Time vs. Money: The Coach’s Conundrum

Early on in my coaching career, I had a serious internal battle going on. Which should matter more to me -- income or freedom?

?It seemed like my goals flipped on an almost daily basis. One day, I loved the idea of living in my dream house, having a vacation home or two, driving this amazing car, and being able to give my family all the luxury they wanted …

?The next, I’d have visions of living off the grid, following this simple lifestyle, and only working a few hours a week while I spent the rest of my time doing whatever I pleased.

?I speak to a lot of coaches in a similar situation.

?They’re motivated by money, and? they’re inspired by lifestyle and think they need to chase one while letting the other fall by the wayside.

?But here’s the thing …

?Income and Freedom Are Not Mutually Exclusive

?The idea that you have to work more in order to earn more is outdated and just doesn’t stack up in 2022.

?Yes, you need to work hard, and you need to work smart if you want to increase your income. But you don’t necessarily need to work more.

?Your income should be representative of the value you put out into the world, not the number of hours you work.

?And actually, it’s very easy to increase the amount of value you give without having to be at the laptop by 5 am every morning, work 7-day weeks, or pull all-nighters just to keep up with your coaching demands.

Income and workload aren’t linear, but -

?Income and Impact?Are?Linear

?Impact has all to do with how many lives you change.

?The more people you help, the more you earn. It’s that simple.

In the old coaching models, that?did?mean needing to work more hours. After all, if you’re coaching clients 1:1 and every person gets an hour a week with you, along with email or WhatsApp access, there are only so many clients you can take on.

Once we factor in you doing things like business admin, marketing, sales calls, and everything else that goes with running a coaching business, that might leave you with 20 hours out of a 40-hour week for coaching clients.

Meaning you’re capped at a maximum of 20 clients at a time. If you want to help more people and earn more money, you need to open up more time in your calendar and work extra hours.

?That’s why I genuinely believe 1:1 coaching isn’t how most coaches should set up their businesses.

And it’s why, the moment I realized this, I switched to group coaching.

With group coaching, you can impact many more people (and do so just as successfully) but without putting crazy demands on your time.

Group Coaching Isn’t About Giving Your Clients Any Less

?The first thing people think when they hear ‘group coaching’ is that every single client will be thrown into some unmonitored Facebook group, given a link to some trainings recorded years ago, and left to their own devices.

That’s not the case.

With group coaching, you still have 1:1 interaction with clients.

It’s just that instead of teaching them what they need to know, you take all the ‘information’ portion of your program, record this as trainings, and give every client access to watch on their own time.

Then, for the personal aspect, while I’m not against doing the occasional odd 1:1 call with a client, 90% of the personal help you give should be on a Q&A call.

At COD we do two Q&A calls a week, just due to the number of clients we have. But most people will be just fine starting with one.

Following this model means you disconnect your time from your income. And that means you can scale your income and impact, without taking away from your freedom.

Plus, the group aspect forces people to work hard. They don’t want to be seen as the one who are always asking unnecessary questions or falling behind, so they work even harder, with the support and accountability of their peers.

Your Time is Finite, That’s Why It’s Priceless

It’s easy to get caught up in the social media hype of being a 6-figure or 7-figure coach, while completely neglecting the reason you probably started coaching in the first place -- To help people and to have full control over your location, schedule, and who you work with.

The good news is, you don’t have to neglect all of that good stuff in favor of more dollars in the bank. At least, not if you switch to a group model.

Remember - You can always make more money. You can never make more time.