In this solo episode of the Business of Executive Coaching Podcast, senior executive coach Ellie Scarf addresses the common dilemma faced by executive and leadership coaches: how to narrow their service offerings when they feel capable of doing virtually anything. Drawing on her 17+ years of coaching experience and her role leading the Corporate to Coach Accelerator, Ellie explains why trying to offer an endless menu of services leads to overwhelm, unclear messaging, and burnout. She outlines the practical and energetic benefits of specializing, such as economies of scale, stronger brand positioning, easier referrals, and sustainable energy use. Ellie recommends limiting active offers to roughly three core services and provides a four‑question, Ikigai‑inspired framework to evaluate each potential offer: (1) Does the work light you up? (2) Do you have the ability (or are you developing it) to deliver it? (3) Does it solve a real, paying client problem? and (4) Does it create the impact you want to have, including ripple effects. She distinguishes ability from confidence, shares a client example of moving from uncertainty to successful delivery, and emphasizes aligning offers with both business profitability and broader impact goals. The episode concludes with actionable steps—scoring offers against the four questions, leveraging the Accelerator’s dedicated module for feedback, and revisiting the framework over time—to help coaches clarify, market, and sustainably grow their businesses.
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Hello and welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Ellie Scarf, a senior executive coach with over 17 years experience coaching, which I now bring to my role as mentor and business coach to other executive and leadership coaches. When it comes to coaching business, I have done it all. I've grown coaching businesses solo and in partnership and with teams of coaches working with me. I've been an in-house coach and I've been an associate coach. So when I talk about selling coaching to corporate clients, you know that I'm sharing from a place of experience and empathy. I work with coaches now through my group coaching program, the Corporate to Coach Accelerator, where executive and leadership coaches grow their businesses with more corporate clients. So our topic today is all about what we say no to when we could say yes to everything. I'm speaking very specifically about our services. We use the terminology offers to capture this combination of services, so the things we do, that we're paid for. So the service plus the pricing plus the messaging, that's really what I talk about when I talk about this idea of offers. So today I'm speaking specifically about how do we, how do we decide what to say no to in terms of the work we're going to do? And how do we focus when we have the capacity, right? We have the capability, we have the experience to literally feel like we could do anything that someone might've needed. The question that I was asked that spurred this episode was, how do I narrow down my offers when I genuinely feel like I have so many things I could and want to do? And I have to say, when I talk to coaches, I so often have this conversation, and the conversation generally goes that they feel a little out of control. They feel so stretched, so pulled in so many different directions. And while they do feel pretty excited about it, it's all new, it's exciting, it's novelty. And often as coaches, are people who are drawn to that novelty seeking, it is overwhelming at the same time. And so quite a lot of the work I do with coaches when they first join me in the Corporate to Coach Accelerator is help them to figure this out, like how to have focus and clarity on choosing what work we want to do when the possibilities are, you know, can feel endless. Now, firstly, I know that this idea of limiting ourselves to only saying that we do a few types of work, I know it can feel a bit restrictive, especially early on. Like, why wouldn't I say all the things I can do? Because I want all the work I can get, especially in these early days. And, and to be honest, not just the early days, you know, years and years into business as well. And so, for example, the sorts of things you could do and almost certainly can do as, as a coach are obviously coaching. And then within coaching, there's so many different focuses. So you might have transition coaching, career coaching, uh, you might have different targets like senior leader coaching, board coaching, exec coaching. Team coaching is obviously its own very specific area. Group coaching, team development, team building, strategy facilitation, board coaching, workshop facilitation, and there are truly infinite possibilities that sit within that umbrella. Training also, you know, a huge range of options that sit within training. Consulting also infinite. Fractional work, Speaking, it goes on and on. And so you see how if we were to say that we want to do all of these things, it is really hard to get our hands around and our head around what that would involve. And if it's hard for us, then it's probably quite difficult for our clients to understand. And honestly, you're right if you have this inclination. We often don't want to say no to things in these early days for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that we don't know what our practice truly will grow