Learn How To Get The Most Out Of Your Online Coaching Business |Agency Q&A| Avi Arya | Dan Miller |

So our work, if we're available 24 7, it can be a dangerous thing. We can become depleted. My work and my life are seamlessly integrated. So much so that people in looking at me probably couldn't be sure if I'm working or playing.

Hi, my name is ABHI Arya. Father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar, rational turned hotelier and founder of Internet Moguls.

What up, Internet Moguls?

And today I'm exceptionally excited because we have a very special guest, the original coach of coaches, Mr. Dan Miller. Dan, welcome to the Internet Moguls masterclass. How are you doing?

Hey, thank you so much. I'm doing wonderful.

In business. How important is it in business? A lot of people who are new and aspiring entrepreneurs somewhere, maybe, unfortunately, some people are made to believe that you can be a nice person, but not while you're at work. You know that those sort of things are mutually exclusive.

Wow. Yeah, that would be unfortunate. To actually believe that, that to be successful in business you have to be that hard charged people abuser, somebody who takes advantage of others. That is not true today. That's going to be short lived. When our businesses today are so transparent, everybody in the world can see what we do and anybody in the world can make comments about what we do. People are going to know if we're not a nice person. The real wealth that I have in my business is in the relationships that I have. Not meaning just employees, people working. The relationships that I have all over the world with people like you, that's the real wealth. So I spend a lot of time nurturing those relationships, which may seem to be not directly related to generating revenue even. But just this morning I was sharing in our online community about how if you're passionate about something and doing it with integrity and character, people will be drawn to you. They'll want to participate. We just had a lady who I didn't know at all create a book, 48 Days for Kids. She's been listening to my podcast for years. She knows me inside and out. Because of that, she created a book for beginning entrepreneurs, kids. It's beautifully illustrated, beautiful story. Picked up on my own life story in a lot of ways. It's 48 pages long. I mean, I couldn't have commissioned something like that if I paid $50,000 for it. She just did it and gave it to us because she's been impacted by our message. You don't get that kind of thing. We have a couple that created the song that I use at the beginning of my podcast, beautiful song 48 Days to the work you love. We have an eagle on our property, a bronze eagle. And we had somebody that captured the creation of that eagle from the sculptor who did it on our property. So there's a time lapse video of that gentleman is a very, very highly paid video producer. He did that with no charge, no expectation, just because he loves what we're doing. You don't get those kind of things if you're a jerk, if you're taking advantage of things going. But it's, it works so to your advantage to be somebody that people want to be around. Even when you don't have your work hat on. People that want to have lunch with you or show up at your house.

That is fantastic. That is fantastic. Thank you very much. And I truly agree, you know, and somebody actually wrote, you know, helped you with that song and 48 Days for Kids. That is a beautiful gift. Beautiful. Give back from somebody. And you, you, you can't buy these, you can't commission these studies. And I totally get that. So my, my next question would be around. You know, there's a lot of talk today about mental health for entrepreneurs. Talk it out with a family member, go and hug your family and spend more time, have more, you know, what is your take on feeling good while challenges at work, you know, sort of tend to throw you off?

