I want to share with you what I think are the top 5 keys that you need to become a great Coach, Speaker, Mentor, and Guru. My top 5 keys on what you need to do to be a great Coach, Speaker, Mentor, Guru and monetise your expertise.

Make no mistake in the 21st century the marketplace for monetising your expertise has never ever been better. Now I should forewarn you my list of these five things is not completely exhaustive – there’s probably other things I would add to this list, but these are my top 5 keys that if you want to get into the marketplace right now, if you want to monetise your passion, your mission, your experience, your wisdom right now… these are the things that I’d get you to focus on first, if I was working with you one-on-one. These 5 keys are not anything at all about marketing, Clickfunnels, landing pages, opt-ins, Kajabi, Infusionsoft – it’s not any of those things, even though I believe these tools things are all important.

1. BE CONGRUENT

My number one key is that to expertly lead people – you’ve got to be congruent! The number one thing if you want to create a brand (and a brand is something that goes on for three, five, ten, twenty years… or for my good friend Tony Robbins, 40-plus years). I’ve been doing this for more than two decades my friends and I tell you, you’ve got to find a way to make sure that you are congruent in your message and congruent in what you’re teaching. As my friend Keith Cunningham would say “You’ve got to be eating your own cooking” now my caveat to that is that doesn’t mean you’re meant to be perfect. I am not perfect – yes I know! If I got my wife here right now she’d be like “He definitely is not perfect!” The goal’s not to be perfect – I’ve got stuff that I’m working on, I make mistakes, I have to apologise for things, I have to remedy things, I don’t always follow through on my word – but my job is to be congruent. Ask yourself, am I moving forward? am I continually stripping myself back? am I using the work on myself? So that’s kind of my number one thing – are you congruent? For me, the type of questions I ask myself are along the lines of, are you actually everything you’re teaching with clients, everything you’re working with from stage, are you actually applying it to yourself? Are you doing your own wheel of life? If you’ve got a category that’s going great, but one that’s not going great – are you working on that? Are you dealing with that? Have you got some wounds from your past? Have you cleaned them up? Have you got a vision board? If you’re doing all the things that as a teacher, coach, mentor, guru, and expert you’re probably also teaching and consulting this to your clients, but are you doing them on yourself?

2. HAVE A SYSTEM AND STRUCTURE

My number two important critical skill of being a great coach, speaker, mentor, expert is you actually have to have a system and structure, you actually have to have a process. You have to have some science, you have to have some reason behind what you’re doing, when you’re doing it, why you’re doing it. You know if you’re just gonna jump on stage and speak charismatically, if you’re just gonna jump on stage and tell a great story, if you’re gonna just jump on stage and… I don’t know reveal true emotions – they’re all useful traits to be able to grab the audience’s attention, and they might get your foot in the door, they might get you on stage, but they’re not gonna help you build a long career. They’re not gonna have clients come back to you again and again. So you need to know what you’re doing, why are you’re doing it, and what it’s going to evoke. If you went to a video store (well you wouldn’t do that because it’s not 2003, but if you did) or you went to Netflix, you’d look on all the video categories and there’d be systems and structures behind what you’re viewing. There’d be the horror films, there’d be the romantic comedies, there’d be the documentaries, there’d be the kids films, the science fiction films, and within each of those categories there’d be some systems and structures to how those stories are put together. Same thing with coaching – there’s going to be a system with structure to that. Same thing with speaking on stage – there’s gonna be a system and structure. Same thing with teaching and mentoring, there’s going to be a system and structure to that. It can’t just be random, can’t just be ad hoc, can’t just be some cool stuff from doing something for 20 years. It needs to be chunked into useable frameworks for your clients to get, and to understand so they can use it. So that’s my second critical skill to be a great coach, speaker, teacher, mentor, expert from the stage.

