I was already working in SBI Group in clerical cadre, when I joined
Coaching coaching classes. I wanted to become an officer by taking SBI
PO (Probationary Officer) Exam. One of my college friends (Bhawna) and I
joined these classes together. The quality of teaching was wonderful and
we could freely interact with all the faculty members. The level of our
preparation improved a lot and both Bhawna and I were successful in the
exams that we took. She cleared the IBPS PO and I became an officer in
State Bank of Travancore after clearing SBI PO Exam. I also made my real
sister (Shruti) join the Saturday & Sunday (Weekend) batch at Coaching
because of my superb experience.
The day we signed up for TCI at FOCS and got the starter pack, and we
registered our business, we made one promise together. I remember that
evening and that conversation: "Aki, this is it, we are playing this
game until it works out for us." So I have talked about this thing in a
couple of podcast interviews and I refer to it as a marriage. Yes, we
are married, and we have got one relationship to look after, but this
business is nothing less than a marriage, and marriages for me are
eternal, they don't break. That's my belief. Going back to your
question... I have had so many failures and so many bloopers in sales
conversations. I'm not saying I constantly took action, I have had bouts
of passive engagement and doing everything even though things didn't
turn out to work for me. Right from the beginning, you will not be able
to make sense of everything, and that's ok, be kind to your-self and
allow yourself, your physiology and psychology to take as much time as
it needs to come to that level of understanding. I know some people who
have secured paying clients between sign-ing up and FOCS. So they say
yes, I am a coach and I am doing coach training, I am studying coaching.
They presented themselves with certainty and they had paying clients
even before FOCS, even before they learned the grow model. So wherever
you are, it's alright, you'll get there easily. It took me a year and a
half to get my first paying client. But once that milestone was crossed,
there has been no looking back!