WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.990 --> 00:00:02.970 Mark Butler: Hey, this is Mark Butler and you are listening 00:00:03.269 --> 00:00:04.439 to a podcast for coaches. 00:00:05.880 --> 00:00:09.480 I opened my inbox last week and I saw an email from a former client 00:00:09.570 --> 00:00:12.090 asking if I had any availability. 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:15.390 This is a person I had done a few sessions with last year, 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:16.800 uh, along with her husband. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.130 And when those sessions came to their conclusion, it was all good 00:00:20.490 --> 00:00:23.730 and we lost track of each other for actually quite a few months. 00:00:24.810 --> 00:00:29.670 So then she emails me and we have a quick catch up call we decided to do 00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:31.170 another round of sessions together. 00:00:31.290 --> 00:00:31.979 Of course. 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:33.210 I'm thrilled about it. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:34.680 She's a great client. 00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:38.880 We had great rapport when we worked together last time, and , I'm 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:39.960 happy to support her again. 00:00:41.550 --> 00:00:42.810 Here's why I tell the story. 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:46.140 I had no idea she was going to reach out. 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:47.820 There's no funnel. 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:49.440 There's no structured follow up. 00:00:50.190 --> 00:00:54.600 There's just an email out of the blue, or at least what looks 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.430 like an email out of the blue. 00:00:56.940 --> 00:01:02.053 We'll come back to that in a little bit, but this is how my practice works. 00:01:02.083 --> 00:01:05.811 I start the majority of months with no idea who will hire me. 00:01:07.011 --> 00:01:10.521 Yeah, a good percentage of my clients do come from renewals, but 00:01:11.021 --> 00:01:12.581 those aren't certain either. 00:01:13.206 --> 00:01:17.046 Make no mistake, my family uses the money I generate from coaching. 00:01:17.286 --> 00:01:22.686 If more than a month or two go by with no coaching transactions, we will feel it. 00:01:24.076 --> 00:01:26.146 So I want to talk about this unpredictability. 00:01:27.076 --> 00:01:30.706 The truth is I think I have a pretty good handle on my mindset. 00:01:31.206 --> 00:01:35.986 But if you were to track my anxiety in the part of the month where there have 00:01:35.986 --> 00:01:40.406 been no coaching transactions, you'll notice it's much higher than in the 00:01:40.406 --> 00:01:44.576 part of the month after a couple of coaching transactions have happened. 00:01:44.666 --> 00:01:44.696 I. 00:01:45.311 --> 00:01:48.251 I almost hesitate to admit that because of course I have clients and 00:01:48.251 --> 00:01:51.911 prospects listening to this, but to pretend otherwise would be dishonest. 00:01:51.911 --> 00:01:54.821 I'm not shocking anyone with what I'm saying probably. 00:01:55.631 --> 00:02:00.551 And I think that my clients can read in me that I'm not bringing some of that low 00:02:00.551 --> 00:02:04.601 level anxiety into our interactions where I'm pressuring anyone to do anything that 00:02:04.601 --> 00:02:06.521 I don't think is in their best interest. 00:02:07.391 --> 00:02:08.441 But it is there. 00:02:08.441 --> 00:02:09.581 It's real for me. 00:02:10.971 --> 00:02:14.481 When I'm having these thoughts and I wanna get myself back to centered and 00:02:14.481 --> 00:02:19.671 grounded and positive and productive, one of the things that helps me is 00:02:19.671 --> 00:02:25.611 to acknowledge that although there's an unpredictability this month as to 00:02:25.641 --> 00:02:27.411 who is going to hire me and when I. 00:02:28.281 --> 00:02:32.001 If I look backwards at my coaching practice over multiple years, 00:02:32.631 --> 00:02:34.611 it becomes highly predictable. 00:02:35.901 --> 00:02:40.731 In other words, there have probably only been one or two months in the past 00:02:40.731 --> 00:02:46.731 three years where no one has hired me for coaching or renewed for coaching. 