So you’re thinking about hiring a business coach… that’s great! The most important thing is that you get the BEST results possible from this experience. In this article, let's explore how to get the most out of a business coach.
After all, it can feel daunting, scary, or risky to hire a coach: What if you end up disappointed? What if you don’t get your expected return on investment? What if, what if, what if.
Here’s the good news: You actually have complete control over the results you get. Follow the recommendations in this blog post and you’ll be good to go!
How to get the best results from a business coach…
1. Find a coach that resonates with you.
You need to trust your coach, to feel like you’re on the same wavelength as them… and to feel like they are on the same page as you. There needs to be mutual respect and a strong sense of rapport to get the most from your coaching experience.
This includes feeling safe with your coach.
I always ask my clients if they are willing to share certain business documents with me—for example, their business plan, their weekly audits, anything that comes up for them when they are doing deep inner work on their own, etc. I also give them an opportunity to share as much or as little as they want with me. As the coach, the more that they share with me, the better that I can support them—however, it’s important that every client feels fully comfortable and safe sharing everything with me (especially since some of it may feel deeply personal or vulnerable).
Thus far, in my 5+ years of coaching, every client has been willing to share all of these things with me. Creating a safe space for them to be their full selves with me is part of what makes our coaching experiences together so valuable, transformative, and effective.
2. Decide specifically what you want to get from this experience.
Having a specific goal in mind will help you to assess whether you’re satisfied, and it will also help to direct the coaching experience so it’s tailored to your end goal in mind. What does success look like to you? What results are you after?
This includes checking with your coach to find out if what you want is realistic. Do they have expertise in this area? Based on where you’re currently at in your journey, your capacity etc., do they have a recommendation for moving the goalpost at all?
If you don’t know exactly what you want in the beginning—if you don’t have a clear, measurable goal in mind—that’s okay. That might just indicate that there’s some particularly deep work to do, so this is where it’s even more important for you to find a coach you resonate with, as outlined above.
3. Determine whether it’s still worth it if you DON’T get the results you expect.
Here’s the thing: You can actually have an amazing, transformative, successful experience with a coach, even if you don’t get exactly the results that you expect.
…But if you don’t take into consideration whether it’s still worth it, even if you get amazing results that are DIFFERENT from your anticipated results, then you might wind up disappointed. 
Here’s a great real-life example: I once had a coach who assured me that she’d help me to easily have a $10k (or more) launch. In the end, that launch was about $2k.
Now, here’s the thing: she helped me a huge amount with money mindset and confidence, which I frankly had not anticipated—and also made her coaching price tag totally worth it!
…But because I had been so fixated from the beginning on that ONE result of getting a $10k launch, I still wound up feeling disappointed with our coaching experience. *facepalm*
Nowadays, I go into every business investment with the attitude that it’s okay if I don’t get the exact result I expect—because there are still many other results I can get from the experience. And in turn, this actually helps me to vastly improve the results I get across the board. Win-win!
4. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
“Honestly, I’m a little stressed out at the idea of doing that task… It feels like it’s a lot,” a Solopreneur CEO client recently admitted to me at the end of a coaching call, when I was checking in with how they felt about their action plan.
I was SO glad that they told me this! As soon as they said those words out loud, I pumped the brakes, reframed the task, and explained a different way that we could manage that exact task…
And as a result, we reduced their workload in half with this one simple conversation, and they immediately felt much better (which they vocalized to me—but they also LOOKED visibly relieved!)
…And we sorted all of this out within literally just 3 minutes.
As the coach, I needed to hear my client tell me “I’m stressed out about this” at that moment, or else I might not have realized it was an issue.
(This is also why I’m constantly asking my clients questions and checking in with them in a variety of different ways, to ensure they have the space and opportunity to tell me what they’re thinking/feeling/experiencing—so we can work through it together)
The more that you can tell your coach, “This isn’t working,” or “I’m stressed/nervous/scared etc,” the more that your coach can do their job of coaching you through it.
By the way—This is also why it is SO important, again, to hire a coach that you resonate with and trust. The more you feel connected with them, the more open you’ll be to sharing when you’re experiencing discomfort. The more you trust your coach and the more honest you are willing to be with your coach, the more they can support you. Choose a coach who feels safe so that it creates space for this.
