You're listening to the Life Coaching Secrets Podcast, episode 194. Did you know that life coaches are needed now more than ever? I'm Frank Macri, founder of Thriving Coach Academy. I've trained over a thousand coaches and helped them launch their own successful coaching businesses. If you want to make an incredible income and impact as a coach and have a lot of fun doing it,
I'll show you exactly how to get it done. This is Life Coaching Secrets. What's up coaches? In this episode, I have something very special for you. I've gone into the vault. And I have retrieved one of the all-time favorite episodes from this podcast. It's actually one of our original episodes from the very first few months that we started the show.
And it is one that goes over the five signs that you were born to be a coach. So without further ado, here's the episode. Enjoy. In this episode, I am going to share the five signs that you are born to be a coach. I'm really pumped to share this with you. Now, one of the things that I've noticed after training and mentoring over a thousand coaches over the years is that many people...
are born coaches without even realizing it. And the reason I want to break this down for you all is because so many people are unaware of what it really takes to be a people often question if they truly have the potential to do well in this career. Now, a lot of people who hear about leadership coaching, life coaching, business coaching for the first time, they think that you need to have a lot of life experience.
You need to have a large following. You need to be very charismatic and have this intense high energy all the time in order to be successful. Many people think those are the signs, but all of those are not. the science that you are born to be a coach at all. So I'm going to share in this episode what the actual signs are. Now, those of you who know my story... You know that I started coaching in my early 20s. So I had very little life experience, yet I was able to do...
very well. I also did not have a large following or network. And I was very introverted. I still consider myself to be very introverted. And I was definitely not intense energy all the time. I would say I'm energetic. I have a love for life. But I would not say that I have this intense like Tony Robbins energy. And I love Tony Robbins. But I think a lot of people assume that you have to come across with that.
very big presence and energy in order to be a successful coach. Now, a recurring theme that I've heard of the people who become coaches is that they've been bouncing around careers their whole life, and something hasn't quite stuck in those careers. And then when they hear about coaching, they realize that it's the exact thing that they've been looking for. So I will hear from many of our coaches in the academy that...
When they start doing coaching as their actual career, they realize that this work takes all the things they've loved about all of their previous jobs and it puts it all together. which is amazing. And it also eliminates all the things they didn't like about their previous jobs.
So some people are intrigued by the idea of becoming a coach, but they question if it's really the right next step for them. So this episode will make that crystal clear. When I share with you these five signs, you're either going to... see yourself in those signs or you're not going to see yourself. It's going to become very apparent to you. And if you're already a coach, if you are already coaching, maybe you're early on in your business, hopefully this will be affirming.
that you are on the right path. Now, disclaimer for everyone listening, I do not believe that every person on the planet is born to be a coach. I do not think that. So the list that I share, it is not going to relate to everyone. Okay, there is definitely a certain blend of personal qualities that will draw people to coaching, and I'm going to share those here. I like to think of this as maybe when you were in grade school, you were given some kind of...
personality tests that would help you know what career you would do very well in. I don't even remember. Back when I was in middle school or high school, I cannot even tell you what the results of that were, but I just remember it having an impact on me. Like, oh, this is it. and it just gave me about like 10 different career options. So...
Coaching is often not one of those career options that we are even considering at a young age. It's usually something that people realize in their adult life after they've been through, had some work experience, and once they hear about it, everything clicks. They realize that all of their previous experiences in work and even their life has been giving them signs that have all along been pointing them to become a coach.
Now, how I came up with these five signs is I've looked at all of the coaches that I've been mentoring for the past several years, and these are the five signs that I've noticed to be a theme amongst... the coaches who are inside Thriving Coach Academy. Now, when I say a sign, when we go into this, you might wonder, well, what is a sign? A sign is just an occurrence in your life.
a behavior that you may have in your relationships, or a personal quality. That's what I mean by a sign. It might be a certain occurrence that you're seeing in your life, a behavior that you tend to have in relationships. whether it be personal relationships or professional relationships. And a sign could also just be a personal quality. Now, the most important thing to know is that if you see yourself in any of these signs,
then that is an indicator that there is potential there. So there's a difference between having the sign and then also mastering the skill that goes along with the sign. Okay? So if you hear yourself in what I'm going to share, the five signs, it does not take away from the fact that you will need proper mentorship. You're going to need training on how to actually coach. So having these signs, it's an indicator that...
you would do extremely well as a coach when you get properly trained. So there's recognizing the sign and then there's learning the actual skill to implement the quality well. So I like to... distinguish between a sign and also the skill that goes with it. Okay. So if you hear yourself in the signs, it means you have the foundation, you have the potential. All right.
