Last week I told you how coaches use courses to scale. But what about course creators who are considering 1:1 work? How can you turn a digital course into high-impact, hands-on coaching? And why would you?
There’s a whole lot to love about a course-based business. You have loads of time freedom, since most courses are self-study. You can serve as many students as you want, so your income isn’t limited. The startup cost is low, and there’s no inventory to buy or track. And, you never even have to show up on camera, which is perfect for introverts like me.
Why would you trade that in for a business model that typically requires 1:1 time with clients, the possibility of video calls, and a much less flexible schedule?
Math, that’s why.
Let’s look at one of my courses as an example. Tiny Course Empire was my best selling course. It launched with a $37 (discounted) price tag, and within a few days had sold more than 500 copies. By the time I retired it, that course had almost 1,600 students, and earned nearly $70,000.
That’s not bad for something it took me just a few weeks to write and record.
Here’s the thing. Selling 1,600 copies of anything can feel like a monumental task, especially when you consider that the average sales page has a 4.3% conversion rate. That means to sell 1,600 copies of Tiny Course Empire, 37,000 people had to see the sales page.
That’s a lot of eyes on the page.
How many visits would it take to sell 70 coaching spots at $1,000 each? Just over 1,600. What about seven at $10,000? Only 162.
It’s not just math though. There are also many people in the world who simply prefer hands-on help, and who struggle to implement what they learn from a course. Even if 1:1 support isn’t needed, the accountability the comes from dropping four or five figures to hire a coach is a powerful motivator. (Ask me how I know.)
Ok. The math checks out, and your people need you, so how, exactly do you go about turning your courses into a coaching program?
Let’s get into it.
A coaching reality check (a.k.a. some people don’t need a coach)
Ask yourself, is coaching a thing in your niche?
I know it seems like everyone and their goldfish offers coaching these days, but not every niche is “coach worthy.” Common coaching niches include:
- Business
- Career
- Health/wellness
- Life
- Mindset
- Financial (with some caveats—see below)
- Relationships
- Writing/publishing
Some niches would be a hard sell, however:
- Crafting (think knitting, crochet, or pottery)
- Hobbies (no one needs a jigsaw puzzle coach)
- Anything time sensitive or urgent (tornado coaching is not popular)
- Most things that are a one-off (I’ve never seen a Best Man Speech Writing coach, but I have seen plenty of divorce coaches)
Assuming you teach in a niche that’s a fit for coaching, let’s move on to the next question…
Do you really want to be a coach?
Even with all the upsides of coaching, there are more than a few downsides—especially when compared to a course-based business.
First, there is the selling. With courses, you can point people to a sales page, and they’ll either choose to buy or they won’t. As a coach, selling typically involves a sales call. You will need to make the offer, state your price, and wait for a response. And some of those responses—maybe even most of them—will be no’s.
That’s an uncomfortable proposition for a lot of people. If getting on a call with someone and pitching your coaching program sounds icky and makes your palms sweat, coaching might not be the right move for you.
Another big thumbs down for some is the time commitment. On a continuum of passive versus active income, courses land closer to the passive end, while coaching lands much closer to the “trading time for money” side.
If you’re in a season of life where you value time freedom over other things, then coaching might not be a good choice.
What qualifications do you need?
Let’s cut to the chase. If you teach a thing successfully, you are qualified to coach on that thing. You do not need a certification of any kind from anyone to offer coaching.
The exception, of course, is if you are in a licensed or otherwise restricted field such as medical, legal, or investing.
That said, coaching is more than just telling someone what to do (that’s more rightfully called consulting). Coaching is more about asking the right questions, guiding your client to finding their own answers, then supporting them in the implementation.
I recommend picking up a copy of The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier. It’s written for managers and leaders in a corporate setting, but you’ll learn how asking thoughtful questions will serve your clients far better than handing them a checklist of tasks.
How coaching enhances your course offers
If coaching isn’t just “telling someone what to do,” and if you’ve already done that anyway (it’s right there in your course), then what does coaching bring to the table for course creators?
Coaching offers a way to support your clients as they put what you teach to work in their lives.
Think of it as the difference between reading a chemistry textbook and attending university courses with lab time. One will give you all the information, and dedicated students may even walk away with a solid understanding of the subject. But the opportunity to interact with the instructor, ask questions in real time, and get hands-on help is something no textbook (or self-study course) can offer.
The bottom line
Coaching can be a fantastic add-on to a course-based business. If you love interacting with people one-on-one, if you enjoy facilitating real change for your clients, and if selling doesn’t make you squirm, then it’s an avenue you should consider.
One last thing to keep in mind. You don’t have to be a PhD level expert to offer coaching. In fact, that level of expertise can be harmful to a coaching program, since it makes you less relatable.
Ryan Levesque said it best in his book, Choose:
An expert can be nothing more than a learner teaching other learners. To a 4th-grader, the 5th-grader is a genius. You just need to stay one step ahead, not necessarily light-years ahead.
Regardless of which path you choose, either coaching or course creation, both, or something else entirely, success is available to you. It’s inevitable.
Next week, I’ll tell you how I know—and how you can know it, too.
