A Podcast for Coaches

I get asked with some regularity what it looks like to scale a one-on-one coaching practice — usually by coaches who don't want a membership or a group program, but who also don't want to feel trapped by their business model. In this episode I work through what scaling actually is, the ways a one-on-one coach can genuinely do it, and why moving to groups isn't scaling at all. It's starting a second business.
  • [00:00] Why the scaling question is inevitable, even for coaches drawn to the simplicity of one-on-one
  • [01:21] Accepting the constraints of a business model as a key to being happy in it
  • [01:47] A working definition: to scale is to get more output from a single unit of input than you got before
  • [02:13] The most basic form of scale in a coaching practice — charge more for the same hour
  • [02:54] Why "raise your rates" is the cheapest business advice anyone can give
  • [03:32] The other version of scale: hold income constant, reduce the hours
  • [03:51] The question I ask first: what problem are you actually trying to solve? Income? Hours? Burnout? One draining client?
  • [05:23] Scaling by reducing the other inputs — marketing time and administrative time
  • [05:55] Why paid advertising is an expensive way to grow a one-on-one practice: higher no-show rates, lower close rates
  • [07:31] The apparent inefficiency of organic, relationship-driven client acquisition — and why it's actually more efficient
  • [08:12] "Charging what you're worth": what you're worth is exactly what people are willing to pay you
  • [09:00] The strongest signal it's time to raise your rate — demand in excess of the time you want to make available
  • [09:45] Scale is supported by demand. The scale conversation comes after the demand conversation
  • [11:02] The caveat: because coaching value is perceived, a higher price can create its own demand — at least in the short term
  • [12:05] But can you sustain demand at $1,000 an hour? The questions that decides it
  • [13:26] Why I don't think moving to groups, memberships, or courses is scaling a one-on-one practice
  • [14:27] It's starting a new business that runs in parallel — with some real spillover benefits
  • [15:57] Why the second, third, and fourth launches feel exponentially harder than the first
  • [17:09] The three Rs that sustain and scale a one-on-one practice: relationships, renewals, rate increases
  • [17:34] What sustains a group practice or membership? Marketing, marketing, marketing
  • [17:58] Where the coach's mind goes first — scaling the delivery — and why that's the solvable part
  • [19:43] The real bottleneck is demand generation. To sustain enrollment, the coach almost has to stop being a coach
  • [21:04] Running both at once: two businesses, two sets of marketing, two sets of delivery
  • [22:29] Why your one-on-one hour starts to feel more and more costly to you
  • [23:20] Anyone who tells you the transition is smooth and reduces your workload isn't quite right
  • [25:07] The dip: output shrinks relative to input before it grows — and some coaches selling you the path are still in it
  • [26:33] The simplicity and elegance of the one-on-one practice are really hard to beat, including financially
  • [28:21] The equalizing effect: similar compensation, more churn, more activity, more stuff
  • [29:51] Why we don't hear from the coaches who actually scale one-on-one — the quiet minority
  • [31:38] The mental and emotional discipline of letting the world be noisy around you
  • [33:14] I'm not anti-group. I'm anti-claims that groups are easier and deliver more dollars per hour

Continue the conversation Join a small community of like-minded coaches: officehourswithmark.com
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Follow me on Youtube youtube.com/@markbutlerdotcom

What is A Podcast for Coaches?

A Podcast for Coaches shines a light on one of the most elegant, underrated business models in the world: one-on-one coaching. Mark Butler hosts the show, and he's been a coach and advisor to every kind of online business you can think of, having helped businesses earning everything from $0 to $25,000,000+. Although Mark believes every online business model has merit, he worries one-on-one coaching is viewed as a stepping-stone business for people who aren't ready or able to scale. But it's not true, and A Podcast for Coaches sets out to show people--through clear teaching and rich, current stories of successful coaches who love their business--that one-on-one coaching is one of the most gratifying and lowest "hassle-per-dollar" businesses in the world.

Speaker: Hey, this is Mark Butler and you
are listening to a podcast for coaches.

Today's episode is one that I published
first as a YouTube video because I am

starting to experiment with YouTube as
a place for me to share some of my ideas.

You can find me, Mark Butler, on YouTube.

