Navigating Difficult Client Situations as a Coach

This week’s episode focuses on navigating challenging client situations. Em and Lex discuss their experiences with difficult clients—aka the “Karents” of coaching—emphasizing the importance of handling these situations tactfully and professionally. They review common and less common challenges coaches may face with clients, including procrastination and lack of follow-through, and emphasize the importance of setting clear boundaries.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Strategies for managing argumentative and unprepared clients
• Tips on how to set expectations upfront and how to reset if needed
• Different moments that Em and Lex have had with difficult clients, and how they navigated them
• What they’ve learned from those moments 
• Different ways to handle certain financial conversations with clients
• And more! 

Listener Links: 

• Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachcommunity
• Sign up for the Ready Set CLIENTS Conference/Learn More: https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/clients
• Join the Ready Set Coach Community: www.readysetcoachcommunity.com
• Learn more about Second Degree Society and THEPRBAR Inc.

Transcript

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Emily Merrell  

He makes me laugh Lexie Smith.

Lexie Smith  

Whoa, you're making me seasick. Emily Merrill. seasick, you are moving your computer like back and forth, back and forth. You're giving me sea legs because you're, you know, it's funny. I think of the East Coast, which is where you are I still boats not.

Emily Merrell  

I'm not on East Coast.

Lexie Smith  

Wait, you're not?

Emily Merrell  

No, I'm in Michigan.

Lexie Smith  

That's north.

Emily Merrell  

That's the Midwest.

Lexie Smith  

Well, here we go.

Emily Merrell  

She kept saying I was in the East Coast. She's like, you're so east coast. You're so east coast. I'm like, that's cool.

Lexie Smith  

The Hamptons.

Emily Merrell  

No, no, I mean, I'm in Michigan. I'm in northern Michigan. I'm actually like, closer to Canada. I'm like a four. Now she's looking at a map. She's pulling up a map, ladies and gentlemen, flying to Detroit. And it's like a four and a half hour north.

Lexie Smith  

Far from the East Coast. I'm not like I'm on the right half of the map.

Emily Merrell  

I'm sure I do. I mean, this is a bigger argument. I do think that Denver and like Colorado and stuff should be considered the Midwest because it's like midway through the country, more so than say, Ohio or Michigan. So I do think there's like a mislabeling of the country. But I don't know who to write a letter to on that one.

Lexie Smith  

Well, you look in my brain, you were on the East Coast, and I thought you were in the Hamptons and sailboats and sailing. So it's gonna make this beautiful tie in and about you're giving me sea legs because you're I don't know where I'm going anyways. Hi, everyone. Happy July 2, we're coming to you live during the holiday week. We

Emily Merrell  

are live and clearly our brains need to take a moment of vacation because they have turned into chicken salad.

Lexie Smith  

Seriously, chicken soup, chicken, chicken noodle soup.

Emily Merrell  

Ooh, speaking of delicious, in Michigan, so like where we are in Michigan either people have never heard of it before or like really know it and it is super preppy. Up here. It's like everyone has like pop colors and it feels east coast it in that way of like the kind of Nantucket red type of vibe. But we went to dinner last night. And they have they're known for like an olive burger. So it was chopped up green olives mixed with mayonnaise, put on a burger with Swiss cheese. And it was so good. So my question for you Lexie Smith is Do you like olives?

Lexie Smith  

I used to put them on my fingers as a kid. Yeah, I would say I don't love them. My husband. That's one of his biggest guilty pleasures, though. So we always have a jar of olives. But I've never I'm never tempted to have any

Emily Merrell  

love olives. And Greg hates them too. He like you think all of

Lexie Smith  

all of all of them. All of them. There you go. That's better. Yeah.

I love all of you to sharper

on it today. After this

Emily Merrell  

it's earlier it is weird when you're on the East Coast timezone. And it feels like you are like 17 hours ahead. But then so many hours behind at the end of the day. You know, where I'm like, oh my god, I have so much still to do. But it is dinner time and I must eat food. must

Lexie Smith  

eat food. Food is good. Yeah, it's one for you basically, right? Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, it's one. So I'll have a chicken salad too much after? Yes, our

Lexie Smith  

sandwich. Speaking of how are we going to do this, of choppy situations like chicken salad because you chop a chicken salad. We're going to talk today about some we don't actually have a title, but basically some challenging situations that we have overcome with clients. We're gonna do like real life things that happened to us and how we handled them. What's a good title for

Emily Merrell  

everything in the kitchen sink with clients? Well,

Lexie Smith  

anyways, here maybe it will come by the end of this episode, we'll have our title. So basically, here's what we're going to do guys, we're going to talk through Emily and I before this episode, brainstormed a list of some of the more problematic client situations we've had to maneuver. Okay, so the less fun ones, ones that come up that gives you anxiety, the ones that are like holy crap, the first time you you know encounter them. It's like, kind of like your world's ending. The more you're in business, the more you go to expect but we're going to kind of break down we're not going to name names. We'll just call everyone Karen everyone's a Karen in this episode.

