Christina: (00:01) You are listening to the Scaling of Freedom Podcast. And if you are an online coach or course creator, you are in the right place. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. I’m an ads agency owner that gets an inside look every day on what’s working and what doesn’t. In the online coaching space. I’m here to share with you what we see works in our agency as well as what we see happening and changing in the industry. Stay tuned to up-level your coaching business to have the freedom you want. Let’s get started.

Christina: (00:31) Welcome to episode 168. This is going to be a fun one for me to do because I think that this is really, really important to talk about and I have a lot of insight into the coaching space personally and also professionally. So I speak in mastermind groups. I have clients of course who are coaches, and I also have friends who are coaches and I’m in my own coaching groups as well. And I get coached alongside other business owners who are coaches. So I see a lot of people who are coaches and talk to, talk to them and witness conversations. And so I have a lot of insight here and I also see their Instagrams. And um, I’m specifically talking about Instagram just cuz that’s the platform that I’m typically on. So I see their Instagrams, um, or their marketing. And I also see the behind the scenes, how things are actually going and the conversations that are, um, people are having.

Christina: (01:28) And I see the gap between the two. So before I get into this, I do want to be super clear, like, hear me, hear me, hear me. This is not to come across as negative or to paint any kind of picture that all winds are fake or that everyone’s lying. I am not saying that please hear me. I’m only here to help you feel like you aren’t alone if you are dealing with these things, that is it, that’s the whole purpose of today’s episode, because you are not alone if you are dealing with these things. They are not things that people typically want to post on their social media to talk a lot about with strangers, um, and really, you know, promote, right? These are things that happen a lot behind the scenes and they’re really, really difficult and it can really feel isolating when you are in it.

Christina: (02:18) Um, I’ve had some personal experiences. Some of these, some of these don’t really pertain to like a service-based business or, you know, my, um, personal experience, but they are definitely things that I have either witnessed or, um, had experienced myself. And, um, they’re very, very scary and they’re, they’re difficult and they can also last for varying amounts of time. This can be like a one time, you know, one month thing, and this could be years long. And so, um, I do want to just make sure that people do know that if they’re dealing with this, they’re not alone. And that’s the whole purpose of it. Um, all of the, the wins and things that are happening that are great, they are real because I also see a ton of that as well. Um, but you know, I see the latter. So let’s go ahead and dive in.

Christina: (03:10) I’m gonna go over five things that your competition probably is not talking about if you are a coach. Um, so the first one is going to be failed launches. So failed launches is something that people, a lot of people do experience, even if they have successfully launched a gazillion times before, there are so many things that can happen. And we’ve even seen that a, a pandemic is a really great example that you just have no idea what could happen. A lot of people really struggled during the pandemic depending on, you know, what kind of business you had, um, and what exactly you sold. But there were a lot of things, you know. And then the latter is that a lot of people really, really took off during the pandemic because of their positioning. So the market changes a lot and the pandemic is a, a bit of a drastic change, but those things kind of happen, um, gradually.

Christina: (04:04) Uh, and so the market changes. Um, your audience changes. Um, sometimes you’re dealing with a lack of warm audience. That’s a really common one because the way that we actually ramp up new leads or new people into our world tends to change. So if before Instagram was primarily how you brought in new people, well now it’s more difficult to have reach of new of people who have not seen your account before. Um, that’s even more difficult now. So some people are transitioning to TikTok or, you know, some other avenue. Um, and so things are just always changing. So lack of warm audience. Um, not being refilled is a big one too. Um, the need for whatever you’re offering might change. Um, other competition might come in and just swoop in, um, and really affect your sales. There are so many things that could happen, and I’m not saying this to like scare you, um, because there are so many solutions to these things, like endless solutions to these things, it’s just really important to be on top of it and know that oftentimes the, you know, uh, the drive to find a solution to these things typically starts with a failed launch or two.