In the meantime, on to today's episode

I get asked with some regularity about
what it looks like to scale a one-on-one

coaching practice, especially because
I'm a person who for years and years

now has been promoting the idea that a
one-on-one practice is one of the most

elegant ways to make an income that exists
in our economy, in our modern world.

But inevitably, people find
themselves wondering what comes

after a full coaching practice?

How do I continue to grow?

People who get into life coaching
tend to be people who h-have an

entrepreneurial skew, right?,

They get into it because they're
growth-oriented, and they want to

continue to be growth-oriented.

So the question of scaling a one-on-one
practice is inevitable, especially for

those people who when they see what goes
on in the coaching industry and they might

initially say, "I don't think that's me.

I don't think I necessarily wanna have
a membership with a bajillion members.

I don't necessarily wanna have a group
program or a certification and, deal with

all the marketing that comes with that.

But I do want to scale because scale is
the word that I use as a proxy for grow."

In other words, I don't wanna
feel trapped by my business model.

I don't wanna feel limited
by my business model.

Now, later in the conversation,
we'll talk about why accepting the

constraints of any business model is
one of the keys to being happy in your

business and by extension in your life.

But for right now, let's talk about
what it looks like to scale a one-on-one

coaching practice, especially if you're
a person who has a natural preference for

the type of work and the type of practice
that working one-on-one lends itself to.

Let's address the tension that
exists in your desire to feel the

benefits of the one-on-one practice,
but feel the possibility of scale.

Let's start with a working
definition of scale.

To scale anything is to hope to
get more output from a single

unit of input than you got before.

The most basic form of scale within a,
a coaching practice is to charge more

dollars for the same hour of coaching.

If my session rate used to be
100, the first way of scaling

is to charge 120 instead of 100.

Not that the number matters,
that's just an example.

It's to, to have the same input,
one hour or 50 minutes, and to get a

different output, $100, $120, $200, $500.

That is the simplest way to scale.

If you are bought into the elegance
and the simplicity of a one-on-one

coaching practice, and if you're asking
yourself the question, how do I make

more money as a one-on-one coach?

The first and easiest answer will always
be raise your rates for years now, I

referred to raise your rates as literally
the cheapest business advice that anyone

can ever give because it's the business
advice that everyone will give first,

and they'll often give it without even
considering you or your circumstances

or where you are in your practice.

But that's because it's the most
obvious path to growth in your income.

You hold the number of coaching
hours constant, you increase the

rate per hour, you have now scaled.

Assuming, by the way, that you
can generate the same amount of

demand at the new price, that you
were generating at the old price.

You could make the argument that there's
another version of scale here, which

is to hold the income constant, but
to reduce the number of working hours.

So you could coach the same number
of hours but increase your rate.

You could also increase your
rate and coach fewer hours.

One would increase your income and
one would keep your income the same.

So when people ask me, "How do
I scale a one-on-one practice?"

my first reply is going to be, " what
problem are you trying to solve?

Are you trying to solve a
problem of increasing income?

Are you trying to solve a problem
of decreasing hours worked?

Are you trying to solve a problem of,
are you trying to solve a problem that's

more sneaky, which is maybe burnout?

Are you trying to solve a problem
that's even sneakier than that,

which is that you have one particular
client that drains you, whose

calls you don't look forward to?

And as you've wrestled with the idea
of letting go of that client or of ha-

of changing the relationship with that
client, it has led naturally to the idea

that you need to, quote-unquote, scale?"

Because all of these things
happen all of the time.

When someone asks me, "How do I scale
a one-on-one coaching practice?"

it's not that they're not interested
in the answer, it's that they very

often came to the question through an
interesting route, and the real insight

for them may be found in the sequence
of questions that led up to, how do you

scale a one-on-one coaching practice?

Because how you scale a one-on-one
coaching practice is simple.

you charge more per hour.

That's how you scale a
one-on-one coaching practice.

You charge more per hour, and
if you can hold demand constant,

then you've now increased your
income without working more.

Of course, I, I acknowledge
that another way to scale is not

just to think about the cost of
delivery in the form of the hour.

Another way to scale is to reduce the
total inputs relative to the output.

