Nov. 3, 2025

You Don’t Need To Be Perfect To Be Powerful

Send us a text Transformation rarely waits for a perfect plan. It arrives in a single click—the second you stop performing and start being present. We unpack that turning point for new and seasoned coaches alike: how confidence stops being a performance and becomes a grounded way of paying attention, how safety invites honesty, and why the deepest sessions happen when you let go of pressure and listen for what matters. We walk through the most common trap coaches face—confusing sounding prof...

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Send us a text

Transformation rarely waits for a perfect plan. It arrives in a single click—the second you stop performing and start being present. We unpack that turning point for new and seasoned coaches alike: how confidence stops being a performance and becomes a grounded way of paying attention, how safety invites honesty, and why the deepest sessions happen when you let go of pressure and listen for what matters.

We walk through the most common trap coaches face—confusing sounding professional with being effective—and show how presence creates a different kind of room. When clients feel seen rather than managed, they share the hard thing they’ve been avoiding. That’s where real change begins. We also break down a pivotal mindset shift: the 50 percent rule. Your craft, questions, and steadiness matter deeply, and the client’s willingness to engage matters just as much. Sharing responsibility doesn’t dilute your impact; it frees you to deliver it.

You’ll hear a real story from our certification QA where a coach feared “getting it wrong.” Under the fear sat a belief that a client’s results depend only on the coach. Challenging that belief opened the space for self-trust, cleaner questions, and a calmer presence. We talk about how to practice this in the wild: slow your pace, use paraphrase to anchor, ask one curiosity-led question at a time, and treat silence as a tool rather than a threat. As you rewire from performer to coach, sessions get deeper, clients feel safer, and breakthroughs show up more often—and sooner.

If this resonates, subscribe, share with a coach who needs the reminder, and leave a quick review to tell us the moment that changed your practice.

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Chapters

00:00 - Moments That Change Everything

00:45 - Confidence As Presence Not Performance

02:00 - Releasing Pressure And Creating Safety

03:20 - The 50 Percent Responsibility Shift

05:00 - Practicing Presence In Certification

05:30 - Teaser For Breakthrough Two

Transcript
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When we look back at all of the coaches that we've mentored, one thing stands out.

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And it's that transformation doesn't take months or years.

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It happens in moments.

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There's always that one moment where something clicks.

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The coach stops performing and starts being, or the client suddenly sees what's actually holding them back.

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Those are the moments that change everything.

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In this 10-part series, we're going to take you behind the scenes to actually share some of those moments that we've witnessed over and over again.

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The turning points that reveal how transformation happens, both for coaches and clients.

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And our goal here isn't to teach or to preach, it is to help you see yourself in these stories.

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Because once you understand what creates these moments, you'll start creating them too.

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So let's dive in with the first one.

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A moment that changes everything for new coaches.

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When it finally clicks, that they don't have to be perfect to be powerful.

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When coaches first start with us, there's usually this moment where something just clicks.

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They realize they don't have to be perfect to be powerful.

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What do you think is actually happening in that moment?

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We see this constantly.

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And that's that new coaches think confidence means actually sounding professional.

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But that's not where real confidence comes from.

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It comes from the moment that you stop trying to perform and start being present.

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I want you to think back to a time when you were having a conversation with someone and they were 100% present with you.

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They were giving you their time, focus, and undivided attention.

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How do you think that made you feel to know that they were fully present, listening to what you were saying and making the conversation be about you, not about them?

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What kind of impact did that have on you?

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That is what we get to give when we stop trying to perform and we just focus on being present.

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So here's the transformation we see here is that coaches stop focusing on am I gonna say or ask the right thing?

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And instead just listening to what their client has to say and just asking them the next curiosity-based question without having to overthink it.

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And this true confidence comes when you stop trying to focus on you and instead focusing all your attention on them.

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That's why today's quote is confidence isn't performance, it's presence.

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Why do you think so many coaches fall into that performance trap?

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Well, the truth is they have a heart for helping people.

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And that sometimes means they get a little nervous because they think they're gonna do it wrong, maybe plan some limiting beliefs in their clients.

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And it gets them to overthink and they're not actually present in that session.

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Now it's coming from a good place, but that added pressure doesn't allow you to actually show up and hear what you need to hear in that session.

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I've also noticed that once coaches get past this, we see that the pressure has taken off, and then they can actually find the right questions to ask.

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We all don't need any added pressure in a coaching session.

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So anytime we can take that off, it's really gonna help us, but ultimately help our clients even more.

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So what changes when they actually let go of that pressure?

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The session relaxes, not just for you, but your client.

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Your client starts to feel safer.

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They know you're paying attention to them.

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The coach and the client feel more connected than ever before.

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And that's the type of environment where real change happens.

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Not when people are too uncomfortable to share something with you, but because you've created a safe enough environment that they're willing to share not only the great things, but also the challenging things so you can help them through it.

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How does that shift affect their results as coaches?

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So when your clients feel safe, they open up more to you, which means the sessions actually go deeper where they really needed to go in the first place.

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But most importantly, is the coach starts to trust themselves.

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And when they do that, the client can feel that as well.

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Now, I want to share an exact example of somebody that we help walk through this during your certification.

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During one of our QAs, a powerful coach on our team asked a really great question.

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He said, But what if I get it wrong?

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What if I actually hurt my client?

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And so we walked him through the framework that we teach inside of our certification.

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And what we ultimately found is there was actually an underlying belief inside of him.

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And that belief was my client's results depend only on me.

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Here's the thing.

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As a coach, it's powerful to take control of the things you can control.

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How you show up, how you think, talk, and act, and what you bring to the session.

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But you always have to remember that your client is 50% of that equation.

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You can give them the best coaching session ever and they could do nothing with it.

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Or you can just make them aware of a couple things and they can go off and totally transform their life with it.

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Now, when I shared this with him, he had an aha moment.

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He realized that he can only take his clients 50% of the way.

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And he was going to do the best job that he can to do that.

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But the other 50% was on his client.

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I remember after taking him through the entire session, he told me that a light bulb went off for him.

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Not only has he been through hard things before, but that when he focuses on the things that he can control, he does show up as the best version of himself.

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But guess what?

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We all still make mistakes from time to time.

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This is a part of the learning and growth process.

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Being willing to do that is really what being brave is all about.

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Now it's powerful when you see a session like that actually happen.

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That's why we actually have our certification.

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So we can create a space not only to practice it, but to get your own coaching too.

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It also gives me an opportunity to challenge coaches who are looking at being perfect rather than being present.

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Now, I want to make sure I'm clear.

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This is not easy to do.

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We just aren't wired to do this naturally.

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That's why we need to focus on rewiring our system, our brain, into that of a coach, not a performer.

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So once you switch from performance to presence mode, you and your client are gonna feel it.

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But that opens you up for the next big moment.

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And that's how best you can show up when your client goes silent during a session.

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Because that's actually the best time when you can lean in and help your client.

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And that's where we're heading in breakthrough number two.