The Difference Between Coaches and Consultants (and good vs bad!)
Small Business Coaching Choices: Avoiding Red Flags and Finding True Expertise
I might be considering dropping the term "coach" from my title… and it’s not because I don’t love what I do, but because the term "coach" has gotten so confusing that it’s lost a lot of its original meaning.
Do you know what I mean?
Hey, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and this is my podcast "The Weeniecast!"
Pssssst! Not sure if you've heard, but I'm inviting new members to the best community for business owners with ADHD - the Hyperfocused Community! You can join here - https://weeniecast.com/hyperfocus
Now, back to this episode...
In this episode, "The Difference Between Coaches and Consultants (and good vs bad!)", I want to share with you some insights into this murky world.
We’ll be exploring what traditional coaching entails, where the coach asks open-ended questions and doesn’t give direct advice, versus a more hands-on approach—which is more my style—where advice and expertise are freely shared.
One thing we’ll cover is the importance of finding the right fit for your business phase.
Are you looking for a classical coach, someone who's going to draw out your ideas and have you come to your own conclusions, or are you more in need of a mentor who provides guidance and shares their experiences?
You’ll also learn some red flags to look out for when seeking coaching or consulting services—like relying on social media followers as proof of skills or boasting of 'secret formulas' that promise quick fixes.
Let’s unpack all of this.
You’ll come away with better discernment skills to find the coaching or consulting partnership that’s truly aligned with your business needs.
By the end of this episode, you'll be more confident in spotting genuine coaches versus those who’re just pretending to know what they’re talking about, and you'll know what to look for to get the most out of your working relationship.
Click play, and let's get started!
Timestamped Summary:
00:00 Traditional coaching emphasizes asking open-ended questions.
05:38 Consider coach certification, clarity, and commitment.
09:00 Find a coach with customized expertise, beware charlatans.
10:06 Spot social media fraud by authentic comments.
14:26 Red flags include lack of last name.
18:28 Rejecting hustle culture, finding work-life balance.
21:02 Trust intuition, solid testimonials, similar experiences validate.
25:24 Find supportive, flexible, and enjoyable professionals.
27:23 Fun teaching made verb conjugation unforgettable.
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Transcript
In this episode, I'm going to talk you through the different types of coaches
Speaker:there are for you and the signs to look out for when choosing the good
Speaker:ones. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset
Speaker:coach. And welcome to the Weeniecast.
Speaker:Here's my promise to you. If you ever book a call with me,
Speaker:come to Brave Biz Labs, which is the call that I do every single fourth
Speaker:Friday of the month, where I offer free business strategy and coaching to
Speaker:anyone who wants it or message me asking me about your business
Speaker:idea. I promise you that I will tell you if it
Speaker:sucks. And this is why I'm considering
Speaker:dropping the term coach from my title.
Speaker:I recently had a conversation with one of my business partners. We're doing
Speaker:market research for a new offer that we're launching for a new business, and
Speaker:it's very exciting, but we're interviewing business owners
Speaker:about where they're struggling, what their idea is,
Speaker:how they want to grow, so on and so forth. And he was telling me
Speaker:about his most recent interview with a gentleman who has
Speaker:spent about two years trying to get his business off the ground. He hired a
Speaker:coach who told him that his business idea was good. It
Speaker:is not. This coach also told him to
Speaker:stop creating content for social media on LinkedIn and
Speaker:to start just cold calling a bunch of investors and asking them for money.
Speaker:If you're also a trained coach, you know that this is not coaching. The
Speaker:term coach gets used in a lot of different ways. And I want to
Speaker:explain this first before we get into how you can really
Speaker:find the right coach, mentor, consultant, whatever it is
Speaker:that you need for where you're at in your business. But before we get there,
Speaker:let's talk about what the definitions are so that it makes sense when we
Speaker:get there.
Speaker:Classical coaching, where you've gone to school, gotten
Speaker:trained, you either got trained in life coaching, leadership coaching, executive
Speaker:coaching. In traditional coaching, your coach is not
Speaker:telling you what to do. In traditional coaching, your coach is
Speaker:literally asking you very open ended questions so
Speaker:that you can figure out your way of getting to your
Speaker:own goal. And if you don't know what your goal is, they're also asking
Speaker:you very clear, open ended questions so you can figure out what your goal
Speaker:is. In talking to my business partner, David, you know, he was saying it
Speaker:was really irresponsible of this guy's coach to not tell him
Speaker:that his idea was bad. To which I said, well, actually, if he was
Speaker:following the ICF, the International Coaches Federation
Speaker:code of Ethics, he actually can't tell his client that his idea
Speaker:is bad. It is not a coach's responsibility to
Speaker:on their clients dreams. Now, obviously, I don't think this coach was
Speaker:following the ICF code of ethics because he was
Speaker:very clearly giving directions on what this person should and shouldn't do.
