In this monologue Kelly Alhooie explains why clients—whether patients, yoga studio members, or coaching customers—often quit after the third visit or after eight to nine sessions. She attributes the early drop‑off to a lack of confidence in seeing results quickly, and the later drop‑off to a perception that "good enough" has been reached despite lingering issues. The underlying cause, she argues, is a deficiency in personal standards and self‑belief, compounded by the constant distraction of social media which trains brains to chase the next shiny thing. Kelly stresses that true progress requires sustained focus, incremental "baby steps," and unwavering commitment. She advocates using multi‑session packages, especially longer‑term (e.g., year‑long) programs, to lock in client commitment, ensure results, and reduce refund requests. She also warns against the side‑hustle mindset, urging practitioners to raise their standards and work with clients who are dedicated to building lasting businesses rather than quick, burnout‑prone ventures.
Chapters
And so, would something else become shinier or something comes more present in the forefront of their brain, they're like, "Oh, you know what? I gotta change everything. Let me stop here and let me go over here." And patients, guys, will do this. They will do this either around the 3-visit mark or around the 8-9-visit mark. They do it around the 3-visit mark is because they still don't know if they can actually get the result, so they give up before they even get there. They do it around the 8-9 visit mark because they feel like, yeah, I mean, I guess this is probably the best it's gonna get, even though they still have problems with like going to sprint or going to do something with like with leakage, or there's still something there, but they're like, this This is good enough. And you know what this all comes down to, whether or not it's them asking for a refund from the yoga studio or them asking for a refund from you guys? It all goes down to standards. And what I have realized, the people that ask for the refunds are the people that don't have the standards. They don't have the standards, nor do they have belief in themselves. Because they wouldn't have asked for the refund. And so with these people, you're probably thinking, okay, well, Kelly, then what do I do with these people? Like, because there's many of them out there, and there are. And I feel like there's more and more because people aren't holding themselves to the highest standard. Because the way now social media is like training our brains, it's like squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, and then no one can stay focused on anything. And this is why I'm seeing just in the entrepreneur space, people not succeeding as much, meaning like they're not getting to their dreams because they're squirreling. They're thinking, I need every single thing that's out there because this thing says I need this and I need this and this. And it's just— it's simple. It goes back to the basics. It's focus on what you need to focus on. Take one little baby step forward and like forward and forward and more forward. And you'll actually get there. But the reality is, it's like, I gotta look over here. Wait, I gotta do what that person's doing. Wait, I gotta do that. And it's like, now you've lost the game because you're not— your head's not even in the game because your head's in the clouds over here. And, and the same thing happens with patients, is the patients, when they're on that third visit, they're like, till the third visit, they got momentum, they're excited, and then they're not seeing the progress as fast as they want. And then what do you think happens? Well, you didn't get my knee pain to go away in 2 visits, so I can't do this. I'm done. Same thing happened with coaching clients. They'll be like, you didn't give me, you know, a patient in 2 days, so I'm done. And it's like, we're just getting started. You're just planting the seeds, okay? Same thing happens in the example that I was giving you with like the yoga studio owner. It's like, okay, well, they were all excited and they did a thing, and then they're like, well, I've been here now for a month, and they're like, yeah, yoga, I'm just kind of tired of doing the same up-down-down dog blah blah blah class, so now I think I'm gonna go try Orangetheory. It's like, stay committed, stay committed, stay committed. And when you stay committed, it's doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again until you get the best at it. That's how you actually win the game. That's how your patients win the game. That's how the patients are going to get the best results when they stay committed, which is why most of us have packages. Because when you have a package, it basically— the patient is saying, I am committed to my goal. Now I'm going to talk about that in a second with refunds because this has come up and I want to talk about it. Um, but like, that's what a package does. Not only does it give you money up front, sure, but that's not the point of a package. Point of a package is to literally basically kind of guarantee that the patient is going to get the results. When I have people commit to my program, which is a year-long program, I'm not just saying that just to say it and be like, bye, good luck everyone, I'll just sit on the sidelines. No, I have a commitment because that's how long the pathway takes to truly make a business happen. And I don't want to play with the people that don't want to not truly build a business and want to build a side hustle. I don't want to build a side hustle, and I don't want you to build a side hustle because you're going to get burnt out, tired, you're going to give up. I already know it. It's already— I've already seen tons of people proven it, done it, and I don't want to— and I, I just don't want to coach those people, right? So like, please don't be that person. Please raise your standards. And if you commit to something, commit. Don't uncommit because now you're just bored or you think it's too hard. Like, don't do that.
