Coaches selling courses to coaches about how to make money from being a coach — it does my head in

This really winds me up; my social media channels are full of adverts promising to find 34 high-paying clients whilst I sit in my pants drinking home brew.

The very concept is absolute rubbish and I wish there was some quality control over the adverts that can be run.

If you are winning 34 new coaching clients every month then there is no way on earth that you have time to be running ads and courses; unless you lose those clients as fast as you gain them in which case I have even less interest in your ‘hack’.

I have investigated a few of these ‘courses’ to understand what is being offered and whether are any legitimate processes being taught. My conclusion is no, here’s the standard ‘hack’ if you want to save yourself some money:

• Run Facebook ads
• Have a landing page for a webinar
• Webinar runs automatically
• It teases people watching, delivers very little and asks you to sign up to a free consultation
• A % of people will arrange a call with you
• Of these a small number will sign up

It is the same system they are running to get you on a call in the first place.

And it is not just coaches — there are ads for becoming a millionaire affiliate seller on Amazon or a property tycoon without owning any property I’m sure there are countless others to boot. If the people peddling this crap were half as good as they claim there course will make you they would be running cracking businesses and not training up new competition.

All of the processes they teach you (and please tell me I’m wrong and show me some good ones) are lightweight and commonplace — I have seen nothing ground breaking or different.

So why do these courses work for some people? Yes I am admitting that they can work, the processes are average but the psychology is strong.

What happens if you put 2 quid on a horse race? You might watch the race and get excited, equally you might forget and just check the result at some point.

Now what happens if you bet 100 quid on the same race? Chances are you will make time to watch it and schedule the race into your day.

Now imagine you’ve invested £10k on a stake in a horse you will start attending the races and take a more active interest in what is going on.

The psychology behind this is simple — the more skin in the game the more you will get involved.

What do horses have to do with coaching courses?

If you have ever signed up for a free course then you will expect to learn a little bit and given there is no cost you have little expectations value being delivered. Therefore, if you take anything away from the course you will be impressed and it will have exceeded your expectations. You are also less likely to attend or complete the course in full because you have no financial stake in it. You might enjoy doing the course or take an interest in the subject, but without a financial commitment it is easy to make excuses for not attending and feeling no guilt.

It doesn’t take much of a financial commitment to change your behaviour. I do a weekly pilates class, it costs about £10 per session and is paid in advance for 3 months at a time. If I am going to miss a session I feel guilty because it is a waste of money, this means that if I feel can’t be bothered to go I end up going anyway because I feel guilty for paying and not attending.

If the class was free and I was feeling lethargic I simply wouldn’t bother.

Now go to the other end of the scale and imagine you have invested £1k in a course. A grand represents a serious amount of cash to most people and therefore you are going to take it very seriously, you will attend each session, do any homework in between and actively push yourself.

So why do these ridiculous coaching courses work?

Accountability and Guilt

One of the well-known consultancy courses costs about £10,000. I’ve spoken to them because I was interested to understand what you got for your money — my conclusion not a lot. There was no course structure, no IP or unique systems, no one on one personal coaching.

The conclusion I drew was that people who pay £10k to join will get results; not because of any new knowledge, but because they will hold themselves accountable to see the results that justify spending £10k in the first instance. In other words they will do what is required to get to what they want to be so they don’t feel guilty about wasting their money.

“you can’t do that”

Has anyone ever said that you? If so were the next words out of your mouth “watch me?”

This is basically reverse psychology, when told we can’t do something we want to do it.

“Don’t press the big red button” — all I can think about is pressing the big red button.

Anyone who pays a large amount of money to join one of these courses is creating a scenario that makes themselves accountable for making more money back.

So what is really happening is that we try harder, because we have a point to prove we will do everything in our power to prove it. Some people are motivated purely by money and don’t need this type of motivation — they will be out there grafting and selling. Others of us sit in a different place and sometimes struggle with motivation and that is who these courses appeal to:

“not getting the results you want, give us cash and we will help you”

When we understand the psychology begin why they work we can begin to create our own accountability to achieve the results we desire.

I dislike these courses because I find the message bogus — there is an empty promise to deliver something that they don’t — the magic bullet, latest funnel technology, ancient sales technique honed by a small tribe in Peru.

The results they achieve are not related to the content but rather the additional effort attendees put in after making a financial commitment. When we understand what generates the results we can create more honest and affordable ways of achieving these desired outcomes.