Maximizing Your Coaching Investments & Reflections on Our 50th Episode

In the 50th episode of the Ready Set Coach Podcast, Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith discuss their experiences and insights from launching the podcast and program. They explore the strategies behind the podcast's launch and highlight commonalities among successful Ready Set Coach Program participants. They conclude by guiding maximizing personal and business growth through coaching investments.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Learn how the Ready Set Coach Podcast came to be
• Hear how Lexie and Emily started the Ready Set Coach Program
• Hear the challenges they faced when entering the coaching industry
• Common traits and actions they’ve seen their most successful clients take both in and out of the program.
• More about the upcoming Ready Set Coach Cohort
• How to maximize your coaching investments 
• And more

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

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

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

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Lexie Smith  

You should say Welcome back from the dead because I like right now. I'm really guys, I'm, it's catching up to me. I'm in a season of travel. I'm in a season of busy I got back at 2am on Saturday. We're recording this on a Monday from multiple weeks of traveling and while Emily, I'm sure you could hang my body. It's just like waving a little flag like help. And I have another trip coming up on Wednesday so I'm not slowing down.

Emily Merrell  

Are you like trying to take my place? Are you trying to do

Lexie Smith  

it you I'm trying you and I know you so I did Nashville, Hawaii. Now I have Palm Springs and then I'm doing bend but I know you have a couple trips coming up too.

Emily Merrell  

I was just in Scottsdale last week, which is gorgeous. I totally am on board of Arizona in the like not hot season. And I'm I feel you in that like depletion. And then I'm going to Chicago on Wednesday. And then on Friday morning, I'm going from Chicago to Mexico to surprise my mom. It's her 70th birthday. And my sister and I are taking her to Punta Mita. So like that's kind of my my light at the end of the tunnel. Because I just want some nice, gentle lady man to come around and be like, Hi, I would like to take your order. Would it like would you like a spicy Margarita or a spicy or Margarita? And I'd say yes, please to both.

Lexie Smith  

I did not realize it was price.

Emily Merrell  

Well, she knows she's going somewhere and my sister's boyfriend spilled the beans inside Mexico. I've been trying to throw her off the scent and tell her we're going to Alaska. I'm like, gotta make sure we got your salmon waders ready, we're gonna go we're gonna go fish. And so she knows she's going to Mexico, she doesn't know where in Mexico and she doesn't know how to listen to a podcast. So I'm not worried about this giving it away.

Lexie Smith  

She has the best daughters in the

Emily Merrell  

world. In in her defense that we use her entire Amex collection of points to, to buy this.

Lexie Smith  

And you have the best mother in the world. So it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

Emily Merrell  

It's mutually beneficial, but but lacks, I feel like the season of busy is so real. And speaking of busy, our assistant flag to us that this is our 50th episode.

Lexie Smith  

Wild 50 For those of you who have been here from the beginning, I'm sorry, slash garden. For those of you that are new, happy 50 episodes of binging 50 episodes,

Emily Merrell  

do you wanna go back and just remind people, like how we started and why we started this podcast,

Lexie Smith  

I actually have a very vivid memory of the inception of this podcast. And I'm curious if your memory is different, but I was driving back from a pediatrician appointment with my daughter in the car. And I sent you a voice note about I'm like, I don't really want to, like we need to, and we should launch a podcast. And I like have a vivid memory of sending that voice note. And then I don't remember what you said, I just have like, I don't know, isn't it weird how the brain will like only remember select things. So I don't remember why I thought that initially it will. I probably thought about it strategically. But anyways, what's your memory of when I remember

Emily Merrell  

I remember receiving that I can't recall if it was on Slack or if he voice noted slack or on on text message. But I remember being like, Oh yeah, let's do this. And this is how fast we move. Sometimes y'all. I think we launched the next day. Like I literally think we recorded it the next day and we're like, what are we going to call it? Like, how about ReadySet? Coach the podcast? Yeah, and then we're like, Well, what do we talk about and Lex and I have we both have such structured podcasts. So again, if you are still loving our voices and want more of them, I have the sixth degree with Emily Merrill, where I interview people and find out what makes them tick and Lex has pitching and sipping where she just breaks down on everything behind the PR, I don't know what's your

