Episode 15 - Live Masterclass
===
[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the business of executive coaching. Now, today's episode is a special one, and it's a bit of an experiment because it is a podcast version of a live masterclass that I ran Last week, the masterclass is on the eight foundations of a thriving executive coaching business. And I think it will translate okay to the podcast.
What I have included in the show notes to make it even easier for you is a registration link. So if you want to get the materials, like if you want to see the slides, see the video, that's all there. And have access to the self assessment document that I mention you can just go to that reference and you can download it.
So I hope this is interesting. Please get in touch. If you have any questions. And for those of you who are in the market, I'd really love to welcome you into the impact coach collective. So [00:01:00] listening, there's a lot more about it. And I hope to speak to you soon.
Welcome to the business of executive coaching. I'm Ellie Scarf, an ex lawyer turned executive coach. Over the last 17 years, I've coached in house, I've been an associate coach, and I've run executive coaching businesses with teams of coaches around the world. My clients have ranged from global brand names to boutiques, startups, and more.
and organizations doing good in the world. I now run the Impact Coach Collective, a community of executive coaches who want to level up their business skills and take action in a community of like minded peers. I'm a traveler, a reader, a mum, wife and dog parent, and I know firsthand that our stories have a huge impact on our businesses.
The executive coaching business is tough. And I've learnt all the lessons through plenty of mistakes, and also with some great mentors. [00:02:00] This podcast is all about growing a thriving executive coaching business. You can build a coaching business that is profitable, sustainable, and that supports your personal goals, whatever they are.
I'll be sharing tips and ideas translated for your context, as well as stories from the field with brilliant coaches and mentors. If you want to level up your executive coaching business skills, Then this is the place for you.
Welcome everyone. It is wonderful to have you here. As some really wonderful familiar names that I'm seeing popping in people. I'm very keen to. To have you guys along. So hopefully we can we can have some interaction in the chat as we go through, feel free to drop any questions as well.
And we'll, we'll talk about whatever you want to talk about along the way. And if I don't get to questions as we're going through because I might need to. Motor through, I do have a tendency [00:03:00] to put too much content in that is sometimes my problem. But I will stay on the line for as long as it takes afterwards to make sure all questions are answered if we don't get them on the way through.
So before we kick off, just while people filter in, if you don't mind, just let us all know in the chat where you're coming to us from whether it's, and maybe what, what time it is. So yeah, Here in Western Australia, it is evening. I think if you are in the UK, it should be sort of mid morning. Oh yeah.
Alex. Thank you. Alex is in London. It's midday. Bernadette's in Dubai. It's 3 PM. Robert Turner's in Maryland and at 7 AM Antonia UK midday. Yeah. Oh, we've got quite a few people coming to us from the UK. Brilliant. All right. Welcome everyone. It's so good to have you. Oh, Christina's in Italy and it is lunchtime one o'clock.
Perfect. Well, thank you everyone. Now I want [00:04:00] to say that I do really value your time. My aim is to stick to our hour and within that, I want to make sure that this is really helpful. So I want to make sure that there's a lot of advice, a lot of tips, and a lot of tools that I give you today, things that you can practically do and take away.
So As I said, some of you may not have been here. There is a QR code on every slide. I've repeated on each page. You're going to get an email tomorrow that will have a link to the recording and to the slides. But there's also a self assessment document that I've put together. That summarizes all of the self assessment questions that are on the slides in one place.
So if you follow that QR code, you can get that document. You don't have to register or anything. It's just a download but it might just be more helpful to have it all in one place and to refer back if you ever want to do a bit of a health check on, on where you're at relative to these eight foundations.
So as well as a lot of what I hope is quite a lot of content and value that we've I'm also going to show you a little bit about how you can work with me inside my [00:05:00] community, the impact coach collective, and I'll also you know, talk a little bit about what's in the corporate to coach blueprint, which is a self paced digital course.
So those of you, if you wanted to go deeper in growing a sustainable and profitable and flexible coaching business and sort of setting up on strong foundations and I do have some great bonuses for people who are attending the session today. So And I'll share those at the end. If you want to join I am going to also just put a link in the chat now, if you want to have a chat.
So if you want to have a call, we can just book 15 minutes anytime before the end of the enrollment period for the impact coach collective. We can talk about whatever we don't have to talk about that. If you have any questions, so feel free. You know, I would love to have a conversation with any and all of you who you know, have got something to talk about, particularly if it's about coaching and coaching business.
That's my favorite. So I want to acknowledge that quite an elephant in the room, but it is a really strong [00:06:00] theme with the coaches. I work with that when it comes to coaching, I would say 80 percent of coaches I speak to and mentor tell me this. They just want to do the coaching, right? They wish that there was a magic wand that there were clients coming out their ears and that everything in the backend of business was organized and sorted.
So if this is you, you are in good company. And I have to say I was exactly the same. And I will share some little bits of my story along the way, which will show you how much that was the same for me, but the tipping point for my business going from, you know, a little. Chaotic, a little bit unpredictable and, and don't get me wrong, that's normal.
We're always going to experience that when we're in business. But the tipping point for me going to a much more profitable and consistently growing phase was when I decided to embrace the fact that running a coaching business means being a business owner, just as much as it does being a [00:07:00] coach. And, and I don't mean, you know, just.
Plotting through getting by in relation to the business parts. I mean, I genuinely love those parts of what I do now, and I would love that for all coaches. So you get to make a decision and you can do that at any part, any stage in your business journey, but you can make a decision to embrace that in a business person.
And so I would just love you to take a moment and just imagine. Where you could be in 90 days, if you committed to taking consistent and strategic action on your business. So depending on where you're at in your training journey or in starting up your business in 90 days, if you were starting, you could have your, sorry, if you hadn't left your job yet, you could have your corporate coach runway all planned out and prepared.
If you are in business, you could transform your marketing strategy and have it fully dialed in. If you're starting out, you could go from, you know, sort of the, the volunteer [00:08:00] coaching to get hours through to having your first paying clients. You could double your client numbers. You could have all your systems streamlined.
So I'd love to hear in the chat, if you're happy to share with everyone. What do you think you could achieve in 90 days in your business if you had really good strategy and consistent action? So let me know what you would, what you could do or what you think you'd like to do.
