Why I only offer long-term coaching engagements
I only offer 4- and 6-month coaching engagements, and one of the most common requests I hear from potential clients is: I’m interested in hiring you, but I’d like to do something shorter. Could we do two months? One month? Could I just pay by the session?
And my answer to that is very easy:
No.
No, I unfortunately do not offer shorter-term coaching.
Truthfully, I completely understand the desire for a shorter-term coaching engagement — eight months can seem like a lot! It can be scary to make that time and financial commitment to just one coach!
But choosing to only offer long-term coaching was a decision I made very intentionally, and with my clients’ interests at heart.
I thought that today, I could share a bit about why I made that decision.
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I’ve been coaching for over 8 years now (which is quite a long time in a young profession like coaching!), and for years I offered all kinds of flexibility in hiring me. Hire me by the session! Buy a 5-session package! A 10- or 20-session package!
But I found, time and again, that the clients who got the best results, the fastest, were the ones who made a longer-term commitment to coaching.
Did you catch that? The clients who got not only the best results, but also the fastest results, were the clients who made a longer-term commitment to coaching.
That finding was counter-intuitive to me.
I would have thought, to be honest, that it didn’t matter whether they bought a 20-session package, or ended up doing 20 sessions, on a pay-by-the-session basis. But that wasn’t the case. Not that clients who paid by the session got terrible results — they often got great ones. But the ones who made a longer commitment were much more consistently thrilled by their results, and got good results the fastest.
And as I reflected on my clients — both the ones that made longer commitments and the ones that didn’t, I came to believe this difference was due to a few things:
The clients who made longer-term commitments were more intentional about the decision to get coached. They knew they were making a larger financial and time commitment. People who carefully consider the decision to get coached are more likely to get fantastic results — because they want coaching more, and show up in a more committed way.
The clients who made longer-term commitments were willing to go deeper and get messier. The deeper + messier you are willing to go, the better your results tend to be.
On a related note, the clients who made longer-term commitments tended to be more patient. They trusted that sometimes, being coached is like growing mushrooms— sometimes you don’t see anything for a few weeks, and then all of the mushrooms pop up overnight.
On the flip side, some clients who made shorter-term commitments were more likely to be antsy — they wanted to get this “coaching thing” done, with the fewest possible number of sessions, to save money (which I totally understand! Coaching can be expensive!). But because they were antsy, we often had to spend our coaching sessions just dealing with their anxiety that they weren’t going fast enough, which took up time we could otherwise spend…coaching on their actual problems.
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At this point in my career, I think that part of my job is to not just sell what you want but to sell what I know will be most helpful.
So yes, I could offer a short-term coaching engagement. It’s possible that more people would sign up for that; I might make more money. But I don’t feel right, selling people on something that will be less helpful to them.
For me, it’s an integrity issue.
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And frankly, when people tell me they just want a 3-month coaching engagement, I smile internally to myself. I totally get why you think you want that, I think. But actually, you would be happier, in the end, if you made a longer-commitment.
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I hope this gives a glimpse behind the curtain, into why I run my business like I do. And if you’d like to experience an coaching engagement with me, you can learn more here. I’ve got two spots currently open for new clients.
As always, I’m rooting for you in the week ahead. You’ve got this.
Katie
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