The Big Idea: Market what your target audience wants, such as a quick fix or affordable solution, to generate income and help more people, followed by enrollment for your help implementing the solution and next steps.
For new coaches: An easy way to get your first practice clients and launch your new coaching business.
For experienced coaches: Attract more clients by marketing smaller, more focused programs and solutions for your target audience.
Your coaching skills enable you to help almost anyone with any problem or goal, because as a coach you are not required to be an expert, give advice, and provide direction. Instead, you apply your coaching skills to:
A) support your client to identify what they want
B) explore options for getting what they want
C) develop a plan to get what they want, and
D) implement their plan for getting what they want.
That’s it. That’s coaching in a nutshell. However, people don’t really know what coaching is and often will just want your advice about a pressing relationship challenge and do not react positively if you respond by saying something like “I assume you are the expert on your life and I don’t give advice.” People care about results, not how you help them get the results, so there is no need to go down that rabbit hole.
The two “mini coaching programs” below are intended to give your some ideas for providing an affordable, entry-level structured program to help your target audience, generate revenue, and be a funnel for your future coaching clients.
Cautionary Note:
These programs assume you are following the steps provided using your coaching skills and not providing advice, opinions, and direction to your clients. Even if you have the professional qualifications and experience to provide advice and direction, doing so will not help you become a masterful coach or build a successful coaching business.
Don’t abuse your coaching superpower and be tempted to shortcut the process by giving your opinions and telling your clients what you think they should do. Doing so is ineffective, won’t motivate them to hire you as their coach (which is your goal!), and when getting involved in such personal, intimate issues, it can backfire and have serious consequences for your professional future.
Mini Program Option 1:
The Quick Start Program
A short three session coaching program to help your target audience get started on the path to accomplishing the big goal that you specialize in helping your clients achieve. The purpose of this program is to help them become more clear about their goals, develop a plan for achieving their goals, and select strategies for implementing their plan.
The deliverable of this program is to help your target audience get started and take the first steps on the path towards accomplishing their biggest goal or dream related to your specialty and niche. Given that most people have big dreams that sit permanently on the shelf waiting for “some day,” this is an incredibly valuable service and entree into coaching.
The logical follow up to this program is to get your help implementing their plan to accomplish their big goal/vision (i.e. coaching), which would most likely be quite daunting for most people to accomplish on their own.
- Session 1: Intake
- Session 2: Goal Planning
- Session 3: Action Planning
If you already have a structured coaching program, this might be what you do in your first three sessions anyway, which makes it easy for you to break it out as a separate, entry level product/service that has tremendous value on its own.
Brand your Quick Start Program with the name of your larger coaching program, your business name, or the big goal that you specialize in helping your clients achieve. Examples:
- Finding the Love of Your Life Quick Start Program
- Conscious Dating® Quick Start Program
- Radical Marriage® Quick Start Program
- Elevated Living Quick Start Program
- I Love My Marriage Quick Start Program
- Dating After Divorce Quick Start Program
Mini Program Option 2:
The Quick Fix Program
A short three session coaching program to address one of the biggest and most common problems experienced by your target audience related to your specialty and niche. To be clear, the deliverable of this program is to get the tools for solving the problem (the “solution”), NOT to actually solve the problem in three sessions, though that may be possible in some cases.
The logical follow up to this program is to get your help to implement the solution and move forward towards what they want for their life and relationship (i.e. coaching), which would most likely be quite daunting for most people to accomplish on their own.
- Session 1: Intake
- Session 2: Problem Solving
- Session 3: Solution Planning
Brand your Quick Fix Program with the biggest problem that you help your clients overcome in your specialty and niche. Examples:
- The Burned Out on Dating Quick Fix Program
- The “Can’t Find the Right Match” Quick Fix Program
- “Is This the Right Relationship for Me” Quick Fix Program
- The Shy or Introverted Dater Quick Fix Program
- The “I’m Too Old to Date” Quick Fix Program
- The “My Life Sucks” Quick Fix Program
- The “We Always Argue” Quick Fix Program
- The “Passion is Gone” Quick Fix Program
- The “Our Sex Life Sucks” Quick Fix Program
- The “Should I Stay or Go” Quick Fix Program
Note: The above is the introduction to the idea of the mini-coaching program for practicing coaches and assumes you will use your expertise and content to create your own. If you’re reading this and you’re a member of RCI, you have access to our “done for you” coaching programs and much more detail than provided above, just log into your online RCI member platform.
