The Profit Lovers Podcast

Coach or Course? How to choose!

July 25, 2022 Melanie Miller
The Profit Lovers Podcast
Coach or Course? How to choose!
Show Notes Transcript

So you’re ready to invest in professional advice but where will you get the most bang for your buck? Are you ready for one-to-one coaching? What kind of coach should you choose, or is a course a better option for you? Let’s look at the different options available so you can get the best possible outcome.

Here's what is covered in this episode

  • How to avoid the pitfalls of free advice
  • Why you need to limit your consumption of information
  • Figuring out what outcome you’re looking for 
  • Deciding on the level of support you need
  • Understanding the difference between courses and coaches
  • Choosing the right coach for your industry or business type

Links:

The Profit Lovers Members Club
One to One Coaching with Melanie
Find Melanie on Instagram
Coach Pamela The Reinvention Institute
Mastering the Skill of Reinvention 

The Profit Lovers Podcast Intro

The Profit Lovers Podcast Outro

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Melanie:

Hey, welcome back profit lovers, so you're ready to invest in professional advice. But where will you get the most? bang for your buck? Are you ready for one on one coaching? Is that too much of a commitment? What kind of coach should you choose? Or is a course a better option for you? In this episode, we're going to look at the different options available. And my thoughts on what works best what doesn't work so well, so that you can get the best possible outcome for your investment. The options when it comes to business growth advice are endless. And pricing can be anything from free to hundreds of 1000s of dollars a year. One of my clients coach Pamela from the reinvention Institute, I've been coaching her since Oh, my gosh, early 2018 has a billable rate of well over six figures. And she's worth twice, probably three times and investment, if not more, I'll link her details in the show notes because she also has an amazing audible that talks about reinvention. It's really good. If we start with free advice, where you invest nothing but time because no real free advice if you then absorb it right because your time's worth something, you need to consider carefully where that free advice comes from. If it's from a free Facebook group, it can be really bad advice like if an awful unless you're looking for a specific recommendation or an answer to a very specific question. Don't be hanging out too much in those groups, you're going to get advice from people who spend their days sitting in Facebook groups giving advice to others. Now, that's not to say that there are not some really knowledgeable and generous advice givers in those groups they most certainly are. But if you're not discerning, or you're not sure what's kind of right or wrong, it can be tough to filter out the good advice from the bad. Some of the bad advice is I call It's a horror show. Next, we've got the free advice, but in the form of like downloads, opt ins, podcasts, videos, tic TOCs, all of that great content that we can consume for free, I get lots of valuable things to think about from those places. They're micro bits of inspirational things to consider. But they also can be a bit of a distraction to your progress. If you consume a lot of free content. Choose a couple of high value sources from people that you admire that you trust that you respect, and stick to those few sources. A lot of free advice can be conflicting, not because it's wrong or it's bad advice. But because everyone has a different approach. I am very profit focused. Obviously other online experts are sales focused or passion focused. You've got to choose the right fit for the outcome that you're looking for. But be wary of consuming only free advice or too much free advice. Next, we've got those low price point offers and I can tell you, I am going wantonness consumer, I was gonna use another word. And my bluntness consumer of low price point offers I'm talking$100 or less in investment. In my business in the profit lovers, I call them micro offers, or micro solutions, other businesses call them trip wires. If you want an explanation on what a tripwire is, DM me on Insta, and I'll do a video on that topic. But they're essentially a taste an offer where you can take the next step with an expert, obviously, that offers that free content, you can commit low investment to seeing what they have to offer next. These offers are usually designed to be eye openers, they're not full solutions. They're not full fixes for a business, they won't necessarily accelerate your business. The really good stuff that creates true change and like deep change, fundamental change is usually offered after you've taken that first paid step that's their big offer. The value from micro offers is that they can start your journey in a certain area of business without you needing to spend a lot of time or money. I bought a micro offer that helped me dig deeper into my ideal client profile, just like kind of dig more into their deeper needs. And it changed the way that I write sales copy and it changes how I frame up my offers. It improved what I already had it put some polish on what I already had, but it didn't fix anything. It just polished it up if that makes sense. These micro offers might be enough to help You find your way on your own, they can be really eye opening as to where to go next. But mostly, they can just be either a starting point or add a little polish on to something for you. On from the micro office, we have coaches and courses. Everything is available from how to create a tic tock through to scaling to a seven figure business. There are PR courses and coaches, there are courses and coaches to help you get your book published, there is so much out there on offer. And every offer makes you feel like it's probably the right offer for you. It's the next thing that you need to finally unlock doors that have stopped that wads of cash from flowing your way. That's what good sales copy is designed to do. It's designed to convince you that that