How to Add a Coaching Revenue Stream to Your Existing Business

Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith discuss how to add a coaching revenue stream to your already existing business. They disclose how entrepreneurs can achieve true wealth and why becoming a coach is such a great business model. The two explore the different ways you can add a coaching arm to your already existing business and how and where to get started today. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Who can add a coaching revenue stream to their business
• Why Emily decided to add a coaching revenue stream to her business
• What helped Em finally pass the six-figure mark as an entrepreneur
• How people develop and achieve true wealth
• Why Lexie was initially attracted to coaching
• Examples of the different ways you can add a coaching revenue stream to your existing business model 
• How service providers - from agencies to consultants, to photographers, etc., can (and maybe should) consider adding a coaching offer to their business
• How and where you can get started in adding a coaching revenue stream to your business today? 
• And more!

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Snag 5 Numbers to Know to Launch a Coaching Business here.

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

 How to Add a Coaching Revenue Stream to Your Existing Business - Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith  

Hi psychopath. How are you?

Emily Merrell  

That's a friendly, very friendly context.

Lexie Smith  

We were chatting before we hit record and I just have to call out Emily. Because Emily What are you about to do over the course of the next like seven hours?

Emily Merrell  

No nothing. Right. Well, let's see I have to pack and and then going to a comedy show. I don't think I told you I also have a virtual happy hour of work and with a friend to do worse Yes. And then I have a comedy show. That will probably go till about 10 But then I have some time to kill still because my flights not till 12:55am And I'm flying to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Savannah for a friend's bachelor ret ish party.

Lexie Smith  

So let me recap. We are sitting here it's 4pm girl still has to pack then she's having a virtual happy hour then she's going to a comedy show then she's going to a red eye flight.

Emily Merrell  

Hold on. I also have to edit I have to finish editing the video but I have so much time between the layovers that I have I feel like I'm gonna knock out all of my October newsletters probably November newsletters finish editing and video and you know clean up my inbox

Lexie Smith  

your you know, girl, you are living life to the fullest and I will say comedy shows are my favorite activity. When I went to my bachelorette party. I had one request in Chicago. Okay, one request was to go to a comedy show so like I'm all about the comedy I just also very sick right now. So I'm extra legacy in the sense of that sounds exhausting?

Emily Merrell  

Well, it's funny. My husband loves the band Wilco and I got him Wilco tickets last year for his 40th birthday. And Jackson arrived three weeks early. So we unfortunately had to give away our Wilco tickets. And so Wilco is playing tonight. And like there was a part of me that was like, should we go to Red Rocks? Should I nix the comedy show?

Lexie Smith  

Go to Red Rocks. I mean, you could stream red rocks on your phone while at the comedy club while also look you're living life to the fullest.

Emily Merrell  

I'm all about you know. Not putting all my eggs in one basket,

Lexie Smith  

which Oh, oh my god, you just did the frickin best tee up. Okay, no, you know, you don't put all your eggs in the basket. You have lots of eggs, you juggle all the eggs. And you know what's really great about that if you drop one egg, you still have other eggs. And what we're going to be talking about today are having different eggs with your business. Specifically, if you're listening, and you are someone who has an existing business, and you're looking for more eggs, if you're looking for more revenue, hey, we have an idea. Why not add a coaching revenue stream to your existing business?

Emily Merrell  

Oh, again, back to the like Womp womp corny music here we go. Like that was beautiful. I love it. Let's talk about this. Because I think it's interesting. There's two different types of people out there. They're the people that quit their corporate jobs, get a coaching certification, set up a beautiful website, post a few things on Facebook and are like, Hey, I'm a coach. Listen to me roar. And then there are the people who have really successful businesses. And a lot of people come to them and are like, Hey, how did you build this successful business? And they might accidentally backflip into coaching and start teaching people how they started that successful business. So today we're talking chill the ladder.

Lexie Smith  

Right, right. Right, which I think is a great segue to say that Miss Emily Merrill is the perfect example of this. So if you've listened to some of our past episodes, and you heard about our transition into coaching you might have heard Emily's story but am high level. Tell refresh everyone's memory on kind of how you backed your way into adding this egg in to your basket.

