Page 149 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

STEP 5: IDENTIFY YOUR PASSIONS AND VALUES 137

counter to my style of attracting clients, which is a natural, soft-
sell approach). I decided to lead my own seminars and quit their
training program.
I had read once in a Tony Robbins book that he started giv-
ing seminars for free out of his tiny apartment. Now he is one of
the most highly paid motivational speakers in the world. If Tony
could do it, well, then so could I. I started by sending out a one-
page invitation printed on brightly colored paper off my home
computer for a Sunday-evening potluck supper with a talk, led by
me of course, that I called “Life Design.” I invited some friends
and acquaintances and asked them to bring along a dish of their
favorite food as well as their favorite friends. I made a big pot of
chili so that there was a main course, and given that this was New
York City, most people brought something from a deli—a pizza or
Chinese stir-fry—to round out the fare. We started with the food
to break the ice, and after that was done, I got up and delivered the
presentation for the next hour. Then we broke for dessert and had
a final wrap-up. That became my standard format.
I got most of my first paying clients simply by giving this free
seminar once a month. I was still working at the bank, so once I
got up to sixteen clients, I realized that was too much and went
back down to eight until I left Chase. It was a very easy way to get a
coaching business off the ground! Then I decided it was time to get
out of my tiny apartment, where people had to sit on the bed and
on the floor, and get a bit more professional, so I rented a seminar
space and began charging for the seminar—I was moving up in the
world.
Or was I? To my dismay, only one person attended the first ses-
sion. I decided to carry on nevertheless and presented the entire
seminar to this one woman—who later became a coach herself!
I also taped this seminar and used the recording as the basis for
the script for my very first product, the Irresistible Attraction: A
Way of Life audio program, which is still a strong seller after all
these years! Now, here is the odd thing . . . somehow word got
out that I was leading the Irresistible Attraction seminar in New
York City, and other organizations asked me if I’d be willing to