Hello everyone! Welcome to episode 13 of the Conscious Women Entrepreneurs Podcast!
Today I want to talk about investing in a coach – and more specifically when to do so. Most people haven’t ever had a coach and they tend to think that it’s either only something that the rich, famous or top athletes hire – or they simply don’t know how a coach could possibly help them specifically. As an entrepreneur coach, I see so many small business owners who are overwhelmed, stressed, lack clarity and direction, suffer from the emotional rollercoaster that the entrepreneurial journey brings, time management issues, burnout – and the list goes on. So, today I want to talk about when to hire a coach that can help you with all of that.  

A lot of people are afraid of investing money in themselves and their business. But let’s talk about the definition of the word: The Cambridge Dictionary defines investing as “putting money, effort and/or time into something to make a profit or get an advantage.” So, if you’re not willing to invest in yourself or your business, it means you don’t trust that there will be a future financial return or benefit. For example, let’s say that if you were considering hiring a coach and you were absolutely certain that you were going to get what you came for OR MORE, you would 100% invest! Where a lot of people get tripped up is that they don’t think it’ll work for them specifically even though they see others around them getting huge returns on their investments. 

The ROI of Hiring a Coach

I wrote an article some time back where I did a lot of research around the return on investment for hiring a coach for people in business. I found that it’s an emerging body of evidence that shows how coaching is not only helping people increase their confidence, become happier and more fulfilled, but also results in a financial return on investment. Here is some research over the past ten years reporting return on investment (ROI) from coaching- and you can find the links to the resources in the show notes. 

• Companies that offer training alone experience a 22.4% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching that figure rises to 88%.  
• An investment in coaching leaders realized an average ROI of almost six times the cost of the coaching. 
• 86% of organizations saw an ROI on their Coaching engagements. Tangible factors were areas such as increased productivity, higher levels of overall employee performance, reduced costs, growth in revenue and sales, higher engagement and retention of associates. Intangible factors were increased confidence of those being coached, improved communication, stronger associate- and peer-to-peer relationships. 

So these are some pretty interesting findings. 

Making the Most of Hiring a Coach

HOWEVER, there is a big disclaimer here: no matter how amazing or transformational the coaching that you receive is; If you don’t show up and do the work, implement what you’ve learned through the coaching, you WILL NOT get the results that you could experience. 

In other words; how invested we are in something emotionally, mentally or financially will determine how we rise to the challenge. How we make the most of it. I see such a difference in my own experience of being coached. Those few times that I didn’t go all in on the coaching and make the most of what I learned, or when I only showed up and waited for her to “fix me” without taking responsibility myself – the coaching and results was not even close to what I got out of it when I was engaged. When I was actively working on myself, my mindset, my business. When I was following the strategies that we developed in our sessions. Don’t get me wrong, simply by being coached and doing small tweaks, you can see great improvements in your life and business, but it’s not anywhere near what you can get out of it when you go all in. When it comes down to it, a coach can’t make you think, feel or do anything, and so the results you create ultimately depends on your commitment. Ester Hicks once said “we can’t access the highest version of someone else, if we don’t show up as our highest selves”. That has really stuck with me, and truly reflects my own experience with coaching. And that is why, whenever I coach someone, I am super intentional about my own energy, and really stepping into my highest self. And as a coach, I am always my first client. I have to do and own what I coach others to do. We all have human brains that needs reprogramming and realignment, but that’s a conversation for another time.

So, what I just spoke about was emotional and mental commitment to show up to coaching. I want to also point out how financial commitment can have a huge impact on your commitment to yourself and your results too. You might have participated in free challenges offered by someone who also sells a premium course. You probably didn’t mind that much if you would miss out or fall behind for a few days. On the contrary, and again to put this on the edge; imagine investing $200 000 into a challenge. You would show up on your A-game every single time, no question about it. AND, you would therefore ensure exponentially greater results! So being invested financially and actually having skin in the game matters in terms of your commitment and therefore results.

Now, I hear some people saying that as soon as they get to a certain income level, they’ll invest in a coach, which brings me to the title of this podcast episode; the chicken or the egg for investing in ourselves and our business.

Should You Hire a Coach?