Speaker:Don't post on LinkedIn, just go and cold call, which is bad
Speaker:advice. We're not doing that anywhere. It doesn't matter what kind
Speaker:of business you're in. We're not doing that. But it does open up a really
Speaker:interesting conversation around what coaching is and what it isn't. Now, there are
Speaker:coaches who are classically trained who are not going to give you
Speaker:answers, who are not going to tell you what to do. They're only ever going
Speaker:to ask you questions and help you figure out what you want to do.
Speaker:This is how I was trained and I no longer really do
Speaker:this because it really doesn't matter how many questions I
Speaker:ask my clients about what they think they could do on a sales call. If
Speaker:they've never sold anything and have no idea about
Speaker:best practices for a sales call, me asking them a whole bunch
Speaker:of open ended questions isn't going to do to make them better at sales.
Speaker:One of the things that I learned in kind of stumbling along
Speaker:and changing my niche is that I really enjoy teaching. I really
Speaker:enjoy sharing my expertise. I really enjoy helping people
Speaker:figure out which of the seven options to grow their business is the
Speaker:best option for them and then showing them exactly how they can take action on
Speaker:it. And in the world of coaching, the term
Speaker:coach gets very messy at this point because you have people
Speaker:who are trained coaches who think, okay, well, I'm not telling you what to do.
Speaker:I'm going to do classical coaching with you, and that's how I'm going to help
Speaker:my clients. And that's valid. And then on the other side, you have people who
Speaker:are experts at a specific thing, like LinkedIn,
Speaker:copywriting, podcasting, and they can
Speaker:call themselves coaches because they are helping people with a very
Speaker:specific thing, but they're giving advice and they're teaching and they're
Speaker:sharing their expertise and knowledge. And then you have people like me who kind of
Speaker:like, bastardize both. You know, I'm so grateful for the training that I have as
Speaker:a coach. I use a lot of it with my clients, but it's not the
Speaker:primary service that I offer. When my clients come to
Speaker:me with their business idea, I will tell them if it's a good idea or
Speaker:a bad idea, if it's a bad idea. I'll help
Speaker:them figure out what questions to ask to either figure out if they can
Speaker:improve it or is there something similar that we can switch to that
Speaker:actually has a market for it? If it's a great idea, then we'll just
Speaker:jump right into creating a strategy to start making them money
Speaker:and getting them clients.
Speaker:So how do you know the difference? How do you
Speaker:as a business owner and also a business owner who like,
Speaker:has ADHD, who's already overwhelmed by
Speaker:all the options out there, how do you tell the difference
Speaker:between who a good coach is and who a bad coach
Speaker:is? And when I say bad coach, they may not necessarily be bad. They
Speaker:may just not be right for what you need right now. So here's some
Speaker:things that you need to look at before you start looking for your coach.
Speaker:First and foremost, are you at the point where you need to start
Speaker:this business? If you're not, if you're still at the ideation phase,
Speaker:if you're still not sure if this is really what you want, if
Speaker:you're still toying with a bunch of other options in your life, I would actually
Speaker:recommend that you work with a classical coach. I would recommend that you
Speaker:find a coach who is trained and certified, who follows the
Speaker:International Coaches Federation for the definition of coaching, who can
Speaker:help you discover what it is that you really
Speaker:want. Because it doesn't matter how much money you throw into starting
Speaker:a business if it's not actually something that you want and if you don't have
Speaker:a clear idea of how it's going to make your life better, I guarantee you
Speaker:you're not going to do the work. And because you're not doing the work, you're
Speaker:not going to get the results. And because you're not getting the results, you're going
Speaker:to have zero return on investment for that
Speaker:program, those sessions, whatever it is that you signed up for,
Speaker:really take your time to make sure that this is the path that you want.