00:02:47.871 --> 00:02:55.181 The transactions do happen, so my practice is this predictably unpredictable thing. 00:02:55.681 --> 00:02:55.891 Now? 00:02:55.891 --> 00:02:56.191 Yes. 00:02:56.191 --> 00:03:00.121 The classic line from the investment world is past performance is no predictor 00:03:00.121 --> 00:03:05.641 of future performance, but unlike the investment world, as coaches, we 00:03:05.641 --> 00:03:08.221 have great influence over the future. 00:03:09.931 --> 00:03:13.681 If my goal is to have a steady stream of coaching transactions. 00:03:14.781 --> 00:03:20.481 You won't be surprised me being me, that my view on reducing 00:03:20.481 --> 00:03:22.431 unpredictability is this. 00:03:22.931 --> 00:03:27.521 The more relationships I have and the stronger those relationships are, the 00:03:27.521 --> 00:03:30.251 more predictable my practice becomes. 00:03:32.491 --> 00:03:35.701 I wanna share with you how I think about different kinds of relationships 00:03:35.701 --> 00:03:39.571 in my coaching practice and how to nurture them to reduce uncertainty. 00:03:40.591 --> 00:03:43.171 But before I get into that, I'll just remind you that I view 00:03:43.171 --> 00:03:47.971 coaching as a utility, a hygiene activity that keeps me healthier and 00:03:47.971 --> 00:03:49.651 happier than I would be without it. 00:03:50.026 --> 00:03:54.826 Here's a real life example from my own life as a client to a coach. 00:03:55.696 --> 00:03:59.866 Not long ago, my coach Liz, offered to switch our work to on demand, 00:03:59.986 --> 00:04:03.256 meaning I could just reach out to her whenever I felt like I wanted to 00:04:03.316 --> 00:04:05.146 talk or whenever I needed a session. 00:04:06.391 --> 00:04:10.291 I appreciate the offer because Liz and I have built rapport over years now, 00:04:10.291 --> 00:04:14.521 and I think we could probably do fine just having a session now and then 00:04:15.661 --> 00:04:17.551 I can see the benefits of this idea. 00:04:17.911 --> 00:04:25.261 There's merit to it, and I might even offer a version of this to my own clients, 00:04:26.311 --> 00:04:29.851 although it would need to be a version of on-demand coaching that addresses. 00:04:30.601 --> 00:04:31.861 The concerns I have about it 00:04:32.921 --> 00:04:36.971 but I turned Liz's offer down, meaning I still have regularly 00:04:36.971 --> 00:04:38.441 scheduled calls with her. 00:04:39.071 --> 00:04:42.341 The reason is that I trust conversation to yield insight. 00:04:42.971 --> 00:04:46.571 I might go into a call with Liz having no idea what we'll talk about, but I 00:04:46.571 --> 00:04:49.241 trust Liz and I trust conversation. 00:04:49.571 --> 00:04:54.431 I know some of our sessions will be of the brush and floss hygiene variety. 00:04:55.046 --> 00:05:00.446 There will be renewed clarity, but there may be no big insights or epiphanies. 00:05:01.316 --> 00:05:05.276 I also trust that in the course of a year of coaching with Liz, I 00:05:05.276 --> 00:05:09.386 will have one or two big insights, one or two big epiphanies. 00:05:09.866 --> 00:05:13.436 So I keep my coach on my calendar because I want the hygiene 00:05:13.436 --> 00:05:17.186 and the renewed clarity, and I also want the big epiphanies. 00:05:17.931 --> 00:05:22.401 If I switch to an on-demand approach entirely, I might only connect with 00:05:22.401 --> 00:05:29.781 Liz in moments of acute pain or acute enthusiasm, and I think that risks both 00:05:29.781 --> 00:05:34.821 the hygiene and the epiphanies that come with regularly scheduled calls. 00:05:35.241 --> 00:05:37.641 Now, why would I interject that here as I get into a 00:05:37.641 --> 00:05:39.381 conversation about the kinds of. 00:05:39.631 --> 00:05:42.931 Relationships and how to nurture them, that will reduce the 00:05:42.931 --> 00:05:44.761 uncertainty in our coaching practices. 00:05:45.301 --> 00:05:48.331 Well, I'm telling you this because I wanna remind you how confident 00:05:48.331 --> 00:05:54.571 I am in the power and the benefit of conversation with a coach. 00:05:55.571 --> 00:05:58.661 As I think about the people I've worked with in the past. 00:05:59.661 --> 00:06:04.761 As I think about reconnecting with them, I am not reconnecting with them from a place 00:06:04.791 --> 00:06:09.531 of I need to generate some transactions, and, oh, I need to reduce the 00:06:09.531 --> 00:06:11.661 unpredictability of my coaching practice. 