- Today, I'm sharing everything I've learned about working
with business coaches for the last six years.
And be sure to stay until the end
where I'm gonna share a checklist with you
that will help you find the perfect coach.
And I'm gonna share how I tripled my own revenue
by choosing the right coach for me.
First, what is a business coach
and what do they actually do?
According to indeed.com a business coach
is a professional mentor who supports,
educates, and motivates business owners.
This can look differently depending
on who the business coach is and what are the needs
of the business owner.
Business coaches can help you in a variety of ways.
Everything from social media marketing
to getting started in business to branding,
to developing your offers to scaling your offers,
to hiring and structuring your team.
Now, working with a business coach can look
all different kinds of ways, too.
Everything from one-on-one coaching to group coaching,
to online courses to free content.
I have done and offered and tried all of these things,
and that's what we're gonna talk about more in this video.
So the big question you're probably asking yourself is
should I invest in a business coach for myself?
Do I really need one right now?
Speaking from personal experience,
I hired my very first business coach
in 2016 when I was ready to go all in
on the Elise Darma brand.
Before that I had been running and growing my agency brand
for the previous three years.
But when it came to my personal brand
I knew nothing about getting started.
I knew I wanted to create digital products like courses.
And for the first time in my entire business career
I had the epiphany that,
"Hey, someone has already been here before.
Someone's already done this before."
So instead of me making it up and guessing,
just like I did with my agency,
which was fine, it just took a long time.
Instead of guessing, "why don't I work
with someone who's done this already?"
That's when I realized I could hire a business coach.
At that time, I knew I was ready
because I knew what I wanted for my business.
I just didn't know how to get there.
And I didn't wanna make it up myself anymore.
I wanted the shortcut.
So that's how you can tell
if you're ready for a business coach right now.
If you know where you wanna go and you wanna get there fast
you're probably ready to hire a coach.
Another way to know you might be ready is
if you've already sold something online,
but you don't know how to scale that offer.
You don't know how to sell more
without breaking things in your business.
You might also be ready for a coach
if you've built an online community
but you're not sure what to sell.
You're not sure what to offer.
An online business coach can help you with that.
Remember, you can teach yourself a lot of things for free.
I mean, look at YouTube,
it's basically a business university online for free.
But by tapping into someone's experience,
you can get to where you wanna go a whole lot faster.
Just take a look at some of my students here
who've joined some of my programs
and are thrilled with the results they've gotten.
This is what you ultimately want to feel when you invest
in a coach or one of their programs.
- I was able to generate just over $5,500 in four days.
But my favorite thing about the course was her.
- The lessons I gained from her on creating offers
and bonuses that sell helped me generate more
than $1,200 a month in new revenue.
- I loved the support that I got from the Elise Darma team.
- So this all begs the question,
"How do you find a good business coach?"
Because I don't blame you
if this whole online business coaching world feels
a little spammy or icky or too good to be true even.
There is that part of the internet.
There is that part of the online business world
where people are selling you a story
and it might not all be true.
They might have a story about themselves
and nothing to really back that up.
So you do have to be very smart.
Have your wits about you when it comes
to handing someone your hard earned money
so that they can coach you.
The last thing you want is to hire someone
and they don't get you to where you want to go.
So when it comes to finding a good business coach
the first thing you need to do is get clear
on where you want to go.
Where are you now?
And by the time you work with this coach,
by the end of your time together,
what do you want to have achieved?
Do you wanna have an online course built?
Do you wanna have a service based business launched?
Do you wanna have your first client in the books?
What do you ultimately want?
And is that the coach who can get you there?
As you're thinking on this, you also wanna get clear
on what style of coaching works best for you.
Sometimes depending on your phase of business,
you need one-on-one coaching.
You need personalized coaching,
where someone is gonna roll up their sleeves
and dive deep into your business with you.
Other times you might not need that.
You might be great in a group coaching setting.
And sometimes you want both.
In fact, I have joined a mastermind that gave me both.
I had one-on-one access to the coach
who I wanted to work with
and we also had the group coaching environment.
Now, when I joined this mastermind,
it was actually the biggest investment
I had ever made in my business yet.