to be. And while we want to be intentional in, you know, bringing in the things that, that we are choosing to work on, we don't necessarily want to put artificial limitations. We want to keep our options open. We need the revenue if it comes our way, right? But even in that scenario, it is important that we work on refining down And I always say to my, my coaches that I work with, so, you know, even when we know that we could do everything and we don't want to limit ourselves, it's important that we work on refining it down to what I say with the coaches I work with is let's get it down to the top 3 types of work that you want to focus on. Now, I'm going to talk a little bit later in this episode about how to choose those top 3. And that, you know, is a really interesting combination of the work you want to do. And I want that to be really primarily important, but also the work that people want to pay for because that is what is going to allow you to continue to be in business. And so I recommend this refining process and not just leaving it as, oh, I can do anything in this world. I recommend it for a few reasons. Firstly, when you can do anything and everything, you are likely to feel like you are always creating things from scratch. You are always building. You are always context shifting. There are no economies of scale where you can use processes or materials that you have created. And so I think this is pretty practical in terms of the work involved is exponentially more than if you're focused. But there's also something energetic at play, if you like, what it involves to spread our brainpower and capacity over so many different service offerings. It's exhausting if we're doing that. And while the novelty is appealing for a while, it very quickly backslides into overwhelm. The other reason is that when we are talking, and I would say this is probably a more important reason potentially, when we are talking about being able to offer every possible solution under the sun, it is very hard for us to create something compelling that we can become known for. And it is also overwhelming for our clients to know what we do. Certainly it's hard for people in our orbit to refer us, hard for our clients to know if if we are the right person for them. So if they are looking for a great coach, but they feel like coaching is one of, you know, 20 things we do, they might be inclined to look further for someone who is more specific or specialized. And it makes our messaging murky, right? It's hard for us to be very clear. And so many of my clients, coaches, say to me before we even start working together that they have so many ideas, they need help with focus. And this is where focus is manifested in this definition of offers. So giving yourself constraints like this is what being focused looks like in reality. So if you felt like you might feel directionless or unfocused, it may be that you need to be giving yourself more constraints as part of the definition focus. And the truth is, this always makes me feel better about it. This is a question that gives us clarity in terms of our marketing and the messaging that we're putting out there and the conversations that we're having. So we're not going to market everything we can possibly do, but it doesn't mean that if it comes up or it's the right thing to solve a problem for a client or someone asks you for it, we might still do it, right? We still get to do that work if it comes to— comes and lands in our lap. We're not going to say no in that scenario. Of course, we're going to weigh up the work and the, you know, the balance of what it would take us to deliver it versus the pay and the, you know, the energetic expenditure, etc. But it can help to to know that you're not giving away sure revenue that comes to you. Like, I'm not going to say, define your offers and don't you ever dare do anything outside of that offer list. That is absolutely not how it works. So then the question is, all right, so I need to refine it to 3-ish offers. How do I do that? So you need to ask yourself a few key questions. And in the Corporate to Coach Accelerator, we have a module focused just on this where we give you feedback on your offers. We have a process for you to work through very structured process to help you refine it. But basically, you can ask yourself these questions about each potential offer you're considering, and then you can create some sort of a scoring system where you can compare them to each other based on your answers to these questions. So here are the 4 questions I want you to ask yourself, and I always think about it as it's like an adapted ikigai, really. So firstly, you might ask, is this the work that I truly want to do? Is this work I wanna do? Or what is the work I wanna do? The work that lights me up, that makes me feel excited to get to do the work. And so, for example, and one that I often hear is someone saying, well, I really love one-on-one coaching. I really love strategy facilitation, but I really find that I'm drained when I have to deliver training. You know, I don't love that, and I know it comes with it, and I'm willing to do it, and I'm quite good at it, but I don't love it, right? So that's the sort of reflection I want you to do. You know, what work is this offer? Is this type of work, work that I really truly want to do? Not that I feel like I should do, but that I really truly want to