Ready Set Coach Podcast

5 Reasons We've Seen Other Coaches Fail

• Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith • Season 2 • Episode 87

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This week’s episode focuses on 5 different reasons Em & Lex have seen other coaches fail. Drawing from real-world examples, they also share how these reflections can be reframed as an opportunity for growth. They emphasize the importance of mindset, self-awareness, time management, and marketing. They wrap things up by offering a way to audit your own business to ensure you’re not making one of these common mistakes. 


Here’s what you’ll learn: 

  • What having a scarcity mindset means, and how it affects your coaching business
  • How desperate energy is transferable onto sales calls
  • Some of the main reasons businesses fail in a cyclical fashion
  • Why time dictates whether a coach finds success, or not
  • Tips on setting realistic time expectations
  • The concept of trend hopping, how to avoid it, and what to do instead
  • And more!


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Lexie Smith  

You just sniffled. I just sniffled. I know.


Emily Merrell  

I was gonna say I feel like I'm really sniffily today.


Lexie Smith  

Oh, I just like the amount of Kleenex I have gone through even in the last 24 hours, I think I need a new Costco run for toilet paper.


Emily Merrell  

And you really understand at that moment, like, it's important to invest in the stock of toilet paper, especially when you're blowing your nose on it. Or anything. Like you can tell like the chafing of your nose, depending on what what your idea of good toilet paper was the last season of toilet paper buying 100%


Lexie Smith  

I've deemed this sickness, a daycare cold because I think I've only not been sick, like one week this year. So it's just the new normal and it's ongoing and just as some weeks and not, not as far as other weeks, but I don't think it's ever gone away. Completely


Emily Merrell  

agree. Actually. I was telling Greg, I was like, I don't like being sick. Because I feel I feel weak. I'm like, I'm one of those people that like when I'm sick and weak. And then if I'm weak, then no one wants to keep me on my island and then I'm gonna be voted off the island today. Probably survival



of the fittest is not a bad stuff, though. My book we read with Lord of the Flies.



Thank you. Yeah,


Emily Merrell  

yeah. Yeah, I know.


Lexie Smith  

Me, I've been so sick my whole life. It's just like, I'm okay. So you know who I remind myself of? And then adjacent way, quick squirrel. If you guys don't know this about Mni. But we're big readers. If you're longtime listeners, you should know that. But yeah, I think you've finished all the forthcoming books, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. too. If you have not read the fourth thing, and you like fantasy, crap, run, don't walk. I'm obsessed. But violet, soaring. Touring. Gil, how are you?



I'm so excited. You're quoting this? Yes.


Lexie Smith  

Well, she says, I mean, we're adjacent but different. She says something I was reading last night like, little do they know, like, I always lived my whole life in pain. And I was like, I kind of feel like, Oh, little do they know, like, I'm always sick.


Emily Merrell  

So anyways, I thought you would relate to her a lot. I actually thought of you in that she like struggles through pain a lot. This is guys. This is now a therapy session for AlexNet. Um, but she struggles through pain a lot. But she's so much stronger than a lot of people give her credit for like, Oh, her brain, like her bones are gonna break or this is happening. It's a real diagnosis. Supposedly. I googled it.


Lexie Smith  

I've never I don't know if they ever like officially tell us what she has. But they haven't at this point other than just she's brittle,


Emily Merrell  

brittle bone syndrome. I don't know. Anyhow, yeah, that's very, very, very fun stuff there. But like is not a failure. She's not a failure. She is are you going to do it, just do it. I


Lexie Smith  

just kind of felt protective and wanted to steal it back because I saw you were about to do it. And they'll do it. And I'm like, it's my turn. Violet is not a failure. However, we have seen failures. No one is a failure. But we have seen other coaches, quote unquote, by definition fail. Having a coaching business, and today we're going to deep dive into different five different reasons, or five different diagnosis things that we think led to their demise.


Emily Merrell  

Oh my god, that was so violent. I was those dark out of their device. Um, I'm gonna take like a golden retriever spin on this. And just like sprinkle this within, but I think while we're going to talk about their demise, we're going to talk about your opportunity as a coach to succeed and fill the gaps that these people may have missed.


