I’ve been struggling with an idea recently, the question of how and when to charge for coaching services and when to propose coaching to someone.
The way most coaches approach this is by simply thinking about every hour they spend with someone as a billable hour. They do a “free” intro or demo sessions. I find this approach problematic for numerous reasons:
I love solving problems and delivering value. The reason why I think coaching is the right career is that I would do this stuff even if it was for free.
I hate thinking of every hour of my time as billable. Does every conversation that I don’t get paid for mean that I’m bleeding money everywhere?
I don’t know how to propose coaching, what will the difference be from talking to them? Won’t they feel like I’m charging money for something that should be free?
I don’t see why I shouldn’t prioritize my friends and help people for free? Why should I prioritize only people who pay me money?
I thought about it a lot and I realized that when I want to pay for a coach is because I want to be able to take it seriously. I don’t want a friend, I want someone who can help take me to the next level (emotionally, career and success-wise).
I realized that I can help as many people as I want to for free. I can prioritize friends and spend time with them without thinking of billable hours. But coaching is different. It isn’t just about brainstorming solutions to problems or being an empathetic ear. It’s about taking professional responsibility for someone’s success. The difference between a friend who hired you as a coach from an ordinary friend is that by hiring you they are asking you to meddle with their life!
There are three questions I can ask to see if they would be a good client:
Should they invest in themselves?
Are they doing something that requires coaching?
Do I feel confident that I will be the best coach for the job?
If the answer to all three is yes, I will push to sell them on coaching. If they are friends, I can tell them I will help them and give them advice for the rest of their life for free, but it wouldn’t be coaching until they invested in it.
The price of coaching is a mix of what would be an investment for the client, what would make ME invest, and what value I would be delivering.
In terms of differences in details:
Much more structure (cadence for meetings, methods, note-taking etc.)
Different mindset (clients’ goals are my goals, not my friend’s goals)
I originally thought about using the thumbnails as a way to create worlds with drawing in almost taking a children’s book approach using it to create the sort of imagination, curiousity, and creativity I always aim to create in my artwork.
On second thought I feel I need to photos for my thumnails for the most part. Creative photos that have mystery and intrigue and magic and emotion. But photos not just drawings.
I was looking at children’s book covers for inspiration and I realized that when I see a beautiful children’s book cover, I expect the inside to be filled with those beautiful illustrations.
I want the cover to be a photo to something related to what is in the video so that there people get the world that they are looking for inside the “pages” of my video. The thumbnail is like a cover for a book.
I started to understand what it means to have “self-discipline” and using that to build self-confidence.
It isn’t about holding yourself to arbitrary rules and forcing yourself to do things that you don’t want to do (but think you “should do” or that other people think you should do).
It is about challenging yourself. If you have a challenge mindset, you don’t worry about failure, you are interested in the possibility. If you have self discipline in a challenge, it means to focus on that and as you follow through, you start to build confidence.
As Goggins says, you don’t get happiness or confidence from comfort, you get it from facing yourself and facing your fears.
The big issue between people who really understand and those who are fake motivation is that people who are fake push themselves for other people, they push themselves out of fear. The people who understand, have embraced fear, they push themselves WITH the fear. People who don’t understand, disconnect from themselves and ignore fear. The people who understand CONNECT with fear, feel it MORE not LESS.
Fly first class to a destination with a plus one, with a nice airbnb every month: 5k
Organic high quality groceries: 1k
Nice quality clothes: 1k-2.3k
Total: 28.2k-41.4k
Per Year: 338.4k-496.8k
If I wanted to save 50%: 676.8k-993.6k
Before taxes that would be: 1.091M-1.601M
Meaning each month I would have to bring in: 90.1k-133.4k per month
I realize that this is more of an end goal. To get to the place I want to be right now, I don’t need to make enough to save 50%. That can come later. I highly suspect that having a great business coach, massages, and a therapist will enable me to double and triple my income.
So lets take another look at the numbers. What is the bare minimum I need to get into this lifestyle?
338.4k per year -> 531.8k before taxes
44.3k per month
If we were to operate on the Parrado Principal just for coaching:
80% from group coaching: 355 group coaching clients | 20% from one on one: 6 one on one clients
80% from art coaching: 425.4k | 20% from AI consulting 106.4k
Questions for myself:
What should I focus on first?
How do I divide what I want to do into steps?
What should I focus on, AI or Art Coaching?
Should I even do AI consulting?
Should I try to find a partner for AI consulting? Should I wait until I find a partner to do anything?
How do I want to legally set up my companies?
How do I make my life easier?
How do I market my businesses?