I'm so excited. So let us go into the first sign. The first sign that you are born to be a coach is that you are passionate about making a difference in people's lives. You're passionate about making a difference in people's So this means that you naturally find joy in seeing people achieve their goals and dreams. You love seeing people win. This is a huge sign. So it lights you up.
when you're able to support people go after their dreams, their goals. It lights you up when you can help people overcome challenges and take their life to a new level. So maybe you're someone who you like standing by someone and supporting them in becoming the best version of who they are.
So if you look at the careers that you've had thus far and you think about what's been the most meaningful part of your previous careers, you might find that what's been the most meaningful has been those moments. Moments where you could provide direct support to another person, where you're having some kind of interaction where you can make someone's day even just a little bit better. So for example...
One of the jobs that I had before I became a coach is I was a receptionist at a holistic nutrition school. And I had a lot of tedious tasks that I would do. It was a lot of data entry, a lot of filing papers. But what I found gave me the most fulfillment every day.
was the actual phone calls that I would have with potential students. I loved getting to... answer their questions i loved that that made just a little difference in their lives it helped them move a little bit closer to pursuing their dreams and their goals and i realized that i would light up whenever the phone would ring i would love just having that opportunity
to support another person. So if you think about your own career history, right, what about those career have been the most rewarding parts for you? Maybe it's been the moments where you could actually provide direct support to someone. So that is a sign if you are passionate about making a difference in people's lives. Now, in Thriving Coach Academy, we show you exactly what to do.
to make success inevitable for your clients so they can reach all their goals. So you get to be the person who witnesses that process with them, which is so amazing. It is, I think... I would say most of our coaches' favorite part about coaching is seeing those light bulb moments, seeing their clients have shifts and breakthroughs and actually go after their dreams. So that's the first sign.
The second sign that you are born to be a coach is if you are naturally curious about people. Okay? If you are naturally curious about people and the way they tick. So I love finding out things about people. I love asking people questions. I love discovering what lights people up, what motivates them. I love learning how people see the world.
understanding what their goals and dreams are and why they are the way they are. So if you find that you are naturally intrigued by human beings, then that is a sign you're born to be a coach. So when we're curious... And we meet people, we talk to people, we learn about people. It's less about judging someone and more about understanding them. Okay, so coaches are often very curious people.
and carry very little judgment. I mean, we are all human. We all have judgments. It's okay to have judgments, but coaches have such a strong curiosity. They are very open-minded because they are curious to learn about what makes people tick. So a recent example of this, I noticed during the past few years, there's been a lot of political things going on, especially in the United States.
And there's been a lot of divisiveness. There's been a lot of judgment from all sides. And one of the things I noticed when I was just witnessing myself through the past several years... engaging in political conversations, just studying political candidates is that whenever I would look at a candidate or someone in politics, I would think, hmm.
I really want to understand that person. I want to learn about them. I want to know more about their background. I want to know where they came from. I want to know why they are the way they are. And I had this curiosity about the whole... the whole evolution of politics the past several years. And I think that is very much a sign if you notice that you are like that with...
with just people in general, that curiosity is a sign you're born to be a coach. Now, maybe you were told at certain parts of your life that... you're kind of nosy. Sometimes coaches might be perceived as nosy in other places of life. And that's absolutely okay. If some people think you're nosy, maybe you think you're a little bit nosy at times. Sometimes when we grow up...
Our curiosity is sometimes shunned or judged, and we're told to suppress our curiosity. We're told we shouldn't ask so many questions. So as coaches, I joke with our coaches and tell them, you're going to get paid. very well to ask questions because it's a huge part of what you do as a coach. It's just because you're not necessarily nosy, but you just love learning about people.
