It’s amazing how a mindset can spread across the country, even around the world.

Viral shutdowns changed how we all live and work our businesses. We all swapped in-person meetings, workshops, conventions, and get-togethers for online video. From eating out to dining in…from going to a movie theater to watching at home…and on.

What a change in our culture in such a short time!

In the process, we also shifted to a super casual mindset in online videos…from completely unstructured selfies to live coaching videos with little concern for being businesslike.

Now we see even experienced coaches and other gurus show up in t-shirts with silly slogans on them… sloppy backgrounds in messy offices or even bedrooms…

Speaking of bedrooms, I even saw a night-time bedroom Zoom session where the spouse walked through the background au naturel and climbed into bed.

The selfie craziness is a result of everyone having access to a powerful video device, but without any particular training on how to use it. Thus all the distractions – wiggly scenes, lots of headroom showing ceilings or clouds, and many others.

The super-casual mindset and behavior in business videos and live events…well, that’s a trend that isn’t working well for most entrepreneurs.

Entertaining to some, perhaps, but not how a coach builds authority, credibility, and trust.

As a self-named Video Maestro (4 decades of producing videos should count for something), I coined the name “Video Voodoos” to describe things people do on their videos that distract from their brand, their message, and their sales results.

Most entrepreneurs’ videos and live presentations have 10 or more voodoos cursing their conversions and haunting their brands.

A lot of the distractions are from a casual mindset, not committed to businesslike results.

You see, when we look for a coach to help solve a major problem (like our online businesses are not bringing in the bucks), we need someone who is clearly an expert and thriving at the level we want to reach.

That’s not the guy next door, or the guy in the silly t-shirt and sloppy office.

It’s not the coach who’s fumbling to get the live show going, wasting time talking about himself or herself, or having us type “Amazing!” in the chat room every 5 minutes to show we’re awake.

We want the pro, the been-there-done-that expert, who understands our specific pains and needs and has helped many others escape and thrive.

So how can you tell whether someone is the real deal, or just following a formula and a casual mindset about your needed transformation?

First, look for the distracting “Voodoo” behavior – anything that comes across as salesy, wastes time, fluffy with no real value, or otherwise turns you off.

Reality Check: These distractions, like scary symptoms of illness in your body, are serious red flags that should warn you that this person’s model and methods are focused on taking your money, not mentoring you over time to a higher mindset and results.

Super casual is a strong red flag.

Second, look for accessibility – can you actually get a response if you email the coach? Will you get any 1:1 instruction and look at your specific work? Or is this just “faux” coaching that overloads you with lots of information but no real coaching?

When coaches choose to abandon 1:1 (too much work, irritation, and time they say) in favor of the 1:many online info model, they’ve abandoned transformations. Including yours. Ever.

We all need a coach we can look up to, admire, want to emulate, and trust to seriously help us personally. Not someone on long, talking-face videos of overload that then send us home to try to learn things self-study on our own (doesn’t work).

A third way to tell if a coach is a real deal is to ask for his/her transformation rate.

I’ve wasted so much money and time on big gurus’ highly acclaimed programs, only to find months (even years) later that they never gave me real, personal coaching overtime to get me to that higher, more productive mindset.

My files are full of their information still.

SAD FACT: The big gurus are mostly sitting on a 3% transformation rate.

I’m not kidding.

The top coach of one incredibly rich and successful guru told me that 97% of the people spending thousands on the guru’s programs never even finish the overwhelming course materials… never get the personal coaching to swap their old limiting assumptions for better thinking and behavior…and thus neither mindset leap nor thriving occurs.

So the vast majority of online “coaching” and “learning” programs are really just expensive info core dumps and rah-rah stuff.

You need a game-changer, a real coach committed to helping you.

A real coach will give you a number, or rough percentage, of transformations because a life-changing coach knows every client personally and is committed to mentoring each one all the way to the promised thrive level.

I’ve personally found only a handful of real game-changer coaches in 4 years of looking.

So…when you recognize the casual mindset…when you see all the resulting distracting voodoos…when it’s the same-old sales message…when there’s no clear commitment to personal 1:1 transformation…run for your life!

Get my free “5 Top Video Voodoos” here.

Take care of yourself and your business – get a real coach, committed to your success!