Well, my work and my life are seamlessly integrated. So much so that people in looking at me probably couldn't be sure if I'm working or playing. You know, today's an example. I have my office door closed here in my house, but my wife is here and two of our granddaughters are here. They're waiting for me. Now our time is different, so they're waiting on me to go to lunch. We're going to go up to our beautiful clubhouse in a little bit, sit outside and have lunch. This is a Thursday. That's not unusual for me at all. I'm not sure what we're going to do this afternoon. Probably spend some time in the pool, but it's seamless. So if I'm not functioning well in terms of my own mental health, everybody's going to know that if I'm stressed out, if I'm tense, if I'm irritable, if I'm short tempered, people are going to know that really, really quickly. But I want my life to be, I want to be the same person when I'm at work, I am at home. And I hope that's a good thing, not a negative Thing. But that means that we have to be intentional as entrepreneurs about the work life that we create. It should be something that we're passionate about, that we enjoy doing, that brings us joy. So if I'm reading the latest book I've got, just had somebody give me a book, the wealth of Connection here, you can see I've gone through it and read it there. If I'm reading a book like that, am I working or am I just doing something enjoyable that I would do anyway? It's impossible to tell because the content in that book and so much of what we read as entrepreneurs, it's applicable to the relationship we have with our neighbors, our family members, extended family members, people in our community, you know, events that you would go to, a social event. So it's seamless. But those things also help me as an entrepreneur to be more effective as an entrepreneur. So our mental health, you know, we need to be intentional. It's really easy as an entrepreneur to not have any boundaries on our work. So our work, if we're available 24, 7, it can be a dangerous thing. We can become depleted and we can become way out of balance. So I have to intentionally look, as I'm sure you do, at the balance so that it's not just, I don't have time for you because, you know, with one of my granddaughters, you know, knocks on my door at 2:00 in the afternoon, says, papa, you know, can we go for a walk? I'm not gonna say, well, I can work you in next Tuesday, you know, at 8 o' clock in the morning. It doesn't work that way with kids. So we have to have a life that is blended with our work and our play.

Lovely, I love that. And yes, you did tell me that you're blessed with a beautiful family, kids, grandkids, and, and they get to come to your beautiful property. And I could just, you know, that's, that's, that happens by design. I'm sure it took it, it was in the works for you to make it happen so that today you can reap the fruits of it. So my next question is, you know, you have worked with coaches before this thing, coaching became cool, right? You have been talking about telling people that everybody needs a coach and what kind of coaching. So to start with, how do people find their micro niche, their niche in coaching? Because a lot of people here, we have 65 entrepreneurs over here, a lot of people are in coaching. A lot of people have just about started coaching and everybody has this thing, am I in the right niche or can I find a better niche? Or how do I know that this is right for me? What would be your thoughts here?

Well, you've identified a couple really key elements there. One is it's easy to call yourself a coach. That's good and bad. So if somebody wants to be a coach, you know, we have good news and bad news. The good news is anybody can be a coach. The bad news is anybody can be a coach. So you have to distinguish yourself. And so when somebody asked me, dan, can I be a coach? My first question is, are people coming to you now asking for your advice and opinion? If they are, we can probably frame what you are doing as a coach. If nobody's doing that, then it's questionable if you really are positioned to be a coach. But if they are, what are they asking you? What are you known for in having an area of expertise? So start with that. Don't try to just be a coach by artificially choosing an area. Gee, we need people in mental health as an example. So I'm going to coach in that. No, not unless you really have an understanding there and maybe some background training yourself and personal experience. But follow what you already know and understand to be a coach. But then niche down. Don't just be a generalist. Some people make the mistake of saying, well, I'm a coach. You know, whatever you want to talk about, whatever's bothering you, if it's your family, your health, your finances, your spirituality. No, don't do that. You'll be more successful. We can relate this to the medical profession. If somebody is a general doctor, well, we need those. But if you have something wrong with your heart, you don't want to go just see somebody that you yesterday took care of somebody's foot or their. You want a heart specialist, a cardiologist, as a coach, you will explode your success by being very, very narrow in who it is that you work with. Now you'll get people on the fringes, no doubt about it. I mean, I like to my, my identity. My best Prospect is a 48 year old man, has advanced degrees, is making $150,000 a year, doing well, married, three kids, but has a sense that this isn't it. You know, I followed this path because I had the academic ability to do it. My parents expected me to do it, but I don't think this is it. That's the person I want to work with. But now, having said that, I see a lot of people who are 60 years old and people who are 35 years old who have the same dynamic in place. They have this sense that this is not it. I'm seen as successful, but I don't think it's this. So that's my niche. Those are the people that I work with. About 99% of the people who request coaching through our website. I refer to other coaches who have proven expertise in an area that matches what they need. I don't try to just work with everybody.

So Dan, how niching down and being able to say no and then having your own path, 48 days to take a person from where they are, where they want to be. How long does it should it take for a new coach to be able to get this? Should you know, do you need to kiss a few frogs before you find the prince? Or you should be intentional from the get go to say that this is exactly what I'm going to go after. How does that clarity come?

