Intro: Welcome to The Masterful Coach podcast with Molly Claire, where coaches learn skill mastery, business mastery, and life mastery at a whole new level. If you are serious about creating a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you are in the right place. And now your host, master life and business coach, Molly Claire.

Molly Claire: Hey, Coach! Okay, how many of you listening have ever set a goal to make the money back that you invested in coach training? Or perhaps you set a goal to make back the money that you’ve spent so far building your business? This is what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about making the money you want in your business. We’re talking about why coaches don’t make the money back that they spend in their business, and we’re going to talk about a better way.

So, before we dive in, I want to make sure that you all know Advanced Certification is open for enrollment at the end of this month. I am officially taking interviews for a small group of coaches starting on October 26th. The advanced training, you can find it on my website www.mollyclaire.com. Go there to get the details and overview of the program. It is specific to coaches working in the mom space, those working with moms, families, and family relationships, and all of those issues we see as women navigating motherhood and family life.

So, if this is your niche, definitely check it out. We are going to be focusing on helping with parenting, helping with advanced emotion work, advanced cognitive work. I’m even going to be bringing in the amazing Mickey Gardner, who is a co-parenting expert, and we’re also going to talk business there.

So, I’m most excited about this enrollment of certification because I’m keeping it very small and intimate. I love going deep with my clients and having a high-touch experience, and that’s what this is going to be all about. So, if you are excited about the idea of advancing your skills this coming year and would love to dive in with me and with Mickey as well, check it out. Hope to see some of you popping into my inbox.

Okay, so let’s talk about getting your money back. So right now, actually, this is the first week working with a group where we’re focusing on making money in their business. These are all coaches that came to me wanting to take a look at earning that first 10k, or some of these coaches have made that much money, but there’s not really anything stable, and they’re wanting to make that 10k and know how to make it again and again.

So, as we’re working together, many of them, I would say probably three-fourths of them came to our consultation with the fear or objection that they’re worried they won’t get their money back, and they’ve already spent money on coach training and haven’t earned that back yet.

And so, we did a welcome call ahead of starting this week, and this was the first thing we talked about. And what I told them and what I’ll tell you is that you will never make the money back that you spend in your coaching business. The money you’ve already spent, you are never going to make it back.

And I also want to offer to you that this is a very good thing because the reason that we spend money to invest in our business is that the money that we spend should create and generate more money. And I think oftentimes when we go to this place of thinking that we give money and then we want to get that money back, we’re really missing out on seeing the possibility of expansion of that investment.

Think about it, when you paid for coach training or for the marketing program that you did, or the advanced training or whatever it is, you paid that money because that thing you were paying for was more valuable to you than the money that you had. Or perhaps another way of looking at it for you was you believe that spending that money was worth it because it would give you something greater, the ability to expand your ability to make even more money, right?

Most likely, most of you didn’t go in thinking, I want this to be an even exchange, I just want to pay for this and make up the difference. Now, that may be true for some of you—and that’s amazing as well, right, that education is awesome. But I think that we’re really short-changing ourselves and short-changing your investment when you focus on trying to get the money back that you spent.

And so, I want to offer up to you this idea that as you shift and you instead think about what you can create with that investment, what you can gain from that investment that can be expanded, when you can lean into that way of thinking, it goes from scarcity and lack and trying to make up for a deficit and shifts over to this sense of the abundance of creating from something so valuable that you chose to invest in.

So, I want to offer you a few key questions to ask as you think about this. What will I create with this investment? Every time I’m considering a purchase for my business, and I do make purchases in my business. Now I want to back up and say, my business at this point is a little more complicated. My business is a little more expensive than some businesses, right? Every business is going to be very different. But oftentimes, the more complex your business becomes, the more expenses there are.

And I know and believe and have seen that it is totally possible to also have an extremely simple coaching business and invest typically less financially, but still, invest and have a profitable business. These are really all just choices that we make.

But I want to highlight that I do invest in my business because you will be hard-pressed to find a business owner who is financially successful, who does not continue to invest money in their business, in their learning, in their marketing, in their team, in all the things. And so, I just want to help you to see that if you truly want a business that creates profit and abundance for you, there has to be an investment of time and an investment of money, and you can usually give more time or more money, and there’s usually a perfect balance for each of you.

Perfect example, I interviewed Katrina Ubell on the podcast a few weeks ago, and we talked about how she had incredible growth in her first year as a coach, and she was investing financially and time-wise in her business. She was really, really going all in. So back to this question of what can I create with this? Every time I go to make an investment, this is one of the questions I pose to myself: What’s possible from this investment for me? What will I create with this?

Rather than, what will this give me? What money will this make back as I invest in this, as I choose that this thing is valuable enough to put my money toward and valuable enough that I believe it’s going to grow my business? What am I, as the coach and CEO of my business going to create with this? I want you to write that down and think about it. Think about the next time you invest in something that you’re pretty sure would benefit your business. What would it be like to ask yourself, “What will I create with this investment?”

The next question I want to post to you and have you consider and think about is what are the rules in your mind about what you’re allowed to spend money on in your life and in your business? We all have these rules, and it is so fascinating, right? I’m allowed to spend money on this. I’m allowed to spend money on that. I’m not allowed to spend money on this other thing. And what’s interesting is sometimes this relates to money, right? Well, I can justify spending money on this because this might give me money back. It’s like this exchange thing, right? It’s going to even it out, so there’s no stress or no worry.

But what’s interesting is other things that we never connect with any kind of financial return or reward are worth spending the money on. And this is worth thinking about for you, not only for you but because this is also a good way for you to think about and consider how you sell to your clients. How do you help your clients make a decision to pay for something that they might not otherwise, right?

