You’ve seen it all the time, enticing statements of helping you make 5k or 10k in 8 weeks. It’s juicy, it’s tempting but it’s also hurting the coaching industry.
The relentless focus on achieving a certain revenue number month after month, as if it was the only measure of success and impact, was causing me to rethink the whole industry. At the same time I was also noticing time and time again, people who I thought were successful established coaches dropping out of the industry. Why? I began to wonder, and found this obsession with 5k and 10k months creating distractions, mental blocks and lies and hurting the potential of coaches, clients and the industry as whole.
Focusing on the numbers detracts from your why
The people I respected were burning out, they had all lost touch with their why and they were just not feeling it anymore. The focus on just the revenues detracts from your why. Because not everyone starts their business just to make some extra moola or a tonne of it, a lot of us have started our coaching business because we genuinely want to help people. We want to create a better world, a happier, healthier, kinder people and planet. Coaching is a very personal thing, and it’s not easily translated into just a dollar sign. When you just look at the dollars you miss the number of lives changed, the deeper impact of what you’re trying to achieve, the connections created and the ripple effects of the change you can affect. No wonder people were feeling burned out.
It makes it seem like a pyramid scheme
This marketing strategy alienates me and is what made me think the whole coaching industry is a pyramid scheme and what made some friends wonder what I was up to. It seemed like it was just coaches helping other coaches to hit 5k or 10k months by selling high-priced packages to other coaches. Where was the impact in all of that? How was this changing the world I wondered? I know I’m not the only one who has wondered this and marketing by this strategy has not only alienated potential new coaches but perpetuates this perception.
Focusing on the revenues creates a mental block
What happens if you don’t hit that 5k or 10k month? Do you turn away in despair, think something is wrong with you, think maybe you’re not meant to do this anymore? If you know anything about the abundance mindset it’s about appreciating what you have, knowing there is more. Focusing on the 5k or 10k month sets you up in this lack mentality, and creates anxiety and desperation as you hold tight to a number. If we’re teaching our clients to create a mindset of abundance and overcome blocks, then why do we create a huge block by marketing in this way?
It suggests that success needs to be overnight
The obsession is faster and more. But this neglects the costs behind the scenes. The expenses to get to that 5k or 10k month, the lost sleep, the hustle. As tempting as it sounds, the marketing all makes it sound like there was overnight success but it’s doubtful it was that fast. There’s a glamorous story of how fast and how much you can have success and it’s all ease and flow but the expectation this creates can cause anxiety and neglects the truth of the hard work and ups and downs that are experienced. Do you give up faster because you’ve been sold the idea of overnight success? It takes perseverance and work if you want to be successful.
So what can you focus on instead?
Focus on the impacts of what you are creating. Focus on the lives changed, money donated, skills shared. Focus on the healthier, happier, more balanced people who’s lives you are touching. Because that’s the kind of impact I am after.
I know there are so many people that could benefit from coaching, whether life coaching, health coaching, relationship coaching, business coaching, spiritual coaching, or any other type of coaching. Coaching can be a powerful and transformative experience and it does change lives, and improve the well-being of others.
We should focus on those impacts. The ones that make a big difference and reconnect us with our why.
Making a profit is good and it is important to enable us to continue to run our businesses and scale and grow and also make the lifestyle choices that could improve the planet. But focusing on just the money is taking people away from their why and is a fast track for burnout. So if you’re truly in the business of helping others and making the world a better place, let’s talk about how you change lives, not how much money you should be making.