Even if you don’t know what a Conversational Truth Guide is, if you are a coach, there is a good chance you are one.

Coaches have a thirst for learning.

I have never had a Coach as a client who didn’t have Learning/Growth as a top 10 value.  The majority of my clients have been workshop “junkies” – continually enrolled in some sort of training, course, certification, or coaching program to satiate that value.   But when it comes to business, they’ve often enrolled in courses that seemed to have a great value proposition, but at the end of the day, didn’t really work for them.

When they tried to implement what they were taught, the tactics either didn’t work for them the way it was promised to, or they found they were resistant to doing what they had been told, or they implemented with improvised “improvements” that didn’t improve their outcomes.

I talk to hundreds of professional coaches every year and I have heard over and over “I just want to market myself in a way that feels authentic, real and honest.” Of course, that is music to my ears because that is what I help my clients do.  But I know where they are coming from.  I rarely find business training out there that fully resonates with me, and believe me, I’m a seeker.

This seeking led me to find Beth Grant’s work on The Archetype Alignment Grid.  This led me to a phone call with Beth and a big, Powerful ‘Yes’ to become one of the first certified ambassadors for her work.

Essentially, Beth gave me the proof for what I always intrinsically knew:

Marketing tactics with a “one size fits all” approach are flawed because they don’t work, as designed, for everyone.

The “ah ha” moment I had was when she told me that 90% of all business training/mentoring/coaches are created and offered by Charismatic Guru Stars, but 80% of coaches are a very different archetype – the Conversational Truth Guide.  And marketing and business development tactics that work for Charismatic Guru Stars rarely work for the Conversational Truth guide because our strengths (and challenges) are vastly different.

A Conversational Truth Guide can learn from other archetypes, like the Charismatic Guru Stars, but if they try to implement the tactics as recommended in a Guru Star program, it rarely has the impact that the Guru Star said it would.   Simply put, it’s because those tactics are optimized for that Archetype, and what works for a Conversational Truth Guide can sometimes be vastly different.

The challenge is usually not in the tactics, it’s the way the tactic is implemented that is in conflict.

As an example, most business Charismatic Guru Star coaches teach one way to do a Signature Talk and discourage their clients from customizing their approach.  However, since I’m a Conversational Truth Guide myself, and believe that true wisdom lies within a person, when I share business ideas and tactics with my clients, we always customize the approach based on what feels resonant to the client.  After all, there are thousands of different ways to build a full coaching practice.

For a Truth Guide, if you implement a marketing tactic you aren’t completely bought into, it won’t work or you will get lackluster results because integrity and resonance are of upmost importance to this archetype. 

If you are a professional certified coach, you have an 80% chance of being a Conversational Truth Guide.

With that said, I’ve met and worked with coaches all over the archetype grid – after all, there is a 20% chance that you are a different archetype. If the below description doesn’t resonate with you, you may be a different archetype.

So what exactly is a Conversational Truth Guide?

First of all this archetype consists of the Natural Style of “Truth Guide.”  A Truth Guide has a “You Know Best” approach with their clients.  Although they might have training, materials and other expertise to share with you, they still know that the “right” answer is the one that feels right and light to you, and that wisdom is within you.  The Personal Persuasion Power of “Conversational” means that you are all about creating deep and meaningful dialogue and that building trust with your followers, prospects and clients is paramount.

Here are some of the Conversational Truth Guide Traits:

• People love hearing you talk
• Your essence comes out through your voice
• Providing solution is your primary goal
• You are a giver by nature
• You have a “You Know Best” Approach
• You have a high sense of responsibility for your clients’ results
• You are highly respected and trusted
• In networking, your attitude is mainly “How can I help?” with mutual balance
• You love intimate conversation
• You are perceived as “real”
• Groupies may make you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed

As a Conversational Truth Guide, what you are really selling is a path to growth, or the opportunity to discover something or achieve a deeper connection.  People buy from you because they trust you.  What your buyers really want is to be empowered to solve a problem, make the right choice, grow or experience an insight or emotional connection.

Here are some of the biggest challenges Conversational Truth Guides face in growing or sustaining their business:

• Conversational Truth Guides often underprice themselves, which puts them at an income ceiling pretty quickly
• Because of the depth we like to go, our models almost always have a high service/interaction component to them to feel like we are making the impact we want. This can impact our ability to scale compared to other Archetypes which is why it’s important that our pricing reflects the service the client receives.
• Creating a business model that brings in new clients as old clients finish up and creating valuable packages so people want to continue to work with us over longer periods of time. Without that, it can create ebb and flow to your work and your cash flow.
• You may struggle to make compelling offers due to your giving nature and your desire to not come off as “salesy”.
• This archetype often detests networking, seeing it as people using each other or being pushy. To learn more on networking effectively for this type read this article [link to networking article]
• Conversational Truth Guides are most effective in sales when they are in conversation with people. It’s important to price programs so you can afford to spend time talking to people to enroll them, as sales pages that go straight to offers rarely work effectively for this archetype, unless it is a very low price point.
• It’s paramount that your marketing and offers feel authentic to you. It’s important to check in with yourself to make sure you feel total alignment with your marketing solutions.

If this resonates with you, it is likely that “Conversational Truth Guide” is your primary or secondary archetype.  In order to have a thriving, prosperous and sustainable business, it’s key to create a marketing and business development plan that plays to your strengths, overcomes your challenges and honors your archetype.

If you are a Conversational Truth Guide and a coach and you’d like to explore working with a business coach that really gets you, set up a time for us to connect. We’ll spend 30 minutes talking about you and your business, looking at where you are now vs. where you want to be and ways to bridge that gap.  If it feels resonant for us to continue to talk about possibly working together, we will stay on a bit longer.  Otherwise, I will point you in the right direction.  My promise to you is that you will get value from our conversation no matter what.  I look forward to connecting!