00:06:11.811 --> 00:06:13.131 That's not my energy. 00:06:13.491 --> 00:06:17.301 That's a byproduct of treating the relationships with the care and respect 00:06:17.301 --> 00:06:22.341 that they deserve, and by tapping into the confidence that I have, that if 00:06:22.341 --> 00:06:26.426 a person has a conversation with me, they will be better off afterward. 00:06:27.426 --> 00:06:30.726 They may not know the ways in which they will be better off afterward. 00:06:30.786 --> 00:06:31.926 I may not know. 00:06:32.076 --> 00:06:35.256 In fact, I have no idea the ways in which they'll be better off afterward, 00:06:36.186 --> 00:06:40.626 but I have very, very high confidence that at the end of those interactions, 00:06:40.626 --> 00:06:45.396 they will say something to the effect of, I'm so glad we talked. 00:06:46.326 --> 00:06:47.556 I feel so much better. 00:06:48.456 --> 00:06:50.706 I didn't realize how much this was bothering me. 00:06:51.621 --> 00:06:52.941 Et cetera, et cetera. 00:06:53.241 --> 00:06:55.221 That's what coaching does. 00:06:56.571 --> 00:06:58.821 Now, what are these relationships? 00:06:59.451 --> 00:07:05.541 Number one, we have relationships with former clients, or maybe 00:07:05.541 --> 00:07:06.771 a better way to describe it. 00:07:07.911 --> 00:07:08.691 Scratch that. 00:07:09.691 --> 00:07:14.611 Number one, we have the people who already trust me in a coaching context. 00:07:16.021 --> 00:07:19.741 People who trust me in a coaching context include people who have 00:07:19.741 --> 00:07:24.271 worked with me in unpaid sessions, one-on-one, maybe their connection 00:07:24.271 --> 00:07:28.836 calls, networking calls, discovery sessions, whatever you wanna call them. 00:07:30.036 --> 00:07:34.031 People who have engaged with me in paid coaching in the past. 00:07:35.381 --> 00:07:40.631 Or who are engaged with me in paid coaching now, and people who trust me 00:07:40.631 --> 00:07:45.851 in a coaching context because they've heard me speak at an event, or they've 00:07:45.851 --> 00:07:50.561 listened to this podcast, or they've listened to me talk on other podcasts, 00:07:50.561 --> 00:07:55.826 which are not specifically about coaching, but through those interactions, they've 00:07:55.826 --> 00:07:58.646 built trust with me in a coaching context. 00:07:59.006 --> 00:08:02.606 These, of course, are the people who are most likely to engage with coaching. 00:08:03.221 --> 00:08:08.531 Today, these are the people that if I reach back out and connect with them, 00:08:09.531 --> 00:08:13.221 they are the most likely to say we should do some more sessions together. 00:08:15.221 --> 00:08:17.891 Now, I'm not telling you that my plan is to. 00:08:18.821 --> 00:08:22.451 Reach back out to these people and to say, Hey, do you wanna 00:08:22.451 --> 00:08:23.441 do some coaching together? 00:08:23.891 --> 00:08:27.671 Although depending on the rapport you have with the person, that 00:08:27.671 --> 00:08:29.261 may be the perfect thing to do. 00:08:30.561 --> 00:08:36.561 All I'm pointing out is the more people I have, the more relationships I have 00:08:36.561 --> 00:08:42.411 of that type, the less volatility there will be in my practice. 00:08:43.941 --> 00:08:49.011 I know a coach who has a very, very busy practice. 00:08:49.341 --> 00:08:52.101 I'm hoping and planning to bring her on the show in the near future. 00:08:52.821 --> 00:08:56.751 She does so many coaching sessions. 00:08:56.751 --> 00:08:58.551 She's a very busy coach. 00:09:00.006 --> 00:09:04.986 And she told me once that at any given moment she has some number of active 00:09:04.986 --> 00:09:08.346 clients, people who are regularly meeting with her, and then she has a 00:09:08.346 --> 00:09:12.606 whole other big group of clients who just sort of come and go as needed. 00:09:14.406 --> 00:09:16.866 They're kind of doing that on demand thing I was talking about earlier, 00:09:16.866 --> 00:09:18.186 which I think can be a good thing. 00:09:20.186 --> 00:09:25.316 She has this big pool of clients, some of whom are actively working 00:09:25.316 --> 00:09:29.396 with her today, some of whom are not working with her today, and some of 00:09:29.396 --> 00:09:31.106 whom are kind of in the in between. 