is the solution that you need. It's designed to convince you will really just about anything, it's really up to you to establish if you're filling a gap or a hole in your business, or you have the foundations built, but you now want to build upon that foundation, because not every solution is going to be right for you. And you've got to decide what solution it is that you're really looking for. Now the choice is not yet should I invest in a coach or a course, we'll talk about that in a moment. And that's often where people go wrong. Before you decide, coach your course, you do really need to determine what outcome you're looking for. That alone can be hard, I get that you don't know what you don't know. That's why the plan and track exists, right? So you can record data, and then use that data to decide what's next, where the gaps are, what is working, what's not working. And if you have no idea at all, and you need a set of eyes over your entire business, to pinpoint your issues, then a coach will likely be your best option to show you where the gaps are. Let me tell you from personal experience, if someone can hand over their plan and track to me, before we've started working together, it's like gold, because I can really quickly identify what's going on in their business what's going wrong, and where we need to pay attention. So whether or not it's me that you choose to work one on one, whether you choose to go with another coach, give them the plan and track, give them your results and your data and let them have a look at that they should be able to give you really good next step advice on that. So if you need that set of eyes over your entire business, then a coach, as I said will likely be the best option to show you where the gaps are. If nothing in your business is working at all, you're kind of aware that everything needs improvement and that you're just not doing the things that you're supposed to be doing. When you haven't put in place the things that you know should be in place, then a business strategy course will do you well. Now we then courses, we have some variation, we have the good old, go it alone, we've got small groups, we've got large groups, you've got memberships, masterminds in any combination of all of those. And if you know that you need accountability to get things done, then do not even consider go it alone courses. If you're easily overwhelmed by a lot of noise, then those large group memberships large group courses might not suit I won't join those large group courses or memberships that rely on like Facebook groups to get the most out of content, which my group does right members club, you really do get a lot of value out of the group. And so I'm a full supporter of those groups. I personally can't be in big ones. And listen, this is going to be another cash Melanie's such a cow sometimes, but lots of questions, lots of posts, or lots of talk from people who are lazy. You know, they are the ones that don't bother googling answers to simple questions. They want somebody to give them the answer. People who vent you know, they don't want a solution they just want to be heard. Or like that self indulgent woe is me type person really, really, really does my head and you might be the type of person who can filter that noise or just doesn't notice it. And honestly, I wish I was because with those big groups or those big memberships, you often get answers to questions you didn't even know you should have because the collective challenges and wisdom from that group is so valuable. If you can't filter, then a mastermind or small group program can be really great. While you might not get a lot if any one on one time, our attention, you will learn from other members without being swamped or swallowed by all the noise. I also love watching the friendships form and those deeper can have actions developed between my members. I attract mostly introverts who don't have big networks, despite being in business for a few years are often, like really going it alone. And that's one of their biggest challenges. So they get that chance not just to improve their business, but also to build out those really important and valuable relationships. So if you've ruled out the course option, and you've decided that one to one, support is definitely what you need, then we've got variables there too. As I mentioned earlier, often, coaches have different focuses, right. And on top of that, they have different ways of working, their varying styles of communication, and their own self developed tools. If your business works, everything is as it should be. But you're in the way of your own success all the time. Let me make take a quick moment to take a side note here, make a side note, take a side note, give you a side note, people often think that they're the only thing in the way of their success. But they still don't have the basics in place, like a profit plan, a way to measure their results, a marketing funnel and conversion stats and a cash flow plan. So if you're giving yourself a hard time because you think you're the only block to your success, it must just be your mindset, then do consider if you've got those basic things in place first, if you have those things in place, but you are always being a little self destructive. You might prefer to work with a coach that focuses on mindset and accountability. There are coaches that will push you through those limiting boundaries and beliefs. I've got many clients who have a couple of coaches they work with, they have a coach on the mindset motivation side, and then they have me strategy. The list of coaches is endless. There's marketing and online performance and public relations and just the good old garden variety business coach like me, whichever coach you work with, make sure that they understand their role in your business, it should be to coach which is to advise, direct, encourage, and develop your skills as a business owner. Coaches should, in my opinion, not every coach's opinion, make themselves redundant for at least a period of time. Coaches shouldn't hold all of the answers to your business growth or strategy. They should help