Lexie Smith  

the world of PR and journalism I interviewed different editors, journalist, PR pros, all things PR and media marketing.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, that sort of thing. I was going there. Anyhow, the point being is like we have such structured podcasts on the other end. So it's been a it's been such a fun outlet for our I not to speak for both of us. But I'm going to it's been such a fun outlet just to have the banter and to have each other to play off of and also to have a platform to be able to share real time learnings from our from our cohort, and be able to apply them to be able to answer questions and expand on them. While both of our podcasts or other podcasts. I don't know about you lakhs but like I record six months out seven months out at a time. So this is dropping, like in real time.

Lexie Smith  

This. So why begrudgingly sent that voice? No, I was thinking of the workload that it takes to your point put together pitching and sipping and a lot more methodical and planned. To your point, everything you just said basically, were Yes, this this podcast guys, we slack each other. We're like, alright, what should we talk about today and to our defense, we tried to be thoughtful, we do look up SEO, we do ask our cohort, we do get listener requests at this point, since we're 50 episodes deep, but it is really like we're recording this and you guys are going to hear this the same week. And so it's fun. It's so much less work. And it has been so amazing for our brand in business and so many different ways. So it's proved to me that a podcast can be effective in different ways and have different levels of workloads.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and I think while we weren't going to talk about this, this might be what we're talking about that I think a lot of the a lot we get a lot of a lot of our clients will ask us or have ambitions to start a podcast. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, maybe hold off on starting a podcast, just at least understand the workload that like to Lexi's point, what goes into things, but at the same time, like we don't have a listenership of like the millions or whatnot. But it has been if you're listening to this, you either probably know us, we are probably connected in some some capacity. Hopefully, if we're not connected, you feel comfortable reaching out to us and knowing that there's humans on the other end that want to connect with you, and want to engage. So I think if you are considering starting a podcast, how can you set it up, where it's an open dialogue for you to connect with your ideal clients or to provide more value to people who are curious and interested in the topic that you are serving?

Lexie Smith  

Well, for coaches, specifically, coaching is such an intimate container. And so a podcast is a really unique whether you do just audio or video podcasts like this has become it's an it started as a video podcast. It's a really natural way to nurture an audience into EMS point to get them to know each other. I will say though, workload wise, Emily, and I have Kaylee, who is our producer and editor extraordinaire, Emily and I do not edit this. We did the show note like there's she makes the graphics. So I don't want to discredit that there is a lot of work that goes into getting the delivery of the final product. So if you have funds that you want to invest in getting a podcast and you want to have it be more casual and off the cusp, like me and I do then it doesn't need to be the hugest time suck. But I just don't want to pretend like that workload isn't existing, because it's her workload on our scaly,

we're paying you for this. Thank you.

Lexie Smith  

coffins attack. she blogged it with us. And it kind of makes us we just wanted to do an episode of reflecting and I think beyond reflecting on the show, something we wanted to reflect upon as well. Is a little bit about our journey with ReadySet. Coach and the journey of this program and the journey of the women we've interacted with and talk to you a little bit about who are the women and what are the qualities we've seen that that have enabled them to excel in ReadySet coach, and then too, if you've made a similar investment or a different investment in yourself, how can you make the most out of a coaching investment? There's my transition. Such

Emily Merrell  

beautiful no puns involved or anything

Lexie Smith  

lusail in over here guys.

Emily Merrell  

And I the call flex. I ran for a little bit in Scottsdale and it was awesome. And then I ran today and where do I live Denver? I was like, holy effing altitude like you can. That's literally my lung on fire right there. The coffee we're

Lexie Smith  

running. I'm off the bandwagon right now.