You love learning about people. You like asking questions. And you might find that it's very easy for you to connect with people. No matter what walk of life they come from, you are able to connect with them because you like getting to know people. You are drawn to understand. people rather than judge them. Now, one of the topics we teach in great depth in the academy is how to ask questions that will make the greatest impact with your clients. So there is an art.
There's an art to asking questions. And our coaches learn a very advanced method for asking questions in a way that will spark insight and transformation with their clients. So that's the second sign. You are naturally curious about people. You love asking people. questions. Now, the third sign that you were born to be a coach is if you are, generally speaking, an optimistic person that sees new possibilities. So you're generally optimistic and you see new possibilities.
This does not mean that you can't have low moments in life, that you can't ever be upset or frustrated. We're all human. But overall, big picture, you're someone that looks for the silver lining in all experiences. Again, this doesn't mean you're happy all the time, but when it comes down to it, do you believe in possibility when there's hardship? Do you believe change is possible?
Now, the past couple years alone have been an opportunity for us all to really put this to the test and really see our level of hope, our level of faith and optimism. Now, we've gone through the pandemic, right? Thankfully, we're starting to move towards resolution little by little with that. And it's been a very scary and tragic experience for all.
And I noticed that as I was going through the pandemic, my mind was wondering, what is the opportunity here? How can I grow from this experience? How can I let... this work for me rather than against me? And that is one of my favorite questions to have as a coach. How can I make this work for me rather than against me? So when all of the gyms started to close during the pandemic, rather than...
wallow in my own self-pity and complain. And I just noticed that I didn't want to go there. I wanted to be someone that could really see the opportunity here. I decided I was going to move to an entirely new home. So I found a new home that was double the size of my previous home. I moved into it in the middle of the pandemic. I used one of my... Extra bedrooms that I now had to create my own home gym by all of...
All brand new home gym equipment, state-of-the-art equipment. And my whole life was able to up-level during the pandemic because I was open to new possibilities. So being optimistic. It's not about minimizing hardship and it's not about denying pain. It's about showing up as the creator of your life, as the hero of your story rather than the victim. Okay?
And you get to decide how you want to make all the experiences in your life for you. And people that are drawn to coaching, people that end up becoming great coaches. are the ones that really see themselves as the creator of their own story, okay? They do not just... see themselves at the effect of their life, but they really see themselves at the cause of their life. So one of the things I believe is that we live in a friendly universe.
Where everything that happens, it's happening for us and never against us. So if it feels good, it's here to support us. And if it doesn't feel good, it's here to help us grow. But it's always a good thing and it's always a gift. Now, coaches are so valued because they support their clients in finding opportunities and possibilities in their life instead of just settling with what is or focusing on all the setbacks or problems.
So that is the third sign that you would make an amazing coach. If you're someone who looks for new possibilities, you're optimistic, and you see yourself as the creator of your destiny. Now, the fourth sign that you would make an amazing coach... is if you are an attentive listener. If you're an attentive listener. So when you're in conversation with someone, do you sometimes pick up on the subtleties of what someone is saying?
but also what they're not saying. Or maybe when someone's talking, your gut just tells you that something's feeling a little bit off. Maybe you can sense that they're holding back in some way or they're not sharing what they really want to be sharing. Or maybe you ask someone, how are you? And they say, oh, I'm fine.
but you know deep down that they aren't fine. I feel like whenever we say I'm fine, we usually are not fine. So you probably know that something's off or you're able to just get some hunches when you're in communication with people that... There's something more, right? That there's not just what you're hearing, but there's also what people are not saying. And if you've ever noticed that happen, or if you notice it happen commonly when you're talking to people, then you're onto something.
When you listen to people, you are not just listening to reply, but you're really listening to understand someone. So if people easily open up to you, you are likely a really good listener. This is something I commonly hear our coaches say when they get into our program. They say that...