So we're changing that ratio.

what else goes into, the
one-on-one coaching practice?

Well, you've got marketing time,
you've got administrative time.

So a person might say, "Well, right
now I'm spending about ten hours a week

marketing, another way to scale would
be to get the same number of sessions at

the same rate with much less marketing.

One example would be when I have
clients who come to me or friends,

peers, whoever, they come to me and
say, "I'm advertising on Facebook

to grow my one-on-one practice."

It's an expensive way to grow a one-on-one
practice because you have the time cost of

setting up and managing the campaigns, you
have the money cost of the ads, you have

the time cost of doing the consultations
that the ads generate, and that time cost

is going to be, in my opinion, one of
the heaviest parts of the process because

your no-show rate on advertising-driven,
consultations will be higher than your

no-show rate would ever be on a more
organic, way of getting consultations.

But it's not just that your no-show rate
will be higher, your close rate on those

people who do show up will be lower.

So advertising a one-on-one coaching
practice can feel like the most

efficient way to do it because you
just put money into the advertising

campaign, and you get clients back
out of the advertising campaign.

But in a decade plus of working
with my fellow coaches and being

their bookkeeper and being their
advisor, I've never seen that happen.

So if that person wants to scale, quote
unquote, the first way for them to

scale is to create increased efficiency
in client acquisition, which probably

looks like not improving the Facebook
campaigns, but it probably looks like

abandoning the Facebook campaigns and
accepting the apparent inefficiency

of a more relationship-driven,
more organic or content-driven

client acquisition approach.

And accepting the patience that it
requires, the persistence that it

requires, but recognizing that in
the long run, it's actually much

more efficient than the thing that is
supposed to be efficient, the thing that

looks efficient from the outside,
but actually isn't, which is

paid advertising campaigns.

Okay, so scale can be increasing
the output relative to each unit of

input, where the units of input could
include the actual time that you

spend on the call with the client,
the time, money, and energy that

you spend in acquiring the client.

All of these things are a
factor in deciding how to scale.

Which is why, again, I say the most
efficient scaling that a one-on-one

coach can do is to increase their
hourly rate, assuming they have

demand at the new hourly rate.

This is why when coaches come to
me and say, "I think it's time

for me to raise my rates", and
I say, "Why do you think that?"

They might say, "Well, because my
business coach or some people in my

mastermind group told me that I need
to start, 'charging what I'm worth.'"

And then I say, "Well, what you
are worth is exactly the amount

that people are willing to pay you.

So if they're willing to pay you an
amount, you are worth that amount.

If they are not, you are not."

Now, of course, that's
not you, the individual.

That's you, the coach, who's
packaged yourself and offered

that package to the world.

The world will either consume
you at that price or it will not.

For me, the strongest signal that
it's time to raise your rates is

that you have people who are asking
for your time in excess of the time

that you want to make available.

So if I, as a coach, am looking
at my calendar and seeing I've got

all these clients on my calendar,
and then the next client says,

"Do you have availability for me?"

If I hear myself saying, no,
I don't have availability."

If you're hearing yoursel-self say that
more often, it's a signal that a queue

has formed, a line of demand has formed
where people want your coaching in

excess of the amount of coaching that
you have available, and at that point,

it would be time to raise the rate.

So scaling is not something
you get to do just because you

decide to as a one-on-one coach.

Scale is supported by demand.

If there is demand for your
coaching, then price increases.

If there is not demand for your
coaching, then price either

stays the same or decreases.

So the scale conversation really comes
after the demand conversation if you're a

coach and you're saying, "It's time for me
to raise my rates," here's the question.

how many requests for coaching
are in your inbox right now?

It doesn't have to be dozens.

I might even say, "How many requests
for coaching have landed in your

inbox in the last ninety days?"

And if you say, "Well, two,"
I'll say, "Two could be perfect.

it could be an amazing practice.

When you look at those two requests
for coaching, can you confidently

serve those two new clients if
they agree to work with you?"

And if you say, "Oh, not only could I work
with those two, I, I could easily work

with ten more," then I'd say, "Okay, it's,
it's really probably not time to raise

your rates until the amount of demand
that you have starts to bump up against

your ability to supply the coaching."