Lexie Smith  

Yeah, because they died on


Emily Merrell  

the Parfitt in fourth week. Where they fired by a dragon is this Yes. Our next episode should really just be in metaphor. About fourth wing. You liked it better than a coat of A Court of Thorns and Roses. You said



I think I I think so.


Lexie Smith  

Hard because I'm so interested. Now. I do like it better than the Throne of Glass series. That one I could put down. There were elements of Kotar court of Throne throne and roses. There were moments and books where I couldn't put it down. I felt like the whole fourth ring first book I couldn't put down. So


Emily Merrell  

Lexie finished his book in like a day and that's not your normal reading. I


Lexie Smith  

mean, I was in Mexico. So I have the time and I tap tapped my husband and I'm like no, no, you have To keep watching our child because like there's a dragon right now and he's doing this and like, I can't stop won't


Emily Merrell  

stop. Okay. Okay. I was waiting for her husband read the book and was obsessed with it tear. I was like, oh guys to this. I feel like, yeah,


Lexie Smith  

the only reason I'm chopping our squirrels every month guys we host mix and mingle for the Ready Set coach community if you are not in our community, what are you doing with your life? And that makes me feel it's going down in 21 minutes. So we need to be podcast is wrapped up before then. So let's dive right in. What is one reason we've seen a coach fail?


Emily Merrell  

I don't know. What's the reason?


Lexie Smith  

I'm asking you.


Emily Merrell  

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I kid I kid I kid sorry, guys, we just came off other stuff? Well, I think one of the biggest things, and this is actually probably the number one reason we've seen people not succeed is their mindset and specifically embracing or embodying, like a scarcity mindset encompassed with desperate energy. So for example, being like if this doesn't work, I'm a failure, using those words. So really walking into it, like already kind of Destiny destiny in themselves to be failures. Also, kind of like how do I say it in terms of scarcity, just like Nicoline and diamond everything referencing their bank account, referencing how much money they don't have referencing and like, I need to make a client sale or, or something awful happens,


Lexie Smith  

I think to when what we've seen when people are truly in scarcity mindset, they run and grasp on to excuses left and right. So an excuse might be a well, they can't afford me or, Oh, my prices are too high. Or oh, no one needs this right now. Like there's always an excuse available for them to grasp onto to like tough love, make them feel better about what's going down. When actually like, Emily's golden retriever and retriever spin earlier is the opposite of that. That was her taking. I mean, I wasn't trying to be Simpson directly related, but like she's been able to just reframe and write my, my demise into something positive. And there are so many people that is so common. Yeah, for people to not do that in coaching.


Emily Merrell  

Yeah, no 100% I love I'm not trying to we're not trying to scare you or whatnot. But in terms of mindset, I think the reframe of the scarcity mindset would be like giving yourself an abundance mindset or a magnetic mindset, and approaching your selling process and approaching your coaching business with openness versus that fear and doom and gloom and


Lexie Smith  

desperate energy a little bit more, because I think, you know, there's a very real factor behind the scenes, let's say you left your job, and you really do need to pay rent. And so that that is a reality, right? Like, if you don't get clients, you don't have income, you can't pay your bills. And we're not lessening that at all. But there are people who take that energy, which is very clear, and they bring that to a sales call. And it shows up in how they speak it shows up and how they interact, and it ultimately loses in the sale. So it's something to be mindful of. And it's something that like anything with mindset you have to practice daily to overcome, because it's quite natural to be in a state of fight flight or freeze which scarcity can be related to so we're not saying it's easy to overcome these hurdles, in fact, are so so common Emily and I have had them at different Yeah. But if you can't figure out how to overcome them, or the coaches we've seen, not be able to overcome them. Those are the ones we've seen unsuccessful. And then


Emily Merrell  

what usually happens is and back in my corporate role that they didn't love that led them to burnout that led them to coaching, rinse and repeat. Yeah, which is a bummer, which is a real real real bummer. And that also well we can talk talk about that in another episode so I'm gonna continue going on. So lacks what is another reason you think that people don't make it to the finish line. Don't cross the parapet as we visit parafin