Emily Merrell  

I'm very off the band. Right. And there was a Michael, I was like, let's make it to like, seven minute mile. I'm running slower than I ran as a like a chubby 10 year olds. So anyway, I digress. It's fine. We're getting there. Good babies.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so let's first like talk back. This is also an episode where, if you're new here, we want to get you up to speed on what ReadySet coach is. So Ready Set coach started. Similar to what it looks like today, but it's evolved. So when we first the first iteration of ReadySet, Coach looks a bit different than it is today. So today, ReadySet coach is for those looking to add a coaching revenue stream to their life, this can be in the form of a side hustle, this can be you already have a business, and you just want to diversify. The income streams can be your consultant, for example, and you want to add a coaching arm or to be honest, if you're a new coach, and it just hasn't hit yet. We're also for you.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and I think we should I want to share with you guys, so just a little history of Ready Set coach, we started in 2020. And by we started, Lexi, and I probably spent like a good majority of our Christmas break, ideally, in this problem, this this desire to create something of group. And both of us had wanted to create group and we'd had clients that had been shopping between both of us and wanted to choose between both of us when really, we saw this as an opportunity to come together and to create something in tandem. And I we've reiterated this story before, but both of us have our own businesses. And I never wanted a co founder for six degrees society. And I know Lex, you didn't want to co founder for the PR bar, Inc. So something and it was an opportunity for us to create a completely brand new blank slate that was ours to be birthed together. So Ready Set coach we wanted to, we looked at problems, we thought about problems that we were really, we really wanted to solve, but we didn't have bandwidth to solve within our own businesses. And it was both of us could agree on the shared journey. Our own unique journey into becoming coaches was challenging. It was it didn't we didn't have we hired coaches, we all we both hired individual coaches and kind of banded together are what we have now through a lot of trial, a lot of error. And we're like, wouldn't that be so cool if we could hand deliver all the things that we had learned without making all the costly mistakes on the way. And that's where ReadySet coach really came to take shape. And Lex came up with a beautiful name,

Lexie Smith  

which I don't don't ask me where that came from. But we and there is a whole episode when we reflect back on the past 50 episodes. That goes a lot more into that story in detail. And Emily and I story. So feel free. I think that's one of the first episodes probably back. Yeah, so that was kind of why and one of the things too, that we found is challenging, or a lack thereof that we saw on the market was there was a ton of group business programs that invited general categories, like maybe they said creatives, or maybe it said, you know, insert, like a more general it could be a small business owner, female business owner, but there wasn't something that just spoke to the coach in this this business model, whether you're doing it as a side hustle or revenue stream or full time. It's very specific. There's a very specific way to grow, to create to grow, and to maneuver the challenges that come and having a coaching revenue stream or business. Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

I completely agree. And so in reflecting so we've we ideated in 2020 2021 July, we launched our first cohort, and we have had so many extraordinary women going through our program. And so you can actually take take a moment if you're via computer you can check out our coach directory, which we need to update lacks fun to do for us.

Lexie Smith  

page on the website. Kelly,

Emily Merrell  

if you're listening in your free time, no but we have these incredible women and what I what I love about what we do in our program is we're servicing women who have all these different types of coaching expertise. So we are not teaching you how to coach. We are not teaching you how to be a self discovery and well being coach or a life coach or a design coach. That is your expertise. So we're supporting him on the business side of the coaching world. So that means getting your systems in place, getting your sales pitch in place getting your yourself in place, because there's so many to do's sometimes you don't know what to do to do first.

Lexie Smith  

It's business school for coaches really it it's in like specific like your Masters in Business for coaches, we should use that line.

Emily Merrell  

I was about to say that new tagline new tagline question mark,

Lexie Smith  

in real time. I use that all the time when we talk. But yeah, so guys, hold us accountable. message us if you don't see.