So, going back to you, what are you allowed to spend money on? Do you justify spending money on education when it comes to your business? Education is often a place that we as a society have decided it’s worth spending money there, which is really interesting because sometimes we can seek an education that costs much more than another education, and there may not actually be a better benefit, but somehow, it’s easy for us to justify that in our mind. Is that the case for you? I’d be curious to know and for you to take a look at. Do you find it worthwhile to spend money on things that enhance your personal quality of life? Really think about that for you. And when it comes to investing in your personal life, here’s what I want to offer up to that. First of all, even if investing in your personal life does not give a direct financial reward, which I actually think it does, I’ll talk about that in a minute.

But even if it doesn’t, isn’t it interesting that what we really all want is a better quality of life, right? Going after money, it’s about that quality of life that we want, right? That sense of success, that sense of purpose, building, growing, expanding, having money to be able to pay for our life and to enjoy things. And so, it’s really interesting that if money is just directly focused on something personal in our lives, sometimes it can be harder for us to justify it and I think it’s important to take a look at that.

Now, what I want to offer up to that is I 100% believe that every single one of you listening, when you invest in yourself and you invest in your personal wellbeing, and you invest in those things that aren’t really tangible, that doesn’t seem to have that immediate monetary reward, as you have that foundation for yourself and increase your quality of life and happiness, guess what gets better: Your focus, your mindset, and the energy you have to bring to your business, all of is it is affected in huge ways. So, consider for you, why are you allowed to spend money on it? Why is that? And do you even like those rules that exist in your mind?

Now, I want to offer up a couple more questions for you to consider as you do make investments in your business. It’s important to think about: If I make this investment, what are the returns in my life? Meaning, investing in this program that’s potentially going to help you? I’ll give you a perfect example, right? I pay someone to come help me organize my office and my systems, this is a huge benefit to me. It costs money and me having things organized on my desk does not give me a paycheck. But what it does is it creates a huge abundance of space and energy in my mind, right? Which allows me to then build my business.

And so, I saw a quote recently that said something to the effect of: “Planning your day takes time, and it also gives you more time, it also creates time.” And I thought this is so interesting because when you invest in your business, that takes money and it also creates money, right? And so, I think it’s important to think about what are the returns for your life personally. And also thinking about that relationship between those returns, that quality of life, and how it actually does impact you financially.

I want to talk to the same question in terms of things you invest in your business. Anytime you’re looking at spending money on a program, for example, I have my Advanced Certification coming up, this is an education program. Yes, I’m talking about business and marketing there because I want to have that be a part of it. But at the heart of it, this is for coaches who are wanting to really deepen and advance their coaching skills.

Now, there may not be actions taken that bring a direct financial reward immediately, although I actually believe that there will in more ways than we imagine, but the ways that it will indirectly affect your business, here’s what I have found in six years of working with coaches in many capacities on advancing skills. When you feel better about your own coaching skills, not only because you’ve worked on your confidence, but you’ve built your confidence, that brings a stronger ability for you to sell your program, to sell your coaching, to step up as an expert.

That confidence and that momentum absolutely just spill over into every session. It leads to more referrals. It leads to you speaking more boldly in your messaging. It has such a huge ripple effect, even though initially you don’t see that return. And this is just one element of it and one example. But anytime you’re investing money, you always want to think about: What are the direct and also indirect benefits of investing in this way in my business? And to follow that up, and coming full circle to this idea of asking yourself: What will I create with this?

As you approach investments in your business with this mindset, some things that are really powerful for you to ask as well are: What do I need to learn or gain from this consultation, this coach, this program, this certification, whatever it is, what do I need to learn or gain and how will I ensure that, that I make that happen? Something that I offer up to my clients in their processes, part of what I want them to do is ask for what they need. Raise your hand, be there, be present, and get from this what you want. I want to give it to you, so come and get it.

Another question you can consider going into any investment is: How can I make this benefit me? And I especially want to throw this out there to those of you who have invested in a program or a coach or something to move your business forward and came out sorely disappointed in what you got. I’ve experienced this as well, and it is not a good feeling, especially when you’re first starting your business. And I hear this all the time from coaches, and what I want to offer to you is really what I’ve learned from this experience of doing programs, paying for something that was sold as one thing, didn’t quite match up, didn’t have a great experience.

And I can honestly say that I’m so glad for every one of those experiences, and here’s why. First of all, it has deepened my commitment to always creating programs that deliver the highest quality being honest, being sincere and following through because I don’t want that to be my client’s experience.

Another way this has benefited me is I’ve been able to learn the things that I loved about those programs and the things I didn’t love. In fact, I always tell my clients, “Listen, when you come into my business, when you come into this program, this is your chance to spy on what’s happening. Figure out what you love, figure out what works, and figure out what you don’t like and what doesn’t fit your personality.”

Another thing I want to offer up is that I have found that as I approach purchases and investments, I make with deciding this will benefit me; I’m just not sure how. It does this magical thing of allowing me to let go of what I expected it would be, and instead, focus on everything I can gain and learn, which usually allows me to get way more out of it than I ever anticipated and way more out of it than I could have otherwise.

All right, Coach, I hope this has given you a lot to think about. You are never going to make the money back in your business, so I’ll just give you the gift of dropping that right now and stop trying. Decide that what you have invested and what you have, the knowledge, the skills, everything is just waiting there for you to unlock it bit by bit so that you can create greater abundance that will exceed by leaps and bounds any amount of money that you ever spent so far. That’s what I’ve got for you. I’ll talk to you all next week.

Outro: Thanks for listening to The Masterful Coach podcast. If you’re ready for complete support as you build your coaching business, check outMolly’s collaborative community, The Masterful Coach Collective. It’s a place where you’ll have access to the best experts in the biz, community support and guidance as you build your perfect business 90 days at a time. Visit www.mollyclaire.com for details.