3. YOU NEED SOME COACHING ON YOUR COACHING

Third one – I love the third one (and nobody’s telling you this) is you actually need some coaching on your coaching. You actually need some mentoring on your speaking. You know I’m so astounded by how many people are putting themselves out there as speaking, coaching, mentoring experts and they don’t have a mentor! They don’t have a coach! I was watching England’s leading test run scorer (if you know the sport of cricket great, if you don’t it doesn’t matter) and he just resigned recently, retired recently – and the first thing he did was he thanked his mentor who was an English cricket captain years ago. I was listening to an Ed Sheeran song last night with my family after dinner (we like to do sing alongs after dinner) and I noted that Ed Sheeran’s mentor is a man called Elton John and they have a weekly phone call. A weekly phone call with his mentor to build his career. You might go “Ed Sheeran’s pretty successful!” and he actually is but he’s still getting mentoring and coaching from somebody else. I would say this – who’s looking over your shoulder? who’s coaching you? Who’s giving you feedback, keeping you on track, and making sure you’re continually raising your standards? I’ve been so blessed to have some incredible coaches, mentors, teachers in my life and I still seek them out. Whether I’m going around the world, or around the country, or online, or reading books, or meeting people one-on-one and paying thousands and thousands of dollars for that – I’ve got to get coaching, mentoring, and feedback on the work that I’m doing – and that journey never ends.

4. KEEP GOING BACK TO THE WELL

My fourth key is I’ve got to make sure that I keep going back to the well! And the well is this universal, endless source of knowledge, wisdom, experience, self awareness, and self actualisation. I need to be going back to the well again, and again. That means to ask yourself “am I working on myself?” Am I continually cleaning up my past, am I continually building my future, am I continually learning and developing new skills and tools? Now one of the challenges with being really great at something is you kind of tend to overuse it. Ask yourself, “am I reinventing my questioning? Am I reinventing my strategies?” And whilst there are some time-honoured proven techniques, you also want to make sure you’re continually updating yourself with the way that the market is, or where the needs of popular culture are heading. Am I continually investing in my own learning, my own growth, my own development, my own skill sets. That means going back to the universal well of knowledge, and information, and data, and experiences, for the rest of your life. In the next week I’m going to be participating in an event that I’ve even actually taught at! But my journey to go back to the well again in continual, and That’s my fourth key – on how to be a great coach, speaker, teacher, mentor on stage making millions of dollars.

5. REMAIN A BLANK CANVAS

My fifth key is going to confuse you and it’s gonna be something that almost nobody is talking about, and that is my firm belief that when I’m working with people whether it be one-on-one in person, whether it be one-on-one in this kind of unique format here, or through video, or whether it’s through thousands of people, ten thousand people at a time – I’ve got to make sure that when I’m teaching, when I’m coaching, when I’m speaking, it’s really important that I remain as what I call a blank canvas. A blank canvas, and by that I mean it’s really important that even though I’ve been doing this for two and a half decades, even though I know lots of stuff, even though I’ve got a great slide presentation, or some pre-organised notes, even though I think I know who this person may be because I’ve done some personality profiling on them, even though I’ve got lots of references, experience and I’m the expert, I’m the Guru, I still want to be a blank canvas. And with that I mean I want to hold this person in my heart, I want to hold the audience in my heart and be really open to the fact that you know what? Maybe I don’t know who they are, maybe I’m a little less about judgment and a little bit less about you know assessing them, and more about being just open and genuinely curious, and inquisitive, and playful about who they are, what their needs are, how I can serve them, helping them – whether it’s one-on-one, or a large group, helping them find what’s best for them. Rather than me saying well “you should do this” because that’s my Dad finger and that’s not a finger I want to use when I’m coaching, teaching, mentoring, and speaking. This is a delicate one because on one hand they’ve paid me tens of thousands of dollars because I know a lot of stuff – and I do. But I always want to balance that with making sure that I’m not in judgment, I haven’t predetermined or pre-decided what’s best for them, and then I continually bring that curiosity, that playfulness, that inquisitiveness, and that real state of just being a blank canvas so that every time we meet, every time we talk, every time we share, we’re starting new without any preconceptions of who they are. That one we could chat about all day.

So with that if you’re looking to be a coach, a speaker, a teacher, a mentor, or guru and you wanna get paid for that, for me these are my top five. Would I add to this list? sure! And if we spent time together I could add to it, but make sure you’re congruent – not perfect, I’m not perfect. Make sure you’ve got some systems and structure, make sure you’re getting some feedback on your work – some coaching and mentoring on your work. Make sure you’re continually up-skilling yourself, and learning more about yourself, and then finally – make sure you hold that person in your heart and be a blank canvas without judgment, without perception, and without filters.

I hope this has been useful for you, if it has please subscribe to my blog, please share the video, please do whatever you need to go and do and of course – ask questions! I love questions and if you’ve got questions – or maybe a topic that you’d love me to cover please just put it in the box down below and chat away and I’ll chat back with you.

Until then get out there and go get some clients, do some great work!

Live deliberately and bye for now.