Speaker:And the only way you can do that is by working with someone who's not
Speaker:giving you advice on it, who's genuinely asking you the
Speaker:right questions to help you figure out what you want your life to look
Speaker:like. There are some really shady coach
Speaker:schools out there. So here is the gold
Speaker:standard is you want to find someone
Speaker:who has been to a coaching school that
Speaker:is ICF recognized International
Speaker:Coaches Federation. I personally know really talented
Speaker:coaches from the Coactive training institute where I was trained and
Speaker:certified, from IPEC, which is very similar to
Speaker:coactive and from accomplishment coaching.
Speaker:If you're looking for a coach like this, then you can also dm me
Speaker:on any of the social media platforms, or you can email
Speaker:me@katyatimcmanis.com and ask me
Speaker:if I can give you a recommendation. I'm happy to offer this to
Speaker:anyone who's listening. If you need to figure out what your next steps are and
Speaker:you're not at the point where you know what kind of business you want to
Speaker:start, okay. But you do not want to sign up for a mentorship. You do
Speaker:not want to sign up for a program. Here's what I did and how you
Speaker:can do the same, because it's not going to work for you at this point.
Speaker:If you know you want to start a business and you have an
Speaker:idea, then you have to ask yourself this question.
Speaker:Do you have a really clear idea of what you want this business to look
Speaker:like? And is there a model out there that already matches that
Speaker:perfectly? Because if there is and you're really good at following
Speaker:instructions, you can absolutely find someone who will
Speaker:mentor you, who's done exactly what you want to do,
Speaker:and will turn around and say, cool, here's what I did. Here's how I did
Speaker:it. Now go ahead and do the same. I will mention a
Speaker:caveat here, that this typically works better for people who are
Speaker:neurotypical. So if you have ADHD, like most of
Speaker:my listeners do, because this is an ADHD business building
Speaker:podcast, these programs may not work for you. You
Speaker:know, you may take really useful tips from them, but
Speaker:a lot of the instructions, a lot of the
Speaker:processes in these programs just aren't designed for an
Speaker:ADHD brain. So make sure that if you want to
Speaker:sign up for something, that it's going to be the right fit for you.
Speaker:Now, if you aren't really sure what you want it to look like and you
Speaker:don't really see a model out there that is like, oh, yeah, I want that.
Speaker:Then you're probably going to need to look for someone who kind of
Speaker:mixes coaching and consulting like I do. You want to look for someone who
Speaker:has a level of customization in their program that really
Speaker:helps you find your way, but also add some
Speaker:expertise who also trains you on the bits that you don't even
Speaker:know, that you don't know. Okay. So now that you've asked those questions and you
Speaker:kind of have an idea of who you want to work with, here's how we
Speaker:spot the good ones and the bad ones, all right? Because there
Speaker:are a lot of charlatans out there. There are a lot of people who are
Speaker:really profiting off the fact that this is not a regulated
Speaker:industry, and so we want to be able to spot them from a mile off.
Speaker:First and foremost, anyone who has a
Speaker:gazillion followers on social media and uses the fact
Speaker:that they have a gazillion followers on social media as proof that
Speaker:they're good at what they do. How many followers you have doesn't
Speaker:mean about the quality of service that you provide. It
Speaker:has no correlation. Even if someone is a social media
Speaker:coach who trains people how to build their following on social
Speaker:media, if they're bragging about how many followers they have
Speaker:and not how many followers they're closer clients have gotten and how that has
Speaker:helped their business monetarily, they're not
Speaker:legit. They're selling some snake oil, and they're hoping that you
Speaker:won't notice. Now, how do you spot these people? Because there are
Speaker:some good people out there who train on social media,
Speaker:who have massive followings, who actually provide a quality service,
Speaker:and they have massive following. So how do you tell the difference between someone who's
Speaker:good at what they do with a massive following and someone who's really at what
Speaker:they do with a massive following? Here's the key is
Speaker:you go into their comment section and you see if
Speaker:the people who are commenting actually sound like real humans
Speaker:or if they sound like AI bots.
Speaker:It used to be a lot easier before OpenAI came out because you just
Speaker:like, go into their comment section and be like, great post. Thanks for
Speaker:sharing. Great post. Great push. Thanks for sharing.
Speaker:Wow. Now it's a little harder because it's now
Speaker:very stilted language that is obviously a robot
Speaker:that's synthesizing whatever was in the post. And the comments
Speaker:that you'll see will basically be summarizing what the person said in their
Speaker:post. All these comments happen within a very quick
Speaker:succession after the post was made. If I post
Speaker:something, not all my people that follow me, that
Speaker:see my content and comment on my stuff, they're not all just waiting by their
Speaker:computer to be like, oh my God, did Katie post yet today? Like, I bet
Speaker:she posted, I bet she posted. I'm just going to keep refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, refreshing.
