I coach one very special client every Sunday morning, and I don’t charge a cash fee… and yet, I’ve never been paid more.
Today, when I am sitting down to write this, it’s a bright Sunday morning. I got up, boogied my way to the gym, followed it up with my classic weekend breakfast, and got ready for a session. That’s right. A Sunday Session with a very special client.
This is a client that I’ve worked with for a few years now. They’re on year two of their business – full of learning the hard way, eager to grow, and putting in all sorts of work. I don’t charge them a cash fee, and yet, I receive an infinite amount of compensation from them.
Okay, yes, this client is my son and his business partner. As a mom, I get a front row seat to my first born son moving through his own journey as an entrepreneur. In the handful of decades we’ve shared a life together, I’ve seen him take challenge after challenge with grace, drive, and a consistent willingness to do the work. Today, I witness the wins, losses, learning to communicate with a business partner who is his ideal match and yet so different from him. (Absolute rocket fuel!) Getting to support him in both his toughest times and his most joyous ones is worth more than any fee I ever could put on an invoice.
That, my friends, is infinite compensation. And it’s one of my favorite tools we teach inside Coaching Magic YOU-niversity.
WHAT IS IT?
Think of it a little like a passive income, but instead of living in the world of metrics, it lives in the realm of possibility, creativity, gratitude and service.
In case you missed the memo, we live in a capitalist world. We’re all swimming towards one form of compensation: a paycheck. Cash. Money. Bacon. Dough. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. 😉 The strain comes in when money becomes the only way we measure what we receive. Your time equals X amount of money. It packages up our value, skills, and worth and puts it in a tiny piggy bank.
Like many of the tools in Coaching Magic, the infinite compensation model has two sides…
Side ONE: Notice what you’re already receiving.
The first side is rooted in gratitude and awareness. Look around at all the resources supporting you right now: the joys, the relationships, the flexibility, the growth… everything you receive because you’ve dedicated your life to becoming someone who helps others become their best. Some of my richest compensation will never show up on a bank statement. It shows up on a Sunday morning, in a session room, sitting across from my son.
SIDE TWO: Creating Infinite Compensation for the Future
The second side is about what you’re planting today. I love telling this story to coaches in their first couple of years, when they are frustrated that what they’re doing today isn’t feeding them right now.
In my first two months as a coach, I had 64 connecting meetings. Coffees, lunches, anyone who would sit across from me. I got curious, asked questions, and of course, asked who they know who might want my shiny new coaching services.
A year into my practice, I was doing some reflections and contact reviewing, and looked back at those 64 conversations. How many clients had come from them?
Zero. Not one.
Discouraged and defeated, I reminded myself to just keep connecting, serving, and showing up. I kept this list close to me, and revisited it often. Three years later, I went through it and that answer was 11.
One introduction led to another, led to a deeper connection, which led to a friendship, which led to a book recommendation, etc.
Every conversation and spark you’re having today is leading to a future compensation: joy, knowledge, skills, and connections to people you haven’t yet met. And as a happy byproduct, we get rewarded for adding value! For me, it led to a million-dollar practice, eight years in a row.
Trade In Your Objectives for “I Wonder”…
When our eyes are open to possibility, we step out of the constraint of tight goals and into expansive questions. Before your next conversation, try asking yourself:
- I wonder what will come of this conversation?
- I wonder what possibilities there are for this human I’m meeting today?
- I wonder what we could create for the world together?
- I wonder how we could raise the consciousness of the planet today?
Keeping Your Eyes Open
One morning a few years back, I was having breakfast with a former client. As he described the next adventure he was creating, he mentioned how useful our work together had been. So I asked him a question: “what if we put together a year-long program where I could support you with this beautiful thing you’re creating?”
That agreement had nothing to do with my goals for the quarter…. And yet, it’s been lucrative in so many ways more than fees. I’ve learned through coaching his team, built new relationships, expanded my skills, and helped humans thrive inside his organization.
Opportunities to serve are all around us whether that be with current clients going deeper, past clients in new ways, or new clients in different ways.
Mix and Match
If you’re starting to think this tool sounds off the rails, hang with me. Infinite compensation still takes focus and discipline. It still asks you to know where your unique gifts live… what Jim Collins calls your Frame, what Dan Sullivan calls your Unique Ability, and what EOS calls staying in your Love and Great quadrant.
When you’re grounded in who you are and what you offer, you can mix and match every skill, resource, and energy you’ve gathered together along the way and access them during new opportunities.
So, coach… where have you been infinitely compensated this week?
If this stirred something in you, I’d love to have you in the room. Infinite compensation is just one of the tools waiting for you inside Coaching Magic YOU-niversity, where coaches do their inner work and outer work side by side, in a community that reminds you the magic was never meant to fit in a tiny little box.
