May Mailbag: Your Burning Coaching Business Questions Answered!

Group programs, Facebook alternatives, filling webinars, website platforms, podcasting, and so much more!

Hello!

Welcome to my favorite time of the month…THE MAILBAG!

Oh my gosh oh my gosh, we have so much to cover, I had to eat an extra medicinal biscotti to get my through all of the questions.

It was MEDICINAL. I will die on this hill!

Anyway, now that I am properly baked-gooded and ready to roll, let’s get into this month’s mailbag.

(If you missed last month, we talked about liability insurance and so much more! It’s right here).

So much good stuff to cover - and none of it is written by AI, if you are curious. The spelling mistakes are *all* mine.

❤️ Can you heart this post if you find it helpful? THANK YOU!!

Based on your awesome questions, we’ll be reviewing:

🧁 Is there a right day or time for a group program to meet?

🧁 Why did Coach Pony change the BARB program format to accelerate the training? Is this something other coaches should do?

🧁 How do you let the client set the agenda in a session if you use a coaching framework to guide them?

🧁 What are the Coach Pony contingency plans for moving paid groups off of Facebook?

🧁 How do you fill your free classes, like your Coach Pony webinars?

🧁 Coaches and Cashmere is now 5 months old, how are you personally enjoying Substack?

🧁 What intuitive DIY website platforms does Coach Pony recommend?

🧁 You have really nice photos on your website, how much did they cost?

And last but not least - What podcast tools do you use?

So that’s it, let’s goooooo!

🧁 Question: Is there a right day or time for a group program to meet?

Answer: Nope!

The best day or time is the day/time that works for you as a coach, and that also works for your clients, and that varies on niche.

So, a dating coach for professionals may hold sessions on a Sunday or Monday night, as their clients might be busy dating later in the week, and will be at work during the day. But a coach for stay-at-home moms might coach during the week in the middle of school hours, while the kiddos are out, as weekends or nights would be really tough on their clients.

So, think through your niche, and what you know of your clients, and also choose a date/time that works for YOU as a coach. I - for instance, - could never coach on Sunday nights as I am not a real human on the weekends and get sleepy early. But give me a Wednesday morning, and I’m all over it! :)

🧁 Question: Why did you change the Build a REAL Business (BARB) program format to accelerate the training? Is this something other coaches should do…i.e., should I do this?

First off, if you are curious about BARB here is the link so you can get yourself up to speed so the rest of this answer makes sense. It’s our flagship program here at Coach Pony, all about how to start, grow AND scale your business, and it’s purposely priced affordably so you can pay it off with 1 or 2 clients.

For the month of June, we decided to offer an accelerated version of BARB - a Fast Track. Instead of the core Phase 1 training taking about 10 weeks, with one module unlocking per week, we are accelerating it so students can see all of Phase 1 in just one month (so multiple modules will unlock each week). In addition, we are offering a lot more bonus live support during the Fast Track month, so students can get more help as they go through the process of learning how to build a business.

I decided to change it as a lot of potential students ask us for this - their #1 question *before* signing up is: “Can I do the training faster?”

I have always said no. The training is timed not to be overwhelming but it is a lot, and I don’t want new coaches taking in so much information they become paralyzed and get stuck. It’s always easy to begin when you have tons of energy, but it’s hard to continue as life happens, right?

But, never say never! I decided to change this time because we give everyone a year in BARB, and ongoing support throughout (this wasn’t always the case in this program). I thought the year + the extra bonus offer hours in June would help people stay committed during the Fast Track sprint, but also stay in progress - as they have so much more time with us. There is NO BEHIND in BARB! That’s my mantra.

It’s definitely an experiment, and one that required us to change our back-end tech a bit, so we will just do it once this year, and the time is now, enrollment for the Fast Track closes on Thursday night. You are welcome to join us!

Should you as a new or newer coach do it in your own business?

It depends.

I think it’s better to design a program based on what would help your students solve a problem the most, rather than one that is arbitrarily built on speed.

So please start with what your students need to learn and do, in order to make progress for their goal, and structure the program that way. You can make the goal smaller, or bigger, and that will adjust the timing and speed of a program, but I think we need to keep student aims in mind first and foremost.

🧁 Question: I heard you recommending using frameworks. If clients are the ones setting the agenda, how does it work with the framework (since there I am setting the path)? (I am starting as a coach).