Lexie Smith  

parapet we're talking about fourth wing if you're like, what's that word? I don't know. Just read the books read the book. Exactly. So this is this is mindset of Jason, but a little different. And I would say people who don't give it enough time, people To put unrealistic time expectations on how long they're going to give themselves to succeed. Now, the big question there is, what what does that mean? Like, what is enough time to make this succeed? And I think there's a lot of variables, because it depends on how all in you're going if you're only working on this business, one hour a week, and you know, you might need a couple of years to get this thing going. flipside, if you're working on it full time, you know, maybe a year feels more realistic. Regardless, we see people putting these parameters and I think this is due a lot of times to false advertising we see spoken on social media, this false idea of overnight successes, but when someone expects their business to be successful in 90 days and six months, even in that first year, hoping they're going to hit six figures. And then once they don't just give me an up, you don't fail until you quit. Or what's that saying? I don't know. It's impossible to fail if you never quit. Oh, I like that. Something like that. If I just made that up and trademark,


Emily Merrell  

trademark, and Lexie Smith, well, I've mentioned this before, but I, I was recently purging my website, and I removed probably 80 blog posts featuring businesses that are no longer in existence. These are people that build something, and then for whatever reason, decided to close up shop. So failure is, is commonplace. But if you don't give yourself enough time, it will definitely happen. If you give yourself time. It's like running a marathon. If you pace yourself, and you are realistic with yourself, and you train for it, it will most likely net out the way that you want it to versus if you start sprinting at a marathon.


Lexie Smith  

Yeah, so basically, summary number two reasons we've seen people fails, they've given up too soon. They aren't giving time. What is numero tres,


Emily Merrell  

tres is going too broad. So when this is an example of when someone's like, oh, I serve men, women and children. And the demographics range from making $30,000 a year to $3 million a year. And you're like, wow, okay, that's cool. Can we talk about your marketing, and they're like, Well, we're going to market to everyone. And, and this is something that I've done, this is something that Lexie has done, like, this is something we've done collectively, it is so hard to find your focus when you're like, I don't know who my person is. Maybe you don't know who your demographic is. And I think going broad is kind of like a, let me throw out a big net, and I'll see what I get. And then and then I'll serve those people, but lacks, what are the challenges of going well, I


Lexie Smith  

think too, going broad and also too many offerings. Like I think you have to broaden your offer suite. Meaning I'm going to serve five different people and I'm going to give them seven different ways to work with me because maybe that's what they're gonna want. Like you're the forever 21 store. And we're well it's great that forever 21 You know, works at all they're what a billion dollar business like, it's just not it's not transferable. It's not the same business model. So the more options you have, the more people you're speaking to the more confusing your business, the harder it is to market. I just I see it as a common default when people go niche and they aren't seeing quick success niche they're going oh, maybe maybe I need to widen the net. And you know, there are circumstances and maybe you are too niche if you're looking for people who are 21 with pink hair who make $19 An hour who like cats, and you're expecting to scale with that demographic and their names are Harriet maybe yeah, we want to you know, offer some Anna's into the mix. Do you quickly so you know what, nevermind. I'm gonna serve everyone. Yeah, we've never seen that pan out. Well,



yes. All right. I love that example.


Lexie Smith  

I don't know where that came from.


Emily Merrell  

Who likes cats? What other book is she reading guys? What other book okay, Lex, what is number four.


