Find the perfect coaching container to blow up your biz

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

 This is the time of year to start thinking about how you need to be supported to scale your business this year. And one particular area of investment is working with a coach or joining some sort of coaching program. But with thousands of options out there how do you know who to work with and what container you should join? Well, stick around my friend, because in today’s episode, I’ll share with you my two cents.

 Well, first and foremost, welcome back to the Clare Wood podcast, or if this is your first time listening, a big, warm welcome. It’s great to have you here. My name’s Clare Wood and I help business owners, particularly service based business owners to take quantum leaps in terms of their business profit.

And I do this through the concept of working on your business finances and also working on your money mindset. So today we’re going to talk about. A topic that can make or break your growth journey, which is how to pick the right coaching container to blow up your business. Now perhaps you are at a stage in your business where you’ve been in decline or maybe you’ve been hitting a plateau, feeling stuck, or actually maybe a business has been going really well and you’re ready to scale to the next level.

Regardless of where you are at, the right coaching environment could be the very thing that completely transforms the trajectory of your business. But if you pick the wrong space, the wrong coaching container, you could waste your precious time, money, and of course your energy and momentum. So let’s dive right into it.

How exactly do you find the perfect coaching match for you? Well, first things first, I think that we should say there is no such thing as the perfect coach or the perfect coaching container. What’s going to be right for some people is not going to be the right match for other people. And also what you are needing at different stages of your journey is going to be different.

So here’s some things that can really help you identify what exactly is it that I am needing. Right now in my business to help support me to the next level. There’s a number of ways that you can work inside a coaching container. So it’s not just about hiring a coach. It’s really about a coaching ecosystem that you are stepping into.

You might want to work with a one on one coach in this chapter of your business journey, or maybe you want to be in a mastermind container, a high ticket group program, or even in a You might just want some support in a one off capacity, like a VIP day or a retreat. This is first and foremost, what you need to think about is what exactly is it that I’m looking for.

And for me personally, I have lent into different coaching containers at different stages of my journey. There’s been some times where I’m really wanting that. really intimate, really high touch point one on one coaching. Other times I’m like, I just want to be in a high vibe group of people to inspire me, to lift me up.

And sometimes I’m really after a short, sharp, please just sit down and support me to really have a strategy to step into my next level in an intensive way. So first of all, really think about. What exactly is the right container for me? What am I really needing at this point in time? Now, the first thing that’s really important is picking the right coach or mentor.

What you want to be doing when you are thinking about who’s the right person to work with is really finding a coach whose communication style resonates with you on a deep level. We all process information differently. Some of us are inspired by high energy motivation. Um, some people really prefer a more methodical coach.

Some people prefer a much calmer, more spiritual, flowy energy. You really need to think about. who you best connect with. You want to find a coach whose communication approach aligns with your learning style. And something that I’ve noticed when I’m thinking about the coaches that I’m magnetized towards and the clients that are magnetized towards me, often you are actually needing or leaning into a skillset that is the opposite or kind of different to yours.

And let me share what I mean here. I’ve seen brilliant coaches clash with clients because they end up in a bit of a combative situation because they’re, I guess, too similar in terms of their energy. You know, if you were someone who is very, um, direct and combative and you get a coach who has a similar kind of style, maybe there might be a conflict there.

And I know for me, I usually lean into the energy of more spiritual feminine coaches. Because I myself have, you know, quite a directive style. I’m a real, I’m someone that’s just, let’s go get it. I’m really high energy. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, or you’ve been in my world, you will know that that’s my coaching style.

And so I tend to be magnetized towards people with an opposite kind of skillset. And what I found, you know, I’ve been a mentor for over nine years now, and most of the, not all, but most of the people who I attract into my world tend to be creatives. They tend to be people with more of that right brain, um, ability.

And they’re like, I just need someone to give me the nuts and bolts to teach me how to spreadsheet, to help me understand my numbers, to really motivate me and keep me accountable in a direct way. So I think it can be really helpful to think about the skill sets that you are lacking. What are the areas that I really need help with?

If you are really fantastic at marketing and Instagram. Maybe that’s not an area that you need help with. Maybe you really like, I actually just need some overarching growth strategy. Maybe I need some help with my sales or my conversions. So I’ll give you some tips around how you can actually help to pick the right coach.

When you. So when you speak to this coach or when you experience their content, I want you to think about how you feel. Do you feel energized and excited to implement? Do you feel really clear on the next steps to take? Do you feel confident in their ability? to support you. And also this last one might be a little bit triggering.

Do you feel challenged in ways to stretch your thinking? Don’t want to hire a mentor where you sit there going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, I know all this. You really want someone who’s going to make, whoa. You’re right. I totally need to step up. I hadn’t thought about that like that. So when I think about my own style as a coach, I am really, I’m compassionate.