Emily Merrell  

And no offense to any parents out there. Sharing your

Lexie Smith  

great but the Karen's we're talking about not the best. So Emily, why don't you kick us off with one of your first Karen clients and tell us What happened?

Emily Merrell  

Wait, I just really quickly have to tell a story. My friend, when she dates goes on a shitty date, she puts them on interphone as an MC douche like John McDougall or like Brian McTavish. So that actually was like, reduce families. And she knows not to actually respond to their text messages. So these are the parents of our family. The Karen McDougal is so yes, I will talk about actually, this was like one of my very first coaching clients, maybe third, fourth, fifth, and I made an exception, and I didn't give her usually what I would do, I would do like a certain deposit. And then you could do payment plans from there. And I didn't do that. And maybe like our fifth session, she was like, I can't pay for you anymore. I was like, Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Like, I've just given you free coaching, essentially. So we dissolved the contract, we let go of the contract. And I then had to, like, follow up with her for a certain amount of payment, after the fact. And it was such a frustrating feeling because I had respect for this person. And then I, I lost a lot of respect for her. And then I also hated having to follow up and chase money.

Lexie Smith  

Let's break this down a little bit. So the scenario was, you've been coaching a client and all of a sudden, she's such a, yeah, you've got a contract, you're in agreement, you've already provided her services. So what was the first thing that you did when she literally said that to you?

Emily Merrell  

Besides create a voodoo doll with her face? I decided to I stopped my services, I stopped my access to her or her access to me. And then I came up with like a payment plan forward. Like, this

Lexie Smith  

is what that felt like, what was your first

Emily Merrell  

course Lexus was so long ago? What was my first thing that I did?

Lexie Smith  

Think about it? If it happened today to like, if it were to say, you know, how is

Emily Merrell  

yeah, this was definitely one of those things like she wasn't a bad client. And she was making progress in our in our time together. But we carved out, we carved out like a plan moving forward, in what she could remit the payment for me. And inclusive of that was like she had, she did some really cool thing. So it was like, you can trade services in exchange, and it is applicable to your payment towards me, which I don't think ever redeemed either. Which pisses me off and reminds me like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go ask her for those services. At some point, but that was, it was a long, long time ago. But if I was to do it again, I would. Yeah, I would have definitely get in writing, like how many payments were left? And a plan forward of how she was going to remit them to me and what type of payment it would be received.

Lexie Smith  

How did you stomach that? Because that that's putting on some big kid pants. Like, that's not necessarily an easy conversation to have, especially if you've built a rapport with this person.

Emily Merrell  

I don't even have to pull up the emails to see if I get like five new emails from it. I, I it felt okay that it wasn't a meeting but like there's there was a multi part feeling to this. It wasn't a me thing. It wasn't our work. It was a her thing. And I think the frustration that I felt the most to it was like, How dare she accept this, this agreement or this this work arrangement when she didn't have the capacity to pay and follow through with it. So it was definitely some anger and some like, wow, you've totally mismanaged your funds when I know you're paying X amount to Equinox, you know, like that, that hurt my ego. But it also was okay in that in terms of my ego, knowing it wasn't like a me thing. It was a her thing. So

Lexie Smith  

back to her, or did you handle it? Weren't you emotionally okay,

Emily Merrell  

I handled that more amicably. Like I probably could reach out to her now and I don't think there would be any, I don't think she'd be scared of me or and I think, hopefully, hopefully now.

Lexie Smith  

Let's, we're gonna do this to each other. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm gonna recap what I heard and then we'll move on to one of my situations. So what I heard just so everyone listening Emily's client situation was she'd been coaching, they had a great report clients like, Yo, I can't pay anymore. So what you did was you did stop services and you got creative and how she could complete her payments. So you did still pursue payment exchange? Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

For for services rendered? Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah, and I didn't like I wasn't like we must continue working together and you must come up with the money like I was like, alright, bless and release. And we're going to move on. I hope you get your shit together. So how about you relax What was your first Karen