Speaker:Oh my God, she posted something. I'm going to comment within 30 seconds of her
Speaker:posting this. No, that's not how it goes. I don't
Speaker:have that big of a following. I have like 17,000 followers
Speaker:on LinkedIn and then smaller amounts on the other platforms.
Speaker:That's okay. You don't need a massive following to have a multiple six figure
Speaker:business. You need solid people who are following you,
Speaker:who are your ideal client. But even my posts that get a ton of
Speaker:engagement, that get hundreds of likes and hundreds of comments, you
Speaker:know, they happen over days. It doesn't happen all at once.
Speaker:So pay attention to what the comments say and
Speaker:when the comments were made and that'll tell you if someone
Speaker:is falsifying their engagement versus having
Speaker:legitimate engagement, their engagement is clue number
Speaker:one as to whether they're legit or not.
Speaker:Next, we want to go and we want to look at their testimonials.
Speaker:Testimonials that are worth anything should
Speaker:be given after someone has completed work with a coach. One of the
Speaker:biggest red flags that I see when I go onto scammy coaches
Speaker:websites is all of their testimonials are from people who just signed
Speaker:up for their thing. I just made payment and signed the contract. I'm so excited
Speaker:to start. Oh my God. I'm one week into the content and it's so
Speaker:helpful. This is going to be great. Just enrolled in the program.
Speaker:I've been following them forever. This is going to be so transformational
Speaker:to my business that doesn't help anyone, that doesn't have
Speaker:any proof of concept, that doesn't tell anyone about the results that they've
Speaker:gotten after working with that person. When you go into someone's
Speaker:website, you want to look for testimonials that speak to
Speaker:how long they've worked with the person, where they started from,
Speaker:what they were struggling with when they hired this person, and what
Speaker:results they've gotten out of it. We're looking for
Speaker:ROI, which if you don't know what that is, it's return on investment.
Speaker:I don't want you going out there and hiring coaches who don't have any
Speaker:proof of a good return on investment. That said,
Speaker:it's not necessarily bad if they have some negative reviews, especially
Speaker:if they've had a lot of clients say they have a lower ticket option. Not
Speaker:everyone's work is going to work for everyone. You want to be very
Speaker:cognizant, however, about what kind of
Speaker:negative review they have. This just didn't work for me. It's allowed for
Speaker:someone to have a couple of those if they have
Speaker:dozens of other good ones where people did see results.
Speaker:You're not looking for perfect because perfect does not exist.
Speaker:What you're looking for is real. Another red flag is if there's
Speaker:no last name, if it's a first name only
Speaker:and there's no indication about what kind of business they have or there's really no
Speaker:way to go. And, like, kind of like cyber stock and see if they're actually
Speaker:like real human beings in the world. That's another red flag. Now, of
Speaker:course, in the coaching space, we have confidentiality with a lot of our clients.
Speaker:So, of course, like, there may be some testimonials where there's no last
Speaker:name or it's just happy client, or it says,
Speaker:you know, senior executive, and that's okay. But
Speaker:all of the testimonials shouldn't be that. There should be some
Speaker:testimonials where you're able to literally just go and look up this person's name and
Speaker:find them on LinkedIn and see that they're a real human being that does the
Speaker:job that they say they do. Lastly, you want to look at their
Speaker:content and what their messaging is. What we're looking for
Speaker:is we don't want rainbows and sunshines only,
Speaker:and we don't want doom stayers. Rainbows and
Speaker:sunshines means, like, your idea can be turned into a million dollar
Speaker:product, blah, blah, blah, blah, without any caveats around
Speaker:how you determine what ideas are good and what ideas are bad.
Speaker:Rainbows and sunshines can also be, oh, it's just your mindset. Once you have your
Speaker:mindset dialed in, then you can have a. A seven figure
Speaker:business. No, go off mindset
Speaker:alone will not help anyone have a seven figure business. You
Speaker:have to learn how to do a lot. You have to have a good idea.
