Not Everyone Should Hire a Business Coach

Jul 13

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Unpopular opinion: Hiring a business coach may not be for you at this moment. Join Katrina as she dives deep into the 3 situations when you should pause on finding a business coach and the kind of support you may need instead.

The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hi everyone, it is your host Katrina Widener and today I'm coming on here to talk about a little bit of a hot take that I have on the coaching industry. And while it may seem counterintuitive for me, or maybe counterproductive for me, I'm just going to say it anyways: Not everyone should hire a business coach. Today we're going to dive into this topic, and why I firmly believe that this is true. And that is something that I don't know if a lot of other business coaches are going to say, or that you're going to hear in a lot of places, but it's something that I firmly, firmly stand behind and I firmly believe is true.

So if you are the type of person who has been considering working with a business coach, or has been wondering if coaching will work for you, this is a great episode for you to listen to as an indicator of where you should save your money, but also if I'm being really honest with you, an indicator where you should save a business coach their time.

There are a lot of amazing things I want to say right off the bat that a business coach will give for anyone. There's a reason why this industry exists, there's a reason why I love what I do so much, and I do find a lot of success with the majority of my clients, and that's because I'm here to hold my clients accountable. I am here to provide them with business strategy and I'm here to help them get more and more aligned with their truest selves and really, really build a business that they absolutely love. I'm also here to be their sounding board. I'm here to be their kick in the pants when they need it. I'm a mentor. I am a friend. I'm the person who has the knowledge and resources to help them achieve their goals, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But all of that being said, I have said no to people on consult calls beforehand, who have been interested in working with me. I am not shy about telling someone, "I don't think you're ready for this yet. I don't think this is really what's going to help you get where you want to go." Or if I'm being really honest saying, "Hey, I'm sorry, I don't have the availability to take you on right now." And today I'm going to talk about three main indicators of when I know (outside of just not a good fit) but when I know that someone is not ready to be coached by someone. We're going to go through those pretty quickly just so that you can tell for yourself whether or not coaching is the right opportunity for you.

So the first indicator that I can see when someone is looking for a business coach and maybe should be looking for other professional support, is when they're looking for help with trauma or mental health issues. Because when we are doing the real work, the real mindset work of improving our businesses, moving forward, really, really the deep hard work -- and I want to clarify, I would stand 100% behind the idea that 80-90% of business success comes from mindset work -- there is a difference between limiting beliefs or shadows in our mindset work and trauma and mental health issues.

As a business coach, I have trained a lot on mindset, on money mindset, on shadow work, on limiting beliefs, on your inner critic and self-compassion. All of these aspects. But I am not a therapist and I'm not a counselor. I even have this big and bold at the top of my contract saying "I am not trained in a way to help with mental health issues. I do not have the qualifications to handle these issues." And in a world where mental health and shadow work can very quickly or very easily become intertwined, it is up to both the coach and the coachee to ask themselves, "Is this something that I should be speaking with my business coach about? Or is this something I should be speaking with a mental health professional around."

Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe everyone should have both a coach and a therapist, and sometimes I do akin coaching to therapy for your business, right? But really we are two very different industries with two very different levels of qualifications, and I felt that it was necessary and would be irresponsible of me not to start this podcast episode out with saying that is by far the first reason why you might not need to be turning to a business coach right now. And like I said, there's also times when we are going through certain periods of our lives where we are working on our mental health issues when having a business coach in addition to that mental health professional might be overwhelming or might not be as productive as we would hope.

Moving on the second indication that business coaching might not be for you in this moment, is if you're not ready to commit to the process of coaching. That's going to happen for a couple of reasons. One is maybe you still have a nine to five job and you just do not have the time and energy. Maybe you just had a baby and that availability is not there. Maybe it's a period of your life where you are already filled to the brim of things to do. Also maybe you're not ready to get uncomfortable. Maybe you're not ready to listen to ideas from another person. And maybe you're in a time of your life where you haven't made the decision to buckle down and actually do this.

For a lot of times that is very situational, right? It could be, like I was saying beforehand, you're going through a traumatic period and your mental health isn't in the place it needs to be in order to be coached right now. Or there's an external situation happening in your life, that means that coaching is not the right choice for you right now. You can't really dedicate yourself to getting the work done. You can't really dedicate yourself to trying out new things and looking inward and seeing what's going on inside your brain to help you get out of your own way and actually achieve those goals.

I want to specify, in none of these situations, should there be any shame or blame. It really is just these are the opposite of the ideal circumstances. These are the least ideal circumstances for working with a coach and honestly the situations that we're in can really, really influence that.

The third indicator though is 100% mindset based, and that is just when you are not ready to take the coaching experience seriously. And again, I want to specify here, I don't mean that you're taking the coaching experience as a joke or that you're saying you don't trust the person, which obviously those are all also indicators that you shouldn't work with a coach, but all of my clients are very kind, positive people looking to make a real change in their lives. And when I say looking to make a real change in their lives, I mean they're dedicated, they're ready. They're sick of their own shit. They are like, "I'm over it. I'm ready to get to the next stage." Or they're like, "You know what, I've been doing this, and I know I'm going to get to that next stage quicker because I'm working with you."

There's a level of dedication to being open and eager to the process, and literally putting their time and money on the line to see the results. This is why my pricing is what it is. This is why I do not offer discounts. Because if you think about the difference between saying, "I want to work with a personal trainer versus work at a gym or like sign up for a gym subscription." There's something about a $30 gym subscription that a very large percentage of gym members just let go. They don't show up to the gym. They just let that money come out of their bank account and eventually cancel it when it feels inconvenient. Working with a personal trainer, making the decision to invest in that person, making a decision to be held accountable by another person, get personalized strategy and results and guidance? That's a different level of dedication, and it's the exact same thing in business.

I cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs I've seen who have said, "I'm going to buy this course and it's going to change the course of my business," or "I'm going to do this free session and then I'm going to know what my plan is in my business," or "I'm going to sign up with this three hour intensive with Katrina and that's going to be enough."

The truth is that we don't get fast fixes in the entrepreneur industry. We don't get fast fixes in most industries to be perfectly honest, but there has to be a level of taking yourself and your business seriously that needs to be there when you hire a coach. If you're not willing to put something on the line, and if you're not willing to really, really be dedicated and say, "I'm going to see this through, and I'm going to do the work that you ask of me," then it's just not going to work for you. That's a great example of when it's not only a waste of your time and energy and money, but it's a waste of my time and energy to work with someone who is not ready to actually make that change.

So I would say if you have been considering signing up with a coach or working with one, really ask yourselves: "Do I need to be seeking a mental health professional instead? And is this the right timing with external circumstances. But also, am I ready to dedicate myself to this?"

And if the answer is yes, great! Those are the people who I'm like, "Go sign up for my consult right now." But if the answer is, "I don't know," or "no," that's when it's time to sit down and say, "What am I afraid of?" Cause generally, if there's something that we want and we do not have it 9 out of 10 times, it's allowing us to avoid that thing we're afraid of. So it really is asking yourself, "What am I afraid of? Why am I holding back?" and then after figuring that out, you can move forward.

So I hope that this was helpful for anyone interested in signing up with a coach or interested in moving forward in these areas. As always reach out if you have any questions. If you were like, "Actually none of these apply to me. I am ready for a coach," obviously I'm here to do a consult with. But even if it's not me, I hope that this helps you understand the difference between whether or not you're ready to move forward with a business coach.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If what you heard was impactful in any way, it would mean the world to me if you left a review on iTunes or Apple podcasts. And if we aren't friends on Instagram yet, come join the party at @katrina.widener or come visit the website at www.katrinawidener.com