The scale conversation would
come after the increased demand.

Now, I will acknowledge a caveat here.

The caveat being, because the value
of coaching is entirely perceived,

it's such an ethereal product with
such hard-to-quantify value that

there is a world in which simply
charging more could increase the

demand, at least in the short term.

In other words, if you're willing to put
yourself out there as a thousand dollar

per hour coach, that could catch the
attention of some prospective clients,

where they say, "If, if she or he is
charging a thousand dollars per hour for

coaching, they must be an amazing coach."

You could have a few clients who
come into your practice purely on

the strength of perception that that
thousand dollar per hour price creates.

Will you sustain demand
at that $1,000 per hour?

That is the question.

Are you positioned with a, within a
market where there's plenty of $1,000

per hour coaching being consumed?

Within that market,
are you differentiated?

If a person is gonna pay you $1,000
per hour, when they sit with that

rate overnight, over the course of
weeks and months, will you continue

to seem worth that amount of money
to them over that period of time?

I don't know.

If you can do that, then you have scaled
your one-on-one coaching practice because

now you're charging somewhere between
five and 10 times the amount per hour that

many of us are charging in the coaching
world, and you've now successfully scaled

But if you are not that exceptional
coach where you're able to drive the

perceived value up high enough that the
realized value puts $1,000 per hour in

your pocket, then you're in a position
where you kind of have to play the

game a little bit closer to the way the
rest of us play it, which is you serve

your clients, you work to increase your
perceived value with those clients and

with other prospective clients, and over
time, your rate stair steps up in the

direction of, say, $1,000 per session.

I'm not saying you need to get to 1,000
per session, but I'll put that out

there as an amount that's high enough
that I think most of us would consider

it a sort of, not destination, but
certainly milestone, big milestone.

So that's how you scale
a one-on-one practice.

Speaker 5: Something I want to

push back on, though, is when people
come to me and say, "How do I scale

a one-on-one coaching practice?"

And what they mean is, when do
I start moving toward groups

or courses, masterminds?

Sometimes they think retreats belong in a
scaling conversation, and I personally do

not think retreats belong there at all.

That may be a conversation
for another day.

But if someone says to me, "I'd like to
scale my one-on-one coaching practice to

groups or to a membership or to courses"
I don't wanna be pedantic, and I don't

wanna fight over the definitions of words.

I do want to tug on some of those
definitions because I don't think

moving to groups or to memberships
is scaling a one-on-one practice.

I think it's starting a new
business that runs in parallel

to the one-on-one practice.

Now, I'm not drawing a hard line in
the sand, and I'm not trying to be all

or nothing or black and white in my
definitions here, because it is true

that some amount of the effort that
you, that you invest and money that you

might invest in growing the one-on-one
practice would have spillover benefits

to the new project like, group coaching.

In fact, all the time I tell my peers
and some of the people, I advise in

my community of coaches, I will tell
them, it is likely that if you start

to actively launch or even promote
a group experience, that in your,

promotion and launching of the group
experience, you may end up with increased

demand for your one-on-one practice.

I've seen it, and it's real.

But I caution against treating them
like they're the same thing because,

the inputs associated with marketing,
selling, and delivering a group program

, Speaker 4: are so different to marketing

selling, and delivering the one-on-one
experience that I think a coach is better

served by viewing them as two completely
distinct projects, even though the

benefits may overlap between the two.

And the reason I say that is that a
coach who has a very strong, stable

one-on-one coaching practice, who then
feels like they are maxing out what

that one-on-one coaching practice can
deliver them in terms of income, maybe in

terms of impact, which is fuzzier, also
may be a conversation for another day.

But if they feel, or if they're starting
to feel limited by the one-on-one

model, and they say, "I'm going to add
in a group model or a membership model

or, a courses model," I encourage them
to think about that as starting a new

business because if they don't view it
as starting a new business, they might

they may find themselves confused as
to why After the initial successful

launch of the group experience, why
the second, third, fourth, and fifth

launches or promotions of the group
experience start to feel increasingly

and sometimes even exponentially more
difficult, then I will say it's because

you've started a new business, and
the inputs of that business are almost

completely distinct from the inputs
associated with the one-on-one business.

