126: 6 Common Struggles in Online Coaching Businesses in 2023
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Welcome back! This episode is all about honesty - what common struggles we are having as online coaches, or coaches looking to bring their expertise online and having a bit of a time with it. 2023 is posing some new challenges we didn’t see coming. My intention for this episode today is to share those common struggles with you in a really honest way - from my POV but also from the clients I’ve worked with in the last 5 months or so
I hope you’ll gain a sense of community because I’ll probably say things you’ve struggled with or are noticing happening online. My hope is that you get the permission to be vulnerable, even with yourself if that’s what’s needed today, to know that this business is hard and that’s okay. It can be awesome and hard at the same time, and it’s so much better when that’s out in the open.
6 Common Struggles In The Online Coaching Space
This episode is going to highlight 6 common struggles I’m seeing in the online space right now. Then, the next 2 episodes are going to be a breakdown, going a little deeper into each one, and since there are 6, we will go deeper into 3 on each episode. The episode that happens after that is going to be the solution to these common struggles.
3 Things Smart Coaches Do To Increase Revenue In Their Online Coaching Business
In fact, the solutions will be laid out in a free masterclass that I’m hosting on May 17, 2023. The masterclass is called 3 Things Smart Coaches Do To Increase Revenue Online. I will be spending 2 hours with you - the first 90 minutes will be dedicated to each of these 3 things and going really deep on those, and the last 30 minutes will be for Q&A.
There is a VIP option which gets you a seat at a table where I’ll be helping you apply these 3 things to your personal business and brand so you can start making more money faster, and I’ll also be demo-ing some of the things I’ll be sharing (sneak peek for my listeners: I’ll be demo’ing how to facilitate a group call) and putting you in the hot seat to really map out how this will work for your business. That is $27 and there are only 10 seats for that experience.
You can reserve your seat for the free masterclass and/or the VIP implementation session right here!
Should you change your marketing platforms for your online coaching business?
Your main marketing channel may have changed a LOT over the past 6 months or so. Definition of marketing channels: the SM or other online platforms you use to market your business (FB, IG, TT, podcast, blog, youtube, etc). You may be wondering if you should stick with it, or add a new one in, or completely change your plans. This poses a really big struggle for entrepreneurs, because our first reason for being in this position is that we want the control over what we do, who we do it with, and how much we do it. So when our marketing channels are changing after we felt like we just figured them out, it can feel like things are out of control.
I talk to my clients about the cost of doing business - most of these platforms are free or relatively cheap. Fun fact: it literally costs me $10/month for this podcast. I paid a one-time cost for my mic and mic stand years ago. I pay Libsyn $10/m to host the podcast on all the platforms like Apple, Google, Spotify and Stitcher. My husband is my podcast producer and he uses a free software to produce the show and transcribe it. I use the free versions of Canva, Headliner for audiograms, and I already pay for my website so creating the blog on there is no extra financial cost. Then, we promote it for free on all the marketing channels available. So my financial cost is pretty damn low for what I’m able to do. But I also need to figure out what the cost is for my time and my energy and constantly be looking at that, making sure it’s still serving my needs.
I suggest you do the same with your current platforms!
Should you create more low ticket offers for your coaching business?
Raise your hand (virtually of course) if you’ve thought about not necessarily lowering your prices for your group or 1:1 programs; but maybe creating some low ticket or pulling out some content from those higher ticket items and selling those. I’m talking like $7-$57. I worry about this common struggle around pricing because we are all trying to help. We all want to make our clients feel safe and still get results, while being able to stay in the game ourselves. But I also wonder what it’s doing to our mindset to spend time on these lower ticket offers and be told that it’s easier to sell them because the price point is “lower barrier to entry.”
I was in the DM’s with someone really recently, and she was telling me that she’s focusing on these lower ticket offers now and I was asking her why - because I’ve seen this a lot myself. I was asking her all about what kinds of offers and how long it’s taking her, when they’ll be ready. There is no actual business building happening while these low ticket offers are being made. There is a fake promise out there that it will be easier to sell - and it just doesn’t add up for me to do this. I’m not sure that just because it’s trending, whether it’s smart or the right thing to do.
If this is something you’ve struggled with in particular, I want you to know I hear you and see you. I don’t actually believe this is how to increase revenue.
Do you feel desperate for sales in your coaching business?
It’s no secret that networking is one of the harder things for us to do as coaches online. It means putting yourself out there and that’s really no fun.
But, it’s a necessary evil - it’s just that it can be done in a multitude of ways. One of the hardest things about networking is that it needs to be done on a consistent basis, no matter what your position in business is.
