My wife is a pilates instructor and her classes are super popular in all the studios she teaches at. Her classes are super hard but she challenges you in a very gentle yet unwavering way that trusts that you can do it. She’s been teaching for a few years and now she’s gotten to the point where she’s seen a person enter a pilates studio with a completely unbalanced, no-core body to transform into a strong body that’s in equilibrium.
What she finds interesting about pilates in particular is how you do the same set of isometric exercises alternating sides to lead to a balanced body; if I have one weak side and a strong side and apply the same weight to both in training, shouldn’t both sides get stronger while the strength balance remains the same? Pilates doesn’t work this way, pilates grows you towards equilibrium.
This means the same exercise on your strong side won’t be that challenging, but on your weak side it will be very challenging. Then you may wonder, couldn’t you just exclusively work on your weak side? That will also lead to an imbalance because in pilates you’re not working one muscle in isolation but developing an entire chain of muscles involved in movement.
Why do you exercise? It may be to have a perfect beach body. It may be to increase general stamina. It may be to beat up some dangerous people. Regardless of the specific reason, as long as you have a reason for exercise it’s unlikely that you will quit. The people who don’t exercise may try it out one or two times but because they have no greater point they see in exercising, they’ll stop showing up.
My wife designs her flows in a very intentional way. So she fosters her clients’ ability to mindfully listen to her cues in a slow pace. She would rather you take a break than go all loosey-goosey with her exercises. Interestingly, this is also how she trains herself; she likes to attend classes of instructors who are known for their intentional directions and she takes time to mindfully engage in the exercise.
The aforementioned balance in body, it is but one step in my wife’s pathway of pilates. You cannot mindfully engage in her exercise throughout the entire duration if your body is too strong on one side and too weak on the other. There are other reasons why clients might not initially be able to follow my wife’s cues completely, but over time as they keep showing up more and more they are able to experience the class as my wife intended to teach it. And that is a great moment for the clients.
In our offerings to the world, we encourage our clients to take steps. Sometimes it’s a step that is directed towards the path we want to take our clients to. Sometimes it’s a side step; if there’s an obstacle straight ahead, a side step would be more helpful. Sometimes it’s a back step; we may have forgotten to take some things as we move forward. But as long as our clients continue down the path you present to them, they will arrive at their intended destination.
In my opinion the biggest missing piece in an online solopreneurship is this kind of a path setting. For brick and mortar shops and traditional businesses this is not really required; what’s the pathway for a pizzeria? Nothing, just come and eat our pizza every time you want to eat pizza. There’s no deeper meaning behind the continued consumption of pizza. These types of traditional businesses can afford to keep making offers with their products because the products speak for themselves.
Of course you can keep offering coaching, online courses, or professional mentorship as if they are physical products. But often times we want to give our clients something bigger than one time satisfactions of needs. This is where offer paths come in, and just by knowing what your offer path is you will find a new kind of levity and confidence in your offering.
This isn’t even strictly limited to selling coaching. This is a general life skill to have if you want to be a positive influence in this world. Anybody can live life the way they want to at the moment without any intentions about longer term goals or vision. But it takes a committed, dedicated person to think set their own path and actually walk it.
Do you know how to set your path? If you don’t, you’re in luck because I have a guide for you. This is one of the guides we’ll be using in my May business coaching training, May You Offer. So grab this guide, create your path, and join me in offering your business 108 times in May! Sign up now!
Creating Your Offer Path.pdf