Okay. I can see some of that. I think some of them are just coming through. Sarah says the first one, right? So building that runway. Yeah. Having that runway confirmed. So everything from planning your financial runway putting in place the, the infrastructure, all of that good stuff. Yeah. I think I can see someone's Just post it.
Oh, here we go. First paying clients, marketing strategy in place. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Doubling your clients. I think everyone would quite like to double our clients. And at some points [00:09:00] that is very possible. Fully sustainable. That's a great one. That's a great one, Alex. John says launching a new and different coaching offering more aligned to dream clients and a consistent system process in place.
I love that. And I think that, you know, the language I would use around that, that you'll see is, you know, getting really clear on an offer, right? What is the offer? What is included in that and how do you want to, to take that to market? So, yeah, awesome. Those, those are great, great examples. So today I'm going to share the building blocks of your thriving executive coaching business.
And I want you to just think about how does it feel, right? How would you feel if these things were to come to fruition? Because I think we forget that, you know, we actually have the power to To pursue these things if we're really strategic. So just to stay a little bit connected to that feeling, which is, which is quite exciting.
So in the eight foundations, I'm going to share what the foundation is. I'm going to [00:10:00] ask you five self assessment questions for each of these. And I'm going to give you a few tips and some practical actions so that you can make progress. On your priorities. So the self assessment is for you to identify your priority focus areas.
That's the whole point of it. So for each area on the slide, you'll see, I've got five questions or in the document, if you've downloaded it, I have five questions for each area. And each of the questions is a common issue or challenge that coaches experience, and I phrased it as a statement or a belief that you might have.
And so the higher your score for the foundation, the more of a priority it is for you and the more focus you should put onto it. So again, have a look at that QR code if you want to download it, otherwise it's all on the slides. So you know, Just to give me a little bit more information also about you, I'm wondering what your priorities in your business are for 2024.
So again, if you could just jump into the chat, let us know, you [00:11:00] know, what is your biggest business focus for 2024? So is it business development? Is it systems? Is it sales? Is it offer development? There'll probably be some overlap with what you just shared about, you know, your hopes. But what, what is your current strategic priority?
And that will help me sort of make sure that I'm, I'm, you know, leaning into the most popular ones. Yes. So Alex says client acquisition. Sarah says offer development Vandana. Hi, Vandana says acquiring new clients. Yeah, that's, that's a pretty common one. Someone saying, yeah, good, good backend systems and processes.
So efficiency and systems. Yes, all those brilliant. Okay. So. You know, I want to share a little bit about me to give you some context on why this work is so important to me. So professionally, I'm an ex lawyer, a turned coach. I've been working as a coach over the last 17 years. And in that time, I've been [00:12:00] an associate coach.
I've worked as an in house coach. I've run coaching businesses and I've had teams of associate coaches that, that I've worked with. Personally, I'm a mom of a 10 year old daughter. And a fair child, which a four year old miniature schnauzer, who has a lot of personality. I love hiking. I've recently re embraced my love of fantasy and science fiction books.
If there are any, anyone else was a, you know, a teenager in the nineties, you know, I was writing to Raymond D. Feist and, and Robert Jordan, the wheel of time, all of that stuff. And I'm really re embraced that. So I'm letting my nerd, my nerd flag fly. But yeah, Look, when I started my first coaching business, which was sort of in the early 2000s, I had no clue about business.
And if you'd asked me then I would have said that the business parts of coaching were the worst parts. So I didn't do sales and marketing. God, I wish I knew then what I know now. But I think the reason I didn't do it was [00:13:00] because I had a lot of anxiety about the process of getting new clients. So I knew that I was a good coach, but the rest of it seemed like a bit of a fog.
And I had a lot of avoidance particularly things like processes and financial management. And I justified that because I, I, you know, Would say, well, that's just not, not my style. It's not my preference. I'm not a details person, but that really didn't serve me well. And it wasn't until I got a little more deliberate about it, that, that my business started to grow.
So what got me through those times though, were having some really great mentors and I was extremely fortunate. And I was also pretty good at learning from my mistakes and there were many of them. So eventually, and you know, I mean that it took me some years because I wasn't that quick at learning these lessons.
I discovered that I enjoyed the business aspects of coaching and that was a real shock. But once I sort of learned, you know, I really leaned into it. I started to understand the foundations [00:14:00] that I'm going to share today. My business grew and I enjoyed it a lot more. And, you know, I mean, I built a business that employed and still employed some teams of coaches.
You know, I still have some global clients that I continue to work with alongside this practice. And you know, with, with teams and individuals and, you know, it's a deeply fulfilling and meaningful business to me. But over the last few years, the focus of my practice has very much been on mentoring and coaching coaches.
And the joy that I get from that is unparalleled because as you all will know, coaches are amazing coaches are excellent people and we can have really great conversations, particularly in community. So. When I share with you these eight foundations of a thriving executive coaching business, I'm sharing this from the perspective of having walked this path, right?
The same path that you're on, have a lot of the same struggles. I've had the same fears and I get it. And it is so. And it's really, you know, meaningful to me to have this opportunity [00:15:00] to help you navigate those issues quicker and with less pain and from a position of having walked the walk. So with that in mind, let's dive in.
So, as I said, questions, please pop them in the chat as we go. And if I don't get to them I'll stick around at the end to answer anything. Okay. So let's have a look at what the foundations are. I'm going to go into much more detail for each, but I want to make sure that you have the context and the big picture before we dive in.
So the first one is mindset, and this is business owner mindset, specifically how you view yourself and the work that you do as a business owner. The second one is having a compelling offer. So what do you sell and what value does it offer your clients? And I include in here, your coaching offer, but also your coaching adjacent offers.
So the other things that you might want to do ideally with the same client set so that you have a cross pollination across your offers. The third one is getting known that's marketing, right? The, the real, how do people know who you are and what you do? The next one is getting [00:16:00] clients and that's our sales processes.
So how do we take a lead that is ideally engaged and warm and convert them into becoming a client? The next one is managing our money. And that is so important. And then it includes things like Having a financial metric set, managing our finances, and really, you know, inquiring into our money mindset as well.