you discover the answers with their expert guidance and their insight. Coaches, in Melanie's opinion, should suggest and not tell it's your business. And a great coach will help tease out your true desires and goals, not imprint theirs on you and your business. They'll also help you gain momentum. And a really good coach should be able to step back from your business for six months, a year, two years, while you continue your progression, and then step back in when you need them. The reason that you don't often see me directly marketing to feel coaching spots is that I do have a quite a big list of clients that come to me, we'll work together for six months quite solidly, then they head off on their way. And they'll go it alone for six months, a year, two years, three years. And then they cycle back in when they're ready to take that next step. Or if they find that they've lost a little bit of momentum, and they need to get clear again, unlike courses, which often teach a step by step templated strategy, a coach usually has a more bespoke or custom approach to building out your strategy with you. And I hear that I just said, building out your strategy with you, not for you. It's challenging to be a really great course creator. Because teaching that templated approach. It only ever works for a small segment of your members, or your buyers, your customers. There are the basics to business, which are non negotiables for my members or my clients. But then there is a whole lot of areas of business like how you use your time most effectively, and what kind of time management skills you prefer to develop what kind of marketing is right for you, and how you like to structure and organize your systems, how you want to grow your team, which requires of me to have flexibility and options built into my content. In members club. There are the base frameworks that we build out. But even some of those base frameworks like the SEO plan, so when members create their SEO plans, they will submit them for review for advice for feedback. And often I'll say to them, it looks great because it looks perfect for what you want to achieve. It's not for me to give you a fixed template that you have to follow. Exactly. It's for me to give you a template that you modify and massage and change. So it's going to work best for you, and for how your brain works and how your business works. And finally, should you choose an industry specific coach, or course and honestly, there are advantages and disadvantages to both industry coaches and courses are fantastic, because they know the ins and outs of your challenges. And usually they know them personally, right. But it can be limiting in that they only know that industry. So they can only apply strategies from that industry. I can't even tell you how many industries I've covered. It's been everything from hair and beauty wholesale home wares, retail pool supplies, manufacturing, construction, consulting, training, online courses, music, PR. I mean, it's, it's a really varied list. And what I love about that is that I can take concepts from different industries and apply them to businesses that have never tried those concepts before. And there's no way competitors to those businesses are using those concepts. So it can really set them aside, right. All right, let's wrap up with some final questions to ask yourself before you decide if it's a coach or a course that you need. If it is an interest, industry specific coach, or if it is a very certain type, of course. First question to ask yourself is Do you know what outcome you're looking for? Second question to ask yourself is can you identify what gaps or holes you need to fill in your business? And that means not allowing a sales page to convince you that you might have that gap? Are you self motivated enough to complete coursework without support? Or do you need more of a small group approach with a bit of accountability? Is the idea of building relationships with others while you learn appealing? And would you prefer a templated system to follow? Or a more flexible approach or a more bespoke strategy? And are you looking for specific industry guidance? Or do you want more of that out of the box thinking? If you're still not sure, drop me a DM on Instagram, I'm at the profit lovers and let me know where you're at. Voicemail me on Instagram, you can do those little voice messages. Tell me about your business. Tell me what you're struggling with. Tell me where you're at and what you're looking for. Because I know a lot of really good course creators out there. And I know a lot of good coaches as well. And I may be able to give you some advice from my experience on what might be the best fit for you. Now, a little self promotion here, I have a micro course coming out soon. It's going to untangle you from your business. So you can get out of the weeds and take a better look at your business. So you can see where your foundations are a little shaky or a little crumbly. And so you can fill in all of the gaps to prepare you for your first 100k in profit. It's a prequel is a prequel. Yes, sequel comes after prequel comes before, right? It's a prequel to members club. So if you missed out on members club last time, if you're not sure that it's the right place to invest your money, or you know that you do really need insight so you can decide where best to focus your time. It's going to be a $97 solution. I'm trying to figure out how we can include a live element so that you can also directly ask me questions, so that you can walk away with an actual usable, tangible what's next plan. So keep your eyes on your inbox. Take a listen to the next podcast episodes. Keep an eye on my socials. And they will be more shared there. I'm aiming for August, nothing like a bit of public accountability to keep you honest. And that is it for me today. I hope that today's podcast has helped you get a little bit of clarity or got you thinking about whether a course or a coach is the right next move. Don't shy away from investing in your own success. It can be some of the best money that you spend. If you spend it really really well. Happy profit loving