Emily Merrell  

All Lex it's actually funny to reflect on because even going back to the corporate world, I was inadvertently helping people get jobs just they would ask how I got my job, I would give them networking strategies. I got more people than I would like to admit their jobs like I still do. I've gotten every ambassador for my company, I've gotten them a job, which is really, it's actually really cool stat to think about any help. So when I started six degrees, society, people asked me all the time, like, how did you get a venue to host you for free? How did you find your speaker? How did you find your people? How did you launch in a new market? And I would sit down, and this was, you think I'm a psychopath now but like Emily yester years in New York City, would have meetings starting from like her first workout class at 6am, till a late dinner ending at midnight. Yes. And then I would work for like two hours. And I would just give people advice. And I would make connections, and I was really generous and make connections. And then probably after a year and a half of doing that, I also started feeling kind of resentful, and kind of anxious, when people would ask these questions, because I was giving so much of myself and so much value, but not necessarily seeing the return of that energy exchange. And that's what it is. It's an exchange of energy and exchange of ideas. And so it wasn't until I hired a specific coach who she was like, You're, you're a coach, you need to start charging money for these time exchanges.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. And what is a big milestone that you hit, when you didn't just have six degrees society, but you ended up adding on a coaching revenue stream, what did you pass,

Emily Merrell  

I passed my six figure mark, I was oscillating by it. And it really is fully, like helped me surpass it, and it and I was able to do it by doing what I love, which is helping people. But I was also able to do it with boundaries in place where I was able to, you know, let people know how we communicate with one another, what were my deliverables and also like the time constraint, rather than being an on demand, like suck me for information type, friend and person. So it not only did as someone who loves to give, it helped me protect my energy, it helped me make more money. And it also it I don't know how this happened and how I didn't think strategically about this before. It led to six degrees, society being a natural transition into coaching, where I had been building this, like know and trust for individuals for so many years, that when I turned on the light and said that I was a coach, I had clients.

Lexie Smith  

If you're an ambitious, professional consultant, or business owner, who is feeling called to do more, be more or make more, we'd like to invite you to learn more about Ready Set coach,

Emily Merrell  

do you feel called to create change, help others do something outside of your day to day that generates true impact.

Lexie Smith  

While you may or may not be content with your day job or existing business? Do you feel called to dip your toes into something more? Whether it's tapping into another zone of genius, or the side hustle is calling your name? Are you ready to explore what being more would look like?

Emily Merrell  

Do you feel like your business or career is leaving money on the table or you're looking to launch a new revenue stream or side hustle?

Lexie Smith  

Turning your expertise into a coaching revenue stream or side hustle is rewarding, impactful, and a great business model. It's the triple threat, multibillion dollar industry that Perhaps you've been looking for this whole time.

Emily Merrell  

If you want to explore more on how to add a coaching revenue stream into your life, we invite you to explore our website ReadySet coach program.com

Lexie Smith  

applications are now open for our 2023 cohort. Yeah, so smart and we just want to plant this seed guys. If you think of shows like Shark Tank or think of people you're seeing on the cover of Forbes, when we talk about people who from a financial standpoint have achieved true wealth. They're doing just one thing. They have lots of AIDS, they have multiple eggs. Getting into coaching shouldn't just be financially motivated at all. There's so much in past there's so much opportunity for impact, but we'd be remiss not to call out that it also was really great business model, which is what to be honest, attracted me to it again, you might have heard my story, but I heard about coaching first on a podcast. And I was working in corporate at the time, or startup land but we call it corporate general and He was really, really intrigued by the whole concept, the whole concept of teaching a man to fish versus fishing for them. I found it attractive the more I looked into it, it made sense monetarily, there's you know, relatively there's no cost of goods, I didn't have to buy a manufacturing plant all that fun fact, my family has. Anyways, I digress. But I was super, super interested in the the revenue model of it all. So just for anyone listening, let's say you have, we're gonna give you a bunch of examples on what this could look like for you. Let's say okay, so Emily's, if we put it out on paper, right? She had a female networking company, people were coming to her. How do you market? How do you post events? How do you build community, right? Those then became pillars, she can do all the things to an arm that she could coach on. So that's one of one example. I'll give one more than I'll toss the ring back to you, Emily Merrill, let's say you are a Pilates instructor. And you have a successful Pilates studio. Well, maybe you offer a arm of coaching, that is teaching other Pilates instructors how to have their own Pilates studio or their own Pilates business. Right? That could be a stream. All right. Um, what are some other examples?