The next one is being strategic about our professional development. So how to get the most out of your investment in your skills and your knowledge. Then we have systems tools and processes, which is all about how to build reliability and efficiency into your operations. And then a support team.
So where does your practical and emotional support come from? And I don't just mean outsourcing to a VA. I mean, you know, a holistic view of where does your support come from? Now, if you've got your self assessment document, you can follow along for the next the next section using that. We'll Or just make a note as I read through the self assessment questions and tally it up for yourself.
Cause what we want is a score out of five for [00:17:00] each of the each of the foundations that we go through. So the first the first foundation is the business owner mindset. And what I mean by that is twofold. So first and foremost, and underpinning everything, the foundational foundation of a thriving coaching business is to get your mindset right.
But right means a few different things. So I think that specifically you must view yourself equally as a business owner and as a coach, and that needs to be an identity piece, right? Making this decision is a really important step when you step out of the corporate world into your own coaching practice.
Mindset also means it's that feeling of being able to step up and take the actions and tasks that are required of you as a business owner, regardless of how confident you feel. Right? So let's have a look at the self assessment and I'm going to ask you, I'm going to read these five statements and I want you to give yourself a [00:18:00] star or a tick for each of those that are true for you.
And if you look at them, I hope you recognize that these are Lego blocks, like their foundations it's building. When I look at it, I'm like, Hmm, am I trying, it doesn't look a bit like a castle, but believe me, they're meant to be Lego blocks. So the first one is I've avoided opportunities or not taken action due to feeling a lack of confidence.
The next one, I sometimes say, I hate sales or marketing, or I don't do sales or marketing. The third one, I feel uncomfortable with the visibility required to promote myself and my business. Fourth, I don't often dedicate three to five hours per week to working on my business versus in my business. And finally, I'm not sure of the legal compliance responsibilities in my jurisdiction, so things like insurance.
Okay, so add up how many of those you have, and at the end, I'll get you to tally those up and we're going to be focusing your attention on your top three, but for now, just record your score either on the worksheet or [00:19:00] on a piece of paper. So the tips I have, if this is a priority area for you or the, the ideas is firstly that you are ready now.
So there is no magical point as a coach where you are going to feel ready enough. It is very in that, that reply that applies not just to starting your business, but it also applies to taking actions that you need in order to grow your business. So it's really common for coaches to tell me that they have wanted to start their coaching businesses for many years.
But they've put it off. You are likely as ready as you're ever going to be, but it doesn't mean that you won't have to do a lot of work. Just don't let that belief that you have to be a hundred percent ready, stop you taking action. The second thing is to think about courage over confidence. And so just like everyone else, coaches can struggle with confidence.
They can struggle with the imposter phenomenon. And just like everyone else, we can let it stop us taking action. [00:20:00] So instead of focusing on confidence, I want you to consider the alternative, which is focusing on the big picture, what it is that you're trying to do and leveraging courage instead, and that willingness to take action, regardless of the feeling of confidence or lack thereof that you might be having.
So when we prioritize courage over confidence, we are able to. Take action because we're coming from, from that place of, of, of meaning and heart rather than, you know, waiting for this feeling that may or may not ever come of confidence. And then finally, like a really practical tip, a good tip is to commit a predictable amount of time every week or every day to manage your business functions.
Now, the amount of time that you commit will vary, But I would say that three to five hours a week is a good amount to start. But if you don't have a huge client load and you have time, there is no reason not to spend the equivalent of however many working hours or [00:21:00] days you want, and you invest all that time into your sales and marketing.
For example, or your backend systems or whatever it is like, make sure that you are deliberately committing time, but keep it consistent to start with. So make sure you have a baseline that, that you do no matter what. Okay. The second foundation is having a great offer or a suite of offers. And I know that some of you said that this is a priority.
So an offer. Is a clear articulation of what your services are and what is included when someone invests in your offer. And that includes your pricing. So this may be your coaching offer. But often new coaches will also have what I mentioned before, which I call a coaching adjacent offer. And that is typically some form of consulting or facilitation or training service that leverages your professional credibility and gets you in the door to deliver that service.
Ideally to people who are also the coaching decision [00:22:00] makers. So it's a really good idea from a business development perspective, but also I think it's really helpful to have a secondary offer in so that you can manage your income and cashflow in the early days. In fact, there are very few coaches that I speak to who don't have a second offer.
And usually it is some form of. A consulting or facilitation program. I definitely recommend it. And in my programs, there are some, some resources about how to think about what that could be. Okay. So self assessment, I'm going to read the statements again. I'm not clear who I'd like to offer my services to.
Can't it just be everyone? I haven't summarized my coaching offer in a clear document yet. I'm not sure how to set or benchmark my pricing. I have not yet defined my coaching adjacent offers. I can feel uncomfortable communicating my pricing. So just tally up which ones are those, how many of those actually ring true for you?
So [00:23:00] if this one is a priority, you might want to start by building a coaching services guide. And a coaching services guide includes all the information about what is in your standard coaching offer any options stakeholder feedback processes. And you know, is it, it documents that it includes the pricing but it's something that you can give people, right?
It's a standard that you can adapt for clients. And it's something that you have, it forces you to think through the definition process. Now, if you're interested in that, I have got a masterclass on building a corporate coaching offer that sells where I go through exactly what I include in my corporate coaching offer and in my coaching services guide.
So if you'd like that, drop me an email afterwards and I'll send that recording through to you. The next thing I think is helpful is to define pricing brackets. And we talk a lot about pricing in the corporate to coach blueprint in the digital course, but I think it's [00:24:00] helpful to think about brackets rather than absolutes, particularly in the earlier days.
What that will allow you to do is be flexible in order to get work because often getting hours, getting clients, getting momentum is the most important thing. But it also allows you not to underprice yourself, which is also a tendency of coaches. So I have a podcast that came out maybe a couple of months ago where I, I talked a lot about five ways to increase your prices.
So there might be some helpful tips for you in there if you want to look at it, but just have a think about your bracket and by bracket, what I mean is, you know, what is your, what is your stretch goal and what is your budget? Bottom boundary beyond which you wouldn't want to do the work. So, you know, pricing needs to feel like a really good exchange of your energy compared to the value that you're offering.
