How your coaching program can increase results, sales, and profits. 

Have you ever noticed that the coaching industry is like the wild-wild West?! 

There are no rules, and no regulations, and things can get a little out of hand to be honest.  In fact, just last week I saw a coach’s sales pitch that made me sick to my stomach. The promise?  To heal deep emotional wounds in 90 days or less, discouraging people from doing EMDR and other therapeutic practices that are evidence-based. 

Listen, coaches, this DOES NOT need to be discouraging.  We can see this as an opportunity to rise and make the coaching industry better.  Educate yourself, Learn all you can.  Be a safe and ethical coach.  There are good reasons that Master Coach Training (and every coach training and program that I offer) is holistic. This means we are taking into account the “whole person” view of your client.  When you can understand more about the nervous system, emotional processing, and safe cognitive coaching practices- you can be incredibly effective and hold your head high. 

Today’s post is focused on how your unique coaching program can bring a little structure to this wild-wild west.  Your program can distinguish you from the work a therapist or other mental health professional does.  It can also bring clarity to your potential clients as to how you help them.  Many coaches have a more “open” process and struggle to define it with a program.  If this applies to you, you might be surprised at how a structured approach can be more open than you realize, while creating phenomenal results. 

What is a coaching program? Why is it important?  How do you get started with creating it? 

In one of my signature offers, Create Your Killer Program (CYKP), I walk my clients through the process step-by-step of creating a unique program.  Creating a program is much simpler than you may realize, but when so much is unknown, it can be overwhelming. Let’s talk about 5 reasons you need a clear coaching program.  

Most people don’t know what coaching is. “Coaching” is a catch-all term for various types of services.  Consulting, business advice, emotional processing, and mindset work; are just a few categories within the coaching umbrella.  While it’s becoming more popular, you must assume that most people don’t know what you do, and (more importantly), they don’t know what it means in practical terms for them.   When people feel uncertain, they won’t buy.  A clear, specific program with a strong marketing offer will communicate to people what results they will get from working with you. It will take what is vague and intangible, to something much more concrete. In CYKP my clients create a clear program, but also a clear marketing statement for it - it makes all the difference! 

When you sell coaching, you are selling nothing.  Few people are looking for coaching, many people are looking for help in solving their problems.  When you have a clear coaching program set, it helps you define and refine how you speak to your ideal clients.  With no clear program outlined, many coaches find themselves stumbling over their words to explain to people what they do.  This breeds insecurity, imposter syndrome, and a pile of regret and embarrassment after a conversation.  A clear program gives you words to speak and a plan that your clients can understand. 

People want change and it IS possible. The fields of neuroscience and positive psychology are revealing more each day about what is possible to create lasting change.  We now understand that even as adults, we can create greater neuroplasticity in our brains.  This means we can continue to adapt and change how the brain is working - and make sure it is working for us.  Create a program that supports these permanent changes with your client - it impacts their entire life with a huge ripple effect! We dive into the elements of an effective program in CYKP.  Those foundations make a big difference when it comes to giving your clients results. 

A coaching program can differentiate you from therapy.  I always say there is a distinct line and also a completely blurry line between coaching and therapy. Why? As coaching, we are supporting positive mental, emotional, and behavioural changes. There will naturally be crossover and I believe that coaching and therapy done well can have a beautiful partnership.  Sometimes simultaneously for your clients, and sometimes one after the other.  The distinct line comes when you recognize trauma, personality disorders, or other mental illnesses that are outside the scope of your practice.  By clearly defining your program and the language around it, you can show the difference between the repair of therapy vs. the growth and forward motion of coaching. 

The right coaching program will make results inevitable (and trackable).  Many coaches who come to me have more of an “open style” of coaching where throughout the coaching relationship there is a flow of topics and progress that were never anticipated.  For this reason, many coaches resist creating a program, or they simply struggle to understand how to begin.  I highly recommend that every coach create a clear program, with trackable milestones, and build in complete flexibility and options to personalize.  After all, THIS is what coaching is all about!  AI and Google searches contain more answers to life’s problems than any of us can digest!  Your clients want personal help and support, and you (not ChatGPT), can give them to them.  In CYKP, I teach a unique process to ensure that you can always “adapt and tweak” whatever you’ve created.  Once you have the fundamentals of your program, the possibilities are endless, even about how you deliver the content - 1:1, course, group offering - it’s all a variation of the same thing.