As I wrote in Two-Brain Business 2.0, an online coaching business is a scalable asset with little investment. There’s a great big world out there, and the coaches who enter the market first will benefit most. In the past, virtual coaching was limited by feedback: the coach couldn’t see the athlete, and had to live primarily by notes or the athlete’s memory later. I remember collaborating with another coach in 2005: he wrote her endurance program, and I wrote her strengthening program. Every week, he’d get on a call with her to ask how the training was going. It invariably led to an hour-long talk about her feelings with very little objective feedback. By contrast, I could see her perform in the gym and say, “You did that six seconds faster than last week.” Now that’s all changed. Self-photo and self-video is commonplace. Storage is cheap. Kevin Kelley believes that, in five years, virtual reality will be as commonplace as cell phones are now. And with a tiered approach, a good coach can earn more income in less time online than in person. What do you need for online coaching? A tiered pricing system. This will allow for a high-volume low price option, a custom option, and a custom-plus option. A great (but simple) website extolling the benefits (not features) of your programming A delivery mechanism as simple as Google Sheets or a more complex system An audience. As I wrote in “Help First,” you’ll have to establish your expertise before anyone will value your service. A system for receiving payment, tracking tiered memberships, collecting interest and sending email, storing video uploads and offering services. Here are the WordPress Plugins I use on TwoBrainCoaching.com: Subscriptio – allows you to sell different service levels, and automagically controls access for subscribers. Memberships for WooCommerce – allows for autodialing every month, and links with Subscriptio Out-of-the-Box – allows users to upload videos to your …
A few years ago, I was watching a professional MMA fight at a nearby casino. I owned shares in a MMA business at the time, and we had several fighters on the card. While a fight was on, a tall man strode toward the stage, and stood at ringside with his arms folded, shaking his head. He wore a black turtleneck and black dress pants, and had a full head of silver hair. He looked like a lion. I later learned the “silver lion” owned a “traditional” martial arts school, and disapproved of MMA. He told his classes that a purist in any discipline could beat any MMA fighter, who jumped between all styles. Of course, he was selling one path instead of many, so his position didn’t surprise me. But everyone else asked: “Why doesn’t he just get in the ring and prove it?” A fighter with MMA experience knows that every discipline has strengths and weaknesses. Jiu-jitsu is fantastic until someone draws a knife. Boxing is perfect until someone falls down. In a “no-holds-barred” world, it’s simply no longer wise to become expert at one system and exclude everything else. Instead, an expert sees between systems and chooses his strategy based on the fight. For a beginner, any system will work. So the expert chooses one for his student. He says, “You can skip this part” or “You should spend extra time here. It’s important.” Then, when the student is ready, a new system is introduced. It’s true in the fight game: a student should become a good wrestler, spending years to master the sport, before she moves to MMA. It’s true in CrossFit: a student should master the squat and the pushup before doing “Angie.” And it’s true in business: a student can use a “funnel” or “free trial” if they don’t know what else to do. But mastery of one system is no longer enough. Now a …
Humans do things for a reason. You can’t improve a person’s health until you change their behavior. This includes your clients, your coaches and yourself. Here’s how to do it. A clear picture of success. Every business client starts with the “Perfect Day” exercise; every client in our gym starts with “Bright Spots.” It’s our way of asking, “What do you really WANT?” The 20% bonus. I write about “head starts” in Two-Brian Business and Help First. It’s important to show people they’re already a little bit successful. Bright Spots. Motivation requires on success, not the other way around. Highlight wins early. Celebrate them. In the Ignite 101 course, Ty calls this “chunking.” Podiums. I teach “podiums” as a marketing concept in the 321GoAcademy, but it’s far more. A podium is a victory over a previous best. It’s also a chance to step up and move to a higher degree of challenge. First podiums will seem small. Maybe you finally write a blog post, or a client rows 1000m for the first time. But it provides a base to stand on and achieve a new perspective.
I will never be the cheapest gym in town. I will not spend $100,000 on equipment every year. I will not provide 24-hour keycard access. I will not provide towels, or run a juice bar. I sell coaching. Coaching is more than teaching, more than cheerleading, more than dictating. I don’t merely provide access to equipment, but deliver people from their current state to their goals. Reaching their goals requires hard work. But before hard work comes motivation, and before motivation comes behavioral change. I can’t out-yell a bad lifestyle. No goal is motivational enough to pull a client past every temptation, every late-night craving, every moment of weakness. None. The knowledge “this is bad for me” won’t overcome “I want this right now” without practice. The driver only thinks he’s controlling the elephant. I’d rather be an elephant trainer. People do things for a reason. That reason is rarely logical. Most even know what they “should” do. My job is to make them want to do it for the rest of their lives.
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