00:09:31.106 --> 00:09:35.156 They pop in for a session now and then the bigger this group of people 00:09:35.156 --> 00:09:38.876 is, the less volatile my coaching practice is that client of mine, 00:09:38.876 --> 00:09:42.566 that friend of mine, she's actually so busy that I don't know if I could 00:09:42.566 --> 00:09:45.056 handle her level of coaching practice. 00:09:45.056 --> 00:09:46.406 I really admire what she's doing. 00:09:47.116 --> 00:09:48.946 So that's one type of relationship. 00:09:49.006 --> 00:09:52.006 People who already trust me in a coaching context. 00:09:54.006 --> 00:09:58.386 The next type of relationship I want to talk about is the relationship 00:09:58.386 --> 00:10:02.766 where people like me and trust me, but not in a coaching context. 00:10:03.766 --> 00:10:04.636 Here's a story. 00:10:05.986 --> 00:10:09.646 Kate and I were at dinner with friends the other night, great friends of ours. 00:10:10.846 --> 00:10:14.116 Somehow in the course of natural conversation, I promise I didn't shoehorn 00:10:14.116 --> 00:10:19.156 this in, but somehow in the course of natural conversation I said something 00:10:19.156 --> 00:10:23.866 about, oh yeah, the, the rest of the time I'm just meeting with my clients now I. 00:10:24.946 --> 00:10:28.216 The husband in this relationship isn't as familiar with my work. 00:10:28.246 --> 00:10:30.316 The wife is a little bit more familiar with my work. 00:10:31.156 --> 00:10:33.106 I could tell the wife had given the husband a little bit 00:10:33.106 --> 00:10:35.506 of background, but not a lot. 00:10:35.506 --> 00:10:40.066 So this is a person, the husband in particular, who I know likes me and 00:10:40.066 --> 00:10:44.026 trusts me outside of a coaching context, but doesn't have any familiarity 00:10:44.326 --> 00:10:46.216 with the work I do as a coach. 00:10:47.216 --> 00:10:50.546 He's a great guy and a very interested person, and so he asked me questions. 00:10:50.816 --> 00:10:53.216 How did you end up doing what you do? 00:10:53.426 --> 00:10:58.226 He asked me, because he knows I'm not a therapist, but he knows 00:10:58.226 --> 00:11:03.056 that the closest thing to what I do would be therapy, and he said. 00:11:04.151 --> 00:11:05.681 I know you aren't a therapist. 00:11:05.681 --> 00:11:07.691 I know you don't have any credential or any certification. 00:11:07.721 --> 00:11:09.551 How did you end up doing what you do? 00:11:10.091 --> 00:11:14.951 So I told him the story of how I started out doing budget coaching and budget 00:11:14.951 --> 00:11:19.301 implementation using YA and how there was a natural evolution that when you're 00:11:19.301 --> 00:11:23.501 talking about money, you end up talking about the things that touch the money 00:11:23.501 --> 00:11:26.921 and the things that touch the money are the people and their thoughts and 00:11:26.921 --> 00:11:28.601 their emotions and their relationships. 00:11:28.691 --> 00:11:33.011 And there was a gradual evolution over the course of about seven or eight years. 00:11:33.386 --> 00:11:37.916 Where I started talking less and less about money and more and more about 00:11:37.916 --> 00:11:39.716 thoughts, feelings, and relationships. 00:11:40.166 --> 00:11:46.886 And around 2021, there was almost a clean break where I almost don't 00:11:46.886 --> 00:11:51.536 talk about money anymore and I talk almost exclusively about thoughts, 00:11:51.536 --> 00:11:53.216 feelings, and relationships. 00:11:55.216 --> 00:11:56.626 That was very interesting to him. 00:11:57.346 --> 00:12:00.856 We got into conversation about our kids. 00:12:01.126 --> 00:12:03.676 We talked about our kids and our relationships with them. 00:12:03.946 --> 00:12:08.086 We talked about our kids' relationships with significant others and with 00:12:08.176 --> 00:12:12.106 their friendships, and we had a really interesting conversation in 00:12:12.106 --> 00:12:18.856 which I was able to sincerely and totally nont transactionally share 00:12:19.756 --> 00:12:23.236 some things that I've learned from a couple thousand hours of coaching. 00:12:23.736 --> 00:12:24.996 That I've done with my clients. 00:12:25.996 --> 00:12:30.686 So we had a really interesting conversation about relationships, about 00:12:30.686 --> 00:12:35.546 our relationships with each other, with our spouses, with our kids, our kids', 00:12:35.546 --> 00:12:39.596 relationships with friends, our kids', relationships with significant others. 