“I can’t believe this actually works.”
This week alone I had 3 clients say this to me and it got me reflecting upon the love-hate relationship I have with this industry.
Over the years I have become extremely picky with who I build relationships with as peers and who I work with as clients.
Not only because I want to protect my time, but more importantly because I want to protect my reputation.
As a result I’m enjoying my work a lot more, but I’m also aware of how rare it is for someone to have this kind of network.
Because there’s a reason why the coaching & service space has gotten a bad rep over the years. 👎
At some point in time, this somehow became common practice:
1. Make something up or copy someone else’s I.P.
2. Slap on a high ticket price tag.
3. Put all effort into selling it.
4. Roll the dice on who actually gets results after they paid for it.
It has gotten so bad that, even AFTER clients pay you… they’ll still assume that things won’t work out because of the past experiences they had.
Does that mean my client delivery is perfect with a 100% success rate?
No. I’m not here to make claims or put myself on a pedestal.
I simply believe the world will be a better place if everyone puts client success as a priority.
In other words, rather than shouting “I’m a guru come buy my stuff!”, operate under the right set of principles and back it up with action.
Here are mine:
✒️ Don’t just make sh*t up. Test it, validate it, then teach it to clients.
✒️ Walk the talk and practice what you preach.
✒️ Only take on the right clients even if that means earning less.
✒️ No fixed contracts. Clients will stay as long as retention is the priority.
✒️ Never stop learning and collecting data. In order for your stuff to be useful, you must stay relevant.
I delegate a lot of things, but I will never delegate my own trial & error to my clients.
People pay you to solve their problems, not for you to use them as guinea pigs.
To my fellow experts out there who are building legitimate operations, thank you for making the world a better place.
You deserve to grow while the malpractitioners get regulated out. 👊