Compassion Fatigue

What is Compassion Fatigue?

You’re literally sick and tired of your clients. Yes, I said it. Ever felt that way? Well, guess what? You’re totally normal. I want to help you overcome “compassion fatigue” when all you ever wanted was to be a coach, but all of a sudden, your patience runs thin and you’re resenting your clients. This is a topic that is very taboo and not very many coaches talk about, and that is compassion fatigue.

In my opinion, every coach experiences compassion fatigue in their career at some point. If you’re a new coach right now, you might be thinking, “Well, Carolin, if you’re a coach, you have to love your clients. You want those clients to come to you. You want to serve and help,” and yes, I agree, but if you’re an experienced coach, you may know what I’m talking about because over time you hear the same problems over and over again. They ask you the same questions every single day. Their problems start to seem very trivial to you and all you think is, “Why can’t they move forward? Why can’t they overcome that? Why are they still stuck?” What happens is that your passion and patience turn into resentment and you just don’t want to hear it anymore. What I want you to know is that’s completely normal. Don’t feel ashamed. Don’t feel bad. It happens to the best of us, and I think it’s going to happen to each and every coach along their journey of growth and scale. I want to talk to you about how I’ve been able to manage that, what I do about my own compassion fatigue, and how I continue to grow my business while still holding space for clients, welcoming new clients, and being the coach they deserve. Over the last couple of years, my business has literally exploded. I think it has exploded because people can sense my authenticity and that I really, really care.

I really care about you. I care about my coaches. I care about my team, and I want the best for everybody. If you’re a giver like me, it’s very easy to get very tired of giving, giving, giving because we only have so much.

How to Avoid Compassion Fatigue

It’s really important for us to know how to refuel our own tanks and how to avoid compassion fatigue so that we can be those strong, powerful, inspirational coaches we want to be for our clients.

• Go back to your roots. That’s step number one. Whenever I talk to a client and they ask me a question that makes it very trivial, that may seem very newish, where I feel like this question is self-explanatory, you should already know this, I go back to my roots and I think about how I used to think, how I used to feel, and my own insecurities and uncertainties and questions back in the day. Think about two years ago, three years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, when you were still in those shoes, in the situation your client is in right now. How did you feel? How did you think? What questions did you ask? That will help you understand how they’re feeling right now. Have compassion. Be there for them without feeling resentful.
• It’s not your responsibility. When I look at my coach-client relationships, I know that I hold 50% of the responsibility, but the client holds the other 50%. I go in halfway and they come in halfway, and together we create amazing results. Many times your compassion fatigue can come from you feeling overly responsible for your clients, where you think that their success and their results all depend on you and you being a good coach for them. That’s simply not true.
• Growth comes with discomfort. Your client’s growth and their success comes by them taking one baby step at a time and experiencing discomfort and sometimes failure along the way. Because with failure comes success, with failure comes learning, with failure comes doing things better and better, and growth is a result of just that. Let yourself off the hook.

Self-Care and Coaching

It’s not all on you. Be that powerful, inspiring, passionate, and compassionate coach for your clients and trust me, that will keep your compassion fatigue down and will turn you into an amazing coach. Another thing you can do that’s really simple literally steps away. Throughout your day, book yourself in some little breaks, half-hour breaks, in between coaching sessions and step away.

• Go for a walk with your dog.
• Go for lunch with a friend.
• Have a cup of coffee.
• Read a book, meditate, or work out.

Whatever you can to break these sessions apart and refuel you and give some care and love to yourself is going to help you be a much stronger reenergized coach on your next session. Self-care is a really important part of you limiting or eliminating compassion fatigue when you’re experiencing right now.

Do Yourself a Favor

Look at your clients and see what the most commonly asked questions really are. What are they asking you all the time? What are the biggest struggles along the way? In order for you to make that easier for them to deal with, you can create little videos. A very smart thing I’ve done in my business development is to create how-to videos, YouTube episodes, modules, little videos for clients that answer their frequently asked questions.

Whenever a client comes to you with a problem that you’ve heard a million times before, tell them, “Guess what? I have a video right there. I have a YouTube episode. I have a Facebook Live. I have content that will answer your question in a very concise way. Go and watch that video right now and you’ll be well on your way.” Do yourself a favor and create an FAQ library of little videos and how to’s that can help you answer your client’s questions so that you don’t have to answer them and your clients can self-serve and overcome those challenges they’re facing right now.

One of the Smartest Business Moves

Over the last 12 months, I’ve hired several sub coaches and I think that’s an amazing strategy that any coach in any niche can apply immediately. Hiring successful coaches or accountability coaches or sub coaches is one of the smartest business moves you can make as a coach when you’re growing and scaling your coaching business. Because as you grow your business, more and more clients will come onboard and naturally you’re not going to be able to service all of them. I believe that one-to-one coaching is required for your clients to have results, but you can’t host all these sessions yourself, right? What do you do? You hire sub coaches.

In my business, we have a mindset coach, a niche coach, a business coach, a marketing coach, a sales coach, and a tech coach, and of course, myself. I select my coaches based on their values, based on their integrity, and also based on their experience and their skills. This allows me to grow because I have the support of the coaching team, and my clients are benefiting from that as well and it’s not all on my shoulders. Even if you’re small right now, even if you’re just getting started, it might be wise for you to see if you can hire a sub coach to come into your business and help you coach your clients even if it’s just a couple of hours every week.

Don’t forget about your other clients and utilizing them as a support network. As you grow and scale your coaching business, chances are you will move from one-to-one coaching into group coaching and building what I call a hybrid program. If you want to know more about building a coaching program that is a hybrid: Download this document where I show you how to build a hybrid coaching program.

Facilitate a Group

Leveraging the power of your client group is one of the smartest things you can do as a coach almost immediately. if you just have three, four or five clients, put them together in a group and allow them to come together and support each other. It’s quite simple to facilitate a group in a Facebook group for example. You can bring your clients together in a Zoom room, at local networking events, retreats, and so much more. Think about strategic ways for you to bring your clients together in a community and let them support each other and let them answer each other’s questions.

Now I Want to Hear from You

Let’s have a conversation. Have you ever doubted your abilities to be a great coach? Have you ever experienced compassion fatigue? Let me know in the comments below and let’s have a conversation. I also have something really special for you. If you feel fatigued, if you feel burnt out, if you’re experiencing too much compassion fatigue and you’re not sure how to scale your business without burning yourself out, you need to come to our three-day event, From Passion to Profits Live. At this event, I will show you one of the most important things that will prevent burnout in your coaching business, and that is automation.

At From Passion to Profits Live, I will show you how to automate your entire business, how to install the right systems, how to build a sales funnel, how to automate your marketing, and also how to hire a team of coaches to support you and your clients. I will show you how I’ve been able to grow my business from the ground up, from zero all the way to making multiple seven-figures without burning myself out. The best part about the event is that you’re no longer alone. You’ll come together with coaches from all around the world who will know exactly how you feel and help you grow your business without burning yourself out, without feeling stressed, and without compassion fatigue.

Come to From Passion to Profits Live

I would love to show you how to automate your business, take the stress away, and help you do the things you love every single day. Thank you so much for watching. I hope this served you. Calm down a little bit. Don’t let them stress you out, and I’ll see you next week. Take care. From Passion to Profits Live, our big annual event for coaches is happening this September in Hollywood, California. Do you want a ticket? For more info, visit: From Passion to Profits.  

Check out this video podcast:

 Self Sabotage – Toxic Patterns That Are Holding You Back in Business