I had been following this coach for at least a year.
I had discovered her through a recommendation
in a Facebook group.
Highly recommended for you to check up Facebook groups
to get coach recommendations.
But I discovered her name in 2016 and her website, her blog,
it just spoke to me so deeply.
Her style of words just cut right to the point
and that's exactly what I liked.
But I got on a call with her in 2016
and her price per month was just too much
for me at that time.
I couldn't swing it.
So I went with another coach who was more affordable.
Fast forward a year later, and the first coach,
the person who I really wanted to work with,
she was launching her own mastermind program
for the very first time.
So again, I got on a call with this coach
and her price had gone up.
She was asking for even more money per month
than the year prior, but this time my head was in the game.
I was scared to make this investment.
It was a $1000 a month for 12 months.
So 12,000 for the year.
- That's a lot of money, Hillary, what for?
- However, I had been watching her for over a year
and I knew she was legit.
I knew she was the real deal.
And I felt it deep within me
that I wanted to be close to her.
She was the coach for me.
At that time in 2017 we were about to become
a six-figure business for the first time ever.
And that was amazing.
That was a huge goal of mine.
And I remember working from Bali
and taking my call with her from Bali.
And it was, I was just living that digital nomad life.
But deep down inside of me,
there was a part of me that knew that there was more.
There was more for me than just working
from the treetops in Bali and making six figures.
Although that does sound pretty good.
I just wanted the next level.
And I felt like this coach was my bridge
to getting to that next level.
So we had a call, she told me the price.
I ghosted her for a bit because I didn't know what to say.
And soon after she emailed me saying,
"Hey, we only have a couple spots left
and I have 20 more people waiting to get on a call with me.
What are you gonna do?"
So she was smart.
She put the pressure on me, rightfully so,
and I had to make a decision.
At that time spending 1000 US dollars per month
was 20 to 30% of my revenue.
It was a big investment, but I knew where I wanted to go.
I had an online course and I wanted her help
to scale this course to get it in front of more people.
So I said, "Yes," from Bali.
I said, "Yes."
And join this thousand dollar a month mastermind.
And let me tell you, I was that front of class
straight A student all over again.
I was ready to squeeze every drop outta this program
in order to make my investment back.
So a month after joining, I learned from this coach,
I put together an Evergreen webinar.
I launched this funnel for the first time.
I learned how to run ads from this same coach too.
I ran ads.
I was getting like a dollar to $2 leads,
but the thing is this funnel,
this Evergreen webinar funnel was making me money.
I would wake up with sales on my phone,
$200 here, $300 here.
It was amazing.
And at the end of that year being
in this coach's mastermind, our revenue tripled.
We went from making just over 100,000 in 2017
to making over 300,000 in 2018.
So was the investment worth it?
Yeah, I'd say it was.
So if you're on the hunt for that coach
who is going to do that for you in your business,
ask your network, ask for referrals, ask in Facebook groups,
and then spend time following that coach.
The worst thing you wanna do is just jump the gun
and join someone's $10,000 program right away
before you've really invested in researching them.
So go ahead, find them on social media,
subscribe to their email list, follow them for a while
if you have the time.
In my mind I'd wanna follow someone
for a good six months before I'd feel comfortable
investing five figures into them.
As you're following them and watching them make sure
that their coaching style works for you.
That's the biggest thing that you want here.
I chose a coach who was very no fluff,
very direct, very strategic.
That's what I wanted.
I didn't want like a feelings based coach
and there are feelings based coaches out there
but you probably know me by now.
I'm straight to the point too.
I don't spend a lot of time in my feelings.
So find the coach that has the vibe, the personality,
and the coaching style that fits you.
And don't be afraid to ask that coach for case studies.
If they've been a coach for a while
they certainly have testimonials,
but ask them if they have deeper more in-depth case studies.
And take it the next step further,
maybe reach out to their case study person
and ask them about their specific experience
working with that coach.
Do your homework.
Now that we've covered in-depth "What is a business coach?"
You might be watching this
because you wanna be a coach yourself.
I've got a video ready to go for you.
That covers how you can build your online coaching business.
Check it out.