Now What?® Coaching

Author: Kelly Johnson

  • Why Humility is Bad for Business

    A conversation that keeps coming up with clients lately is money guilt. This is always a thing, but the wonky uncertainty in the economy is really getting to people.

    Whether they’re asking for a raise, quoting a potential client, or considering raising their prices, they hit a wall – not because the numbers don’t make sense, but because guilt gets in the way.

    Here’s what I tell them:
    If you’ve ever avoided asking for more because you felt bad, it’s not really about money. It’s about self-worth. You have to keep the fact that you provide value front and center and ahead of your concerns about other people’s wallets, which is based on an assumption.

    Why Humility is Bad for Business by Laura Berman FortgangBut I get it. Sometimes this is easier said than done.

    When clients get stuck on the guilt train, I walk them through a simple 3-step process to shift their mindset:

    Calculate your true costs.
    Not just your billable time – Everything. What does it take to run your business, stay trained, and deliver excellent work? You’re not being greedy. You’re covering your investment and deserve a return.

    List your contributions.
    What results do you create? What problems do you solve? What value do you add? Get specific. If you’re a coach, what transformation are you making possible? If you’re in-house, what success do you make easier?

    Reframe the conversation.
    It’s not about “Can I ask for this much?” It’s about “Here’s what you gain when you hire me.”
    One client of mine was charging $500 for work that saved her clients $5,000 in avoidable mistakes. Once she saw that clearly, the guilt disappeared, and I was finally able to help her align her pricing with her impact.

    Here’s the truth: Undercharging isn’t noble. It leads to resentment, burnout, and half-hearted effort. This kind of sacrifice never pays off the way you think it will. Nobody wins.

    Take time this week to write down the actual wins you help make happen. Strip the guilt. Look at the facts.

    Reply below and tell me: What’s one powerful contribution you make? Let’s name it and celebrate it.

    You provide great value. It’s time to charge like it.

  • Dreamt of Being a Doctor, but it was “Beat Out of Him”

    Dreamt of being a doctor but it was ‘beat out of him’

    Car mechanic shifts gears, becomes a doctor at age 47 and helps address shortage of black doctors

    http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/2019/07/car-mechanic-shifts-gears-becomes-a-doctor-at-age-47-and-helps-address-shortage-of-black-doctors.html

  • When You Bring all of Yourself to Work…

    Magic happens!

    Take a look!

    Now I’ve Seen Everything

  • #QuotesToLiveBy: One Factor That Makes Us Wise

    "We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future." George Bernard Shaw

  • #QuotesToLiveBy: Two Factors That Lead to Progress

    "Changes call for innovation, and innovation leads to progress." Li Keqiang

  • 3 Signs that Your Career Search Will Tank

    Experience helps us to easily recognize patterns. Recently, I’ve seen a scenario enough times to know exactly how things were going to go. I’m here to warn you that if you’re going down a career transition path or completely looking for a career reboot, there are some dead ends you’ll want to avoid.

    resumeHere are three red flags (of many) that tell me in a free consultation I won’t get results with an individual and that their strategy for finding a place to land will tank. I know this because when I refer these people on to someone else to try to get what they want, they inevitably come back to me later when they didn’t get it.

    “I want a list of fields that are hiring.”

    Yes, and I’d like to winning numbers to the $300 million POWERBALL prize! This is not a strategy for success.

    You may land a job. You may be able to cross that chore off your list, but you’ll be at it again very soon when the pick off the list doesn’t engage you in any way. Looking for the easy way, the way that “makes sense,” does not make sense if you truly want to find a good fit.

    “I want contacts for recruiters who can place me in a job.”

    That sounds reasonable. Having relationships with recruiters who are looking for matches for openings in your field is a good thing. However, when people ask to be connected to them, they are often operating under a false assumption. That assumption is that the recruiter will give a damn.

    Recruiters don’t work for you. They work for the company looking to fill a position. They won’t take the time (nor can they) to nurture you or amend your resume unless you fit exactly what they need at the moment you contact them.

    If you fit what they were looking for and you’re on LinkedIn, they would have contacted you already! Recruiters are to be included in a thorough search, but they are not the answer you may think they are.

    “I need help with my resume and marketing. What I have isn’t working.”

    This can be a very legitimate issue, but I’d put it in the “barking up the wrong tree” category when someone tells me they’ve been at the job search for a long time. When the doors are not opening after a worthy set of attempts, it’s not the resume that’s the problem. It could be changes in the industry or maybe the way you’re presenting yourself, but most likely, what it means is that you have to pivot and do something else.

    Each of these markers tell me that you want a Magic Bullet. You want someone to give you the answer, the magical formula, that will allow you to sidestep the hard work and pain that it may well take to find a truly satisfying landing place.

    Satisfaction doesn’t come from the job itself. Even the great financial relief of having a job won’t solve the soon-to-be drudgery that lurks around the corner when you settle for any old job.

    Satisfaction comes in a job that plays to your strengths, stretches you, and gives you an opportunity to master something that matters to you. Satisfaction comes from who your job will allow you to be. None of the above strategies are likely to get you there.

    If you’re wishing for a magic bullet (and, let’s be honest, most of us are), let us help you get to the real issue instead. You need to know what you want, and it becomes much easier to get it when you do!