How to get the most out of an investment in a coaching program

It can be really scary to invest in your business, whether it’s a coaching program, working with a coach or doing a course. So today I’m going to share with you some of my biggest hacks for getting the most out of an investment in a coaching program.

Hello, and welcome to The Clare Wood podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host Clare Wood, I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving and global impact.

Choosing the right program

The first tip that I have for you is to choose the right program. So when you’re making a decision about what to invest in, it needs to be a balance between logic and intuition. I personally am heavily gut-led when it comes to choosing to work with a coach or in a mastermind. So I really lean on my intuition and follow who it is that I am being pulled to. However, when I’m investing in a course, I tend to make these decisions for more of a logical place. So for example, I will recognise areas in which I have a skill gap, and then I will do a course to improve this skill. But for me personally, when I am joining a mastermind or hiring a coach, it is heavily about energy for me. So I look for someone whose energy connects with me and someone who inspires me.

It’s really hard to explain, but sometimes I just find a business leader really magnetic and I think I just have to work with them. The way that you make decisions around your investments might be different, but regardless of how you make the decision, what is important and the point that I’m trying to make is it’s really important to choose the right program in the first place. And it’s about choosing what is the right fit for you at a particular point in time.

Accepting responsibility for your outcomes

So once you’ve chosen the right program and you are really committed to the transformation that you are seeking, whether it be a course, a coach, a mastermind, you need to accept absolute responsibility for how you show up and for your own outcomes. This is definitely something that I can observe in clients of mine. And also I’ve learned myself is that at the end of the day, you can be working with the most amazing business leader, but you are always responsible for how you show up and for the outcomes that you achieve. So some tips that I’ve got here, if you were to accept absolute responsibility, first of all, show up to all of the calls, especially if you’re in some kind of group coaching program or mastermind, or even in courses, I really encourage you to carve out the time in your calendar and show up to the calls.

Making the time to do it right

Which leads me to my next point, make the time. We are all such busy people as business owners, trust me, I can relate to this so much, but every time I haven’t got the results, it’s because I haven’t put in the time and made the commitment to the investment or program that I have chosen to be part of.

So if you have made that difficult decision to invest into a program, I really encourage you to make the time. Block it out in your calendar and prioritise it. If there is a Facebook community or a Voxer chat like I have in my mastermind, jump into the community and contribute. My mom has a saying, “You get out of relationships, what you put into relationships.” And I 100% find that when it comes to the process of coaching or transformation inside a program. I know for myself, the energy that I put in is a direct reflection of the results that I get out.

What to do if a course isn’t the right fit (after you’ve signed up!)

If you’re in a program and you are thinking, oh, this isn’t quite working for me and there are some opportunities to make this program even better, again, if you’re operating from a space of total responsibility for your outcomes, you can step up and talk to the person who is running the program and provide them with feedback or suggestions.

Bear in mind, they might not take them on board and that’s okay, but at least you can feel in your own heart of hearts, that you have done everything that you can to get the most out of the program that you have invested in. If something really isn’t feeling like a good fit for you, you can of course choose to walk away. A word of caution though, most programs and courses that you invest in will have legally binding contracts that you have committed to. So if you choose this option, you will most likely end up in a situation where you still have to pay out a whole contract. I would say this definitely isn’t an ideal outcome. So trying to find a solution is by far a much better way to navigate through.

And also remembering that perception is everything. If something isn’t working for you, you can always check in and say, if I was to show up to this in absolute responsibility, what could I be doing differently? Am I really showing up to all the calls? Am I doing all the homework? Have I been doing all of the inner work or all of the activities that have been provided through this program? When you approach your programs from a state of absolute responsibility, this is such a fantastic way to get much better results. And this also applies to how you perceive other people who are in your program.

Doors are open to my Mind to Money Mastermind at the moment, and one thing that I often hear is that people are really nervous to come into a mastermind and they wonder, am I going to get along with everyone and will this community be the right fit? But when you’re operating from a state of absolute responsibility, you’ll recognise that you don’t have to like everyone in a mastermind to still have an amazing experience. You don’t need to be inspired by every single person who is in the program. Your experience will be what you look for. So if you are seeking out the people that do inspire you and the connections that you can make, you almost want to see the connections that perhaps aren’t the right fit for you at a particular point in time. You get to see what you want to see.

The next point that I’d love to make here is remember that any investment, regardless of what it is, is not going to be all of the solutions to all of your problems. There are always going to be messages or content in a program that doesn’t resonate, or perhaps it’s going to be information that you’ve heard before, but what are you going to choose to focus on? I have sometimes spent hours and hours in training inside a program, and a lot of it has been very familiar content, but then I’ve had one phrase or one aha that I’ve taken out of those hours that for me has been everything. When you are looking for the opportunities for transformation inside the program, that is where you are going to have the biggest up levels.

Trusting the process

The next way to get the most out of your investment is to trust the process. Have you ever hired an expert and then second guessed everything they’ve done? I am so guilty of this myself. Sometimes we engage an expert and then we second guess everything they are telling us. Like I said, I am really guilty of this myself. I have often resisted the advice that is provided to me by an expert and then I wonder why it’s not quite working out the way that I hoped. And the reason is, you hire an expert for a reason, and sometimes it might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but when I step back from the resistance and move through the discomfort, this is usually where I have a big up-level.

And similarly, if you have chosen a program, a coach, a business leader that you want to work with wisely, chances are you have done your research and this person knows what they are doing. Have a look at the testimonials, have a look at the transformations they’ve provided other business owners. And if they do do what they say that they do, then maybe this is an opportunity to really lean in and trust their experience and take the actions they are suggesting.

It’s been so fun to talk to you guys about this topic today because as you know, I run an amazing mastermind called the Mind to Money Mastermind and doors are now open for this program. I am also running a free masterclass at the moment, which is called More Money, Less Work. Now this isn’t just some surface level webinar. This is truly transformational interactive experience with me where I’ll be taking you through how to uncover your beliefs around money that are limiting your growth. We’ll be talking about debunking the myths about building a million dollar business, getting clarity around what success looks like for you and helping you to understand why you have not been able to reduce your work hours and how you can rewrite this story. This training is only for six figure business owners, and I don’t want to do that from an elitist space by any means, but I really do believe there are different challenges faced at this stage of business.

So if you are a six-figure service-based business owner who wants to grow with less working hours, I would love to invite you to apply to come along for this training. There is a link in the bio for today’s episode. So if it feels like a good fit, I would love to welcome you in. To sum up today’s episode, the way to get the most out of an investment in a coaching program is number one, choose the right program in the first place. Number two, accept absolute responsibility for how you are going to show up to the program and for the outcomes you are going to achieve. And last but not least, trust the process. This is not about blindly following what your coach or instructor says, but it is about trusting the process because you have chosen to invest with someone for a reason. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, and I look forward to chatting to you again next week.

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @clare_wood_coach, and also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week and I look forward to talking to you again next week.