Christina: (05:12) Um, and you can define what failed means to you. Um, this could just mean that you didn’t hit your numbers. This could just mean that, um, you know, you just didn’t, uh, sell as much as you did before. Um, you know, this could mean that you didn’t sell any, you know, so whatever that means to you. Um, but basically a lot of people, what I’m trying to get at, um, at some point there tends to be a launch or two that does not work as well within a year. And so, um, this is really common. And of course, if you’re watching a launch on social media, it always looks like it’s going well. And so typically you wouldn’t be able to tell from the outside if someone is experiencing this. And so that can feel really isolating because in the coaching industry specifically, um, I would say that there’s just so much more, um, sharing of successes and, um, I experience this with, you know, like I have friends who are coaches, um, or just people that I know and like, I can’t even imagine what they’re dealing with, seeing all of their comp competitors talk about, you know, how much money they made and how many sales they made.

Christina: (06:23) And like all these things because my competition, they like, we don’t do that as service providers. Like, I don’t go and like, you know, flaunt how much money we’re making or I have no reason to do that unless I go into like mentorship or something like that. We just don’t talk about those things really. I mean, not that it’s a secret or anything like that, it’s just, it’s not beneficial to our marketing to talk about that. No one, none of my clients care how much revenue we’re making. Like they care that they’re making money. So, um, it’s just really, you know, whenever we are flaunting things, it’s typically the success of our clients. And, um, so I can’t even imagine as a coach just seeing that all the time. Um, because I mean, even if you go to my Instagram, occasionally I will post, you know, uh, some results from our clients who are coaches.

Christina: (07:13) So a another coach might look at that and think, why can’t I have that? Like, what’s wrong with my, um, marketing and what’s wrong with my program? And, you know, things like that. So there’s just this constant comparison. And sometimes even if on Instagram, um, a launch looks like it’s going really, really well because the person is very energetic, that’s what you’re supposed to do during a launch. Um, and you definitely don’t want to talk about how sales aren’t happening during your launch when you’re trying to make sales, right? So it just makes sense that no one would be talking about this, but it happens to everyone. Um, and again, there are endless solutions for this. This is typically the beginning of finding those solutions. So if you have had failed launches, and I’m not just talking about failed launches in the beginning, that’s pretty typical.

Christina: (07:56) You’re trying to learn things and figure things out. I’m talking about failed launches after a long period of, um, do or at least a decent period of time where you have consistently done really, really well at launching, that can feel really discouraging because you’ve been so successful. And then suddenly that thing that you’ve been doing that has been working over and over again is suddenly not working. And so you can feel like you’re kind of back at square one and it can be a scary time. So that’s the first thing is failed launches. The second thing is low or no profit months. Now this can be also really common for live launchers. Two, because typically you’re having cash injections at certain times of the year. But I’m also talking about people who have evergreen funnels or, um, their business model is set up in a way where they have reoccurring revenue every month.

Christina: (08:48) You can be a broke seven figure coach. Um, I mean, I’m sure beyond that too, but I, I don’t work, work with anyone who makes like a hundred million dollars or, and plus like, we don’t have any clients that are making that kind of money. So I’m sure it happens up there too. Um, and there are lots of different reasons for this, but it does happen. So businesses do go into the red and expenses can sometimes get really high. And it’s hard to make expenses fluctuate with the revenue when there are launch hiccups and low sales, um, because you aren’t really anticipating those things. And all of this is completely normal. I, I honestly will have to say that whenever I started the agency and I started to work with solely coaches, cause I used to work with, um, all kinds of businesses and whenever I started working with coaches, I was actually really shocked by this whenever I first started to have insight in some like, um, uh, some clarity inside of the backend of, um, these coaching businesses because I’d only ever seen the front end and only seen, you know, what they posted about on social media.

