Marc Mawhinney has been an entrepreneur all his life and has always coached his employees and the salespeople that he employed in his businesses. A few years ago, he decided that he wanted to start an actual coaching business, and he fully immersed himself into learning how he could create a successful business where he would coach others. When Marc first started coaching, he was working with any entrepreneur or small business owner.
As time went on, he discovered that he really enjoyed coaching other coaches, so he shifted his business to concentrate on specifically helping people build stronger coaching practices. One of the biggest obstacles in building a coaching practice is the maze of activities that seem urgent, but are actually distractions that drain the life from a practice. Marc Mawhinney knows what it’s like to be overwhelmed by the “busy work” of building a professional coaching practice, and is stepping up to the plate to help other coaches avoid it.
Andrea Sharb, writing for Coach Federation, agrees. She explains, “We spent a lot of time in training learning about individual coaching skills, coaching models and coaching processes. But, I wasn’t truly able to embrace the power of coaching until we coached and were coached.”
Called “The Coaches’ Coach,” Mawhinney interviews successful coaches every single day on his coaching podcast. According to Mawhinney, “Reinventing the wheel is a time-consuming and often futile exercise. Working with someone who has gone through the learning curve of growing a coaching business will save a lot of time and energy that can be used on taking the proper steps that they need to be taking to have a thriving coaching business.”
Business coach and New York Times #1 Best-selling author Brendon Burchard has this to say about coaching overwhelm: “People are remarkably bad at remembering long lists of goals. The longer the list of “to-do’s” and goals, the more overwhelmed and off track they (get). Clarity comes with simplicity.”
Marc realized that he was meant to be a coach when he had a client experience a huge “ah-ha!” moment during a call that they were having. He goes on to explain, “He’s a motivated guy and loves coaching others, but his business lacked focus. I encouraged him to start narrowing that focus from what he was doing (which was very general) to concentrating on a well-defined niche.”
He adds, “We spent time going through a mind map to narrow down his target market. The cool thing is, the niche that he chose (helping people on tight budgets come up with frugal day adventures that they can afford) fits perfectly with his personality – which is very “live-for-today,” action and adventure oriented. “I instantly felt his energy shift during the call and I could tell that my coaching turned things around for him!,” Mawhinney says.
Mawhinney was preparing to become a coach all his life, but he didn’t realize it. Since he first read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill back in high school, he has devoured personal development books, videos, seminars and any motivational materials that he could get his hands on. After experiencing a business closure, he knew that he wanted to be a coach, but the little voice in his head was trying to tell him to wait even longer and that the timing wasn’t right.
For a short time he had convinced himself that he should prepare for a few more years and then launch his coaching business, but he soon realized that he had been preparing for over 15 years (with all the personal development training he had done and his experiences as an entrepreneur) and it was time to share his message with the world. He took Richard Branson’s advice of, “Screw it, let’s do it” and he hasn’t regretted it for a minute.
Coaching client Ryan M. says, “Thanks for everything Marc! You helped me create incredible results in a short period of time. My sales have been through the roof since we first started working together.” Courtney B. adds, “Marc, you have become a dynamic asset to me and my business. I am results-oriented and focused now. You are amazing!”
Mawhinney has found that the biggest problem facing the coaches that he works with is how to build a successful coaching business with a steady stream of clients, while juggling everything else that comes with running their business. Mawhinney created the “Natural Born Coaches” daily podcast to help educate and advocate for coaches every day on what it takes to be a successful coach. He answers questions like:
1) How do I become a coach?
2) How do I decide on my target market/the type of clients to work with?
3) How do I get new clients?
Mawhinney went on to say, “My magic is that I’ve had the opportunity to talk with hundreds of successful coaches to find out what makes them tick and how they’ve created successful coaching businesses. I get to talk with awesome coaches on the “Natural Born Coaches” podcast every single day, so my knowledge and insight into the coaching industry is growing daily. I want to use that to support coaches who are ready to take their businesses to the next level!”
To find out more about Marc Mawhinney and to subscribe to his podcast, “Natural Born Coaches,” go here: http://www.naturalborncoaches.com.