What is something that I’m missing?
How do I make my art coaching business succeed in a way that doesn’t destroy my peace?
How do I maintain my AI expertise? How do I make progress without being overwhelmed and unfocused?
What will make my life more fun while making big strides in my businesses?
Is there something I can start succeeding at today?
Am I aiming at the right goals? Are they too small? Too large?
What can I do today to rapidly speed up my progress?
If I wanted to make a lot of money, enough to live on in the next year, and I wanted to make this money in a month with my current skillset, what should I do?
Is there a small shift I can make that will have a massive impact on my income/success?
What should I be hiring someone else to do? What things will have a good return on my investment, make me money not lose money?
What should I do today that will make me happier and more successful?
My intuitive answers:
What should I focus on first?
You want to focus on the fundamentals: sleep, meditation, food, emotional processing
The stronger the fundamentals are, the more you will be able to handle anything
How do I divide what I want to do into steps?
Picture some of your immediate goals that make you feel excited, give you energy, make them small enough to understand, and work on meeting those goals first
What should I focus on, AI or Art Coaching?
It depends on what you want to do, to create a large business, AI makes more sense
For creating a smaller business, focus on Art Coaching
Should I even do AI consulting?
Yes of course, there is a really good business opportunity here
If you mean at the same time as Art coaching, the answer is it depends, you will have to pick a priority
Should I try to find a partner for AI consulting? Should I wait until I find a partner to do anything?
No you shouldn’t wait, you can start by yourself
Yes, you should look for a partner while you are looking for clients, you are developing a network for both
How do I want to legally set up my companies?
Depends on how easy it is to change, the benefits of separating them, etc.
How do I make my life easier?
Stop doing everything alone, work with other people
How do I market my businesses?
Ask other people for ideas
What is something that I’m missing?
You are missing a business coach/mentor
How do I make my art coaching business succeed in a way that doesn’t destroy my peace?
You write about your challenges and experiences, to approach the business like an opportunity for personal growth
How do I maintain my AI expertise? How do I make progress without being overwhelmed and unfocused?
The best way is if you could connect the art coaching with AI and AI with art coaching, if you could find a way for them to be symbiotic, that would be the easiest way
The other way is to find a simple and easy way to make money from AI
What will make my life more fun while making big strides in my businesses?
I think maybe posting about your process/journey on social media
Hosting events and meeting people
Speaking at events
Creating strong boundaries for doing other things unrelated to business
Is there something I can start succeeding at today?
Yes, focus on the fundamentals, they are the most important part
Am I aiming at the right goals? Are they too small? Too large?
I think you are focused on the right goals, but maybe it is too early to be thinking about timelines, just create a bunch of attainable goals and work through them with no timeline in mind
What can I do today to rapidly speed up my progress?
Meditate
Sleep as much as possible
Find a mastermind
If I wanted to make a lot of money, enough to live on in the next year, and I wanted to make this money in a month with my current skillset, what should I do?
Teaching people would probably be the best way, that is probably your strongest skillset at the moment
Probably not the best use of your time for your goals
Is there a small shift I can make that will have a massive impact on my income/success?
Yes, write down goals and look at them everyday
What should I be hiring someone else to do? What things will have a good return on my investment, make me money not lose money?
Finding a good video editor or social media manager
Marketing is key and you need to work with people to get good at it
What should I do today that will make me happier and more successful?
Tai chi class was very interesting. I had a thought when the instructor was answering a question by one of the students. They were asking whether or not the movement called the “whip” was supposed to have a whipping motion. The instructor told him that as a beginner you always want to go slow. She also said that she teaches with words.
I was thinking that I can apply this Tai Chi mentality to some of the things that I work really hard to do such as work or Valorant or content creation.
Some thoughts I want to try out:
Do things really slow and relaxed. Speed up if its easier, but as soon as it gets hard, go slower and more relaxed.
Focus on the kinks, uncomfortable parts and keep working them out (my thoughts, not usually used in tai chi)
Speed up when it feels really easy
Speak aloud what you are doing, in order to be more intentional
Follow a predetermined routine
What I want to try for my LinkedIn 50 days of posts:
Make people understand why I’m doing what I’m doing
Make it ok for people to disagree and debate
It is important to talk about controversial issues because controversial issues are controversial because they are important issues. I have strong opinions and will say exactly what I mean and be very direct. I am not an expert on everything. I can be wrong and you can disagree with me. I might also change my mind, this is just what I believe right now.
Outro goal:
Get them thinking deeper
Get engagement
What came up for you during this video? What is your hot take? Add to the conversation in the comments sections below. I read everything.