So from a client perspective, since I invest in myself and I’m out there doing the networking thing, I have noticed a trend where there is just a lot more desperation in a networking conversation.
Networking = building relationships, and that takes the time it takes - there is no true timer on this type of thing. I notice the desperation and desire for the sale is clouding some networking conversations and intentions around building relationships, way more than ever before
It reminds me of the reason I swore off coffee chats a while ago. I got on a coffee chat with someone who was a DFY provider, which I already had and had a deep relationship with the person who was already providing me the service, so there was never really going to be an opportunity for us to work together on the horizon.
And you saw this woman visually deflate on the call when she found that out. So if we were here for a true coffee chat, you’d go about this a different way - maybe a few different ways.
You could have asked why I chose that person, what they do for me - a little insider baseball
You could have asked for a referral - just because I work with this person doesn’t mean they want to work with more people like me (in this case, that’s true - my 69 year old dad doesn’t want to work with female entrepreneurs, no offense)
Left with a good impression or asked what you could do for me (or do any of the 2 things I mentioned for me).
So I basically swore off coffee chats for a while because of that experience. But the cold messages on SM are getting a little harder to stomach these days, so I just want to give you the permission to be a human when you’re networking. I want to give some examples around this from some clients I’ve worked with recently too to really illustrate this
Are you on a content creation treadmill in your coaching business?
There is such an emphasis on creating content that I have seen online lately, and add in the effects of AI - it is a totally different ball game out there now. Because of these tools, it seems like content should be churned out like in a factory. I think this sort of puts content’s importance in a stratosphere that most coaches don’t feel like they can compete with.
For me personally, I don’t want to compete with that. I want to write or record stuff that comes from my heart but also speaks to yours. It feels like it’s getting a lot more complicated and overworked, and literally taking the human out of the conversation with some of these tools.
Now I’m not necessarily against AI tools and I have absolutely found creative ways to use them. But spending more time on churning out quantity seems to be the new rule. I really want to make sure that we have a clearer understanding of what content does for you and your business.
How do you know when your coaching business needs to be revamped?
This one really gets me because it’s most likely really reactionary. What I’ve noticed as a trend lately, is that a lot of coaches will abandon what they are selling, because it’s just not getting traction so it MUST be the business model that needs an entire shift.
When I see this or I get asked by a client whether they should uproot everything, I get really nervous because I know it’s not coming from THEM. It’s coming from a perception they have about the results they are getting and nothing else.
Storytime: I once had a client tell me she was going to enroll in a program to get a degree in a related field of her business, because she thought it would make her business more attractive to buyers. This degree was going to take 1-2 years and a bunch of her time if she wanted to do it right. It ended up that we just didn’t have the metrics for her to really be able to take it seriously.
When we do a deeper dive in a future episode about this, I’m going to talk about what those metrics were. But in the meantime, if you’ve thought about doing this, make sure you’re making a CEO decision, and not a decision out of a quick fix for the temper tantrum that the market is having right now
How long does your audience need to be nurtured before they decide to hire you as their coach?
I think we are starting to realize that we have created marketing channels just to nurture our audience, which is needed. But we are ignoring the people that don’t need it, the people who are ready sooner. For some clients who come into your world, they might get frustrated by a longer nurture sequence than necessary.
I find that online these days, it’s feast or famine: sales instead of networking, or nurturing for so long that you miss out on the sale.
I’ve noticed that in online business, some of us are really afraid to ask for the sale with the way the economy has been. Lower sales, hearing no more often, those things can ding your confidence around whether people would really pay for your thing. So a lot of coaches are advocating for more free things in your business model… more free classes, downloads, mini courses, another whole IG account or TT account for free tips and content.
I think there has to be a balance and I don’t necessarily see the balance right now in the online space. I want to point this out to you because I want to talk about what it’s doing to your confidence. I will raise my hand and say that I have not been an advocate for free coaching, like when you first come online as a coach or when you’re trying a new program out. I’m still not an advocate for that, mostly because I’m afraid of what story you’re telling yourself about your worth and the confidence you’re putting out there about what you’re capable of and how you can help.
6 common struggles I’m seeing affecting coaches online this year
-a new marketing channel
-lower ticket offers
-networking with desperate breath
-churning out more content
-overhauling/revamping your branding or business model
-adding to your customer journey so that there’s a longer nurture path
I’d love to know what resonated with you the most, you can message me on IG @theallisonnelson, and join us next week for the episode where I go deeper on the first 3 common struggles so you can get some tangible action and get around these things for your own business. When you do, your business will thrive!
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