Another side to the coin of communication is to speak up if you’re concerned that your coach isn’t focusing on what you want help with, and to let them know if/when there’s something specific you need support on. Coaches can pick up on a lot, but we aren’t mind readers <3
5. Share your progress with them.
One of my FAVOURITE things is when clients email me progress updates or share their business documents with me (e.g. their business plan, what they worked through during one of their weekly audits, etc). Even if they don’t have any questions at the time, it helps me, as their coach, to have a really good understanding of where they’re at, anything they might be struggling with, etc.
That way, we can spend more of our time *on the coaching call* going over things they already shared with me, rather than them just rehashing what they wrote down in their business documents. In other words… sharing your progress with your coach in between sessions will give you extra coaching time.
At least, that’s how I do it with my clients 🙂
Plus—When you share your progress and/or the work you’re doing in between sessions, it also gives me, as your coach, an opportunity to notice patterns, mindset blocks, etc that you might’ve missed. And as a result, I can bring that up or guide you through issues you didn’t even see during our next session.
Super beneficial!
6. Keep track of your personal takeaways after each session.
I encourage my clients to do this, and it’s something I LOVE doing when I’m getting coaching, too.
If we do NOT keep track of our personal takeaways and “aha” moments immediately after each session, sometimes we end up losing that momentum. Especially because sometimes (*cough* often *cough*) there’s a lot of simplicity in these incredibly powerful messages we receive through our coaches… Which means that we might have our mind BLOWN during a coaching session, but then a week later, that same thought process seems “obvious” to us.
Don’t discount the magic of simplicity. We often need to hear something in a very particular way, which is why it resonates with us so powerfully and makes so much SENSE when our coach says it—It seems obvious, like we “should” have known it already.
That doesn’t diminish the value of the coach helping us to get to that point. Think about it: If that coach didn’t say it at that moment… How much longer might it have taken you to get to that realization on your own? It could be days, weeks, months, or even years.
Don’t discount the magic and power of simplicity.
The best way for you to truly “measure” your success with a coach is to keep track of your personal takeaways and “aha!” moments immediately after a session. You can do this by writing in a journal (I always provide my clients with a workbook to do this), or mindmap it on a big piece of poster paper, or record a voice memo to yourself on your phone (or share your voice memo with your coach!), or do a social media post about it, etc.
By the way—When you join Solopreneur CEO, I send you a follow-up email after every session with a recap of what we discussed and “aha!” moments from that coaching call… This makes your life easier and saves you a lot of time!
7. Take full responsibility for your own results.
Coaches are here to guide you and support you—they are not there to do the work for you. As such, you will get the best results with them when you take full responsibility for doing the work, implementing and taking action.
→ Now, that being said: Once again, it’s important to choose a coach who you connect with and who is willing and able to truly guide and support you. If something isn’t working or you aren’t happy with them, then there’s probably more to unpack and continue working through, and that’s something they should 100% be guiding you through and supporting you on. You need to do the work, but if you’re struggling to do the work, go back to point 4 (talk to them!) so they can help you identify what, exactly, is holding you back… and so that you can overcome that obstacle.
An important goal I always have with my clients—and I think they’d all agree that we succeed on this!—is to teach them how to self-coach themselves and have the capacity and capability to keep making amazing progress independently, with courage and confidence.
I have various ways that clients can continue working with me in one-on-one coaching sessions and containers, beyond our first set of sessions… and/but, I always want my clients to “renew” working with me because they enjoy the experience and want to do it, rather than that they feel like they need me holding their hand.
That’s also why, if a client needs more hand-holding early on in our coach/client relationship, I’m totally happy to do it… while also fostering independence and autonomy, so that again, they can make great progress on their own.
There is never any pressure for you, as my client, to continue working with me—although I’m delighted when you choose to do so, and there is always more we can work on together! The point is, I don’t ever want you to feel like your only option is to keep hiring me again and again. I want you to do it because you loved the results and you know I can continue helping you to skyrocket progress and because you want to keep working together, rather than you feeling like you “can't” do it on your own.
So, there you have it! 7 ways to get the best results from your business coach. To recap…
- Find a coach that resonates with you.
- Decide specifically what you want to get from this experience.
- Determine whether it’s still worth it if you DON’T get the results you expect.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Share your progress with them.
- Keep track of your personal takeaways after each session.
- Take full responsibility for your own results.
Ready to get transformative business coaching as a solopreneur? Secure your spot TODAY for solopreneur productivity coaching, before we get booked out—space is very limited!