I care so deeply, deeply about my clients. And I would say that I am motivating, but I’m also quite direct. I’m a coach who’s gonna really hold you to account, but in a nice way. But that might not be right for everyone. I know that some people really need, like a real like, I want you to yell at me. I swear my kids are like that.

They, they only time they actually do these when you’re like, for goodness sakes, please pick your socks up. So maybe you’re someone and you’re like, I actually need someone who’s really going to hold me to account. My first coach was like this and I actually really enjoyed it. Um, so it was a male coach and you know, if I hadn’t taken action, he’d be like, right, grab your phone right now.

We’re making the call. And I’ll be like, Whoa, okay, cool. I’m going to do this. I can’t dodge or talk my way out of this. Or maybe you find that like my style, maybe someone who’s quite direct and who’s like, Hey, you haven’t done the things that you said you’re going to do. Maybe you find that really overwhelming and triggering.

And in which case you might need to find a mentor with a more softer flowy style to help you achieve your outcomes. So first things first, pick the right coach. The next thing that you want to do is really think about, and this is particularly if you’re looking at a mastermind container, but actually also when it comes to picking a coach is really understanding your current business stage.

And your industry, you want to match up to a mentor and particularly if you’re leaning into a peer group that is at the same or similar stage, if you were in the startup stage, you need a coach. Who’s going to teach you the fundamentals. It’s going to help you validate your idea, find clients and help build those systems out.

If you come and try and join a mastermind of the next level, you’re simply going to feel overwhelmed. You aren’t going to be able to take action and it’s completely not going to be the right fit for you. I tell people all the time, I am not a startup coach. There are plenty of amazing coaches out there who help people right in the infant stage as a business.

I am not one of them. And conversely, if you’re running a multimillion dollar business and you come into a container or work with a coach who works with a hundred thousand dollar businesses, you’re probably going to think, Hey, I’m talking here about scaling to 10 mil. This is really not the right fit for me.

So what you want to do is really think about. Where am I at and who are the people that I need to be around? I kind of like to break the phases into a couple of different phases. So I really think that zero to a hundred K is a bracket in and of itself. There’s a lot of skills that you were learning to get to that first six figure mark.

Then from six to seven figures is a real big growth. Um, I guess area and stage of business, you know, this is the time when you’re starting to build a team, optimizing your operations, building a marketing funnel, creating scalability, having thought leadership, really starting to attract high ticket sales, looking at pricing and of course tackling mindset.

And then the mill to. 5 mil, 10 mil, that’s a whole new leap again. So what you want to be doing is finding a mentor and finding a peer group where you are at people of a similar or slightly head ahead stage. You want people who are facing the same challenges and speaking the same language and working through similar growing pains.

Particularly, if you’re looking at a group coaching container, I want you to ask yourself these questions. Are most of the members,

I want you to ask the question, if you were looking at a group coaching container, I want you to ask the following questions. Are most of the people in this group within, you know, 25 to 50 percent of your current revenue level, do they have similar size teams to yours? You know, you don’t want to be talking to someone about their first hire if you’ve already got a team of 10.

You also really want to be matched up with a mentor and also a peer group that are in comparable industries or business models. So, a big The first leap that I made in my own business is that I niched down to work with service based business owners. And I think that this is really important to understand is that there’s different challenges faced by different kind of businesses.

So really ask the question, who’s in here? What are the things they’re going through? Are they facing similar challenges and also opportunities? Because you really want to have the right mix. That is where the magic happens and inside your containers, you really want to check in that you are going to have that accountability, whether it’s directly with your mentor, your coach or whether there is an accountability partnership inside the container because otherwise you’ll come in and you’ll float along and you’ll be like, Oh, this is so lovely.

And you won’t actually do the things that are going to create the change. I know for me that when I, I just, you know, at about the 10, 000 to 15, 000 amount and most of the people inside the container were doing sort of 200 to 500 per annum. I had just hit my first, oh, that’s not just hit.

I know at one stage,

When I first joined a mastermind container, I was at that six figure mark and the people inside the container were at that 200 to 500, 000 per annum mark. And the really cool thing about that was that I was really being stretched to level up. Inside that container, when I first came in, I was like, Whoa, people are making so much money in here.

But because I was surrounded by that energy and I was also bringing to that container, the energy of growth, the energy of my million dollar business magic really happened. And within that coaching container, I hit my first 50, 000 sales month. This is what’s possible when you’re surrounded by people doing big things and the right mentor.

Okay, so we’ve spoken about finding the right mentor, we’ve spoken about finding the right coaching container. When you’ve done those things, the next thing that I would really do, do your research, have a look at the testimonials and also dig a bit deeper. Like if they’ve got a podcast, actually go and listen to episodes with, with clients, with students of theirs.