00:12:40.136 --> 00:12:41.306 It was a great conversation. 00:12:41.546 --> 00:12:42.836 I got a lot out of it too. 00:12:42.836 --> 00:12:47.756 It wasn't just me sitting there, I hope, monologuing, but I was able to 00:12:47.756 --> 00:12:49.376 bring my work into the conversation. 00:12:49.376 --> 00:12:53.396 I was able to share things that I've learned over a couple of thousand hours. 00:12:53.896 --> 00:12:55.216 Working with clients. 00:12:56.216 --> 00:12:59.966 And in the conversation, this guy did say to me, you know what? 00:13:01.166 --> 00:13:04.586 One of our kids would really benefit from talking with you. 00:13:05.936 --> 00:13:07.256 Now, will anything come of that? 00:13:07.316 --> 00:13:08.036 I don't know. 00:13:08.576 --> 00:13:12.176 Would I even work with their child or would I make a referral? 00:13:12.476 --> 00:13:13.316 I don't know. 00:13:14.276 --> 00:13:17.150 Uh, at the very least, all I said to him jokingly was, well, you know. 00:13:17.180 --> 00:13:19.515 If you wanna send your kid my way, I'd be happy to give him , the 00:13:19.515 --> 00:13:21.705 family discount of 100% off. 00:13:22.245 --> 00:13:23.955 And they joked and said, no, of course we're gonna pay you. 00:13:23.955 --> 00:13:25.515 And , we left it at that. 00:13:26.715 --> 00:13:34.855 That is me establishing coaching trust in a relationship where there was friendship, 00:13:34.855 --> 00:13:42.445 trust, and I don't need that relationship to produce coaching transactions. 00:13:42.925 --> 00:13:48.925 What I need to do as a person who wants to serve people through coaching is to 00:13:49.285 --> 00:13:54.775 contribute to relationships, and when the opportunity comes to introduce my 00:13:54.775 --> 00:13:58.675 work as a coach, naturally, as it did very naturally in that interaction. 00:13:59.475 --> 00:14:04.635 I introduce it and I trust that as those interactions stack up 00:14:05.475 --> 00:14:10.545 in the weird magic of a coaching practice, there will be new clients. 00:14:12.220 --> 00:14:15.520 It will be the rarer case that the new clients come directly 00:14:15.520 --> 00:14:16.660 from those interactions. 00:14:17.230 --> 00:14:22.990 It will be the more common case that people pop up as if from nowhere and 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:26.740 say, oh, maybe I'd like to work with you, or Could we talk about coaching? 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:29.420 And then I mapped that relationship backward, and I find out that the 00:14:29.420 --> 00:14:33.980 conversation had over dinner was the first in a series of dominoes that led 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:35.930 to a person that I didn't even know yet. 00:14:37.655 --> 00:14:39.005 And coaching. 00:14:40.745 --> 00:14:45.185 So these relationships where I am liked and trusted outside 00:14:45.185 --> 00:14:47.495 of a coaching context are. 00:14:48.800 --> 00:14:55.490 Almost even in a strategic business view are almost as important as the 00:14:55.490 --> 00:15:00.380 relationships where people like me and trust me in a coaching context, because 00:15:00.380 --> 00:15:05.720 once a person likes you and trusts you outside of a coaching context, if 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:10.760 they actually trust you, then it's a short journey from trusting you outside 00:15:10.760 --> 00:15:14.270 of a coaching context to trusting you inside of a coaching context. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:19.400 So the better I am in non coaching relationships, the more likely I am to 00:15:19.400 --> 00:15:21.890 find myself in coaching relationships. 00:15:23.540 --> 00:15:26.420 And that leads to the third type of relationship. 00:15:28.340 --> 00:15:30.295 The third type of relationship is. 00:15:31.795 --> 00:15:37.105 One where a person doesn't know me or trust me at all yet, they're 00:15:37.105 --> 00:15:39.295 a stranger to me at this point. 00:15:41.005 --> 00:15:46.825 If I want to thrive in my coaching practice in the long run, and apparently 00:15:46.825 --> 00:15:50.485 there's scientific research that says if I want to thrive as a human being 00:15:50.575 --> 00:15:56.335 in the long run, then some steady trickle of new people needs to meet 00:15:56.335 --> 00:15:59.965 me and I meet them and we form a connection, we form a relationship. 