So really think about what pricing bracket is for you. And then the third thing I recommend is writing a no list. So what work will you not do? I find this the hardest part. It's easy for [00:25:00] me to define what I will do because I like to do lots of different things. It's really hard for me to think about what I won't do, but that is the most important thing for me to do.
Because if you are going to try to be all things to all people, it is going to be very hard to get traction in the areas that you, that are your priorities. So consider what will you say no to. So that you can say yes to the important things. An example of that is there was a point at about, I think maybe, maybe seven, seven years ago or so when I decided that I would no longer facilitate other people's content.
So I wouldn't run programs where I hadn't designed the content myself, because I found that quite stressful, but I know other people who don't want to design content at all. So for them, they're no list is. Is designing programs and they will facilitate other people's programs only. So, you know, just have a think about what might be on your no list.
The third foundation [00:26:00] is to have a way of getting known, also known as marketing. So, What is it? You know, we don't want to be the coaching world's best kept secret. Marketing is the way that we can bring people into our orbit. And you can think of them as leads. And I always do this when I talk about leads, because I'm trying to show a funnel.
But you know, I do wave my hands around a lot, but if you see me doing this, this is me trying to say a funnel where we get leads that come in at the top of our funnel and gradually they, they filter through down to clients. So marketing brings leads in, and it also puts us in the way of. Of our leads so that they can get to know us.
It's also how we build relationships with our leads so that we are warming up those leads to become more and more engaged so that they can then become sales conversations. And it means that when we have those sales interactions, we have a much warmer connection. There's a higher level of no lack and trust factors so that they trust us more than they would if we hadn't [00:27:00] gone through those deliberate marketing activities.
Okay. So I'm going to read the self assessment questions. Now, I struggled to post valuable content on a consistent basis. I spend too much time checking, rewriting, and overthinking my posts. I would like to do more with my visual branding, including my website and LinkedIn. I don't have a system to capture the details of people who engage with me.
So those leads and I do not have a process for nurturing connections to go from cold to warm, to engage leads. Okay. So if this is a focus or a priority, what can you do? It is firstly vital to allocate again, I'm going to sound like a broken record, a consistent amount of time per week that, or per day, or both that you will spend doing marketing tasks.
Now that can be something that feels like a drag. But consistency is super important when it comes to marketing, and that is what is going to move the needle. [00:28:00] So consistency of outreach, consistency of visibility, showing up in your social media feeds, whatever you choose to do, consistently writing a newsletter, consistently writing a blog.
You don't have to do all those things, but whatever it is you choose to do, whatever your strategy is, you need to do it consistently. And so, you know, one tip is if you struggle with posting and visibility is picking a frequency of posting or communicating, however that is, whether it's blogs, newsletter, newsletter pick us a frequency that is sustainable for you and commit to it.
And then accept that if you do it 80 percent of the time, that is great. So for you, it might be weekly. It might be fortnightly. It might be monthly. It might be daily. I've tried all of those cadences and it doesn't matter which to start with. What matters is building the habit and building the ritual. So that should be where you start.
Or if you're one of those people who, you know, goes in. In, in fits and spurts and lack posts really intensively and then falls off reduce the frequency, but do it more [00:29:00] consistently. And that might mean, you know, embrace batching where you you do all the writing all in one day, but then schedule it to be deployed over a longer period of time.
So you've got to use your own rhythms as well, but consistency is your friend. And finally, Imagine that you are a client and you can you can get a buddy to do this with you. I think it's really helpful and take a look at your LinkedIn page or maybe your website with a client's eyes. And so think about what do you notice?
What would you change in order to be more engaging for that person? So those are a few tips for marketing a foundation for is that you need to get clients consistently. So you need to be able to sell your services. This is pretty clear. So unless we can add clients to our roster and keep doing so, we are going to struggle.
So whereas marketing is everything that gets you up to that point, sales is where we take an engaged lead and we help them to make a decision [00:30:00] that they want to do something about their problem and they want to do it with us in a particular format, ideally our offer. So the self assessment questions are, I often think of the negative stereotypes of what it means to sell.
I can feel awkward and like, I don't know what to say in sales meetings. I can find myself talking a lot, so more than 50 percent during a sales meeting. It can take me longer than 48 hours to respond and send a proposal after a sales meeting. And I don't yet have a deliberate strategy to make my clients repeat customers.
So tally up your score for this one. So a few tips here, firstly is to remember that the very best sales skill is a skill that you already have which is being able to ask great questions. So, you know, I, I worked at Xerox as the national sales coach for, for a number of years where I was coaching all the sales leaders in their leadership.
Capacity, [00:31:00] but I also took on sales strategy and sales capability. And at that point we're a billion dollar organization. So this was a lot of selling. And what I found was that the skills we were trying to impart to good consultative salespeople are the same skills that coaches get taught straight away, listening, asking questions, deeply understanding challenges and opportunities.
Right? So you have got all of the skills of a sales person. And if you do nothing else in your sales calls, other than ask questions and attempt to deeply understand your client, then you have done well, right? You will do yourself well. So I don't think sales is about using, you know, sneaky sales tricks.
It is about understanding the person that you're working with. Working with and understanding the value that your service could offer to them and how you can help them solve their problems. The second tip is land and expand. So the best clients that you can [00:32:00] have is one that you already have. So, you know, it's important to leverage the existing professional relationships that you have to identify new opportunities.
Now, what I don't mean is putting the hard sell on your clients. And I've heard some horror stories about that recently. But be open to helping your client. And I mean, client, not the coachee, right? The person who buys your services, help them explore their challenges beyond just the opportunity that, that you previous worked on, you know, learn about their business, learn about what is causing them pain and make sure that you're sharing with them examples of work you're doing in other organizations or with other clients, because they want new inputs and ideas send them resources as well.
That might trigger some conversation around additional challenges where you might be able to help. The second thing is to, you know, build a really great coach base Bio. So your coach bio is vital. You [00:33:00] need to build it to be a standalone document that can be easily forwarded because in organizations coach bios are forwarded far and wide and you want it to be.