People who, even strangers who they will meet for the first time, they will feel so comfortable opening up to them and talking about things that they normally don't share with people that they're just getting to know for the first time. So for example, One of our newer coaches, he was working as a hairstylist for many years. And he found that his clients that would want their hair done, they would have these...
incredibly deep conversations with him during the hour that they'd be in the chair. And he noticed that... This was a theme. It was happening more and more where people would get their hair done, but really they'd walk away with a lot more. They would walk away with feeling extremely heard, extremely listened to. And that is what... This coach realized was...
actually the most fulfilling part about his work. It wasn't so much cutting someone's hair, but it was really getting to listen to someone and really getting to know them. So that's why one of the skills that we teach in the academy is how to listen. at a deep level so you can read between the lines and truly understand what someone is going through.
The way that we teach listening is we break it down into five distinct levels. So at the lower levels of listening, that's when you're barely giving someone your attention. That's when someone's talking and you're thinking about or rehearsing in your head what you want to say back. And that's also when you take what someone says and you relate it back to you.
So for example, someone shares about how they just got back from this amazing trip to – they just got back from an amazing trip from Europe. And as you're listening to that – When you're listening at a lower level, you probably would respond by saying, oh, well, that reminds me. Here's a place where I really want to travel to. Now, this is the most common way that people communicate. And as a coach, we listen at a higher level. So a higher level of listening is...
When you're listening and your intent is to understand someone so they truly feel heard, the listening is so much more objective. And one part of the academy, we give you a deep training on how to listen. in a way that allows you to hear the unspoken rules about people's lives that are holding them back. So there's what people are saying, but there's also listening for the rules in which they operate and they show up to life with.
And when you're able to listen at that deep of a level, you can transform lives. When you're able to listen at such a deep level, you can listen to someone beyond how they even hear themselves because you're able to listen to blind spots. So that... is a teachable skill that we build upon in the academy. So that's the third or rather the fourth sign that you are an attentive listener. You get hunches when...
People are sharing that there's more to the story. All right. Now, the fifth sign that you were born to be a coach is if you are a goal setter. You're someone who loves... Self-development, okay? So are you someone who sets goals in your own life? Do you like to grow?
Now, this doesn't mean you have to have everything figured out in life. A lot of people assume that you have to have your whole life together in order to be a great coach. Not true at all. You just need to be willing to keep doing the work on yourself. And amazing coaches are... constantly looking to up-level their personal life. They're looking to keep doing the work on themselves.
Growing up, I would love going to bookstores. And whenever I'd walk into a bookstore, I still love this going to a bookstore to this day. I would go right to the self-help section. I just bypassed every other section in the bookstore and I could immerse myself for hours sometimes just going through all the different self-help books, browsing through the pages, reading the chapters.
I would love it. I feel like my brain would just get bigger every single time because I kept learning more and more about myself, about my thoughts, about my emotions, about my goals, about my dreams. So I always wondered when I would be in bookstores or libraries, I would just wonder, why isn't everyone else in this section soaking up all this goodness? I could just get lost there for hours.
Some people I know may judge and say, oh, you're a self-help junkie. But I know that if there's one reason I'm on this planet, it's to grow. And I'm going to keep investing my time, my money, and my energy in my growth because I know it's always worth it. And I believe our brain is truly the most valuable asset we have. Now, coaches get this. They get it. Coaches love consuming personal development. They never get enough of it because they love growing.
And I find that people who do amazingly well as coaches, they see themselves as lifelong learners and they are looking for ways to evolve. I think one of the big reasons for this is that coaches are people who don't settle, okay? So there is a belief amongst many coaches that there is a purpose to life. There's a purpose to this life that we are living and we are all called to fulfill that purpose.
