I think one of the most valuable things as a coach to learn is to share and be open with your weaknesses and areas of life you're reluctant or embarrassed to talk about with your clients . . .

I know this runs totally counter what most everyone else is doing . . .which mostly is "having to look like the expert", "looking like you have to have it altogether / having to have all the answers", etc.

To go along with this is having to have a "perfect" website, having a perfect Facebook page, perfect Instagram profile that makes it look like you have it all together / the expert in an area, having to get a lot of "likes", good testimonials, and so on . . .

Even really famous coaches and healers in the limelight are very much vested in maintaining the "impossibly perfect" image of "having it all together". . .and you would think this is the case with how they present themselves. . .but the reality is that they also have nightmares going on in their lives (and only willing to talk about certain ones but most likely terrified you might find out about other ones where they feel powerless)

But let's look at things from a different angle. . .consider this - what if people really didn't care too much about all about you having it all together? What if people were actually more concerned about them being judged about the things they didn't want others to see about them / were hiding from the world?

And what if people just wanted someone who really listened to them, didn't judge them and loved them unconditionally?

One of the big hurdles to go through when getting a life coaching practice going is learning to look like or be a failure. . .to look like you don't have it altogether and / or don't have the answers.

I had my first revelation about this years ago when I finally saw that people really didn't care about me having it all together and still hired me to work with them. . .in fact, the more "real" and vulnerable I was with clients, the safer I was for them to open up and reveal more about their own lives they weren't able to talk about with anyone and they got "heard" on a much deeper level as a result.

In fact, if you would like to get your clients opening up and talking more, say something that's really uncomfortable or confronting to reveal about yourself.

I found it to be a relief to finally just drop the pretence of having to look perfect and having to "keep it all together", having to be liked, having to maintain an image that is a pain in the ass and / or exhausting to maintain.

Don't you find there's something really attractive about a person who is totally at ease with themselves just the way they are, who doesn't have to maintain an image? Part of us intuitively knows this when we meet someone like that who is totally comfortable in their own skin without having to do all the other stuff.

A mentor of mine said that this is one of the biggest things for a coach to go through. . .the fear of looking like a loser or failure like you don't have your s*%t together . . .but it's "real" and "real" seems to be a really rare commodity these days. . . probably what makes it very attractive.