do. The second question is, is this work that I have the existing ability to do or that I am developing the ability to do? So that it doesn't feel too onerous, like you're starting from scratch, unless it is your intention, your strategy, your entire path is developing that ability. Now, an interesting thing that pops up here is like, well, I've done this type of work in my day job, but I've never done it for a paying client. I don't know if I can do it. And so I want to differentiate an ability from your confidence to deliver that to an external client. Those two are very different. And I need you to focus on courage over confidence, because if we are waiting, particularly when we start and we might be doing all these things for the first or second time, if we are waiting to feel confident, like, yes, I could go out there and sell and deliver this today. If we're waiting to feel confident in that, it may never happen. So you need to really be able to join the dots between this is, you know, capacity, capability that I have from my role. I'm just applying it in a different context, or this is capability that I'm developing and I can have that in place and develop it through the process of bringing it to life for a client. So don't focus on confidence. Now, an example of that is I had a wonderful client, I have a wonderful client inside the accelerator who was invited to pitch for a piece of strategy facilitation for an organization. And while she knew very clearly that she could do this work, the confidence, she didn't have the confidence in her ability to do that. And so we worked together, not just me, but also our whole community to support her with figuring out what it would look like. Putting together proposals, thinking about pricing, thinking about delivery. And she ended up delivering the most impactful piece of work for this client. And, you know, incredible. And now that is something that is within her repertoire and her offer set. So when I say, do you have the ability? I don't mean, do you have the confidence? Right? I mean, could you do this work if you were believing in yourself deeply? The third question is, this is probably, this should be question one. Probably. Is this work solving a real problem for my client? And that really equates to they are more likely to pay for this work because it is causing them pain. Probably the most important question really relies on you having worked on defining your ideal clients and thinking about their challenges, their pain points at, you know, strategic and operational and personal levels, right? For the organization or the organizational buyer. Now, if you are not sure about this, have a listen to last week's episode where I talk about the difference between an offer that is a painkiller and an offer that is a vitamin. And that will give you even more insight into thinking about, well, is this offer that I'm developing really solving a real problem for your client? And then finally, question 4, is this work creating the impact that I want to have in the world on a micro or on a macro or on a ripple effect level? I really want you to stay connected because I know with the coaches I work with, the 3 things we're typically focused on keeping front and center are building a business that is profitable and sustainable— kind of put that in one bucket— building a business that has flexibility for you to live the life that you want to live, right? To be an enabler of that, not a barrier to that. And then finally, is this work that allows you to create the impact on the world that you want to have. And so I want you to make sure that answering that question is baked into your offer development, right? Does this work create the impact you want to have? And it may be that doing the work itself has a primary direct impact, or it may be that we're looking at, you know, what is the impact on a ripple effect. So if you are working in coaching, it doesn't just have this impact on the individual, it doesn't just impact the organization, impacts the team of that person. It impacts the families of the team of that person. It impacts the community of that person. It impacts, you know, the children. And then we have a multi-generational ripple effect that we're creating. And I don't want us to underestimate the effect of what we're doing. And so I want us to make sure that that is front and center in the work that we're creating. Okay, so I hope that this episode has helped you think about how you might get some clarity around developing your offers, finalizing your offers. And hopefully I've given you also some practical tips on how to navigate that question. And whether you're in the early stages of your business or you're a little later on, it is always worth revisiting, coming back and just checking in on, you know, are these offers truly answering those 4 questions? And have I put some boundaries over the offers that I'm actively marketing? And I must admit that for myself, it wasn't until I was near burnout from constantly building and creating new and unique offers that I got serious about this. So I can say from experience that this is so worth doing, both in terms of the, you know, it's going to make it easier for you to sell and market your business, but it's also going to make life easier for you. And to me, that is always worth doing. See you next week with more insights on growing your coaching business.