So you need to make sure that it represents you well. So that is a really important tool invest some time in doing that well. Now, a few other tips that I, that I didn't put here, but I want to share anyway is one thing I think is really important is that you make life easy for your client. Right.
Make it easy for them to buy from you. So that includes things like making sure you send your proposals really promptly while there is energy generally within 24 to 48 hours, if possible. And if it's not going to be that, make sure you tell them when they can expect it and, and, and get it to them before that.
Also make sure your documentation is very clear and that it answers all of their questions proactively and ideally answers the questions that someone who might be approving the thing, even if that's not your client, the questions that they might ask as well. And then also, you know, finally, how you think [00:34:00] about sales really matters.
So if you think that sales is being slimy and salesy and Then you're not doing it right. Right. You need to remember and know deeply that done. Well, sales is a service, right? When we're selling our services, we are here to help people find solutions to their challenges. And in some cases that will be our service in some cases that won't, but we're here to offer a service.
And we want to help as many people get that positive outcome and that we can. And also selling coaching is kind of easy because most coaches you know, I meet a massive evangelists for coaching and often people in HR who are buying the services. They are too, they believe in coaching. So, you know, make sure you lean into that passion as well.
I think that that generally goes really well. The fifth foundation is money management and as a business owner, you are obviously the person who has the greatest exposure when your money is [00:35:00] not managed well. So you must be an expert in your own financials. And that is a non negotiable. Now, if I'm honest, this is one of the areas where even now I can have a tendency to bury my head in the sand.
So I have to have a monthly and a weekly ritual around checking in, and I have to define what tasks I have to do at each of those points. So we need to know our We need to be able to manage our cashflow so we can pay our bills. And we need to know our numbers so that we can figure out what to pay ourselves.
Because if we're not paying ourselves, we don't have business. We have a hobby and we're paying quite a lot for that. So self assessment questions. I do not have an accounting system that I'm comfortable using and getting reports from. Sometimes I don't know what I can pay myself at the end of the month.
I do not always send invoices or follow up on invoices as soon as they are due. Okay. Or overdue. I do not always keep [00:36:00] aside a pool of money to pay my taxes. I don't always spend time each month reviewing my financial position. So give yourself a bit of a score. But my tips, if this one is a priority is the first thing is make sure you get some help.
So a bookkeeper or, and, or an accountant should be among the first members of your team of contractors. So. Money stuff is hard to fudge and it can be hard to learn if you don't have support, but do know that a bookkeeper and accountant are not a crutch. That means you don't have to review your own profit and loss statements.
You do. They might prepare it for you. They might show you how to access it, but you still need to know how it works and how to read it and how to access it at any time. The next thing is I'm sounding like a broken record, set aside time each week or month. Or both to make sure, you know, what is coming in and what is going out and where you stand from a cashflow perspective, because don't forget that a lot of [00:37:00] people won't pay you immediately, right?
So they will pay you in three, six, or even nine months, depending on the client. So you need to know when you can expect things to come in and what is going out. And that will help you. If you're doing that, that, that check in that'll help you feel more in control, you know. Regardless of what the numbers are.
And for me, I find I avoid it when I don't think I'm going to like the numbers when there's heaps of money coming in, no one has a problem looking through through their numbers. The problem is when it's not as good, but trust me, it's worth doing it all the time because we want to normalize the feeling of the rollercoaster and, and just make it something that we do regularly.
Finally you know, rather than using absolute figures when you're budgeting, particularly when income is so variable it can be helpful to use percentages. And what that would look like is that, you know, rather than saying each month I'm going to put 500 aside for tax, I'm going to pay myself 10, 000 if I was doing it by percentages, I might [00:38:00] say for anything that comes in, 30 percent is hived off into a separate account for taxes.
20 percent is set aside for direct costs of the business or, you know, costs of goods sold 10%, you know, sits in a profit pool that for reinvestment in business growth and 40 percent I pay myself now. Obviously your numbers will depend on many things, including your tax position. And please don't consider any of this financial advice.
But this is a good way to think about it. And the book profit first by Mike McCullough weeks is one that is really helpful to look at if you want to have a mental model for thinking about how to, how to allocate the money that comes into your business. Okay. So the sixth foundation is to be strategic about your professional development.
So obviously one of our biggest investments as coaches is in our personal and professional development, but it can also be a massive drain of time and money and energy. If we're not [00:39:00] strategic about it in those first few years, after we complete our advanced coach training, can anyone, anyone else relate to that?
So I have a bit of a, a few stories around this. One is that I decided when my daughter was born and I can only imagine it was cause I was under slept. I decided that I would quite like to be a wedding celebrant as something I could do on the side. And so this was, you know, 10 years ago, sort of before online courses were really.
popular. And so I think I got sent CDs to watch and I received the pack and I paid all the money. And then I did absolutely none of it. I think I might've read the first chapter of the workbook. And then I was like, Oh no. And so I just put that aside. I've also invested quite a lot of money in a certificate in training and assessment, which is like a formal certification in training in Australia.
And again, didn't, did not finish. So, you know, I know a lot about investing in things that do not pay off, but we must be strategic. So that our development [00:40:00] investment, that is our time, our money, and our energy has the greatest payoff. So the questions to ask yourself, I have participated in training that I did not complete in full.
I've participated in training that I did not implement or utilize once out of the classroom. I don't currently have consistent coach supervision or mentor coaching. I have not defined my budget for development. For the next 12 months. And I don't know how to prioritize all of the training and development that I want to do.
And generally coaches want to learn all the things. That is why coaches are fabulous. We want to learn, we want to develop. So we need to be really mindful about being strategic about it. Otherwise we can very easily eat up all the profits in our business. So some tips in the early days after you have completed your advanced coach training, and I think that that should be one of your priorities choose development opportunities that are going to directly help you acquire new [00:41:00] clients or lead to new business.
So that could be an assessment accreditation, which is something you can directly commercialize. It could be support with business development, where you learn about business development, things that will have a payoff. And by that, I don't just mean my program. Although I would count the impact coach collective and the corporate to coach blueprint in that category, but things that are going to have a direct connection to bringing business in the second thing is to use your coach network and your alumni groups to get perspectives on training that you're considering.