Christina: (09:56) And I just assumed that they were all doing really, really well. And whenever I started to run their ads, um, I started to find out that they had been struggling for a certain amount of time, um, or, you know, times where they’ve actually been broke or, you know, they’ve really had these tough fluctuations and they’ve had to create a whole new program or completely revamp what they were doing. Um, and it was, it was surprising to me because I just didn’t know that that’s how it really looked behind the scenes. And I mean, now it’s just, you know, stuff that like we hear about all the time and it’s just, it’s all normal and it’s all part of it. It’s going to go up and down. Same reasons also for those failed launches or launches not working the same, like the different changes that are happening in the space, um, affect a lot.

Christina: (10:46) Um, and so, you know, with that, the result of that is often either, um, low or no profit months. I’ve also seen people, you know, they’re expenses just get so high where they actually are making those high cash months, but they are spending a ton of money, um, behind the scenes. Like their expenses get really, really high. Um, this can happen really easily whenever you are hiring lots of people, personnel is typically the highest expense. And, um, sometimes whenever you start to just hire, especially like contractors too can really get expensive, um, because they kind of, they, you know, have all the systems and everything done for you. So you’re just paying for them to take care of this one specific thing on your team or in your business. And, um, that can be really helpful. But as you start to stack those, they can get really expensive.

Christina: (11:36) Um, which is why last year I started to let contractors go and go the employee route. Um, because it just gets to a point where you have contractors that are overlapping and you’re kind of double paying for certain things and um, it gets kind of, it gets really messy and inflated. Um, and so it’s just a way that you can like cut the fat too, uh, out of your business, you know, paying for things that it just doesn’t need to be so inflated. Um, and that can also really help with those months that are, you know, really low, um, sales because you don’t have as much pressure on yourself to try and generate this amount of revenue, and then you can go the employee route and pay them really, really well. The third one is lawsuit threats and people not paying contracts. So, um, this is so common and I cannot believe how common it is until I started to just chat with people about it.

Christina: (12:29) And, um, occasionally I’ve had some of my clients talk about it as well. And it’s just so much more common than I thought, and it can be really frustrating. So refund requests, angry clients, um, failed payments can also kind of fall into this category. They all happen, but no one posts about these things because why? Like, why would you? I mean, you have to keep that in mind too, that you won’t know about these things unless you are in some sort of support group with them or, um, in like a mastermind or something where people feel safe to like share this kind of information or these struggles, um, or if you know them personally well enough for them to share that with you. So there are, they’re definitely entitled clients out there, and I think especially in the coaching space, people expect you to be the magic solution for their problems and they are really upset when they learn that that’s not how it works.

Christina: (13:21) So anyone that I’ve ever talked to that was a coach that has pretty much been the story is that they didn’t get the results that they wanted and, um, they just kind of, I guess were confused as to, you know, how this whole thing works because, uh, when you hire a coach, it doesn’t mean that you’re magically going to get all these results. Although I will say the marketing kind of came across that way like a few years ago, but, um, that’s just not how it works, right? So they’re there to like aid you towards your results. Um, but yeah, so this is a super common thing. Um, and this can also be really scary depending on the situation because if you’re not familiar with law, which a lot of us aren’t, you just don’t know. Like, you know, how bad could this get? How mu how inflated could this get?

Christina: (14:08) Um, and then it’s also like really nerve-wracking to think that there’s someone out there that’s going to badmouth you when you’re not gonna be able to say your side of the story. Um, and you know, that can be really scary as well, and it feel really discouraging and unfair. And I will say that, um, probably one of the best things to do here, um, which I, I’ve also had to, um, learn this lesson too, is to be better at vetting people and, um, firing people right away as well as clients. Um, that’s been a huge thing. Um, and I think that that’s probably the best way to not get in this situation because once you’ve been doing it for a while, you kind of know if this person’s going to be one of those people. And so if you’re able to, you know, like cut it off at the beginning and go your separate ways, you’re a lot less likely to end up in like the lawsuit, like threats, uh, part of things or maybe even the lawsuit part of it.