Lexie Smith  

So focusing on the wrong strategies and doing what I say trend topping. Now I also want to give a disclaimer, it is really hard to know what the wrong strategy is one year starting out. However, what I mean by Trend topping, and I for sure definitely fell victim to this when I first started. You know, you see one coach doing really well saying you have to do a webinar funnel. Then you try that for 30 days. It doesn't work. Okay, so now everyone in their mom is only doing rails so I'm going to put all my basket in the reals basket And we're going to try that for 30 days and then we're going to work away now everyone's on tick tock so trend hopping on strategies that really aren't conducive to you as a coach and you as a business. And


Emily Merrell  

I think it's also being really inauthentic to who you are to your point where your magnetism doesn't shine through, or you're like, Yeah, everyone's doing this lip synching thing and pointing and doing the boppity boo boo boos. And yeah, Lexi's demonstrating it beautifully if you're watching on YouTube, but I think that aspect of like, if that doesn't feel authentic, it that energy shines through to you. And that shines through to who you are. And I think about it also, like talking on stories, maybe, you know, you've seen coaches that are like super dynamic, and they're out walking and talking on stories, and that feels so natural to them, and you try it and you feel like a fish out of water. Like you need to need to find the strategy, and you need to find the place that looks that feels right for you. And I will use us as an example x like, one of my favorite things for us is podcasting. I love being able to have this platform to podcast and also have these conversations, where it's not guys, it's not scripted at all. And it's it's raw, shocked. All of the squirrels totally made sense. Yeah, and being able to be in a space to do this. So like finding that platform that works for you, we'll take a it's kind of like taste testing at a, at a buffet like you need to kind of test the whole buffet before you go back and load your plate up with with the helpings that you want.


Lexie Smith  

And to give a little plug, you know, if you're listening to this anytime before May 13. And you're someone who has been trend topping a lot on social media, and it's just not working, really like genuinely encourage you to check out the conference roasting on May 13. We're going to teach you how to find clients in three different ways that aren't social media. And they're the exact ways that Emily and I have used and feel good to us to find our clients and they fall under the buckets of PR events and strategic networking. So if you're looking for new ways to generate leads, again, highly encourage you to check that out. You can go to our website, it's ready set Coach community.com/clients. Okay, so that was number four. So focusing on the wrong strategies and trend topping. What is the fifth reason we've seen other coaches fail. Laxey


Emily Merrell  

actually did just did a great plug for it, but it's refusing to show up and sell and leverage but they have. So I kid you not I have we have experienced and met incredible, talented, bright coaches who have so much potential, who are really resistant to selling and really, really resistant to showing up. And we just mentioned for strategies and broad and scarcity mindset and all of the things like we don't love social media, we don't love you know, there's a lot of things that we don't love. But there's still this aspect of showing up to some capacity that we have done. So this this is when we say not showing up these people are are like hard no on sending newsletters. They're hard no on networking, there are a hard no on posting on social media, that what are they hard news on


Lexie Smith  

or they'll post once and they feel like oh, any more than once now I'm spamming everyone, I don't want to be spammy and want to be a salesperson. You know, it's, we say this all the time, you can be a phenomenal coach, that doesn't necessarily make you a phenomenal marketer or business person,


Emily Merrell  

unfortunately, percent 1,000% agree. And I think there's so there's this aspect of like, you have this incredible gift to give to the world, but you're not leveraging it in a strategic way to invite people in to experience the gift that you have to offer.


Lexie Smith  

So to wrap this up, because again, for the community, we got to go to this mix and mingle, we're hosting and there's going to be a lot of people mixing and mingling. I have two pieces of homework for you guys. The first most important piece is to read fourth wing.


Emily Merrell  

And give us a book report and also your your thoughts and yes. The second


Lexie Smith  

piece is I want you to tune in to if you felt called out at any point today. Was there anything you said where you kind of like screamed in your seat if you're driving or maybe I twitched folding laundry? Take that is maybe an indication to see if there's something you're doing if you're doing something you're getting in your own way here. And lovingly once you call it out, then you can address


Emily Merrell  

it. I feel called out next


Lexie Smith  

month we would we call you out on


Emily Merrell  

everything, everything. Yeah, we're we're not preaching


Lexie Smith  

things. You know, we're not perfect humans either. So this is also a good reminder for us. I think we can go through seasons where we're really good at showing up and then was a season where, honestly we haven't met so great. You know the light. It's a cycle. Yeah, but we can rise to exactly


Emily Merrell  

and let's get our dragons and


Lexie Smith  

get on our drugs. Right the fight.



I will see you the next time.


Lexie Smith  

Ready, ready, set coach