It's our life's work to discover that purpose and see it come to life. So coaches understand this, okay? People who understand this become great coaches. Because they walk the talk. They look for ways to constantly grow and evolve. So if you're someone who loves personal development, if you love reading and learning about leadership and psychology and mindset and emotional intelligence and...
all of the things that have to do with your brain, your thoughts, life, and living with purpose, then that is a tremendous sign that you are born to be a coach. When coaches, when our coaches get together, it's kind of refreshing because everyone can just geek out about all of those topics. We can geek out about intuition and spirituality and goals and all these things that not everybody on the planet
really has a lot of passion talking about. So coaches love self-development. They love setting goals. So those are the five signs. Now, when you check in with yourself, how many of those signs do you see yourself in? Did you see yourself in all the signs? Did you see yourself in some of the signs? So as I shared before, if you notice many of these signs in you, it's like you have the foundation and the potential. And now you just need the knowledge.
the mentorship, and the community to thrive as a coach. It's kind of like if you were to be baking a cake, let's say. If you have the science, that means you have all the ingredients, but you still need to know how to combine them and what the actual recipe calls for you to do. So if you have the eggs, you have the flour, you have the milk, there's still no cake. You still have to actually learn how to bake it. So you may right now already be showing up as a coach.
in your life. You may already be having coach-like tendencies. And perhaps now it's time to make it official. So having these signs is an indicator you will do so well when you get proper training. So there are a couple of approaches that you can take. as a coach. The first approach is you can just wander around aimlessly into the night and just hope and pray.
Hope and pray that it works out. And coaches that do this when they don't get proper training, they don't get mentorship, what they end up doing is they rely on their life experience. And this is a very haphazard way to grow a coaching business. So you might have some success here and there, and it might give you some assurance, but the success is not sustainable because...
Coaches that go down this route, they're just winging it. So if you find right now that you're coaching some friends for free, that's one thing. But coaching friends does not really count because they have a personal relationship to you. So there's a huge difference with coaching friends for free or coaching a colleague for free.
And running a real coaching business with clients that pay you extremely well. And also not just coaching them well, but knowing how to find them and engage with them and using frameworks that... will support them in the best possible way. So coaches that go down this path of not getting proper training, what they end up living with is a lot of exhaustion, a lot of burnout. They end up hustling so much more than they need to be.
and just going through this never-ending grind. But thankfully, that is not the only path forward for you to take as a coach. So one example that recently... I went through that just was a reminder of the blind spots that we all have when it comes to learning any new skill is I picked up the piano recently and I already knew how to read music because I played clarinet growing up.
I decided one day I was going to hire a piano coach just to really see if it would do much. But like I said, I already knew how to read music and I knew that I could teach myself if I really wanted to. But I was amazed at what... I didn't realize I was missing just from my very first session with my piano coach. Within minutes.
Within minutes of her studying the way that I was playing, because she said, all right, why don't you play for me this one song? So I felt very confident. I'm like, oh, I got this. But within minutes, she stopped me and she said, hold on a second. You got to change your posture. My wrists were not correct.
So my wrists weren't proper. I wasn't sitting the right way. My shoulders were hunched up. And these are all things that I had no clue about. And I would have created such terrible habits that I would have later had to unlearn. If I didn't catch them ahead of time, or rather if this coach didn't detect them for me. So have you ever heard the phrase, you don't know what you don't know? This is a reason why it is so important whenever we want to master a skill.
to get supervised training so me getting that feedback about my piano skills was tremendous because it prevented me from building upon a terrible foundation and having to possibly put my... put my health at risk because I could really damage my fingers and my wrists. This is a problem that many piano players go through. So this parallels to the coaching industry. There are many people that...
say, oh, well, I have the sign, so I'm just going to go wing it as a coach. But they don't realize that the things that they're putting into place are creating a foundation for them. that is going to get them in some trouble later down the line. So many of the coaches that enter into the academy, a lot of them have already been doing some form of coaching. Some people are brand new to coaching. Other people have been...
kind of feeling like maybe they're coaching because they're having deep conversations with their friends or their current clients. And there's other people who have been doing some form of coaching in one way or another. But when they get into the academy and when we start giving them... feedback when they start getting mentor coaching and having trained instructors pause them in the middle of their sessions and tell them you know what they're doing wrong what they're doing right it is
It is really amazing just to see all of the things that become clear to the coaches that weren't clear to them before. So we hear a lot of our coaches say, oh my gosh, I've been coaching for years before I enrolled in this training, but this... has allowed me to see what real and deep transformational coaching really is. It's on a whole other level of coaching that I didn't even realize. So the other approach to...
pursuing a career in coaching. We talked about the first one, which was just kind of winging it, just kind of aimlessly wandering through the night and hoping and praying it works out. The other way to have success
is to get properly trained and to get supervised mentorship where people can tell you what you're doing well and how you can improve. So it's kind of like if you're walking through a big forest and you're not sure where you're going and someone comes up to you and says, hey, I have a map. Do you want the map? Like, take the map. Why don't you just take the map? Make your life easier. So when you get...