Christina: (15:06) Um, so that would be, um, a really good thing to do is whenever you start to feel like this person might be that person, and you might be wrong about that, but if it’s not working out to just, you know, refund the money or, you know, go ahead and void the contract and end it early, um, but that is also a, a really common thing. It’s actually way more common than I ever thought. The fourth thing, this one is huge. I talk about this all the time because I would say that I experience this, um, not personally, but um, necessarily, but I’ve seen this the most out of all of these is burnout. Um, so I’ve seen it so much, but I will say that coaches, I’ve seen it a lot and I think it’s also because coaches launch a lot. Like they often are constantly launching.

Christina: (15:55) Now I’m overgeneralizing here. Um, we have clients that actually never launch that they have evergreen programs and sometimes depending on the content, that is just how it’s supposed to be. Um, so if you’re serving a, um, a type of person with a specific need that they need it right now, they can’t wait for a live launch or something, you know, those businesses never live launch. So, um, I’m specifically talking about, um, usually whenever I see this, it is coach, it is coaches that launch a lot, that live launch a lot. And, um, it’s always kind of where you are, you know, to generate this level of income. You know, they make a certain level of income and then to sustain that, they have to constantly be launching and making sales. And then if they have a failed launch, they just feel like they have to launch harder and harder and harder.

Christina: (16:44) Um, and the launches tend to get bigger and they’re having to try multiple things. And, um, it can be a lot. And if you aren’t in tune with your, with your body, with your mental health, with like being able to catch those signs of burnout happening and like it’s starting to creep up before you get into full on burnout, it’s very easy to just totally dive straight into this kind of situation. Um, I’ve had clients not be able to get out of bed for several months and, um, everything in between as well. And it’s, it’s a very real thing. And then if you can imagine it has a lot of like, um, consequences for your business if you, you know, can’t get out of bed and, um, you of course have no creativity during this time, you have no motivation. Um, and so that’s why it’s really important to do things in seasons.

Christina: (17:39) Um, so if you are a coach and you, like your business model is relying on you just constantly launching one program after another, like where it’s like January we’re launching this, and then February we’re launching this, and mar it’s a really common thing that I see. I’m not saying don’t do that, but definitely make sure that you are in tune with those launches. And then of course, always try to get really good SOPs for every launch because I do also have clients that launch a lot, but they don’t actually have to put in near as much work into them. So it’s fairly, it’s a fairly light load for them and they have a team of people and they have, their launch is so like systemized and they have those SOPs really, really solid, a really good integrated team where they’re just kind of, you know, showing up on social media a little bit, um, doing stories, maybe, um, filming some videos and uh, maybe doing some dms.

Christina: (18:35) But you can also outsource that if that feels good to you. Um, you know, but for the most part, their team has really gotta handle on all of the promotions and the tech and putting all those things together. Um, and also they have all of the content all organized the way that it should be and everything is going out the way that it’s supposed to be. Um, so there are ways to launch a lot without heading to burnout, but if you don’t have that kind of foundation, you don’t have an integrated team, it can definitely be a lot. Um, and it’s going to be hard to make less money because you’re used to making a certain amount of money that whenever things start to slow down, um, it, you’re gonna feel like you have to constantly be launching and selling and selling and selling and selling.

Christina: (19:19) And I see this so much, um, I’m just like having, I’m thinking of like so many situations like popping up my mind right now because this is just really, really common. So if you are a coach and you’ve ever experienced this and this sounds like something that you’ve experienced or been through, um, just know that you’re not alone. And a lot of people are not talking about how burnt out they are because it’s not really helpful, especially if you’re going into another launch, um, to, you know, get on your Instagram stories and talk about how you hate your business . Like it’s not really a good look for a coach, especially if you’re a business coach and you are, um, promoting that, um, to help people with their businesses. You definitely don’t wanna share that, you know, you are really struggling with keeping yours, um, just emotionally.