Emily Merrell  

Those are great examples, Lex, I think photographers. And you also have to think like, if you are listening to this, and you're a business, that's a service that you might, you might expire at some point. So I'll say that with photographers, like photographers are working, you know, three fourths of the year, their weekends are dedicated to weddings, or they're dedicated. It's a very physical and demanding jobs. But if you want to live remotely, or if you want to, if you want to have kids, and you are building a family, like your life might be evolving a time. So photographers, it could be really great to create a coaching revenue stream, where you teach people like how to land weddings, what to charge for weddings, contracts, procedures, maybe an editing style that's like uniquely yours, but it can be taught out could even be like, your signature program is teaching people how to edit photos for new photographers, it could even be something like how to take pictures. So I think what what is important to do if you have a business is to a think about like, what kind of lifestyle you want to have and be how can this? What are the things that you get asked most of the time that you probably are giving away generously?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, that's great. You know, another example, I want to give out in the service industry, so not service industry, like restaurants or service based industry. So my marketing consultants out there, my advertising agency owners? Yeah, I'm sure, yeah, social media, I'm sure you have had people come to you wanting your services. And then when they hear your reoccurring retainer, price tag, they go, oh, oh, no, luncheon is an opportunity. Because it's not generally speaking, it's not traditionally the same revenue reoccurring model as consulting or firm would be, is a way for you to service those people now. Until they reach a point where maybe they then upgrade or upsell into your done free services. So it's a way to actually capture more, offer more tiers to people that are coming to you,

Emily Merrell  

I completely agree. And it's actually it's interesting to think about, a lot of my friends that I have that are really successful, they, they had a product based company and like they do have my I would say our big sisters and like mentors in this business of life. One had a jewelry based company and one had a candle and fragrance company, and it was very taxing for them and their lives definitely evolved when when they started growing their family. Now they teach people how to create a fragrance or how to create like a beauty, beauty focus business and or how to create marketing for a product based company. So I loved that they were able to coach on the thing that they like had to figure out as they were building their own businesses.

Lexie Smith  

Really, as you're hearing the sky's the limit here and the really cool and good news for you listening if you have an existing business is you've done a lot of the groundwork meaning you don't necessarily depending on depending on the type of business model you have. This can just be an additional revenue stream so you don't need to go necessarily back to the basics and how to register my you know, LLC with the state right there. Why not throw up again, it depends on your your business model. Why not throw for an agency An arm up on your site that says are you interested in, you know, coaching, here's, here's the calendar, this is how much it is for a 60 minute call or a 90 minute call, you can start small. So don't think that you need to change your entire business. There's ways that literally even tomorrow, you could start to monetize in the form of coaching, which is really cool.

Emily Merrell  

Basically, put it on LinkedIn, you can do like a 30 minute or 60 minute session, use Calendly, use the checkout capability on Calendly, and see how it goes. See what the feedback is with people, when they book you book your sessions. And I was gonna say, Lex, one of the things that I really love is, with ReadySet, coach, we're able to take that person who is testing out every, you know, like a 30 minute call and 60 minute call, and it's falling in love with coaching, but still needs a little guidance and the execution of the coaching arm of their business. And we help them walk through those steps and really help them position themselves as the thought leader in the coaching world.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, because you might be an expert in how to build a candle business or an expert in, you know how to heal gut health. But that doesn't mean you're an expert in how to grow a coaching revenue stream, or how to set it up or how to sell that. And that's where we're trying to, to fill in the dots. We were reflecting recently on Who are some of the most successful people that have been through our program. And it has been people who were existing business owners, you know, they know how to do business, this isn't their first rodeo per se, but this is the first go at coaching. We're able to meet them where they're at and guide them so that you know, they don't have to spend the years and years you know, fumbling and trying to figure it out.

Emily Merrell  

And I think the big advantage of the people who do have the businesses prior is they have the networks and they have the connections and they have the like know and trust. They're not building that completely from scratch. They they have an integrity, they have integrity behind them. So people are trusting what they're selling and eager to chomp up new offerings.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. So to kind of bring this home. Here's a little homework for you guys. Okay. First, we want you to think about what are some questions that you get asked over and over again, right? Two people ask you how do you do this? How did you do this? Put that down? Step one. If nothing comes up, then get a little creativity and brainstorm. What do you know how to do that relates to your current business? Do you know how to land wholesale accounts? Do you know how to shop for specific dietary needs? You know, are you a dietician? Step one is to brainstorm what is that how that you can teach or the problem that you could solve?

Emily Merrell  

I think that's great homework and shoot us a DM I would love to hear what that how looks like so check us out at ReadySet coach program on Instagram and start the

Lexie Smith  

conversation with us. Okay, until next time,

Emily Merrell  

cheers. If you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, visit ReadySet coach program.com