So. There are definitely some unscrupulous training providers out there. Make sure you get personal references before you part with your money. The third one is don't do too much at once, right? So don't invest unless you have the time and the energy to actually use the skills or tools or knowledge that you are going to acquire.
Don't do too much too soon either. So, you know, I think you need to, you know, every year, I [00:42:00] usually think that I might do one chunky bit of training. Yeah. And maybe a couple of other smaller trainings and read a few books, but I want to make sure when I pick that, that chunky one that I really have time to, to get the most out of it.
Okay. Our seventh foundation is having the right systems, tools, and processes. So if you want a business that supports you and doesn't drain your energy, Then you need a really good set of systems, tools, and processes. So the goal of good systems is to take the cognitive load. That is the mental energy out of what you are doing repeatedly.
Right? So to stop you having to remember every step to each time, you know, not having to reinvent the wheel. It another goal is that we want to ensure consistent high quality of what we deliver. We want to make it easier to replicate processes. Again, without reinventing the wheel, we want to make it easier to outsource.
So when we define things that we can discover [00:43:00] that they can be more easily outsourced and we want to ensure that we can find what we need, right. When we need it and we need systems for that. So let me read the self assessment questions. So firstly, I do not yet have a set of metrics that I measure on a monthly basis.
It is hard to find time for planning and organization. I'm not yet clear on all the stages in my client engagement cycle. I sometimes start using tools and systems, but forget to maintain them. That, that is honestly me. I need a lot of focus on that. And then finally, I feel like I could be more efficient if I had better systems and processes.
So, you know, as I read those, just remember, like it's, these are all really normal. This is just a way of helping to prioritize. And I would expect that, you know, most people would say yes to most of these questions at some point in, in their business. So our final foundation is your support team. So what is that?[00:44:00]
One of the biggest challenges as a business owner is going from the huge amount of support that you have in a corporate environment. Like frankly, did we really ever appreciate having a marketing team until we have to do our own marketing? I don't think so. And we go from that to suddenly we have no support.
Right. No one is on our back. No one is giving us a, you know, a birthday cake or having a morning tea. No one is giving us a bonus. It can be lonely and it can be really hard to wear all the hats. So you need to make sure that you're deliberately building your support team. And I don't mean that hiring, you know, hiring people to do everything.
But being mindful of where you need to invest in support. So let's have a look at the questions that the statements. So one is as a business owner, I often feel quite professionally lonely. I really don't know what tasks I could outsource to someone else. I haven't found a [00:45:00] mentor for the business aspects of being a coach.
I don't take advantage of my coaching networks for advice, moral support, celebration, and commiseration. And I'm not sure who my cheerleaders are. So my tips for this one are to engage more deliberately in your coach networks. So things like training alumni groups you know, these are communities of peers who have similar business goals to you be really focused and consistent about engaging with those people.
The next one is to find at least one person. I call them a business bestie, but you don't have to call them that. It sounds very, very childish. But find, find that person that you can cheerlead for and who will cheer you on. So in the impact coach collective, we do this for each other and I just love it.
There is so much support in there. For example, someone posted some branding photos that they had taken recently, and there was a huge amount of support there was like, there was [00:46:00] cheering because this is a big step, right? Going out there and having a professional photographer. Take your photo for you to plaster that on the internet that is brave.
And so, you know, there is a lot of cheering on a lot of support that happens, you know, I love it. The third thing is to ask for help. So whether it's the home front or the work front think about. To start with, what is just one thing that you could take off your plate? And that might be, you know, you might ask your kids to take on a task.
You might get a VA five hours a week to, to do some basic admin. What is it for you? You might get a robot vacuum cleaner. That is a good idea. Those things are magical. And I think the new ones don't do what the old ones did, which was sometimes run over dog poo, which is bad news. David says, is there a recording?
Yes, David, there absolutely will be a recording. You should get that tomorrow. Okay, so let's tally up your scores based on the assessment. So what I want you to do is just have a think about which of [00:47:00] those did you score over three, four? So really zoom in on the ones where you've scored over three, your top three should really be where you focus your attention.
And so if you're, if you have a moment, just put in the chat, what is your top priority based on based on what came up in the self assessment? I
want to know, yeah, let's see if we've got any themes that are emerging around top priorities. Everyone's doing the maths.
Okay. So I've seen one come through getting known. Yes. Marketing that was from Ben debt. Thank you. Well that's one for one for support team, support systems. Do
we have any more, [00:48:00] anyone else willing to share what their priorities are in the in the session this morning, we had a lot of getting clients, a lot of getting set of getting known and some money management also important. Robert says mindset. Systems. Sarah says offers getting known. And some, you don't know because you haven't started yet.
Absolutely. We don't know what we don't know. Do we four, five, and seven for Christina, which is clients. Money management and system tools and processes. Yes. Brilliant. So I'm just having a few people saying they're keen to sign up. So I'm just putting the, the link to sign up into the chat again.
So you're welcome to have a call or go straight in. I'm going to share in a minute, a couple of good bonuses, but whenever you sign up, you will get all the bonuses. So that is wonderful. Yeah. Vandenis is getting clients and a compelling offer. Yeah. Fantastic. So a real range. And I think what is interesting about [00:49:00] that is that your priorities will shift, so they will change over, over time.
So I hope that has given you a little bit of clarity on the foundations and some tips for how to start to move the needle. So, you know, of course. The foundations that I've shared are at the core of our curriculum in the corporate to coach blueprint, which is my digital course and our community, the impact coach collective.
So if you resonate with any of these content, and if you want to go deeper and you want that support you might be a really good fit for the mentoring and education that, that I offer. So I want to share a little bit about that, but before I do, I just want to share some comments from current members of the impact coach collective to give you a little sense of, of the value from their perspective.
So the first one is from Brandon. He's a coach in Tokyo. He really values the structure that it has given him in a time when that can feel very unstructured, right? So when he needs to build the [00:50:00] skills and materials to market his business and he appreciates the the track record. And the experience that, that I have.
And I think you know, I do a lot of giving people very tangible suggestions when we get into our Q and a session. So he appreciates that. Tony again, really appreciates the scaffolding and the support. And I love the phrase taking the guesswork out of things. That is what I hope for. Right. I want to make sure that your ramp up or your next step is.