Speaker:You have to have a really strong market presence. There's so much that goes into
Speaker:it. And if you're not also talking about all the stuff you have to learn
Speaker:and do and fix and figure out as you go
Speaker:along, if you're only saying mindset, then you're a
Speaker:snake oil salesperson and you should go away. And you,
Speaker:as my listener, I hope you're not spending money with these people. The
Speaker:doomstairs on the other side, they're
Speaker:making it seem like if you don't hire them, then you'll never be
Speaker:successful. The doomsters also have this edge of,
Speaker:like, I have the secret and you don't have the secret. And the only way
Speaker:you're gonna get the secret to do this thing is if you hire me. No,
Speaker:they don't have a secret. There's no secret. They're just like,
Speaker:best practices. They know one of the best practices.
Speaker:And sure, you can hire them to learn that best practice, but it's not
Speaker:anything special. Like, there's no new story.
Speaker:Every single story we have, every single movie, every single book
Speaker:follows the same model of the hero's
Speaker:journey. It's the only way we pay attention to sh t. Have you read
Speaker:a self help book recently? It's the same thing with
Speaker:different words. There's no new ideas and there's
Speaker:no big secret to starting a business. If someone's trying
Speaker:to sell you that they have the secret and no one else has a secret,
Speaker:and so you should buy from them because they'll give you the secret, please don't
Speaker:buy from them. Please don't. You can find best
Speaker:practices from so many other people and this is my promise to you. Like,
Speaker:sure, I know a lot of really helpful things that help my clients
Speaker:start businesses. I'm never going to claim that any of them are
Speaker:super special secret stuff that only I know. No,
Speaker:because it's bull. I just happen to have a collection
Speaker:of really helpful best practices that I know
Speaker:across a really broad range of business building things
Speaker:like sales, marketing, branding, how to figure out your niche, how to design
Speaker:an offer like it just happens to be the right collection to help people start
Speaker:businesses. But back to, like, the proper doomsdayers.
Speaker:Anyone who's telling you that there's something wrong with you and
Speaker:that if you don't hire them, it's going to continue to get worse
Speaker:for you. Anyone who goes down that road in their
Speaker:messaging and doesn't at least explain the parts that you need to
Speaker:work on doesn't at least point to, here's what you need to learn.
Speaker:They're actually not going to teach you anything. They're just selling fear.
Speaker:Fear that you're in a up, fear that you're not gonna be perfect. They're selling
Speaker:this idea that if you hire them, then you're gonna get the
Speaker:answer. But doesn't that sound a bit like a cult? We're not signing up for
Speaker:snake oil stuff. We're also not signing up for cults here, thank you very much.
Speaker:We're also not signing up for the just work harders. This is a big one
Speaker:because especially for those of us with ADHD, we have grown
Speaker:up being told that we just need to try harder, that we just need
Speaker:to work harder, that we just need to focus harder, that we just need to
Speaker:do so much more harder. And throughout that
Speaker:messaging, throughout growing up that way, you really start believing that
Speaker:there's something wrong with you, that you're lazy, that you just don't try hard enough,
Speaker:and that if you could just get yourself to work another extra 10 hours a
Speaker:week, it would somehow be magically different. These are the hustle bros.
Speaker:You're not hustling hard enough. Now go shove it in a very
Speaker:uncomfortable place, please. You and I both know
Speaker:that it's not that you're not trying hard enough, it's that you need to
Speaker:figure out the way to work that's going to work for you. That's
Speaker:going to work for what you enjoy doing, right? Because with
Speaker:ADHD, if you don't enjoy doing something, you're never going
Speaker:to do it. You need to figure out what it is that you want to
Speaker:sell. What's the difference you want to make in the world. You have to actually
Speaker:believe in it. And when you have the right support, that support is going
Speaker:to help you figure out what that thing is. I can't tell you how many
Speaker:clients I've had who've started with me thinking that one thing was going to be
Speaker:their niche, and they get a few months in, they're like, I hate this. I
Speaker:don't want to help these people with this thing. I'm so bored with talking about
Speaker:x, y and z topic. Trying harder, hustling
Speaker:more is not going to help you be more interested in that thing. For an
Speaker:ADHD business owner, having someone who will support you through the
Speaker:pivot is the most important thing. Having someone who
Speaker:can tell you when it's time to quit is the most important thing.
Speaker:Because we're programmed throughout our whole life to just stick with
Speaker:something and try harder because that's what we've always been told is the problem with
Speaker:us and it's actually not. That's what we want to look out for
Speaker:when we're trying to identify the baddies and not the, like,
Speaker:fun baddies, the bad baddies. The thing. The people that we do not want to
Speaker:work with. How do we identify someone who's the right person for us to
Speaker:work with? Oh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep
Speaker:listening to find out. But first. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel,
Speaker:squirrel.