In a one-on-one business, I truly
can function one conversation at a

time, one relationship at a time.

My income will be driven primarily by,
what I've called in the past the three Rs,

relationships, renewals, rate increases.

Yes, those are the three Rs.

Those are the things that
sustain and maybe scale a

one-on-one coaching practice.

What starts, sustains, and then, and then
scales a group practice or a membership?

Marketing, marketing, marketing It is
the nature of smaller transaction value,

higher transaction volume offers like
courses, memberships, and group programs.

to require more effort
in demand generation.

So when someone comes to me and says, "I
wanna start a group experience, a group

coaching program," whatever it is, or a
membership, and their mind will generally

go first to the scaling of the delivery,
meaning I'll be able to meet with

more people per hour, so that's scale.

Or they'll say, "I can hire other,
coaches, and those coaches can meet

with multiple people per, hour."

That's kind of the ultimate scale.

I'm, I'm having a coaching
business, but I'm not even doing the

coaching, so now I've I've scaled
myself right out of the business.

That's a thing you can do.

Their b-brain tends to go there, and
they view that as quite solvable.

There's plenty of coaches.

I have friends who would like to
coach in my group program, et cetera.

They imagine the, the scaling on the
delivery side of the equation And it's

not that that's easy because now you're,
you've got personnel to manage, you've got

scheduling, and you've got preferences,
and you've got individual negotiations

about, well, how much do you wanna be paid
to do an hour of coaching in my community?

And well, actually, it's a flat rate,
so it's kind of take it or leave it.

Or no, she's actually so
valuable that I pay her more

per group call than I pay her.

But then if Coach B finds out
that Coach A is earning more, now

I've got personnel challenges.

It, unlocks a whole set of difficulties,
but they're solvable because it's

true that generally there are plenty
of coaches available to coach But it,

it does not begin to touch the actual
difficulty of scaling in a, in a group

coaching program because almost all
of the difficulty is in marketing it.

It's in demand generation.

To sustain solid enrollment in group
coaching experiences, the coach has

to almost stop becoming a coach.

I'm overstating that, but stick with me.

They almost have to stop becoming a coach
and start to think of themselves first and

foremost as a marketer and a salesperson,
and the delivery of the coaching..

Falls a little bit lower on the list
of priorities The coach who decides

she wants to run group programs,
especially if she wants to do that

exclusively, she has to wake up in
the morning thinking about marketing.

She pretty much has to go to sleep
at night thinking about marketing.

It's a really good fit for coaches
who love the process and the projects

associated with demand generation,
advertising campaigns, maybe running

affiliate programs, maybe, social media
campaigns, all the content marketing

you can think of,, but scaled up.

It has to become her primary focus.

The actual delivery of the experience
necessarily becomes secondary because

Having people enjoy their experience
in a group program is easier.

Not easy, we can still disappoint,
our participants, no, absolutely.

But it's easier than getting a person to
say yes to a group coaching experience.

So our energy has to skew in the
direction of demand generation.

So not only is it not that you aren't
really scaling from one-on-one to group,

it's that you are continuing to run
a one-on-one program while starting

a new business called group program.

And as part of starting that new business,
you are having to do all of the marketing,

which is different and more difficult
than marketing a one-on-one practice.

In addition to having, to develop
and maintain content, either deliver

group coaching calls or hire others
to deliver group coaching calls.

And most of us start with the
delivery ourselves first, and

that can work out just fine.

I'm not trying to dramatize that
you have to do all of this at once.

You don't.

But it is a separate business, so what
you find yourself doing day to day is,

"Let me serve my one-on-one coaching
clients-" Let me manage their questions

and occasional concerns about the fact
that I'm doing this one-on-one thing,

but now I've added another business.

I've added a group experience,
and now I'm having to field some

questions about, "Well, should
I be doing your group thing?"

The good thing is, a lot of times
they will end up doing both because

they love you, and they wanna engage
with you however you're doing stuff.

So they'll work with you one-on-one,
and maybe they'll join a group.

Sometimes it flows the
other direction, too.

They, they join a group, and then
they wanna work together one-on-one.

That's not always possible because now
that you have the group and you have

the one-on-one, you're gonna find the
pressure on the one-on-one, business

increases as in you're gonna feel like
you have fewer and fewer hours available

for your one-on-one clients because
you have to deliver the group hours,

and you have to think about generating
demand for the next group launch.

So a one-on-one hour will start to feel
more and more costly to you because

you'll say, "I'm only getting two hundred
or three hundred or five hundred for

this session, and my goal is to make
five thousand per hour or two thousand

per hour through this group thing."

It will start to play on your mind, and
you will have to decide, "What is it

that I want to be when I grow up, and
where do I wanna make my commitment?

Where do I want to invest, my
time, energy, and my money?"

It's not an easy thing to navigate
Anyone who tells you that the transition

is gonna be smooth, easy, and decrease
your workload in the short term,

I'm afraid that's not quite right.

What's gonna happen as you attempt to
scale in this way is you will end up

with two jobs, so you won't just have
this one-on-one practice job, you'll also

have this, group coaching practice job.

You'll be trying to do
both jobs at the same time.

You'll be trying to generate demand
for, both businesses at the same time.

You'll be doing delivery for
both businesses at the same time.

The group program has much more content
creation associated with it, both

free content in the form of podcasts,
social media posts, newsletters, sales

emails, way more content associated
with it because you can grow and

sustain a one-on-one coaching practice
with none of the above Some amount

of content may be highly beneficial
to growing and sustaining your

one-on-one practice, but I would argue
that it is not absolutely necessary.

So the content requirements on the
group coaching business go way up

relative to the one-on-one As you
run both of these businesses, the

number of hours per week that you're
spending in your two businesses,

your two jobs, is now increasing.

It's starting to put some pressure on
other priorities or just preferences.

You know, like I'd like to go play
pickleball with my friends, but I really

need to get those sales emails written.

you know, my kid's got a
performance, a choir performance,

a soccer game, whatever.

Of course, I'm gonna go to that.

So okay, when I get back tonight after
the kids go to bed, I've got to write

some sales emails, or I've got to
develop the third module for the group

program that I promised, and so on.

in the attempt to scale your one-on-one
coaching practice, it is virtually

inevitable that you will find yourself
in the short term where you are seeking

a greater output per unit of input,
you will see the output shrink relative

to the input, at least for a season
The coaches you're probably trying to

emulate, they got through that, and
they eventually were able to flip it

where the output grew significantly
relative to the input, and then they

started telling you, you know, the
seven-figure mastermind and whatever else

to supposedly help you do the same thing.

Well, they may or may not have
actually crossed that threshold.

They may be in the middle of fighting
with that threshold as they claim

to be able to show you how to do it.

But the math of it is, if you grow a
successful one-on-one practice and then

decide to start a new business called
group coaching or memberships or whatever,

in the near to midterm, the amount of
work you're doing will go up, the amount

of investment you're making will go up,
the amount of fatigue and stress that

you experience on a day-to-day basis will
go up, and you'll be doing all of that

hoping to get on the other side of that
curve, which is to say, "I'm working fewer

hours than I used to work in my one-on-one
practice, but I am reaching many more

people, and I am making much more money."

That's probably just about enough
for today, but here's where I will--

I'll leave you where I have left
you before in this conversation The

simplicity and the elegance of the
one-on-one coaching practice are really

hard to beat, including financially

It is not just that the number of
hours you work and the amount of

marketing you feel like you have to
do, it's not that those things come

at the trade-off of huge income.

In practice, in the real world, it
is likely that if you come to that

crossroads where you're deciding,
"Should I add another business to

my one-on-one coaching business
and accept all the costs associated

with starting that new business?

Or should I actually scale my one-on-one
practice by working to increase the

demand for my one-on-one work and have a
corresponding increase in price such that

I'm doing the same approximate amount
of coaching for more money in return?"

That is how you preserve the elegance,
the simplicity, and , the comparative

ease of the one-on-one practice, even
relative to shinier models like group

coaching and memberships Because I happen
to believe that there's an equalizing

effect where unless you're that, the,
rare exception, and I, I'm sorry to

tell you, it is a rare exception, you
will find that what you do is you shift

how you spend your time, but you don't
necessarily make a huge corresponding

shift in how much money you make.

You may find that in a group coaching
business You earn about the same amount

of money, but there's a lot more churn.

There's a lot more activity involved.

There's more marketing.

There's more stuff associated with
the marketing, more content, more

things to update, more software
to configure, more data to track.

There's more people whose
schedules you have to align with.

People are saying that Tuesdays
at 11 eastern time works for them,

but these three people are really
saying they need it to be Thursdays

at 10 eastern time, and now you're
juggling, "Should I have two groups?

Should I just have one?

How am I gonna manage this?"

You're managing the expectations
of all those people.

You're managing the preparation of all
those people, where some of them come

to the group experience very prepared,
some not so much, the different mindsets.

You're putting all of that into
the same room with the idea that

because there are more people per
hour, your income increases and

your quality of life increases.

Anecdotally, it's my experience that
there's an equalizing effect where

you're going to be compensated similarly,
whether you go all in on the group

coaching path or the one-on-one path.

And, one just requires more activity
of a different type, and the

other one requires the perceived
sacrifice of income potential.

Okay, very last thought on scaling
one-on-one coaching income What we observe

in the real world, in the wild, and by the
wild I mean our newsletter the inboxes,

the newsletters and sales messages that
come to our inboxes, the social media

posts, the YouTube videos the content of
those is going to skew toward group and

membership and software type scaling Why?

Because the people who actually scale
in one-on-one coaching are quieter.

The nature of their work is such that
they don't speak up or as loudly.

There are coaches earning hundreds
of thousands of dollars per year.

I'm not one of them.

I'm not claiming to be.

there are coaches who are generating
hundreds of thousands of dollars per

year, sometimes a million-plus per
year in a simple one-on-one coaching

practice But they're not making social
media posts about it because that's

not the nature of their practice.

They're not doing group launches
about group launches because that's

not the nature of their practice.

So in my opinion, there is a quiet
minority, and I'm hypothesizing, but

there is a very quiet, very small minority
of one-on-one coaches whose income far

exceeds the income of the average group
program launcher But because they're

quiet, we forget they exist, or we may
never know they exist in the first place.

I believe that there's an equalizing
effect here where you can make a

lot of money in group programs, in
scaled programs, memberships But I

don't have a lot of evidence that
those are very durable over the long

term, and I have a lot of evidence
that they're very hard work forever

In a one-on-one practice, there's a
mental and emotional discipline required

to say, "I'm gonna let the world be
really noisy all around me, making a lot

of seven-figure claims and eight-figure
claims, and I'm just gonna settle into

my own self, into my own practice and
say I'm either going to be totally happy

in a limited and constrained one-on-one
practice where I love and serve the few

clients I have, and I make a great hourly
rate for doing it, or I'm going to take

all of that and add in the possibility
that I would, over time, move up into

serving a type of client who will pay
hundreds, maybe thousand, maybe thousands.

See, this we're gonna bump against the
limits of my own, ability to believe here,

but the per hour or the per experience
rate will climb and climb as I start

to serve a different type of client
whose problems and whose opportunities

measure into the millions for them that
that could be the path to scale for a

one-on-one coach if the coach even wants
to do that But scaling as a one-on-one

coach I, I just think we should look
very carefully and very patiently at

the claims that are being made by those
who are offering us supposedly more

money for less time by going to models
like group experiences and memberships.

I'm not anti group
experiences and memberships.

I'm anti making claims that they are
somehow much easier and that they

will deliver a lot more dollars per
hour for the person who pursues them.

It just hasn't been my observation
at all, and I've been working

in this world 12 years.

12 years.

So give those things a really patient
and careful thought as you decide

whether your one-on-one practice is
actually limiting you relative to other

business models that exist out there.

And with that, I will
talk to you next time

By the way, if you'd like to continue
this conversation with a small community

of like-minded coaches, you can do
that at officehourswithmark.com.

And although we're in the middle of
the year and most of you are probably

not thinking about taxes, you will
find that the day is coming where you

will wish you had tracked your expenses
very carefully alongside your income,

and that you had it all wrapped up
in tidy reports that can be given to

your tax professional at tax time.

And if you'd like help with that, you
can get help at letstodothebooks.com.

Talk to you in the next episode