Is as quick as possible, because I want to give you the information that you would otherwise take quite a long time to, to acquire. I want to give that to you in a very targeted way and very specific for executive coaches. Zoe, Zoe has She has grown her business in the last 12 months to be consistently, you know, hitting really amazing numbers.
And she really appreciates that practical advice. So that's really important to her. And is all about motivation. So, you know, we, [00:51:00] we are there, we're supporting each other. I'm there to give, to get you unstuck. That's really important. Holly. Supportive, knowledgeable, pragmatic, you know, that's what, if, if I could have people define me any way it would be as supportive, knowledgeable, and pragmatic.
So, you know, I want to be in your corner. So I would love to love to work with you. So let me tell you a little bit about what is included in the impact coach collective. So the impact coach collective is a business education and mentoring and community. Specifically for executive and leadership coaches.
And the doors are open until next Tuesday night, if you would like to join us, so this is for you, if you have made a decision to prioritize building strong business foundations it's for you, if you want to look back in 90 days, for example, from a whole different level, it's for you. If you want to do it in community with great people who have similar goals and similar ambitions.
If you feel stuck. And you need some help [00:52:00] to chart the way forward. You know, that is, that is what we can help you with. So what is in it? The first thing I would say is the impact coach collective includes the entirety of the corporate to coach blueprint digital course. So this is our foundational self paced digital course.
It includes The how, right? That is the, how are you going to get to an even better position against all of these foundations. So there are eight modules. There are 36 lessons. It is extremely practical. The workbook is about 55 pages and all of those are checklists, guides, and tools. So you can of course, just sign up for the corporate to coach blueprint anytime.
But the, for the cost of that, you could spend three months in the impact coach collective, right. And get access to, to that course. And that would encourage you to get it, get the work done as well. So we also have a range of, of masterclasses and those are monthly. They're led by me on a topic that is of, of.
Interest to executive coaches. We also do [00:53:00] things like, you know, I will pose a challenge to you. We'll have conversations about it in the group. It'll feed into our Q and a sessions. Our recent topics have been we did in April, we did a warm outreach, how to write, how do you identify who you're going to target from a marketing perspective and what are some different strategies you can take in, in order to, to reach out to them and create.
In May, we had a masterclass on mindset and it was huge what came out. So we got really into what is going on for people, what might be getting in the way, right? What are the blockers? What are the barriers? Where are we self sabotaging? It was amazing. And that is actually recorded. So you can, you can access all of these When you join in sorry, that was, that was may no, that was April, March was warm outreach.
April was mindset. And in May, so just, so if you join, you'll, you'll have access to this. May is all about B2B sales conversations which is, Very popular [00:54:00] June is going to be on assessment and debrief best practices. And then also on the calendar for the rest of the year, things like LinkedIn, deep dives, content sprints.
So writing and planning content for a number of months how to hire and utilize a VA managing your finances and backend system set up. We also in that every second month, we also have a guest session, a guest expert session, and our most recent one was a panel of three coaches talking about chemistry checks, best practice, what they do, how they approach it.
And that was just brilliant. And it was with coaches that I know have got a very high high win rate for, for chem checks. So as well as our monthly masterclasses, we have regular mentoring calls. And so, you know, most weeks in the month, so at least three, three weeks of the month, there will be an opportunity to come and get your question asked, whether it's in the masterclass or a Q and a session or a deal clinic.
So the Q and a sessions are [00:55:00] where you can come and ask any questions. So nothing is off the table. You can come and just say, I don't know how to get unstuck and share your situation. A lot of people ask me questions about you know, LinkedIn strategy, content strategy client strategy.
What's the best system for X offer development. All of that stuff. We, we can talk about, and then we have deal clinics and deal clinics are probably my favorite session of the month. We don't record deal clinics because it's an opportunity for you to come and really workshop pricing talk about your clients challenges.
We talk about proposals, how to structure your proposals. Build your deal strategy, take next steps, all of it, right? So I will give you very specific advice. We can talk about it with the group. We can hot seat all of that stuff. So deal clinics are fabulous. Now, a question that is often asked is what time are these sessions run?
So firstly, it is optional. You don't have to come live. [00:56:00] You can just watch the recordings, but if you want to come along and if you have questions, which I encourage you to do. We will make sure that there is something that works for every time zone. So at least every month there'll be something that works for every time zone.
So my theory is that you know, depending on where people are in the world, and currently we have people everywhere from Europe to the UAE to Singapore, Australia. Thailand, you know, we're quite diverse. So if I have to run two, two sessions, I will do that to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to come to, to at least something.
So we also have a private Facebook community and that is a amazing group. Where, you know, I'm trying to encourage more and more activity, but it is. Just the most lovely place. People are asking questions. They're posting things for me to give feedback on. It's, it's wonderful. And then it says, and more.
And what I mean by and more is that we've also got a vault full of templates and tools, so that's things like your coach bio [00:57:00] template, your proposal template your quote document. And, you know, I add every time I develop a new resource. That goes in the vault. So plenty, plenty of stuff there. Now there is a bonus.
If you join before the doors close on Tuesday, which is access to a series of workshops that I ran over the last two months, and that is called the corporate to coach runway workshop series. So you would get access to the recordings. This is a very practical series of workshops. And it goes all the way from runway planning, right?
So what to consider in the lead up to making the leap into your own business. And that was a real, I love that session. This is all about your financial plan. What can you do from a business and client development perspective before you step out? And things to think about in terms of mindset. The second session is about refining your offer, right?
So how to package and price your services. The third is building your collateral, right? So how to get your coach bio up to scratch, make sure your proposal document [00:58:00] is dialed in. And then finally warm outreach strategy. So, you know, we've got quite a few resources around warm outreach. And this one is.
Identifying a target market, leveraging your network, and what are some strategies you can use to reach out to them? So that is a huge bonus and a really great set of workshops. And then a very special bonus that I'm very pleased to offer for everyone who has attended the webinar. Is a bonus Kickstarter session.
That is a one on one session with me. We'll spend 45 minutes together and I will get really specific on your business. We'll talk about your priorities. We'll build a plan of attack for the first 90 days that you're in the program. So that you're getting the most out of it and you're getting that, you know, that, that runway.
