Are you a frustrated coach on the verge of quitting?

Hi there, it's Mary Schiller, author and results coach of MarySchiller.com, where business is fun. And it really is. I totally have a blast in my business, and that is something that I love to share with people in addition to helping coaches and solopreneurs simplify everything so that you can make more of an impact and more income at the same time. As I am doing this Facebook Live, it's been 2 or 3 days since I made a post on my page that was called For Coaches on the Verge of Quitting. And I'm going to put the link to that whole long article in a comment just below this video as soon as I sign off from this Facebook Live. But I wanted to take a few minutes to chat with you about what I say in that multi-page article. And the reason why I felt compelled to write what I did, there were a lot of reasons actually, but I'm going to talk about one right now. And that is that some of the most amazing people that I have met in the past few years, I would say maybe the past 5 years and maybe even more like the past 10 years, 2 to 3, but some of the most amazing people that I have encountered are Coaches. They're people who want to take something that they have learned and share it with others in a very unique and personalized way. And, you know, before 5 years ago, I had only encountered one Coach before that, and she was nice, but she wasn't all that helpful to me. She's since kind of changed things that she does and now has become really, really successful. I think I was one of the first people that she worked with, and so it was an interesting experience to have, but I really didn't understand what coaching was about. And so as I have come into more and more contact with Coaches over these last few years, I have just seen for myself, you know, that it is a beautiful, beautiful way of helping people. It's very different from any other type of professional relationship that I have ever come across. Now that I'm a Coach myself, I started as a Life Coach and gradually moved towards Business Coaching because I started to enjoy that more and more, and people were curious about how I got my coaching business off the ground. And so it's been really fun for me to make that move. But I have just seen how incredibly dedicated Coaches are to the people that they serve and to the people that they want to serve. They are passionate, they are engaged, they're smart, they are just, oh, I don't know, the superlatives, I could go on forever, I guess, but my point is that I really, really appreciate anyone and everyone who joins the coaching profession. Hi, Terry. It shows me that, you know, there is something within you, if you're a coach and you're watching this, or if you want to be a coach and you're watching this, It shows me that there is something within you that is really driving you to connect with people in a very intimate way, in a very close way. You know, in my own coaching career so far, it's been just over 3 years now that I've been a professional coach, I have just had the most incredible relationships form. During that period of time, not just from working with people one-to-one, but also in groups that I've run, and just, I don't know, it's been really, when I look back at my whole professional career, it's been one of the most exciting times. Hi, Terry, yeah, you're among them, Terry. It's been one of the most exciting times of my life, and a lot of that, I think, is because the people that have seemed to want to work with me have often been people who want to coach or who are coaching, and I just have so much respect for what Coaches want to be achieving and what they want to be bringing into the world. And that's why over this last 3 years or so, I have become more and more driven, I guess you could say, to really help coaches get their businesses off the ground. You know, a lot of coaches that I have spoken to, and I write about this in this piece that I'm referring to, which again, I'll put the link in a comment as soon as I hang up this live, but a lot of the coaches that I have spoken to and I have personally coached, you know, they have spent a lot of money on coach training, They've spent a lot of time trying to develop a business that actually earns them money, and they're just really frustrated because they're not getting anywhere. And I, you know, coming from a very different angle, I had no coach training. I had nobody telling me it was gonna be hard to get a coaching business off the ground. I had nobody telling me, you know, what to charge in the beginning, so I picked numbers that, in retrospect, were actually fairly high for somebody who didn't have any professional training, and yet I was still able to get my business off the ground quite easily. And I feel like there's a lot of misinformation that is going through this coaching world, and there's a lot of, of coaches out there who are not really seeing the value that they are bringing to the table. In the piece that I'm referring to that I wrote called For Coaches on the Verge of Quitting, I talk about the fact that that coaching is a luxury service. It's a luxury service. It is not something that can be duplicated by anyone. It can't be duplicated on a photocopier, you know? It can't, it just, it is such a personalized service, even if it's not done on a one-to-one basis, even if it's done in a group, it's still demands an incredibly high level of perceptiveness, of connection, of skill, and lots of other things that I think many coaches don't recognize in themselves. They don't see what they are actually bringing to this relationship. Hi, Terry, what if you're not clear what it is you want to do? Do you mean in terms of, like, are you thinking you want to coach people but you're not sure how or in what kind of niche? Or, yeah, just get a little more specific and then I'm happy to answer. I think that anyone who is considering— maybe this will help, Terry— anybody who is considering Offering any type of service that is really customized and really personalized needs to look at what that value really is in terms of how you price things and how you position yourself. I mean, oh, coaching, not sure about it. Yeah, I think that, you know, in my view, Terry, and anybody else who's watching this, I think that coaching can mean a lot of different things and can look like a lot of different things. The common denominator though is that it is not a cookie cutter. It's not a cookie cutter type of, of business, and it's not something that we should devalue. I think it's something that needs to be seen as incredibly valuable. Whether you're working with people one-to-one or in a group, or you've put together some kind of program where you maybe offer some support along the way. I mean, yeah, I just think that as a whole, there is something that is not right at the heart of this profession when I see so many coaches who are struggling to make an income that they can live on, who are afraid to price their services at a level that really reflects the value that they provide. Yeah, I just, I don't