post*
But here’s the truth…
I felt like this ALL the time when I worked for a non-profit. Some days I felt like I was changing the mother-effin’ world and some days I felt like all I did was play the fund-raising politics game and enable the crap out of our clients.
I felt like this when I got my MBA. That a lot of people had a lot of fancy words to say that sounded a lot like bullshit and didn’t mean a WHOLE lot in the real business world.
I felt like this when I started my first business and found it nearly impossible to find reliable help and support (mind you I built that in my own little bubble completely outside the online entrepreneur space).
Then I hear friends with 9-5s talk about their DAILY disillusionment with their jobs, their bosses, their industries, etc.
And what happens is… I remember that I am super FORTUNATE. Really, really fortunate to only feel like this SOMETIMES. To feel like we’re creating new industries, changing the landscape of online business, empowering women and ACTUALLY changing the mother-effin’ world WAY more often than not.
I think about my OBM who I met in a group program almost two years ago, and how different both of our lives are now that we both have full practices and thriving businesses.
I think about my best friend who I quite literally grew up with that opened her online business because she became a mama and is now ACTUALLY able to spend time with her son rather than being expected to be away from him for 10 days at a time (which would have happened in her old job).
I think about my clients that felt totally disempowered, totally over-whelmed by debt, and totally unclear about how to do the work they love in the world that went from no clients to making $5K, $10K, and $20K months consistently so they can pay down that debt, take back their power, and claim the life (and the work!) they desire.
And what I KNOW all of us have in common is this…
That even though we are FORTUNATE and we LOVE this space, if we WEREN’T questioning it, feeling weird about it, or occasionally experiencing disillusionment we wouldn’t be the smart, fierce, rule-breakers that we are. And frankly? We wouldn’t be human.
But here’s why I REALLY hate the coaching industry, and some of the messaging within it…
Because it tells us that is WRONG.
It tells us that things have to be perfect to be GOOD.
That results should show up overnight, or not at all.
That if we don’t feel happy, and successful, and in the flow at all times that we’re FAILING HARD.
That we have to do the work ALLL the time but that it has to feel AMAZING + PERFECT every single step of the way.
So I am going to be the change that I DESIRE TO SEE in this space and say the thing we shouldn’t say…
If you hate the coaching industry sometimes… you’re doing it really, really right.
It means you’re questioning the status quo, looking at what you can do differently, being willing to innovate, and being willing to not be a freaking minion and do it your own way.
And for that, I honor you SO big.
For being willing to let it be good even IF it’s not perfect, I celebrate you.
For being willing to say the stuff that feels over the top, or triggering, or uncomfortable, I applaud you.
For being someone who is willing to show up, say the thing, and do the work (whether you’re feeling “perfect” or not), I AM right there with you.
So if there’s one lesson I’d love for you to take away from this, it’s that you have PERMISSION… permission to feel how you feel, and to do it your way, to get annoyed and frustrated while ALSO being wildly happy, passionate, and grateful… at the same exact time!