It was pointed out in the last post that an advertising executive thinks the name Success Warrior Coaching is going to fail me. This earned her a negative five Sword points (name change - explained later) but to be fair, she is not alone in her belief. Let me tell you how it came about and why it's not going to change anytime soon.
I've been blogging for 4 years now. I can't believe it's been that long. That's a lot of words written. I somehow heard the term "Blog", went looking for it, started and was instantly hooked. I love writing and this format worked so nicely for me. I signed up for a blogging service called Blogit (it was called the Blogging Network back when I signed up), which is kind of a gated blogging community. Bloggers pay to be part of the community and part of those payments get kicked back to the bloggers based on popularity of their blogs.
I created the blogging name PatrolSergeant and my first blog was called "How To Win."
I created blogs on all sorts of topics and moved around from topic to topic on a whim. When I got bored with one, I would delete it (a big mistake) and just go off in another direction. I was writing just for the sake of writing. It was an exercise. I would create blogs in topics that I had no real interest in and write on them for a couple of months. It was a great way to work my brain.
About a year before I quit police work, I knew that I would be moving on. The imminent arrival of my son had me rethinking my future and the future of my family. I decided to change my blogging name. I wanted something that would apply no matter what my title or position or function was. I went through all kinds of ideas but Success Warrior just seemed to fit perfectly. I had been studying how to win for a long time and many of those ideas came from my study of combat. The principles that I had learned applied to every area of life.
I changed my blogging name and presented it to the Blogit community and it was well received.
I would send PTE Rick some of my blogs that I thought he would find interesting. He did find them interesting and asked me to post all my blogs where he could read them without joining Blogit. I didn't change anything for a long time because I was content with Blogit. He's kind of persistant though and I eventually starting putting some of my posts on Yahoo360. I did that for a little while but I really did not like the look or feel of Yahoo360 and it seemed slow to navigate so I quit posting there.
I did like how Rick's blog looked though and so I finally got a typepad blog where everyone could read. I started with my financial blog that had already been going since April on Blogit. I just picked up where I was there, midstream, and kept on going. Eventually I added my Chronicles blog to cover all topics besides money since I have had and still have some interesting and funny things happen in my life.
In the meantime, I had started looking for a job. It was obvious that casino life wasn't for me. Casino life is like anti-family life. Not as much as police work was but still a long way from where I was trying to be. I came in contact with a couple of life coaches. I had never heard of a life coach before and I looked into what they do. It was pretty much the same thing I had tried to do in my martial arts training at one time and again to a lesser degree, in the police world. As I learned more about it, it seemed like I had been in training to do this job for a long time.
One thing that really pulled at me with personal coaching (as it's starting to be called more) was that I would be working with people who were trying to make their life better. I had shared a lot of information with people that did not want the information. I had mistakenly assumed that everyone wanted to make their life better. Some people are content with where they are in life and just want to coast along with the fewest bumps possible. Witch coaching, I would be working with motivated people and in turn, I had no doubt that I would find myself being more motivated. Surround yourself with people that you want to be like and you will be like them.
I purchased a self study course because I wanted to have a look at what this thing was before I took the bigger leap of getting certified. I had done a college research paper on coaching and everything still seemed right. The course would give me a behind the scenes look at coaching.
Part of the course was coming up with a name for your practice.
"How about Success Warrior Coaching," I asked Tia, my wife. I bounce all my ideas off of her. Her response was similar to the ad exec.
"It sounds too aggressive," she said.
Hmmm. I started brainstorming ideas for a name, jotting down name after name on a piece of paper. I tried names that were softer, or spiritual, or new age, or just "warm fuzzy." After doing that for a week, I told her that I was probably going with Success Warrior Coaching.
I did up a little blurb with the name and sent it to a coach that I correspond with and asked him what he thought.
"You're probably going to get a lot of young, type-A, men as clients. That's okay if that's what you're after," he wrote back. It would be unanimous when the ad exec chimed in. I looked back over my other possible names but I just couldn't bring myself to change it. Success Warrior Coaching wasn't just a name with me, it was a feeling, and I would be going against my better judgement if I changed it.
I kept it and offered up my services. I haven't completed the certification course yet so I am offering my services at a greatly reduced rate. This will give me practice as I go for my certification and I think that I still have something to offer to clients, especially if their focus is on personal finance. I can help people in a variety of goals but with all the focus I have done on money, this is a particularly strong point for me. If you have goals that you don't seem to be getting closer to accomplishing, and are willing to help me practice for my certification, get a hold of me.
I have had three people take me up on the offer so far. All three have been happy with the results they are getting and plan on continuing indefinitely (who wouldn't when you see what other coaches charge?).
Any guesses on the demographic of my clients?
Women.
All three are women. None are aggressive or type-A or trying to work their way to the top of a corporation. They are friendly, warm people that have some personal goals that will make big changes in their lives. No visions of world domination amongst them.
I guess you never know. One thing that I do know and that I say often is that you have to go with what you feel is right. Success Warrior Coaching feels right to me and I'm keeping it.