00:16:01.345 --> 00:16:08.095 As that happens, there becomes the opportunity for them to. 00:16:09.070 --> 00:16:15.910 Know me, then like me, then trust me, then introduce the trust in more of a coaching 00:16:15.910 --> 00:16:17.800 context or a coaching conversation. 00:16:18.310 --> 00:16:23.470 And then some small percentage of those actually become coaching clients of 00:16:23.470 --> 00:16:25.810 mine or refer coaching clients of mine. 00:16:26.530 --> 00:16:27.940 This is how it works. 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:31.560 Another client told me a story. 00:16:32.160 --> 00:16:34.090 She was talking with her, significant other. 00:16:34.690 --> 00:16:40.660 They were talking about having opportunities to just talk and to 00:16:40.660 --> 00:16:45.670 be truly heard and paid attention to and how as adults, that can be a very 00:16:45.670 --> 00:16:50.230 challenging thing to find, and my client's significant other said to her. 00:16:51.295 --> 00:16:52.585 That's a really tough thing, isn't it? 00:16:52.675 --> 00:16:53.815 How do you solve this? 00:16:53.815 --> 00:16:55.555 And she said, well, it's funny you ask. 00:16:56.535 --> 00:17:00.585 One of the ways I solve it is I pay a guy to listen to me. 00:17:01.215 --> 00:17:02.025 And he said, what? 00:17:02.925 --> 00:17:04.545 That's seems odd. 00:17:04.635 --> 00:17:06.225 And she said, it is kind of odd, isn't it? 00:17:06.225 --> 00:17:10.815 But it's really great because she tends to be a person that people talk to. 00:17:10.815 --> 00:17:12.975 She's very trustworthy and she's a great listener. 00:17:13.185 --> 00:17:15.609 So she ends up doing more of the listening in her life. 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:20.833 She has me as her coach , and my job is to show up on a Zoom call 00:17:21.073 --> 00:17:25.153 and she talks and I ask questions and I ask follow up questions and 00:17:25.153 --> 00:17:27.463 she shares, and that's her time. 00:17:28.463 --> 00:17:32.883 She loves it and I love it, but as she shares that story with 00:17:32.883 --> 00:17:38.463 her significant other, she is in a way introducing me to him. 00:17:40.113 --> 00:17:43.798 Now, will he ever say, by the way, who's that guy you pay to talk to? 00:17:45.298 --> 00:17:46.198 Probably not. 00:17:46.468 --> 00:17:53.578 All of these things are probably not, but as they happen often enough, we end 00:17:53.578 --> 00:17:59.098 up with people who like us and trust us outside of a coaching context, who 00:17:59.098 --> 00:18:05.103 then like us and trust us inside of a coaching context, who then engage with 00:18:05.103 --> 00:18:07.888 us as their coach for some period of time 00:18:09.928 --> 00:18:12.928 as I give care and attention in each of these areas. 00:18:14.403 --> 00:18:15.883 By nurturing relationships, 00:18:17.893 --> 00:18:23.443 I reduce the unpredictability in a very unpredictable business, 00:18:23.503 --> 00:18:24.973 which is a coaching practice. 00:18:26.353 --> 00:18:27.853 So I'll end where I began. 00:18:28.853 --> 00:18:32.273 It is early in the month as I record tHis. 00:18:32.418 --> 00:18:34.998 there have been no coaching transactions as yet. 00:18:36.393 --> 00:18:41.203 I anticipate that there will be, but the coaching transactions that 00:18:41.203 --> 00:18:45.073 happen this month will not be random. 00:18:45.343 --> 00:18:50.923 They will not be out of the blue, even if I occasionally use that language. 00:18:51.943 --> 00:18:58.873 They will be the natural fruit of relationships that were planted and 00:18:58.873 --> 00:19:01.633 nurtured days, weeks, months, years ago. 00:19:03.133 --> 00:19:08.063 Come back into my life this month and become a formal coaching relationship. 00:19:09.563 --> 00:19:11.153 That's how it works. 00:19:12.173 --> 00:19:16.823 So, although we can call this business unpredictable, we have to also 00:19:16.823 --> 00:19:21.893 acknowledge its predictable parts and we have to exert our influence and 00:19:21.893 --> 00:19:26.663 our energy in the areas where it is predictable so that we make the 00:19:26.663 --> 00:19:29.843 unpredictable parts less volatile. 00:19:31.343 --> 00:19:34.523 And with that, I will talk to you next time.=