know, there's just something that isn't right there. And I've been observing this for quite a long time now. And something needs to change, in my opinion. Something needs to shift so that coaches no longer see themselves as, oh, you know, well, what I do isn't worth that much, and, you know, what if people can't afford me, and whatever. You know, I was just having a conversation with somebody yesterday where I was saying, you know, if you are worried that people won't be able to afford you, then create something that is at a lower price that doesn't involve your personal time. You know, that's why I have so many books out there and why I'm actually writing 3 or 4, I guess 4 more right now to put out there. You know, that's why in the past I've created audio programs that are much less expensive because I can create them and they're done and people can buy them. You know, that's how you're able to reach more people at a lower price point. But when you're talking about something that involves your time, And that is, you know, you facilitating conversations and you facilitating a course or any kind of program or one-to-one, whatever it is. That is like, it's hard to put a price on that, you know? And so, you know, when I see coaches, like I mentioned in the piece for coaches on the verge of quitting, you know, when I see someone charging, you know, just a few hundred dollars for one-to-one coaching for, you know, several months or something, I just want to, you know, pull my hair out because that is not what coaching is in my view. Coaching is a profession, a profession, it's a real profession and it is providing a luxury service, period. There is nothing else like it that I can think of. You know, if you look at, if you use a different word like consultant, you know, you automatically assume, well, a consultant's a professional and she's gonna come in and we're gonna pay her a fairly hefty fee to tell us, you know, what's going on, et cetera. And, well, hi, Mitz. And, you know, that's just accepted. But somehow coaches aren't seeing themselves that way. They're not seeing themselves as a professional with an incredibly valuable skill set that for which they can charge a good figure and they can make a good living from. And, you know, it has really become very obvious to me just in, I mean, I probably had hundreds of conversations with coaches now over the past few years that most of the coaches I have spoken to at least and others that I have encountered through various Facebook groups and other programs I've been part of, do not see their value. They do not see their value. They continue to offer their services at such a low price, they're not even earning minimum wage. And that's just not okay with me. And especially, I have to say this too, and you can take this how you like, but my impression of coaching is in terms of life coaching in particular, is that it's, is that, you know, if we want to raise its profile, then we have to be the ones to do that. You know what I mean? We can't wait for someone else to validate what we are doing. We have to be the ones. We coaches have to be the ones to say, What I am providing is valuable, and I'm pricing it accordingly. If we keep waiting for someone else to give us permission to do that, to say it's okay to do that, we'll wait forever. So it's not up to some coaching federation, or it's not up to a client, certainly, to tell you what you're worth. That is not how it works. You get to decide that for yourself. You get to own the value that you are providing to people. And, you know, from my perspective, I didn't really know how much I was gonna love coaching until I started to jump into it, you know, a little over 3 years ago now. I absolutely love this way of working with people. It reminds me in some ways of being a teacher, which I was for a long time at a university, at a couple of universities actually. And I just enjoy that interaction so much. And, you know, I really feel like it's time for coaches to step into that value and own it and never apologize for your prices or anything. Hi, Mitsuri, does that go for teachers of skills as well? You're talking about coaches in particular. Yeah, absolutely. If you're teaching someone a new skill, that can certainly, and especially the way that you're teaching it is incredibly personalized, I think that's worth a lot. I think most people who teach a skill don't charge nearly enough for it. I took piano lessons for years, and then I was a piano teacher for a while, and I look back at what I was charging, and I'm like, wow, that was like peanuts for what I was actually providing my students. And I think because coaching is its own profession, that, you know, like I said, coaches themselves get to decide, you know, what they are worth, what their value is, and what their price structure is. Nobody out there gets to say that. It's not an essential thing. It's— nobody needs a coach. I say this in the article, nobody needs a coach. It's a luxury purchase. And from my standpoint, it needs to be treated that way from within the coaching industry and coaches themselves. So I would really encourage you to read through this piece. Again, I'll put a link in a comment here so you can read it. There's no opt-in required to read it, and it's not just an article stating my opinion. I also give you what I feel is one of the crucial, crucial, crucial missing pieces and a lot of people in the coaching profession who are missing something key about how to get their business off the ground in terms of bringing in income much, much faster than they may realize. And I found that when coaches are able to do that, when they're able to, you know, launch things and get some money in the door, suddenly they're like, oh, Right, I am a professional, I am getting paid. The longer coaches go, the longer people go without earning any money, just posting on social media or whatever you're doing, futzing around with the website and all that, the longer you go like that, the more it seems like the sense of being a professional just kind of disappears and the confidence starts to wane. And I wanna stop that. I want coaches to claim their worth. I want them to price their services appropriately for what they're actually doing. And I want them to get some money in the door quickly without having to struggle for weeks, months, years to do so. So that's a big focus of mine. And I really thank you so much for being here live with me. I really appreciate that. If you're watching this on the replay, I'd love to hear your comments. I will look back here, of course, and I'll post that link right now. And I hope you're having a wonderful week wherever you are in the world. I'm about to run some errands here in Paris, even though it's raining. Gotta go out there anyway, so bring an umbrella, and I'll look at all the people sitting in the cafes under the awnings as I'm trudging through the rain. So thanks again for being here. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on what I've said, and, um, I love you all so much. Thank you for being here. Bye for now.