Speaker:How do we identify someone who's the right person for us to work
Speaker:with? Now, first and foremost, our instincts
Speaker:are spot on. Our intuition is spot on. Right.
Speaker:So, like, when you have this intuition that you're connected to someone,
Speaker:like maybe you feel like, oh my God, I already feel like we're friends. I
Speaker:already feel like we have this connection. Trust it.
Speaker:Don't just trust that. But that is a really good sign.
Speaker:Your intuition will never lead you wrong. If you ever have a I'm not so
Speaker:sure about this person kind of feeling, trust that too.
Speaker:Second, like I said, testimonials. If
Speaker:their testimonials are solid, and they're talking about real
Speaker:results they got after working with this person. That's amazing.
Speaker:But on top of that, you want to look to see, are these
Speaker:people like me, the people who've gone through this program or worked with this
Speaker:person before me? Did they start from a similar position
Speaker:that I'm in now? Did they have similar goals?
Speaker:Did they need help with the same stuff? And there's nothing wrong with
Speaker:reaching out to some of these people and asking about their experience, right?
Speaker:Anyone who has genuinely had a really good experience with a service provider
Speaker:is generally going to be happy to share about that experience.
Speaker:Another green flag for a solid coach is they're going to tell you exactly
Speaker:who they do not work with. Someone who is willing to take money from
Speaker:anyone because they're like, yeah, you can do anything you want. They're full of
Speaker:crap. Someone who says, hey, listen, I only work
Speaker:with these types of people who have these kinds of situations going on for
Speaker:them, they have some standards, and the reason they do this is because they
Speaker:understand that they can best support people who fit a certain
Speaker:criteria. They're not out there. Just take everyone's money.
Speaker:For instance. I don't work with people who want to start retail businesses
Speaker:because I don't really know anything about retail business. My only experience in
Speaker:retail is a managing a yarn shop, which I had
Speaker:a lot of fun with, but it's not something that I'm an expert at. And
Speaker:working at J. Crew 4 hours every two weeks for a summer when
Speaker:I was in college, so I could get the discount. Okay. You don't want me
Speaker:helping you with your retail store. All right. Also, restaurants.
Speaker:I used to work in restaurants. I hate restaurants. I don't want to
Speaker:ever talk about starting a restaurant again. Not my bag, baby.
Speaker:I also don't work with people who charge generally less than
Speaker:$200 an hour because it's not worth it for
Speaker:them to hire me if you're charging
Speaker:less, you know, and I'm not saying that you can't make really good money from
Speaker:starting a virtual assistant business. I specialize in helping
Speaker:people sell high ticket services like legal services,
Speaker:copywriting, coaching, consulting. My clients generally
Speaker:charge anywhere from $300 to $1,000 an hour, if not
Speaker:more. And they're able to do that because they provide a ton
Speaker:of value. Look for a coach who is that
Speaker:specific about who they work with and who they do not work with, because that
Speaker:shows that they have some integrity. People who can help anyone and
Speaker:everyone under the sun don't buy it. Squirrel. Squirrel.
Speaker:And lastly, and this takes some time to glean from someone,
Speaker:if you're following someone for a while, you can generally
Speaker:see that they're consistent. They have consistent
Speaker:beliefs, they have consistent opinions. They have
Speaker:consistent lessons that they teach. There's no bait and
Speaker:switch. They're not changing their mind and being contrary
Speaker:without explaining how they changed their mind. I don't think I'll ever
Speaker:change my mind on this. That if you're starting a business, the best way to
Speaker:start is with one on one clients. They are your fastest path to
Speaker:cash. You do not want to start a business where you're immediately
Speaker:jumping into group programs or into digital classes. The
Speaker:failure rate is just too high, and you have to get too many
Speaker:people to buy into it versus just working with one
Speaker:person, and you also charge less. Find someone who has an
Speaker:opinion, and you might not like that opinion, but
Speaker:find someone who has a stalwart opinion that they're not
Speaker:changing, and they give good reasoning for it.
Speaker:And lastly, find someone who isn't pressuring
Speaker:you to sign up to their timeline. Anyone who tries to
Speaker:pressure you into spending the money now. Signing up
Speaker:now. Now's the time. You don't want to waste time. Give me
Speaker:your credit card information right now, and then we'll jump right in.
