When our clients hire us to help them lose weight, we habitually put on our industry knowledge hardhats and bring our best evidence based strategies to the table to get them where they want to go.
But just because that’s what you think they hired you for doesn’t mean that’s *all* you’re going to give them…
Now before you scroll away thinking this is just another hypey article telling you the same boring message that “they won’t really be happy when they reach a numerical goal” and “it’s about more than weight loss”…consider this.
Just because you logically know this…how confident are you that after your clients finish working with you that the new lifestyle you worked so hard with them to create is truly permanent?
There’s a spectrum that change happens on, and how permanent that change is for someone depends how far along that spectrum you are able to move them during your time together.
On one end of the spectrum there’s the type of coach who can create change in the moment – this can be powerful and impactful but doesn’t last long term.
And then on the other end of the spectrum there’s the type of coach that can create such powerful change in their clients that they then go on to create the same powerful change in others…
The reality is that if you are *anywhere* on the spectrum, you’re already ahead of most of the coaches out there who struggle to create any meaningful change beyond what they were taught to do in their textbook.
There’s a big difference between learning what science tells us *should* happen…and knowing what to do when it doesn’t.
So when your clients hire you to lose weight…it’s up to you to decide how deep that change really goes.
And in the next 5 minutes I’m going to show you what your clients are really paying for, how to make sure you fall on the change spectrum with everyone you work with, and how to release the external result from your conscious so you can operate with clarity and confidence always.
Belief
What people are really paying for isn’t weight loss
Symptoms:
-feeling frustrated that your clients can’t stop comparing themselves to others, obsessing over the scale or measuring their success by how much smaller they get
- Can’t figure out how to talk to your clients about the bigger picture
- You fall into the trap of justifying their investment in you by how much they lose
- Makes you feel like a bad coach when they don’t lose weight
- Becoming reactive and dropping your rates, trying random stuff you normally wouldn’t consider just to keep them as clients
- You’re making assumptions about why your clients hired you (making them happy is easier than making them change)
- Your need for significance is driving your reaction to their uncertainty or frustration
- Weight loss is the surface level goal – they believed that you were a vehicle to move them away from their current pain. Define their pain, and open up many more avenues to achieve this in the absence of weight loss
- Babysitting their investment undermines what they really need from you