Certification, when you get certified through Thriving Coach Academy, it's like we are handing you the map. And it's more than just a piece of paper that shows that you went through a number of training hours. It's your map to success. as a coach and establishing your career as a coach. So when you get proper training, the best part about it
is you're learning proven frameworks. You're not just trying to make things up on your own or guessing to see what works, right? You're learning tools that are going to give you the confidence to coach anyone on anything. So I like to also remind myself Whenever I have a big goal in my life, if you have a big mission, it's going to require big support. So those are the five signs that you are born to be a coach. And the one last thing I want to end on when it comes to these signs.
is something that I've realized from hearing many, many coaches' stories at this point, is that these signs, once you start seeing them in your life, you won't stop seeing them. They're going to keep showing up until you honor them. So either they're honored and they're expressed and we're able to live out our calling, share our gifts with the world.
Or we suppress them and it turns into sadness and it leads to a heavier burden over time of guilt and regret. But miracles happen when we could notice the signs in our life. listen to them, honor them, right? Because our dreams and our callings, they don't leave us alone. So just the fact that you have any of these signs in you, if you have most of these signs,
That says a lot. If you see these signs right now in your life, that means that there is something in you that means that you are born to be a coach. Those signs are evidence enough for you to know that you have tremendous potential for success. Thanks for listening to this episode. Before you go, here's a quick story from one of our students from inside the Academy. So enjoy their story and I'll see you in the next episode. Hi, my name is Meryl Wheaton.
15 years ago, I took one of the best coaching programs that was available at the time. And it was fabulous. It was rigorous, but there was not very much support. direct access to the instructors, the professors and there also wasn't very much business training. then there wasn't a lot of tech training. I launched off and started coaching and it was very good at the beginning. And I decided I wanted to go back for coaching. But I wanted the best program.
that was available and the Thriving Coach Academy was clear and just mountains better than any of the other coaching programs out there in terms of offerings they had. how they let you continually use all the education materials. how they encourage you to practice, practice, practice. There's opportunities all around all the time. They have great business training. They have podcast trainings. And it is so well worth the money. At first, you think to yourself.
oh this is a lot of money i realized that this was money so well spent historically i've not been very tech savvy and i found that in setting up an online business that the academy has been incredibly supportive and that every turn they will help me. I didn't even know how to use Zoom. And so they helped me all along at every step of the way, any question I had, and they were completely...
You could ask twice, three times, four times, and get an answer that was really comprehensive and something that you could really execute. At the beginning, I was very concerned because I'm having a... problem with my spine and scheduling myself for surgery in the near future. So I didn't think I'd be able to show up because I couldn't sit at a desk. And I really couldn't look straight into the camera. And I was a little embarrassed about that. And so it was.
causing me to be worried that I couldn't really be fully present during some of the calls. But gradually, with the support from the other students and the teachers, I have... been more confident. It doesn't matter. They're very accepting. And I am now able to just feel confident and not embarrassed about my challenges.
And it's been wonderful. In addition to the other things, the other things due to my health challenges, I specifically went to the director and said, I may have to go through the program. not on schedule. And he was just fine with that because of their wonderful policy that you can reattend and reattend and reattend any part of the program. He said, that's fine. Take your time.
do whatever you have to do. And that was just a gift because then the pressure was off. I so appreciate having a chance to tell other people about the Thriving Coach Academy because... It has made such a difference in my life. And I think at a minimum, you should research it. Even if you're not going to be a coach, it makes you a better person. I think that it's something that everybody should look into. You'll learn our coach's secrets. to get started. I'll see you on the inside.