Why would you hire a coach? For lot’s of reasons, but here are a few reasons people say they have one: 

• Wanting to take their biz to the next level 
• Speeding up the process of achieving their goals
• Getting better at time management
• Working smarter by getting tailor made solutions for their specific life & business
• Overcoming limiting beliefs that are holding them back from succeeding
• Accountability
• Having someone help them rise again when they feel like giving it all up

• To avoid burnout …and so on

So my question is; what comes first? The investment or growing your business to a certain level? It’s absolutely possible to build a highly successful business that generates great money for you without a coach. You don’t need a coach, in fact, nobody needs a coach. However, what tends to happen as an entrepreneur, is that you work yourself to the bone and worst case; burn out. A lot of entrepreneurs struggle with overwhelm & anxiety because of all the stress and pressure. This often leads to resenting the work that needs to get done, and it’ll take you a lot longer to get to the success or income level that you desire. Furthermore, I see many entrepreneurs, and women especially, struggle with limiting beliefs such as “I’m not good enough; “this other person is probably better than me” or “the market is so saturated, so I won’t even try”. All of those thoughts slows the growth of your biz down.

Another thing I see a lot with my clients are issues around prioritization. Not focusing time and attention on the most essential tasks, or even being sidetracked by new and shiny ideas. They may spend a huge amount of time researching and considering this new business model, project or idea – only to find out that they probably should’t have spent all that time and effort. A coach will help you see your blind spots, overcome limiting beliefs, help you spend time on the right tasks all the while considering your health, happiness & sanity. You will get a reset every single week, getting you re-motivated, re-structured, get back on track if you had a de-tour etc.

AS I said, nobody needs a coach. But when you consider that it can help you reach your goals faster and more sustainably- while also avoiding figuring it all out by yourself (or failing your way there at a slower pace). As the famous saying goes: “time is money”. Why wouldn’t you want to invest in a coach? Why wouldn’t you put in an investment in yourself and your biz? So many people invest in funds or the stock market, but we don’t know what’s going on inside of that business. The only thing we have control over and can know for sure will make the investment to be worth it – is to make the investment in YOURself and in YOUR business!

What we Spend Money on Will Help Determine What Life You Create for Yourself

When it comes to investments, we are more than happy to invest tens of thousands in formal education – which is great! I’ve got nothing against it – I’ve got both a bachelors degree and masters degree myself. We spend that kind of money on a formal education because we believe in the promise that we will get financially compen­sated for it – even if it takes a while to get to our desired salary level. Other investments where people seem to have no issues spending money is home renovations for example. This also has the potential to give you amazing returns on your investment. But it’s not a guarantee. My boyfriend works with property and although most of the projects have earned him great money, on the last project, they actually lost about $12k after all that hard work and money spent.

Some lesser important things we’re willing to spend money on are cars. As a new car rolls out of the car dealership, the value falls drastically – so, cars aren’t actually an investment; it’s an expense. And what about luxury bags, clothes and even cosmetic operations. Normal people with regular salaries save up to spend thousands of dollars on these things.

So again, why wouldn’t people save up to do courses to expand their skills, or to get a coach who will help them grow their business faster?

Our life is the sum of our habits and as I mentioned a coach will help you reset your habits every week, keeping them in alignment with your desired results. So in a sense, saying that you want to hire a coach when your business has grown is for me like saying that you want to get better at maths before you hire the math’s tutor. Personally, as soon as I decided to go all in on my business, I hired a coach. And it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

My habits and time management improved, my focus got better, I got a lot more clarity around my business, my confidence grew, clients started ticking in and I got all of this while still having time for self care, spending time with my boyfriend and being social. All of this because I got so much better at managing my own mind. This being said, I have spent over a decade studying and practicing self development, psychology, spirituality, learned about coaching, neuroscience, entrepreneurship, business strategy… I’ve done courses, read books, listened to podcasts of experts within these topics being interviewed. I would consume ANYTHING anything that I could get my hands on within these topics. My boyfriend actually calls me a “learnoholic” because I have such a need and desire to learn about these things. I have developed SO much over the years from doing all of that work – I almost feel like a different person – in the most positive sense. And in spite of all this self development and expertise that I generated on my own, I still benefitted massively from having my own coach. Why? Because we all have blind spots, we all have patterns that doesn’t serve us which we don’t see because we’re too close to ourselves. We still experience doubt, self criticism, have bad days where we feel like giving up, don’t feel inspired or motivated. I do a lot of self coaching, and it helps a lot. But even as a coach, I would never be without having my own coach. I believe in coaching so much so that it’s my number one priority in terms of investment. 

So, I want to ask you this question: what do you believe comes first; investing in the growth of yourself and your business and having someone helping you reach your goals faster or spend time trying to learn it all yourself to and then hiring a coach down the line? Screenshot this episode and tag me in an Instagram story to let me know your answer!! 

To wrap up this episode, I want to leave you with a quote from Author and Thought Leader, Alexi Panos:

“If you believe that having a coach works, you know that it’s an investment, it’s not a cost, it’s not an expense. It’s an investment, and that investment will return tenfold – what you could’ve never had if you hadn’t invested in yourself”

So, I hope you got some great insights from this episode! Have a great week, everyone!