I think they need to be clear right from the start. Now it may be that somebody starts out in an area and then finds that they get more clarity about what that niche is going to be. So I'm still known as a career coach. So when I started out, I would help people with resumes and interviewing and negotiating salary and all that. I have not done that in years and years and years because as soon as I started coaching I realized that was really boring and repetitive to me to just help somebody get another job. I like working with somebody who is in a position where it seems like change is not possible. The attorney who says, I don't want to do this anymore. The dentist who says, boy, this is not what I expected at all. Those are the people I like to work with because it's not just a matter of polishing the resume and going to get another job. We have to come up with something that's really creative, something that's going to replicate that person's significant income that they're likely to have been making and yet validate their background, but get them out of the daily things expected of an attorney or a dentist. So I narrowed down very, very quickly. So I think it takes a little bit of experience to get that narrow in what you're doing. But they ought to come into it with a pretty clear sense of this is my territory, this is what I want to do. Who is my ideal client? Identify them.

Dan, when it comes to pricing, as a relatively new coach, a lot of people say that, you know, my price, I can't charge, I freeze up. I. I'm not as confident to charge. I know I should, but I don't. And at the drop of a hat, when a client asks for a massive reduction in price, I'm the first person to give it. What are your thoughts about pricing when you start off? Should you just enter the market, get a foot in the door, prove yourself, or say, you know what, this is my price, and state your value? What should be the road ahead there?

Well, this is an interesting question, and certainly one that comes up very quickly with beginning coaches. And people think, well, if I charge, you know, If I charge $30 an hour, you know, until I get some practice doing this, you know, then I can raise it, and eventually I'll be at $200. But. But see, the thing is, you have different prospects at different price points. So you need to decide, again, who are you going to work with? I decided that I was going to work with professionals. So if I'm working with an attorney, as an example, If I charge $30 an hour, I won't be seen as a professional at all. That's not what they're used to. So if those are the people you want to work with, then price in an area that they're familiar with that they would see as professional value. If you want to work with moms who are getting off welfare and they're just coming back into the workplace, then maybe $30 a session would be appropriate for them, and that's perfectly fine. So it's not a matter of starting low and then raising your prices. It's a matter of identifying who you want to work with and moving into that space. So I started out with pretty healthy fees right out of the gate because I knew who I wanted to work with. And that means that I haven't had to change dramatically the way I work with people for a very, very long time, because I'm very comfortable in that space. It's still the people who fit my avatar, fit my market niche.

Got it?

Now, my. My fees mean I. I don't mind sharing up. And I. I have one option that is called a power session with Dan. So, you know, my business is 48 days because I think you can assess where you are, get the advice of other people, do a little bit of research, narrow down, choose the best option, and act in 48 days for all kinds of decisions you make. So that's where that comes from. So my. The power session with Dan is 48 minutes. My podcast is 48 minutes. So a power session with Dan at 48 minutes is $500. That's the very first way that somebody Can. Can talk to me at all. Then the next one is a process whereby I work with people. It's called Launching as a leader. And I work with a lot of authors who have a book, so they have a message, but they don't know how to leverage it, how to expand it. So they get multiple streams of income. So I have a process that I call Launching as a Leader. It's one day with me, we meet on Thursday night, have dinner, and then spend all day Friday working on their business. That's $7,500. I do that. And then also I have what's called the intentional life package. And obviously, I don't work with a lot of people on this. It's $48,000 a year where I meet twice a month with that person, and then three times a year, we get together in person and spend half a day working on their business. But. So I don't have a lot of options. But what I've done is in establishing myself as a coach, I've created a funnel where a lot of people come to me for coaching, and then my team, led by my daughter, match those people who are requesting coaches with other coaches in our network, and I get a referral commission back from the work that they do. So I've leveraged my coaching by establishing myself well and now have other people. We have about 75 coaches in our network, and we refer to them, and I get commissions on the work that they do.

Lovely. Crucial. My dad always has done. The most expensive thing you can ask from people is their time. And if they give it to you, you know you're doing something right. So thank you very much for your time, Sam.