Christina: (20:08) So, um, this is a really, really common one that a lot of people are not talking about publicly. So the last one, I’m just throwing this in there because I have heard it a handful of times. Um, I wouldn’t say this is a very, like, again, super overgeneralizing. I wouldn’t say that I hear this one as much as the other things, but I do hear it. And that is hating their business. Um, it is definitely possible to build your nightmare. Uh, I talked about this last week actually on, on the episode about scaling versus growing. Um, you can get to a point where you absolutely hate your business, and I’ve heard the phrase, I want to burn, burn my business down so many times. Like whenever I hear someone say it, I’m like, oh my God. Like, it’s like everyone says the same thing. Um, and it’s really, really unfortunate and it’s, it sucks, like, to be in that position, I would imagine.

Christina: (21:01) I I will say that I have not personally experienced this one for sure. Um, I’ve never felt like that, but I, I completely understand how someone could get to that point. And especially in a situation where you’re burning out and things aren’t working and you feel like you can’t, like stop. Um, I kind of relate it to like being a single mom, , and I’m, this is something that is very new for me, but I, I think of, I think I feel like it would feel something like that because there are days where I’m just so tired, I’m so tapped and, but like, you have to keep going. And there I don’t have a partner or anyone to help me, so I can’t tell someone like, Hey, can you just hold her real fast because I just need a minute. There is none of that. So you just have to keep going.

Christina: (21:50) And it’s not a feeling of like, I ha I feel like I have to keep going. I like actually do like this little imperfect being, you know, relies on me for absolutely everything. So there is like stopping and, you know, not doing something is just not an option. And even though, like with a business, it might, um, uh, you know, maybe it’s not as dire, but it definitely would feel like you can’t stop because then your revenue’s going to go down and, you know, revenue isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s also how you might feed your family or you know, how you survive. And so making money, um, you know, you have bills, you have business expenses, like the average person just has some bills, but we also have like people that we are paying and we have business expenses that are like, you know, thousands and tens of thousands of dollars a month that we have to make sure we pay those before we even get to have anything.

Christina: (22:43) So it’s extremely stressful and, um, to be in a position where you feel like you cannot launch again or you cannot sell something or you cannot move. Um, but you know, that like you have to, you have to, to pay um, your expenses and pay your bills and, you know, it’s can be really, really, um, isolating as well when if you’re a coach and you are, and I’m only imagining this part, but you’re looking around at your competitors and you’re just seeing on Instagram like hundred K a month, 200 k a month, you know, all these like different, you know, um, promotions and milestones and things that people are talking about, and, um, I can’t imagine how isolating that must feel. And, um, I will just say that I’ve, I’ve seen this, uh, quite a bit. Um, people really hating their business because of that and just having a lot of resentment towards their business.

Christina: (23:33) So those are the five things that I see very, very commonly. And again, I’m gonna reiterate that I only did this episode so that other people will feel like they’re not alone because I am someone, again, I have coaching clients, I have coaching friends, um, I’ve been in masterminds with other coaches and other, um, groups and just, I, I have a lot of experience in the coaching space and I’m also a big student of coaching as well. Um, so I have a lot of exposure to this and, um, I don’t want anyone to feel alone because I know that the coaches aren’t really talking about it, um, amongst each other, at least not publicly. So you would have to, you know, be in one of these groups or, um, know another coach like really well and be able to have these vulnerable conversations. So I wanted to put this out there and just hope that, you know, it normalizes it a little bit for someone.

Christina: (24:30) Um, and you know, there are ways to prevent some of these things or make them less likely or less frequent, um, but they do absolutely happen. So that is what I have for you this week. I hope that you found this helpful and I hope that if you are in going through one of these things right now, um, that it can help you feel a lot less alone because you’re definitely not alone. I will see you guys next week. Thank you for listening to the Scaling to Freedom podcast. If you are a seven figure coach looking for ads management with an agency that partners with you to get your work out into the world and amplify your impact, see if we are a good fit by applying for a spot in our agency@christinabernhard.com/apply. Find the link in our show notes.