So you can actually hear, like rather than just see the words on a page, hear someone share their story. You can also actually reach out to some of those people if, if you, um, can contact them and say, Hey, what was your experience? You could also ask, Hey, is it possible for me to do a discovery call with you or spend a bit of time chatting to you about whether this program is the right fit for you?

And the next thing that I would say is trust your instincts. Have you ever made a decision in business? And you were like, Oh, I don’t know if this is quite the right thing, but I just need to do something. So I’m just going to jump on this. And then later you regret it. It’s probably because you weren’t listening to your intuition.

Now on that note, I will say you need to be aware of the difference between your intuition and fear. Because your intuition is something deep down that’s always just like this isn’t the right fit for me, this person isn’t the right fit, or whatever it might be. But fear is where there’s someone, maybe there’s a mentor that you’ve followed for a long time, maybe you’ve been so excited to join a program, and then when you actually go to push pay, you freak out.

Now, the way that I distinguish between intuition and fear is that fear is something that pops up quickly. Whereas intuition is an ongoing feeling about something. So for example, with me, when I think about public speaking, okay, a big fear of mine, long term like intellectually, I know that speaking is really good for my business.

I know that it’s really good for me, but when the opportunity actually comes up to jump on stage, every part of my body is like, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it. And. To me, the long term feeling that I have is, yeah, I know that this is going to be good for me. But when I actually go to take the action, I freak out a bit.

Now that isn’t my intuition saying, Clare, don’t speak on stage. That is fear that’s popping up to try and keep me safe. And similarly, if there’s a coach that I’ve wanted to work with for ages and then I go to actually sign up and I get that like, oh, don’t do it. I’m like, no. Long term, you have followed this person for ages.

You’ve really wanted to work with them. That’s just you having a last minute freak out about parting with the money or signing the contract or whatever it might be, but do listen to your intuition. Who are you being called to work with and who are you saying, everyone’s talking about this coach, but there’s something about them that just doesn’t fit right for me.

Listen to that feeling. The next thing I want you to consider is the investment to return timeline. I mean, the truth is most substantial business transformations, they do take time. Like the clients of mine who’ve hit the million dollar mark, most of them were my clients for like 12 to 18 months before they hit those hundred thousand dollar months and before they started to hit that million dollar year.

So really when you’re leaning into a coaching container, don’t go in and think, think in three months I’m going to turn my whole business around. Like make a measured decision and say, I’m going to commit. Um, and go on a growth journey with this mentor, with this container, because that’s where the magic really starts to happen.

And of course, the other thing that you really need to consider is that so much of coaching can So much of your growth comes down to mindset. So make sure that any container that you pick has a heavy focus on supporting you with the mindset, not just the strategy. So if you’ve been listening to all of this and thinking, yes, I’m really ready to work with the coach to join some sort of coaching program.

I do want to share with you about my Brand new container, the profit collective. The profit collective is for six and multi six figure business owners who really want to hit those hundred thousand dollar months and build a wildly profitable business at the million dollar mark. This is for service based businesses who have really big dreams and need some help with their profit, with their finances and To really start to explode their business through mindset.

I know that you might think, do I really need a coach? Can’t I figure this all out myself? Um, and possibly you can, but the truth is, you know, most successful people in business have a mentor and even elite athletes at the peak of their careers, higher coaches, because they understand that outside perspective structured accountability and expert guidance accelerates progress dramatically.

If you are wanting to work with me inside a coaching container, come and check out the Profit Collective. The details are in the show notes for today’s episode. We do have an amazing founding members rate that you will continue to pay for as long as you stay inside this space. And I’m sure you’ll want to stay once you join.

Uh, the container has. Live coaching calls with me. You get paired up with an accountability buddy. There is an exclusive Facebook group where you can be mentored inside as well as access to several of my other programs and a live in person workshop where we spend a full day together working on your business.

So you can find out more about the Profit Collective in the show notes for today’s episode.

Let’s recap the essentials of today’s episode to really find out how to pick the right coach, the right coaching container to blow up your business this year. First of all, ensure a coach’s communication style resonates with you and that their skillset is what you were looking for. Next. Be honest about your current business stage and who you need to be around.

You want to be finding peers, you want to be finding a community of people who are at a similar stage or just slightly ahead. Next you want to do your due diligence. Check their testimonials, go and check their Google ratings, all of the things. And last but definitely not least, trust your intuition and consider the realistic timeline for results.

Remember the right coaching container can be the difference between staying stuck where you are and between explosive business growth. So make sure that you do take the time to find the perfect fit because your business. It deserves nothing less. Have a beautiful week and I’ll chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio