Are High-Ticket Coaching Programs a Scam?

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you how it actually works. We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense. But it doesn't. The era of the seven Figure Physician CEO is here. And it's not about working harder. It's about learning entrepreneurship as a system. The same way you mastered ACLs and pals, you can master the algorithm of building a profitable scalable business. That's why I recorded the seven Figure Physician CEO audiobook. Whether you're building a medical or non medical business, and whether your goal is your first million, first 2 million, first 5 million, first 10 million, this is where the journey starts. There is no Calvary coming to save us. We are the Calvary. So. So go get your audiobook now. Www.entremd.com 7Figurebook. And let's rewrite the narrative for physicians starting today. Hi docs. Welcome to the Entre MD Podcast where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you, embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una. Well, hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Entre MD podcast. Now this is going to be a lot of fun stuff and you might go like high ticket coaching programs, a scam. But let me tell you what, it is not infrequent that I would go on a Facebook group and somebody will ask about a coaching program and, and hundreds of people come out and like, everybody's coach. Everybody's trying to be a coach. Everybody's trying to, you know, get money off of people. Isn't coaching like an MLM scam type of thing? It's a scam. It's a scam. And I'm going like, okay, maybe we should talk about this. Right? Maybe we should talk about this. This is going to be fun and I'm going to lay back and give you examples and pull out stuff. It's going to be a lot of fun. So just hop in. Whether you think coaching is a scam or not, you are welcome. Come on, have a conversation this morning or afternoon or evening whenever you're listening to this. But I'm going to start off by saying I will invite you physician to look at every other high performance career they all have Coaches, coaching is not a new thing, okay? Coaching is not a new thing. It's always been there. And we're just getting our eyes open to see, right? There's no high performance industry, if you will, where coaches are not used. There is no high performing basketball player, you know, that has less than three coaches. None. None at all, right? They have someone who helps them with certain parts of their game, other parts of their game, their nutrition, their psychology, all of that stuff. They, they have coaches. So I just want to invite you to embrace it. If you are someone who wants to go somewhere, if you're someone who's thinking about helping a lot of people, if you're someone who's thinking about changing the world, if you're someone who's thinking about living out your full potential, if you're someone who is like, I'm going to make a difference in this world, then you should listen. Everybody else who's trying to do what you're doing has a coach, okay? But the real question is, are high ticket coaching programs a scam? And what is high ticket? I don't know. Some people say 5,000 high ticket. 10,000 is high ticket. And I'm just going to throw out numbers here so someone may think the business school, the untrained business school is high ticket. It is. Well, for 20, 21 is 10,000 a year. And that is probably the cheapest it will ever be, really. And the value in it is so crazy, so crazy that I won't even tell you what the real price of the school is. We'll get there. But I'll. I'll tell you later. I have been in coaching programs. You've heard me tell my story that I paid 43 grand for and I do not regret it. I paid 43 grand for 10 months and it was a group program. I do not regret is one of the best investments I've ever made. Right? There are coaching programs that easily go for 50 grand, 100 grand. And human beings, human beings are in them, okay? And they don't want to leave them and there's a reason why. Okay? All right. So are they a scam? And the answer is, it depends. I'm going to channel my inner radiology today. Please do not come after me, radiologist. I love you. Love you. But you know how you say, we think this is what it is, but clinical correlation is required. I'm going to channel my inner, inner radiologist. But anyway, the answer is it depends. Okay? It depends. And I'm going to tell you a few stories and we can come up with what it depends on and when it's a scam and when it's not a scam or if it's a scam. Okay. Now these are all people who have told their stories publicly and so I'm sharing them and we're going to look at what coaching has done for them. Okay. So Dr. Karen Kaufman is an allergist immunologist in Virginia. And she launched her practice in January of 2021. So right smack in the middle of a global. Well, in the middle of a pandemic. And in the beginning she was like, can I do this? And all this stuff? And she decided to join the Entre MD Business School. And that's what she did. And we created a strategy which she executed brilliantly to create a waiting list for her. And so she started off with a waiting list of 350 patients and before she started, she had 276 of these people scheduled. Scheduled. Like imagine starting a practice that way. Right? So she was in a program, the Entre MD Business School, which might be considered a high ticket program. It's not, it really is not, not in my mind. And she launched with that. So the question is, did she get out of it more than what she put in it? And the answer is yes. So then is it a scam? Right. And by the time she hit seven months, I believe it was, she had 12, 80 patients on her panel. Seven months new practice in a pandemic, when thousands of practices are shutting down. And her investment, was that a scam or was the return on investment so huge that oh my goodness, it was a deal scam or deal scammer deal? And there is Dr. Carolyn Moyers, amazing OBGYN, who owns a boutique private practice, not fee for service dpc, specialty dpc. And she was like, you know, I listened to the podcast and the day I started my practice was the same day I signed up for Entre MD Business School. And again, strategy, which she executed brilliantly. Right? So she started her own podcast, Sky Women Health, started her practice, Sky Women Health and started putting herself out there, got to a place where it was paying for itself and she was only working two half days a week. She was like, I can do this. She quit her job, is doing it full time, just celebrated her first year anniversary and is being an example of specialty DPC for her specialty, right? Like, isn't that unbelievably beautiful? Now she was in a high ticket program. Now remember, I'm just using this as an example. The Ontario MD Business school is not a high ticket program, right? Like, it's. It's so much value for whatever you pay for it. So the question becomes, if her return on investment was so huge, then was that a scam or was it a great deal? Right? Was it a scam or a great deal? Dr. Alicia Shelley, she's been on the podcast and so has Dr. Karen and so is Dr. Carolyn. And we'll have the links to their episodes in the show notes, so you can check those out. Dr. Alicia Shelley, she is a physician who, for I think she said two years, wanted to start a podcast. She was like, I want to start a podcast. And she did it. She started her own podcast. She started putting her message out there. She got into business school. She made a statement I will never forget. I have moved from researching to doing. Can you imagine the life change? I have moved from researching to doing. So beautiful. So beautiful. And so she's done that and then she's getting ready to launch her first course. So the question becomes, if she's having such a huge return on investment, if she's getting so much more out of it than what she put into it, then is it a scam or is it a great deal? Right? And then I have Dr. Rashmi, Dr. Rashmi is amazing. Okay? So Dr. Rashmi, she's a coach and meditation is her thing, right? And you may have heard her story during Entre MD Live, and she was launching this group program. She had only put four people in. I think it was two or three days before it was, you know, launch was supposed to be over. And she came on a session one night in the Entre MD Business School. And I had a guest on that day, Dr. Ali Novitzky, and we were talking about a business mindset manifesto, right? And she raised her hand, got some life coaching, and she went on. Her target was 10. She filled the group and got one or two extra, right? One or two extra confidence through the roof. The group went wild because we saw her get coached. It was so insane. And I'm going like, that is a huge return on investment. So the question becomes, was that a scam or was that a great deal? Okay, like going from I failed at my launch to I surpassed my target, right? And Dr. Kathryn Toomer, Dr. Katherine Toomer, is amazing. Her thing is wellness, right? And then weight loss happens to be the ripple effect of what she does. But she's really, she's a family medicine doctor. She's all about helping people be well. Has a fancy, fantastic story. Overweight, heart failure, the whole nine yards. 20 years ago, she lost 60 pounds. She's kept it off since then. Right? Beautiful story. And now she helps people do it. And her client stories blow me away because she gets the same kind of results from them. Really wild. And she was initially a private client of mine and then ultimately came into the business school and. Oh, my word. So she does a TED Talk. She does a TED Talk now. She, she's had all kinds of crazy wins. We, we need a whole podcast episode to talk about her wins. But she's had so many crazy, crazy wins. And then most recently, she did a TED Talk and we had a session. I was like, so when you started off, like, you just started this cash based practice and all this stuff, did you see TED Talk? And she's like, no. But she's like, you know what got me ready for the TED Talk though? All those YouTube videos you made me do, all those Facebook lives you made me do. And now when people are like, can you do a video for this? Can you speak on this? Can you do that? I'm like, no, no big deal. And so if you invest in a program and it brings you to the point where you have a wildly successful practice, you've built a stellar team, which she's done. You're doing TED Talks, you have all these opportunities that are opening up for you, you have a huge return on investment, the question becomes, is that a scam or is that a great deal? Is it a scam or is it a great deal? So when people are like, why does this program cost this much? Why is this thing a scam? What do they really do there? I don't think those are the right questions. The question is, what is the investment? Notice I didn't say cost. What is the investment? That's a great question. What is the return on investment? That's a great question. How committed am I to this return on investment? That's a great question. If the return on investment is more than the investment, it's not a scam. It's a great deal. Do you see what I'm saying? So the question of, is it a scam? That is the wrong question. And I know that we may have. And you might go like, no, but I know some bad coaches out there. Yeah, and there are bad doctors out there too. We don't throw away the baby with the bath water. Coaching works. There may be bad coaches, but that doesn't mean coaching doesn't work. Vaccines may have side effects. That doesn't mean vaccines are bad. Coaching works. Don't shortchange yourself. Don't set yourself up not to get massive results because you kind of believe, oh, all these physicians, they just name themselves coaches and they try to take away our money. Please don't do, don't look at it that way. It's not your job to look for the bad coaches. That's your job. You look at the program, you look at the investment, you look at the return in investment. You can look at the stories from the program, right? A lot of programs will have stories. You look at the stories from the programs, then you check your own commitment because there is no program that is going to work without you. It doesn't exist. Right. I'll stop here and tell you a story. There's a coaching program that I signed up for. It was $10,000 for, I think it was a year long program. And I don't know how I missed it, but it was not a program I could necessarily be a part of because it was a coaching program. But what they were doing was, was they were, they were teaching people to use their coaching method, right? Like their coaching method, their coaching systems that, like it was a cookie cutter kind of thing, right? And at this point I already had the entrepreneur business school. I already know what I'm trying to accomplish and all this stuff and I'm like, what? Wow. Like I, I don't know how I missed that. That's my bad. But this is not going to work for me because I'm not, I'm not going to throw away my brand and you know, like I'm already doing something, I'm not going to do that. You know, I just want to learn their systems and stuff like that because their way of doing business was really great. So that's what I thought. I thought they were going to show us business systems, right? Okay. Now I could have done a number of things. I could have. And, and their orientation was a two day event, right? A two day full day event. I could have said, oh, I just want a refund back. And I been, you know, I could have been dramatic and, you know, fussed at them and done all those things. I don't do that. And you know, I'll, I'll just tell you what I do. I don't do that. I'm like, that's my error. That's me not paying attention. They're keeping their part of the bargain, right? Which is they're going to show me this, they're going to show me this. They're going to do this two day event. They're going to make this available. They're doing everything they said they would do. I'm the one, right? And so I didn't ask for a refund. I didn't do that at all. I didn't ask for a refund. And the other reason why I didn't is because, you know, I run a business too, and I truthfully believe in seed and harvest. And if I'm a nasty client, and I'm not saying I would have been nasty if I asked for that, but I still think it was not reasonable. But anyway, I'm like, if I sow the seed of being a nasty, nasty client, I'm going to reap that. Like I'm going to get a harvest. And the harvest is always bigger than the seed. So I try to be the kind of client I want to have. And that may be something for you to borrow too. I try to be the kind of client I want to have. And so I was not going to do that. So I didn't ask for a refund. Okay, so there's a reason I'm telling you this story, but I made a decision that my return on investment on this program, even though I can't really be a part of it, is going to be so high that I didn't throw away that money, right? And so when I went for the two day program, I went with that attitude. So when I got in there, they talked a lot behind the scenes of how they run their business. This is a hundred million dollar company. So how they run their businesses and what I learned from them is their business looked like it had five or six different verticals. But every vertical they had one main vertical, right? And every vertical was feeding that vertical, right? And so what that means is like everything was congruent, everything was going to one goal. It wasn't like five things in isolation. And I could see that behind the scenes that one thing has made my business so much more profitable. Because everything in my business is working for one agenda. I get offered so many things, oh, you can do this, you can do this. This opportunity, that opportunity, if it's not taking me to my overall mission, if I can't fit it into the overall strategy, is so easy for me to say no, because I know where I'm going, I know what I'm trying to do. So shiny object syndrome affects me a whole lot less. I'm a lot more strategic, and I was very strategic before I even went for that. And so even though I couldn't utilize the whole program because I was like, I'm not going to coach from your coaching sheets. Like, I'm just not going to do that. Right. And I still, I suspect I got a lot more out of it than many people who are showing up all the time or maybe didn't even show up, I don't know. But I got a huge return on my. So I didn't throw away that $10,000. I invested it. Why am I saying that? Because that is the attitude you show up to a program with. That is the attitude like, I'm going to get my return on investment. I'm committed to my own success. Nobody can do. You cannot delegate. It's like peeing. You cannot delegate that. You have to do it. You have to have that commitment to your success. So when people come in to the Entre MD Business school, they can come in like, oh, I heard doctors, Dr. Una is amazing. Let's see how she changes my life. Or they can come in like, I heard I'm going to get a lot of tools here. And I heard Dr. Una is amazing. I am going to create XYZ. This is the result. I'm going to create. I'm going to get the help I need. I'm going to ask questions when I need to ask. I'm going to reach out to the group when I need to do it. I, I'm going to do my work, I'm going to do all this stuff. I'm going to make it happen. Now that's a match made in heaven. Because I'm committed to the success of the students in the business school. You're committed to your success. It's like, oh my goodness, there is no program. No, there's no program that's good enough to make up for your lack of commitment. Okay, so what are the questions to ask? What is the investment? What is the return on the investment? What are the wins they've created for other people? And what is my commitment to my success? Okay, coaching is not a scam. High ticket coaching is not a scam. High ticket coaching programs are not scams. The investment is relative. If I need to pay $100,000 to build a multiple seven figure business, I am paying $100,000 all day, every day. Why the return on investment is so much bigger than the investment. Okay, so is it a scam? It depends. It's either a scam or it's a great deal. It depends. So go answer the four questions for yourself. Embrace the thought of coaching. This is what all high achievers, all high performers do. All all of them. All of them. That's what they do. Okay? Now, you could be the person who is comfortable investing in yourself because you've looked at the return on investment, you've looked at the stories, you looked at your commitment, and you can go like, oh, I'm going to 10x that. Whatever I'm investing in the program, I'm going to 10x that. The program will, quote, unquote, cost me nothing because I'm going to get so much more out of it than I put into it. Okay? So it's not a scam. It can be. That's the exception rather than the rule. But the answer is, it depends. Okay. All right, so if you're already in a program of some sort, go recommit to it. If you're not in a program and you're evaluating, now you know how to evaluate it. But what I want you to leave here doing is I want you to make a brand new commitment to your own success. No program will do that. Okay. And I can't wait to celebrate all of your wins because you have that commitment. That's what you're going to do. You're going to create win after win after win. And I'll be right here rooting for you. All right, I'll see you on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the OnTrack podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD on demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com forward/on demand, and I'd love to have you join us. See you on the inside.