Emily Merrell  

Max, how can people find out how to work

Lexie Smith  

with us? Super simple, go to ReadySet. Coach program.com. And you can show knows that first cohort we sold out which was really, really cool. If you have been in the game a while you will know it is not an easy feat to sell something out. That's new. Right now we are in our fourth cohort and we are actively enrolling in our fifth, we already have women who have signed up, depending on when you're listening to this. If you're listening in us listening to us in real time and you want to join the upcoming cohort, feel free to reach out and we can tell you if there's new sponsor answer any questions for you. But what the program looks like today, because like I said, iteration one looks different today. Emily, let's start there. What does the program high level look like today? What do we do? What do we offer?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, so today, we support you both through one on one coaching. So each individual who's a part of this program, even at our base tier gets one on one support from Lex and myself, that means they get a one on one hour call with me one on one hour call with Lex. And then they also get modules that are dropped by weekly, and accountability buddies that are dropped by weekly. And then the weeks that we're meeting, we do live group 80 minute group coaching sessions. So we tackle everything from money, mindset and management of your business and messaging of the of the business that you were communicating out to the world.

Lexie Smith  

I'm already touched on some of the things we talked about. But again, we're going from foundational, basic levels of Who are your people No, like really, who are your people and niching down for coaching, specifically talking about psychographics and demographics to creating an offer or refining your offer if you already have one, to pricing to systems, to market research, to marketing, to sales to thought leadership to PR if you know my background, I'm deep in PR Emily has a deep background and in community and events so you get access to us in our networks as experts. And you get to be a part of a really intimate, terminated group and community of other coaches. And one of the coolest things I think that has come from this program that I never foresaw or for saw when we ideated it was they highlight each other? Yeah, they're sitting in a group where they have clients right next to them,

Emily Merrell  

totally. And then they're collaborating with one another there. I see them going live on Instagram all the time, or having each other on podcasts or posting about one another's businesses on LinkedIn. So it's kind of like getting these built in marketing ambassadors and machines. As you're establishing your coaching business. And in LAX. I think one of the things too, I'd like to call us and maybe we use this as marketing material as well, is we're kind of like your naggy moms too, is we hold you accountable. And we we set up the the work in which you need to be done and we help you get to where you were dreaming to be. So you can buy a course and you can spend all the money on a course. But if you don't have someone that's saying like where are you? Why are you at today's session, it's hard to actually do the work of the course. So in addition to like helping keep you accountable and on track of the business of your dreams. I think one of the things too is we we help check some of the ambitions that people have and that sounds really negative, but it made it in a positive way where we'll have individuals who are like I want to make $500,000 By the end of this year, and I want to work and have 12 clients a day. And we're like That's awesome. We love that we support that that dream. But let's you also chose this route because you want to spend more time horseback riding or you want to spend more time with your kids or fill in the lawn to spend more time bucket and pulling back the lens of avoiding the burnout. lakhs is queen, you know has a first hand experience of like being carried out carried out of her job from burnout. I haven't experienced like crying myself to sleep from burnout, like we all have burnout. So we're trying to help you build and grow and establish your brand in a piece that feels realistic. Well also setting those pricing and revenue revenue goals that seem achievable.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. And actually, I came five minutes late to this podcast recording today because I was on a one on one call with a couple women from our cohort there, they're going through as a duo, co founders today. And to that point, we just talked a lot about PR. And they, they felt very, very overwhelmed. So prior to a seminar, I said, How can we break this down into a step by step process of how to begin, how can this feel less overwhelming, let's start with Plan A, these are the, you know, three to five things you can do now. And then we can always work up to the longer term things. So we're here to make this work for you. We're not going to shove, one way is the right way down your throat. We're here to support you as a coach and as a business owner, and have you create this business in a way that supports you. Were huge fans of our program, you can go to our website, ReadySet. Coach program.com. To learn more, I highly encourage you to check it out. If you're interested in launching or growing that coaching arm of your business. The other thing I did want to chat on before we sign off is Emily and I now going into our fifth cohort have started to see commonalities on the women who do really, really well and see great results. Our program is not free, we put a price tag on it and we put a price tag that we feel is fair, we have tiered pricing depending on where you sign up like the the package you select, and it starts at $4,500. Okay, so that the reason we do that, besides us knowing it's worth it is it has you put some skin in the game and putting some skin in the game, I think from the get go already has you showing up more. So step one, kind of the hurdle, like the first hurdle that we need for our coaches that do well is to commit to putting their skin in the game. Second, the thing that we see is the women who show up consistently and trust the process and do the work. And they stay with it see results. I know that sounds so simple. But you would be so surprised how many people don't take advantage of the container. thing I've noticed Emily, what about you?

