
Exposing the Marketing Myths of Business Coaching Programs
Have you ever been captivated by glossy advertisements promising transformational business success through business coaching programs? If so, you're not alone. But what if the reality is far from what's advertised? In this eye-opening episode, we dive deep into the deceptive marketing tactics used by the business coaching industry. From too-good-to-be-true success stories to slick sales pitches that gloss over crucial details, we expose how these programs often overpromise and underdeliver. Learn how to navigate the crowded field of coaching services and find the genuine support and results you're paying for. Don't let the allure of quick fixes derail your business growth—tune in and arm yourself with the knowledge to navigate the coaching conundrum effectively
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Don't miss out, get started for free today. Hello and welcome to today's podcast.
I'm your host Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're talking about why the business coaching industry is broken and how it is damaging your business. So this is a topic which is very very close to my heart.
It is an area that I've been involved in now for the last seven years. I have seen firsthand the impact this has had on so many people's business.
I regularly do initial calls with people. They come to me wanting help and so we get on a call to determine what help is best for them.
And so often I hear the same sort of stories, people being misled, missold, given the wrong sort of information, given the wrong direction for their business, not supported in the right way, not having the foundations there, and being charged an awful lot of money for the privilege. Obviously, it gives the industry a bad name, it makes people question and be less trusting of the biz ops and business coaching industry, but it also absolutely ruins people's businesses, it ruins
their lives, and it costs them so much money, a debilitating amount of money, and gets people
into debt. So how does this happen, and what is going on? Well, basically, you know, the industry
as a whole, it's not regulated, there are obviously different organisations that people can be part of,
they can do further education and training in sales and marketing but there isn't a an overall regulator of the industry and therefore people can make claims people can sell whatever they want to sell with very little repercussions this is like those scenarios where you're in a restaurant and there's a group of individuals and they're a bit loud so then everybody else has to talk that little bit louder so they can be heard and before you know it the room is so noisy so loud you can't hear each other speak because of that initial catalyst that is what is going on in the coaching industry there's a lot of people trying to get your attention there's a lot of people who are trying to push and shove and get in front of you with their message with their offers with their opportunities and you know in all honesty a lot of people who are trying to push and shove and get in front of you with their message, with their offers, with their opportunities. And, you know, in all honesty, a lot of them are genuine offers.
But there is obviously, like anything, a minority. And it's that hype, that sensationalization that, you know, you get on that hype train of one person says one thing.
And so therefore, you need to have a more compelling argument for using your offer and so it goes on you know that leads to hype it leads to sensationalization and it leads to over promising and then people sign up to things when there's expectation that you know what I'll just sign up and basically it will all magically happen because that individual has over promised in their marketing on how easy it is on the ease at which that you can do the implementation and turn your business around or create that business that you're after. I've had four conversations alone this week with new clients where I've said to them, look, you are still searching for that silver bullet.
And the thing is, is that silver bullet, that fast solution to your problem, that thing that's going to make your business just absolutely boom and take off overnight, is something that people are more and more seeking, because that's what's being promised, so we've got into this kind of frenzy, where people are promising in their marketing, and so people are expecting, people are searching for that quick way, that quick fix, and in all honesty, as a population, there seems to be a tendency to go that way too there is an increased expectation that things should be easier than what they are and that means that people who would be previously knuckling down and following the steps are getting distracted very very easily and are going out there looking for a new alternative all the time that means that none of the processes none of the systems that they are being taught they're actually implementing enough to get a result and that's the thing here guys is there are so many different ways to build your business you will go to one individual and they will tell you about a way of generating leads in your business you'll go to another guru and they'll share with you their way and the thing is is these all these ways are very valid there are so many ways to build a business the key thing is is to find a way to find an individual to find an approach that works for you I remember a good few years ago now looking at somebody on Instagram and thinking you know what yeah they absolutely have exploded their audience what they're doing is really working but when I looked at their videos there was so much sort of infotainment there was so many sort of silly crazy things that they were doing and I am one of those people who I feel a little bit self-conscious dancing I am not going to feel comfortable dressing up in outfits in doing the weird and wonderful entertaining things that this individual was doing and so surprisingly when I came to take their course it wasn't the kind of activities that were going to work for me they were not the type of things that I could pull off and implement well in my business it wasn't me so that's the key thing here is it's finding an individual finding approach from all these approaches that are out there that you think you know what it might take me a little bit out of my comfort zone I might need guidance on this but I can do this I can see myself doing this and be comfortable and grow increasingly comfortable doing it but that word has come up already consistently and that's the thing is is consistency doing something consistently is what will get you results it is that having that implementation and having that trust in the implementation the belief that what you are doing will yield you a result i had a client recently who started on one of my programs and she was what possibly one of the most skeptical people that i've ever met she has been around for two three years taking her business very seriously she had looked at all the different guru ways of building her business she'd taken some of the low level courses. And this is one of the things that I'm going to come back to in a minute is, is the impact of low priced courses.
