PP 213: Coaches Who Want Us to Go Broke

Before I jump into this episode, I want you to know that I have very few pet peeves in my life. I generally don’t let things bother me. So when I talk about a pet peeve that I have, in today’s episode, I want you to know that it is only a pet peeve because I know how it is impacting the entrepreneurial community around me. I care so much about my fellow entrepreneurs, and I don’t want to see people get hurt by situations like the ones that I’m going to discuss.

Coaches Who Want Us to Go Broke

This year on the podcast, you may have heard me share how I was searching for a new business coach and how I actually interviewed one from the McDonald’s drive thru line. Now I have to say that what I’m talking about in today’s episode doesn’t have to do with that specific person. Over the past couple years, I have noticed a common thread with way too many coaches. And I’m not going to say all coaches that will have a great conversation, and then it comes to the point in the conversation where we talk about pricing, this is where the pet peeve comes in.

As I’ve been trying to grow my business, and I’m always very transparent about this with the coaches and also here on the podcast, I’ve had to be very aware of what my financial constraints are, what my budget is. And for a big bulk of that time, I was also in scarcity mindset. So I was concerned about the money that I was spending.

Coaches Who Want Us to Go Broke

However, the pet peeve came when the coach that I was interviewing, would tell me how much the coaching package costs, I would express my resistance, and the follow up question on more than one occasion, was, well, how much of a credit line do you have on your credit card?

My jaw dropped every single time I heard this question.

If you are a coach of any kind out there and part of your interview processes, was asking the prospect how much room they have on their credit card, it is my opinion that you should stop coaching right now. To me, you don’t have the best interest of your prospects or your clients in mind if your first instinct is to ask them to max their credit card out to get them to hire you.

Coaches Who Want Us to Go Broke

Two weeks ago, I had a call with somebody who had read one of my articles and was interested in my coaching packages. During the course of the conversation, I found out how much they made on a monthly basis. They are still in a full time job. And when it came time to discuss my coaching, I flat out told them you are not ready for my coaching yet. They paused for a second and then came back and laughed and said, You’re telling me I’m not ready for your coaching yet. When I responded to them, this is what I said.

“Based upon our conversation so far, I know that you get paid approximately double what my coaching costs on a monthly basis and I am not gonna ask you to max out your credit cards or ask for a loan to get into my coaching program. I am not going to allow you to do that.

My goal is not to bankrupt my clients but to help them succeed, and by creating financial stress, I am not helping you do that. So what I want you to do is take the advice that we’ve already shared, (by the way listeners, we had had an hour conversation,) I want you to take the advice that I’ve already given to you. I want you to implement it. And I want you to keep in touch and let me know how it goes. And when you’re ready, then we will talk about you coming in as a one on one coaching client.”

The person paused and then came back and said, Wow, I just got a lot more respect for you because I know that you actually care. coaches, we can’t be more concerned about income than we are about impact.

By creating more financial strain on our clients, we are not going to be able to help them proceed to the next level. And sadly, I know that a lot of you who are doing this.

You are chasing income rather than trying to make an impact. You are in scarcity mode and you need to work on yourself before you can start working with clients. Listeners, I want to help you take your life and your business to the next level, but there’s no way that I’m going to allow you to put your financial well being at risk to hire me ever to be a coach.

I believe it’s Ramit Sethi won’t even allow people to purchase his programs with credit. And if he finds out that you actually did, he’ll remove you from his mailing list and not allow you to ever sign up for one of his programs.

I’m not going to take it that far,  but I am going to impress the point over and over again with prospects that I will not take a client on until I know that they are financially able to do so.

If you are looking for a coach right now, please don’t let anybody convince you to go take a loan or to max out your credit cards. I’ve heard this way too many times from collection firms even. Yes, you know, I’m totally transparent. We’ve had our financial struggles. And when the collection firms have called, they’ve said to me, Well, is there somebody who can get a loan from? No, there’s not somebody I can get a loan from. At the point of that conversation, I had probably already tapped them. And besides, it’s none of the collection agencies business.

It’s also none of the coaches business to know how much credit you have available to you. They should be more concerned with you and your well being than they are with getting your money in hand.

I know I’m probably ruffling some feathers, and you can feel free to leave a comment at thekimsutton.com/pp213. I would love to read it. I know there’s probably going to be some hate words, and that’s okay. I’m going to stay firm to this philosophy because I’ve had enough struggles and I don’t want to see other people go through the same.

Listeners, when you’re looking for a coach, please make sure that that coach has your best interests in mind. Now, with all this said, go forth and make it a positive and productive day.

Coaches Who Want Us to Go Broke