Speaker:Now. This is your life and this is your business. If you have
Speaker:urgency, if you're ready to jump in now, great, do
Speaker:it. But if you need time, if you need to fill out, if this is
Speaker:the right person, someone who's trying to get you to bypass that
Speaker:process for yourself is not going to be the right person. So
Speaker:find someone who supports you making the decision to hire them
Speaker:on your timeline. It's funny, whenever I get on a sales call
Speaker:with someone and we get to the conversation about the
Speaker:program and how much it costs, and, like, when the start date would
Speaker:be, oftentimes people are terrified to say,
Speaker:oh, well, I just need some time to think about it, and they start justifying
Speaker:it and I have to stop them. I say, you know, I will never pressure
Speaker:someone to start a program to my timeline. If you want to start right
Speaker:now, great. But if you also need a week, if you need a few days
Speaker:to think about it, if you need to talk to some people, go for it.
Speaker:If you're talking to me and you're realizing this is not the right time for
Speaker:me, I think I need a few months to be able to get some ducks
Speaker:in a row then absolutely take that time, come back to me,
Speaker:find the people who are there. For you making the right
Speaker:decision. And lastly, and this is a really important part that gets
Speaker:overlooked a lot, find someone that you know you'll have fun working with.
Speaker:Remember in school where, like, you had classes where the teacher was just
Speaker:mean or, like, wasn't fun or was really boring? How hard was
Speaker:it for you to learn things in those classes? Like, you were always nervous that
Speaker:you get it wrong or you were always really struggling to pay attention, especially
Speaker:if you have ADHD. And it was just. It was such an uphill battle, and
Speaker:it didn't need to be. The class is where the teacher
Speaker:made it fun and engaging and, like, let you kind of ease yourself into it.
Speaker:One of my favorite teachers who I'm, like, super excited. I'm actually going to have
Speaker:a beverage with her this Friday. Miss Blanchard, she was my french teacher in high
Speaker:school. I adore this woman. I always idolized her. I always wanted to be her.
Speaker:When I was a kid, she had this way when you showed up in class,
Speaker:she wouldn't jump right into teaching. Generally. She would tell you kind of a funny
Speaker:story. She'd tell you about something like self deprecating that happened that morning,
Speaker:or she'd vent about something. She treated us like peers, and she'd
Speaker:ask us questions. And, like, I remember one class she came in, she was
Speaker:talking about dream analysis, and then she just, like, did some dream analysis for
Speaker:some of the kids in the class, and it was great. And then she went
Speaker:into teaching. And to this day, I remember some of the
Speaker:weird mnemonic tools that she gave us to remember verb
Speaker:conjugations or different words that were really hard for us to
Speaker:remember. The fact that she made it fun and low pressure
Speaker:and made that classroom a safe space where everyone
Speaker:got to show up just as they were. That made the things
Speaker:she taught that much more sticky. I cannot tell you
Speaker:a single thing that I learned anywhere else in school, but
Speaker:I, to this day, know how to conjugate for the
Speaker:imperfect because she taught us a rap song about it. Ah.
Speaker:E sde r e s I e tay e
Speaker:o n s e o z I e o n tay
Speaker:like, that's sticky. I will remember that when
Speaker:I have dementia and I am in an assisted
Speaker:living situation in about 60 years from now,
Speaker:and my nurses will have no idea what the f I'm singing about, but it'll
Speaker:be hysterical. Find a coach. Find a mentor. Find a
Speaker:consultant. Find whoever it is that you need to work with who is going to
Speaker:make it fun and memorable and easy for
Speaker:you. There's nothing wrong with sorting for that. The
Speaker:best money you will spend is on a learning environment that
Speaker:supports how you learn best. And as people with ADHd we learn best
Speaker:when we're having fun, when we're laughing, when we feel lit up on
Speaker:the inside. So go and find
Speaker:that. And if I in hearing all this you
Speaker:sense that you want to work with me. If you want to find out about
Speaker:any of my programs with no pressure then I invite you to go
Speaker:to winniecast.com strategycall and go
Speaker:book a generate income strategy call with me. We'll talk about your
Speaker:business. I'll be very honest. If your idea is good or bad or just needs
Speaker:some work, we'll talk through where you're struggling in getting this
Speaker:off the ground or in growing it. And if it's a fit for both of
Speaker:us, we can talk about the different options to work together.
