Hey Reader,

I don't know anyone who doesn't have, or hasn't had, imposter syndrome for something or at least one thing in their life. It really feels like it permeates every corner of every where.

And I think the thing about it is the worst - is that it stops great people from doing great things in the world. And we all know that we always need more great things in the world.

Today I am sharing some big realizations I had in my business that helped me get rid of the imposter syndrome that I had. And I use this strategy in other areas of my life too.

Read on. Get confident. Do cool shit!

Today In the Rebellion

• 10 Lessons I've Learned Running a Half a Million Dollar Coaching Business, LESSON 7.
• Notes & Quotes To Noodle On

You know the drill by now! WholeYOU has been closed for almost a month now (wow) and I am sharing with you all of the lessons I've learned from running my health coaching business for 5 years before closing it down.

This is Lesson #7: My certifications count for 10% of my skill or less. Aka breaking the qualification rule.

I have worked with so many coaches and service providers and small business owners and imposter syndrome is a massive theme:

Everyone seems to doubt if they are qualified ‘enough’ for what they want to do and create in the world.

And when I ask people ok, what would it take for you to be qualified enough, they say - completing a course/more education/a certification/a certain job on a resume.

We've already discussed how people aren’t buying our certification and knowledge, they are buying the result. But it also turns out - certifications don't even give us the skills to get people results. 😬 *eek big statement*

Like I’m serious.

And when I realized this, it took my imposter syndrome and tossed it right out the window.

Let me explain it to you.

Certifications are the what - not the how. As an educator for 15 years in different realms - from elementary education, to adult education, teaching at the university level, to the coaching industry, and just a general learning nerd who goes anywhere and tries to learn anything: The majority of learning that we get is the WHAT.

If you're a personal trainer you learned all the muscles and their movements.

If you're a career coach you learn what a good resume has on it or interview skills.

Think back to all of our formal education - there was SO MUCH what - facts, knowledge, dates, names, events the we are supposed to remember.

🚨But the WHAT ONLY MATTERS if you know HOW to apply it and interact with it. 🚨

And I have yet to find a certification/learning experience that actually teaches you the HOW. Even when they are teaching you the how - they are delivering in a what format. When you learn interview skills they give you a list:

• Eye contact
• Shake hands
• Repeat their name
• Don’t say um

But just knowing that list or, the WHAT, isn’t going to make you successful.

You have to apply it and then you also have to practice it and get feedback to know if you are even doing it well.

Btw (this is why I am creating my own coaching program for this and it launches in TWO WEEKS and I can’t wait)

As a health coach and EVEN as a nutritionist, I found most people came to me knowing that they needed to eat vegetables, drink water, move their body and sleep. I didn’t need to tell them that. I had to help them apply it.

None of my certifications TRULY taught me HOW to help people stay apply it and stay consistent.

I learned all of that from testing motivation strategies while being a teacher for a decade and also from MY OWN EXPERIENCE.

My own experiences were the most valuable things in my coaching career.

The best way that I could help my clients apply the WHAT was to understand WHY I would or would not do the thing myself.

🥦 Let's use eating veggies as an example:

I would look at my life and think - what are all of the things that got in the way of me eating vegetables?

• Choosing to go out to eat instead.
• Veggies feeling boring.
• Not knowing how to cook them so they were delicious
• Them always going bad in the fridge
• Being the only person in the house who wanted to eat them

NOW - I can look at what I know about each of those things and ask myself HOW DID I SOLVE THAT. NOW I have strategies that matter.

It doesn’t matter which vegetables have vitamin C, it matters that my clients have strategies to make sure they stop those veggies from rotting in the fridge and being tossed in their trash can and instead get them inside of their bodies.

I would do the exact same thing for every single ‘WHAT’ that I was supposed to be teaching.

And low and behold my clients started getting CRAZY AMAZING results. 🤯

Because they were able to actually implement what they already knew they were supposed to do.

AND I became so much more confident and felt so much more ‘qualified’ when I realized that it was my own personal transformation that gave me the right strategies and tools to get my clients the transformations that they wanted too.

So I want to challenge you - what is YOUR experience that you can use to guide your clients. How can you see that as the most important tool and strategy set that you can give them?

Listen to this learning (with more detail and commentary) on the podcast:

Notes & Quotes To Noodle On 🧠

I've been reading, and haven't finished yet, a phenomenal book called Design for How People Learn, by Julie Dirkesen. This is all about... exactly what the title says! 🤷🏻‍♀️ Making sure that people learn.

When we think about the HOW - this is what it is.

In the book Julie says that learning isn't just about the information - it's about the SKILL to DO something with it.

Every time we teach - we need to be using strategies that help our clients be motivated to do something with that they have learned.

Our goal is for our clients to have what we would call 'procedural memory' where they are able to do the skills we are teaching them in a way that feels unconscious - where they don't have to fight with themselves to get it done and it just feels natural. (the bonus of this is that it frees up the brain to have more space for more things!)

Here are some tips on how we can do that from the book:

🧠 Ask yourself, what would they do with this learning?

🧠 What story do I know that I can share about this so they can relate and understand?

🧠 Ask yourself: would this be something they would do in the real world? Can I tell when they have done it?

🧠 Am I allowing for multiple attempts at practicing this?

🧠 How can I make this feel significant to their life?

🧠 What tough situations might they run into when applying this skill?

All of these questions help you see the HOW they would apply the learning, and when you do, you can coach your client through the application

No matter where you are and what you are doing:

• Your personal value is more than enough to get rid of imposter syndrome
• Application is the key to the best learning and results getting.

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Later Alligator,

Kayla

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p.s. there are TWO ways to work with me.

1: Coaches College is my signature coaching skills program where I teach coaches autonomy based coaching strategies that will get their clients better and faster results and get the coach more money while doing it. You can get on the waitlist HERE!​

2: Want to get my hands on your brain, business and life? Hit reply and inquire about 1:1 coaching availability.

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