Happening as soon as possible which is super fun and I love doing these, but you know, often I can't do that because of the scale, but in this case you know, I'm really pleased to offer that to anyone who joins from the webinar. I also have a [00:59:00] second webinar bonus. This one will expire at the end of the day tomorrow.
That's Friday, Friday, the 10th end of day, wherever you are in the world, you know, I'll, I'll extend it. So what this is, is an asset review. So if you submit, you can submit to me an asset of your choice, something that you are working on or that you don't feel comfortable with, or you want some help with, and I will record a loom video of me going through that asset and giving you feedback on it.
And so the assets that we're talking about include things like your website your LinkedIn page, your coach bio your money, marketing material, or you might have a piece of content like a blog or a newsletter. You know, whatever one asset you'd like me to review, I will be happy to do that. If you join by the close of business tomorrow, and that's Friday the 10th.
So. What does it cost? There are two ways that you can join. You can join annually or you can join monthly. So the monthly cost to join is 297 USD a month. And the annual [01:00:00] fee is 2, 997 USD. That is a better financial position because you essentially get two months free per year. With the monthly option, the benefit of that is that there are no locking contracts.
I have no interest in locking people in. You just need to give us two weeks notice before your next payment is due so that we can make sure that that's all in place. And then, you know, probably half, half of the people join annually because of the cost benefit and, you know, to sort of, I guess, de risk it a little bit, we do have a 30 day money back guarantee.
So if it is not what you thought it would be it's not what you hoped you're not getting out of it. No, really, it's not what you, what you thought it would be. We can, we can give you your money back within that time. So both options give you a way to come and join us with not too much risk.
And I did also just put in there that you can sign up for the corporate to coach blueprint as a standalone self published resource. Pace digital course you might want to consider that if you don't have the time to commit to, you know, a mentoring program like the impact [01:01:00] coach collective, because, you know, we do have a lot of touch points.
You are in a community. It can take more time than you might have available. You might prefer to stay focused and just get the foundations to start with and then join the collective later, if appropriate. But you know, you might still want all that information. So, so Robert has asked how long does the impact coach collective program last?
It's ongoing, Robert. So you join for so long as it, as you're getting value out of being a member. And for so long as you're you know, a member, you get access to all of the digital resources, all the recordings. So it's a real membership. But you can stop any, any time you like. So I do want to remind you though, that the impact coach collective includes the corporate coach blueprint, right.
For as long as, as you are a member. Okay. So on that note, I'm going to turn off the slides and answer some fabulous questions. Questions. So let me just stop the share. Okay. So Sarah says, if you just do the blueprint [01:02:00] course, when can you join the ICC at a later point? That's a great point, Sarah. So you can join any time we open doors to the launch.
So we open the doors to the impact coach collective roughly once a quarter for about a week. So you could join anytime we open the doors, if you joined the blueprint. As well so any other questions, please feel free to drop them in the chat. Okay. So a question is if you join today when does it start?
You get access as soon as you join. So as soon as you join, you'll get details to log into the into the portal. And then you'll get your welcome email. And that will include invitation to a welcome session, which is happening next Thursday. So in, in that session, we will go, we'll talk to you live about answering any of your questions talking about all the practicalities.
So you're welcome to join. Yeah, so you'll get [01:03:00] access as literally as soon as you, as you press the payment button. So you have access immediately. And, you know, our, I think our next, our next session that we have, it's either next week or the week after we've got quite a detailed calendar that has got everything in there for you.
And that, so you'd be able to join straight in on the Q and a sessions, masterclasses immediately from now on. So Sarah says, how long is access to the blueprint standalone course? That's a 12 month access Sarah. So you get access to it for free. For 12 months. Of course, if you join the impact coach collective at any time you know, wherever you have access for as long as you're a member of the impact coach collective, but if you were, you know, let's just say, hypothetically, you joined the collective for a shorter period of time, you're, you would continue to keep your blueprint access for, for as long as you've paid for it.
So those are very good questions. Any, anything else that anyone's thinking about? You are also, as I mentioned, hang on, let me put those links back in [01:04:00] there. Cause I might've if you wanted to, to jump onto a discovery call with me, that's 15 minutes to talk about it. You are most welcome. So someone has said I'm not an executive coach, although there is a lot of good advice.
Just wondering if it's too specific for me. I would suggest jump on a call with me. And, and let me, let's, let's talk about that because I think a lot of what we cover is more generally applicable than executive coaches, but it is, that is, that is the primary focus. And there's, you know, there's an interesting, we talk primarily about selling into corporate clients as well as individuals, but there is definitely a.
A bit of a focus on that. So Bernadette, I would suggest booking a call with me and let's talk about your business and I'll make sure, you know, to, you know, I wouldn't want you to join if it wasn't a good fit for you. So, so let's have it, let's have a chat about that. Any other [01:05:00] questions?
Okay. Well, thank you very much everyone for, for coming along. I have greatly enjoyed this session. This has been some great conversation. I would really love to love to talk to some of you afterwards. And I can, I can see in, in some of the comments that are coming in privately, that people are excited to get started, excited to join.
And so am I, I can't wait to welcome you in. And we have a fabulous group of people that will. That will join you. Now someone has mentioned that English isn't there, isn't their first language. So what I have promised is that when I create the recording, I'm going to create a transcript so that you'll be able to understand what was in there.
And hopefully I think in all of our videos, they are. Do come with captions that I believe can be tailored, but don't, don't hold me to that. But thank you everyone. I'm so excited to, to meet you all in the program. Thanks everyone. And I will, yes, I will stop the recording and [01:06:00] yes, hope to speak to you soon.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the business of executive coaching. If you found it helpful, please share it with a colleague or friend on LinkedIn. And don't forget to tag me so I can say thanks. I would be tremendously grateful also if you would leave a review on Apple podcasts. More reviews means more people can find us.
This episode was brought to you by the Impact Coach Collective, where executive coaches grow their businesses in a community of peers with business education, mentoring, deal clinics, and more. If you'd like to contact me or work with me further, all my free resources, courses, and more info on the Impact Coach Collective can be found at elliescarf.com
Have a brilliant week, and I look forward to talking to you again soon.