Emily Merrell  

I think it's so one of the things I failed to mention too, is we offer office hours. So bi weekly office hours, the weeks that we're not meeting live, Lex and I both offer an office hour where we show up on Slack. And we support the community of individuals. And the people that are there for every office hours, like kind of using and abusing us are the ones that seem to go that much further to. They're like constantly working and iterating and innovating within their business. And they're squeezing every opportunity they have. So they're showing up to six degrees events, which is something that they get complimentary as members of this of the cohort. They're taking advantage of any other freebies that we're offering in terms of being a part of the cohort. Yeah, just just like showing up, I think is in being open minded and showing up as a beginner's mindset, even if they might know the things or have done the things in the past. Going through the process. On our terms,

Lexie Smith  

yeah, I think how this is transferable to any coaching investment that you make, is, make sure you understand all the the nuts and bolts and features and opportunities that this container is giving you. If they give you homework, do the homework, if they're optional, office hours, go to office hours, right? Also, typically, the size of the investment can sometimes be conducive to how much you get in return. There's a reason a $97 course is a $97 course, right? So if when I said the number 4500, that feels big to you. There's a reason it's priced that way. That means your results are big, too, if you show up and you take advantage of what we've created. So for whatever you've invested in currently, or you're going to invest in, make sure you really hold yourself accountable to using what you paid for it. Right?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, yeah. So this is tis the season of dusting off all those courses, dusting off all of those investments, especially the ones that were self paced, which you can be like, hey, yeah, I'm gonna do it for my summer vacation, or I'm gonna do I'm gonna do X, Y and Z time To carve out, we've talked about this before, but carve out the time to actually accomplish those things. And if for whatever reason, you're like, Oh, I can't invest in a live course, or I can't invest in X, Y, and Z until I accomplish x, y, and z, then accomplish it. So you can then grant yourself that permission to move forward and really get the accountability you deserve.

Lexie Smith  

Yep. So that's kind of the theme that we wanted to bring to this episode, which was a hodgepodge. Reflections, you know, we, we started this, this thing that we're doing the podcast the business imperfectly, but it has grown into something so beautiful, because we've committed to it. And we've showed up time and time again, and we're going to continue to show up time and time again. So whether it be a course, or a podcast, you've been wanting to start, just commit just That's not a word.

Just just Yeah, and commit and commit to the long haul. And you may

Emily Merrell  

as well man, a double homework get to LAX, I think this was such a nice chance for us to to reflect on what we've created. We've had over 40 Something women come or Yeah, high 40s of women come through our program in some capacity. And just giving ourselves a pat on the back were turned, it was just a like, let's see if this thing sticks. Like I don't know, I don't know if this is legit or not. And then here we are five cohorts and to adult babies later, and a podcast so just remember to give yourself a little opportunity to reflect on all the things that you've accomplished because so often we can look forward at what we need to accomplish and and forget to just think the past version of ourselves for getting the ball going

Lexie Smith  

and to just toot our own horns and that is we're doing all this with other businesses. I was just an why you're going to Mexico Yeah, just I'm gonna high five US for walking the walk. Oh,

Emily Merrell  

yeah. Yeah, I guess Yeah,

well sell club do it

Lexie Smith  

yourself. So thanks for listening to us for 50 episodes. If you haven't, bonus somewhere, go listen to our 50 episodes. And

bonus episode or bonus bonus.

Emily Merrell  

Give us a review. If you haven't if you're like a silent listener, and haven't reviewed us we love we love getting your reviews popping up and it's like such a beautiful surprise and delight and and we so appreciate you as our audience.

Lexie Smith  

So thank you guys so much for listening. And cheers to many more episodes to come on. Look ready?

That coach

Lexie Smith  

podcast. Oh man.

Emily Merrell  

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