I have low priced courses too. And the thing is, is those low price courses, they only give you that tip of the iceberg.
Firstly, because they're normally short on time so that there's a low time commitment so that you are willing to do it secondly then some people still don't manage to do that low low sort of time commitment time frame and so they're not getting the full picture and thirdly it is at a low price point which means that at that low price point you are paying for a small amount of information why should that individual give you thousands upon thousands of pounds worth of information for you know two three dollars it's just insane um so you're going to get you know that amount of value back and sometimes people are blown away people get blown away by my three dollar course where they're like oh you know this is worth hundreds um yeah but it's not worth the thousands that i have that clients pay me to look at their business and to give them very clear direction on their specific business and their specific scenario and that is where the true value and the true change can be created and so what's happening is is people are going around they're getting a superficial understanding of all these different activities they're having to make up the rest for themselves or you know add the dots together off free information and then they're not getting the result result. And then over time, they get jaded.
And so they come to me, like the lady that I had on my program called Karen. Yes, she was actually called Karen, I'm not trying to keep her anonymous.
And she was, you know, I'm not convinced this isn't going to work, this isn't going to do it for me. And I was like, you know what, just stick with it, just do the actions.
She had KPIs, so key performance indicators that she was hitting week on week with her interactions and her posting, et cetera, et cetera, and her organic activity. And she did see the results.
She did see the momentum. That momentum grew within her business.
And she got to the stage where she absolutely smashed the target of her 12K in 12 weeks, which was amazing. she made an additional 14k in new business on top of the the business she was already bringing in for her business which was fantastic and you know it proved to her it gave her the confidence that actually this stuff works and when you get the confidence you can keep doing it but doing it alone and doing it in isolation and doing it with very little knowledge can be really really tough going and that can lead to you feeling very much disillusioned with what's going on and the information that's going out there if people are telling you look this way works you're doing it and it's not working there's only so many times you're going to listen to that before you stop believing it and that's why it's really important to preserve yourself and preserve your own understanding and own outlook on that you know the support that is available and so you know reducing that noise so select to see fewer ads if you've opened up your news feed and you've got ad after ad with the new shiny approach the new silver bullet the the new shiny thing that's going to get you the results fast and with effortless and with ease whatever it is they're promising and then select to see fewer of them you can click in that top right hand corner those dots and you can choose to see fewer of those ads okay you can also in the in the process of this this will change your reference point so you'll stop seeing as much of that and you'll start to see more of other stuff and you know having the right people in your feed having the right people in your world listening to the right podcasts reading the right books books that inspire you which share with you a journey that somebody else has gone on so you don't feel so alone okay getting involved in some of the facebook groups that are out there like my group um but there are so many for people in business and for women in business to help you feel not alone to to give you information and give you that support when things aren't going quite so well so look at your network look at who you're surrounding yourself with I've had a couple of conversations recently and actually I did a reel on it where I was talking about if your social feed makes you feel depressed if you don't like your social feed if it feels stuffy if it feels insincere if it feels full of sensationalization if it's full of annoying people who are always pushing their own agenda and coming up with ridiculous things then change it okay you can choose to not follow those people you can choose to snooze those people but change your reality change your okay, and with that it would change your reference points and your expectation of what is going on and what is real, okay, find those people that are really sharing their true journey and that'll come onto that in just a few moments time, so the other thing is, and obviously you're going to be like, oh gosh, of course you're saying this because you're a business mentor.
But find somebody to mentor you. Find somebody who can support you, who can give you the confidence and the skills and the knowledge and the support and the accountability to make changes and make the changes that you need to make in your business, whatever they may be.
Okay, you don't have to pay them. I would encourage you where you can to get paid support because it absolutely pays for itself you know 10 times over it's it's mad the impact every time my business has moved forwards and has had a shift it's been when I've had a really decent mentor okay so finding a mentor I'm going to come on to that in a few episodes time where I'm going to share with you my tips for finding a mentor my my learnings
on you know the do's and don'ts but you know in essence you are looking for somebody who resonates with you who you think you know what you're kind of doing the things that I'd like to do you're few steps ahead of me but you're still in touch with the reality and that's what somebody said to me earlier this week on one of my trainings I've got a new cohort of individuals who I'm helping them get their business up and running and she said to me you know I speak I see so many gurus who are telling me to do stuff and they ask it's not for the people it's not for me where I am now it's for people who've got a bit of an audience or people who have got a product sorted out and it's like I want the information on how to get started the step-by-step process and so make sure that that individual is probably not doing that um probably not ideal if they're doing that actually um but they are helping people they are still on the ground with those individuals knowing what's working knowing the challenges that people face they're still in touch with that reality your reality also you know understand that stories are stories okay social media the press everyone loves to sell you a sensationalized story of you know somebody who became an overnight success i was talking to people and taylor swift is currently doing the round in the uk with her tour and i remember talking to somebody going oh you know she was such an over an overnight success story she was like touring from something like the age of 14 and by the time she became on my radar she had been touring for 10 years as a supporting act okay for me she was an overnight success story but when actually you looked into it she had been around for some time and that's the thing guys is if you do get sucked in by story do your due diligence on it find out actually how long has that person been going I know so many businesses that have been cited as overnight successes when actually that business has been going for some time when um I limited my company um you could look at that as an overnight success story um it made over 45k in its first two days of trading but it did that because I set it up on the back of my sole trader
business because I knew that that money was coming in now you know that isn't normal that isn't that is a little um fraction of the bigger picture and you know it is absolutely doable to find out that bigger story on things and so I would encourage you to do that before you start looking at that and making your comparisons
and comparing yourself,
your journey to that other person's journey so I wanted to share with you guys my reality okay it has taken me five years to get my business in a good place okay I was having kids on and off um up until two years ago my focus was um you know I'd be going off having a baby coming back going off having a baby um and so it was very much i was stop start stop start with my business um since i've been able to focus on it in the last couple of years um it has well the last sort of three three four years it has really um it has really begun to to take off um but it's taken me five years um of of inconsistency and trial and error to get my business in a place where actually i was able to to do some replication of activities to get a consistent result um i've worked as few as two days a week i could have done this quicker i could have done it um less painfully. I'm probably spending less money on training, et cetera, et cetera.
I would honestly say the best investments I've ever made have been in mentors rather than courses. But there have been some very, very good digital courses that I've done as well.
The biggest impact that I have seen is when I have had a a mentor as I said before my priority is my family I work so really really hard when I am working I do work part-time I don't work Fridays um but when I'm working I'm working smart I'm working hard okay I'm not disappearing off to do this or that or the other and if I have got a commitment from from a family point of view then I make up that time and I am disciplined with it because I know that I can't just disappear and not look after my business because it's not going to be there it's like a garden okay leave it for a week or so and it can kind of get by but keep leaving it and you're going to be in trouble um you do need to rebalance and you know I don't want I don't I choose not to sacrifice my family time I'm very precious over my family time and have those barriers there but often I do need to rebalance my own mental priorities I get very carried away and excited over the projects that I'm working on and so you know rather than be enjoying that time I'm thinking I actually had I could just sneak off whilst they're playing this and I'm like no actually so this is not what you were signing up for this is not your values so um you know bear that one in mind that it's always going to take that bit of recalibration your support network is key okay I could not be where I am without support I am not some crazy superwoman who can go without sleep who can do all the things I have good days bad days, I have times when I need support. I have a family which is neurodiverse.
You know, there's a real good mix within my family. I've got two people in my family who have got my immediate family who have got ASD and there is a lot to balance and support.
And so I need that support there to help me to turn up as my best. And I don't always turn up as my best and but I do try my hardest to do my best but that wouldn't be possible without that support network and so you know that's something I'm going to be touching on next week with Mandy Reese um because yes we're talking around why women can be so mean and why we can be put off by you know wanting those close relationships with women but then feeling like actually they aren't meeting our needs and we can't necessarily get them from the women around us and why there is that that kind of mismatch and and what we can do about it because support networks are so so very key so that's it for me guys this week i hope you have enjoyed this episode and please do subscribe and follow
and all the things and please do review so that it can help this podcast reach more people and we
can really create a community that supports each other on our business journeys so join me next
week guys when I'll be speaking to Mandy Reese about why women can be so mean and what to do
to to navigate that and create that support network that we need
so that's it for me guys bye for now