Lexie Smith  

Karen's guys, um, the first hearing that I wanted to bring up is kind of similar, but a little bit different. So context. This was very early days, early days of coaching and at this Waiting time, I had a very regimented curriculum based program one on one. And I had seen a ton of red flags with this client before she signed. But again, early day entrepreneurship, I was chasing the money more than I was realizing that I shouldn't do that. And I should own the power of No. But lessons learned to think we go through these things for a reason. And she goes through the first training of my curriculum. And she comes at me with the most nasty spewing like, this is not helpful. This is like, I'm way above this, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not going to be I'm not going to lie, I was shook. She was not the first person I had ran through this program. Everyone else had loved it. And now here was someone saying, like, my program was passed, and my teachings weren't up to her level. And it was, it was really unsettling. And it rocked me to my core. She was unkind. You know, my first gut reaction was to get defensive. But thankfully, you know, I had built up some some sense of backbone and some sense of professional skills. Throughout my career prior, I took a beat before responding. Luckily, this was conducted via slack, so I didn't have to face her in real time. And I decided if it was worth my piece, because if someone's that mean, if someone's gonna come at me that hard, is it really worth that amount of money? What do you think at the time the program was like, $3,000? Is it worth that for me to clearly spied this person, I decided, no, I decided to take the hit and take the loss, I let her out. I didn't even a very like professional, you know, I put my PR hat on. And I'm like, I'm sorry, you feel that way. I'm going to you know, cancel our contract right away, I actually was like, I'm gonna refund you fully. I didn't want to thing to do with that lady, because she treat someone who is in her corner, how she treating other people in the world. And it's really fun. Now looking back, however, many years later, and her company failed ma Just kidding. Like, also like, red flags are coming. So that situation was something where I decided a refund in letting them out was significantly more worth me any amount of energy or fight pursuing all blinds.

Emily Merrell  

I so what I'm hearing with this, basically, like from the very first iteration of her experiencing what you had to offer, she was dissatisfied. And you were able to have the exchange over Slack. So you were able to stay cool and stay calm. And you decided it made the most sense for your mental health and for like, your preservation of self to release to release her from the contract and to give her a full refund. So you didn't have anything like lingering or, or hanging over your head? So how did she respond when you should issued the refund or

Lexie Smith  

if she took the refund, and we never spoke again, I'll say it was part of mental health. But it was also a business decision. Because in the early days of my program, there is nothing good that was going to come with me associating with her and her company. And I'm, I'm proud to say now this many years later, I know my programs phenomenal. So many people went through it that loved it. So she really was kind of that rotten ache. And I'm glad I a protected my mental health but also protected my reputation. And those who I associate with, because if someone were to go through my program, someone were to one on one coaching with me and then go out in the world. You know, we're tied together by some extent, I did not want a human being like that tied to my knee. I

Emily Merrell  

completely understand that and get that which it brings me in terms of like letting someone out of a contract. I've had that experience before, where they've said that they didn't. They're not as far along as they thought they'd be or they didn't. They're not getting like the results that they assumed that they would get working with me. Which first off I want to describe the bodily feeling that when those words land, it feels like being sucker punched. And I'm curious Lex, have you ever had that feeling where someone has said something like that in terms of like, what they think the expectation their expectations would be versus their reality in working with you? And have you ever received that? That feeling?

Lexie Smith  

Well, that one that I've just explained that Karen? Yeah, let's do this. Talk to me about a Karen, when you're going through this, I see your eyes kind of going up what Karen is coming to mind, talk us through a specific situation here so that it becomes real and less hypothetical Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

so this, this was a specific situation where someone, you know, they, they felt like they weren't getting the results of working together. And I'll all say in terms of the same in my defense, they also weren't doing any of the things I was telling them to do. And so then they were frustrated with the results. So it was like, it was frustrating to hear. But it was also more frustrating because they were so resistant to trying or doing or being consistent with the things that we were you were working toward. So it got to a point where it was like, it makes me even reflecting back on it, like, I feel kind of sick to my stomach, because I don't want anyone to ever feel that, like I would never want someone to be dissatisfied with something that they were experiencing a different feeling from or that they were hoping to achieve something that they didn't. But also, when I've given them like more than my cups worth of offering. I don't know what to do. So in that specific situation, I ended up releasing the contract, and like, stop the I didn't refund them because we had done a ton of work, they had a ton of opportunities. But I was like, you know, I don't feel comfortable continuing on. And it doesn't feel like I, if we like even do the four more sessions or X number of sessions that I'm going to get you to the level that you want to get at. And I would feel better just releasing it. And this person was also feeling really scarce about money. So like the money pressure was also creeping up in a lot of our conversations. So you know, like, every time there should this person was on a payment plan. And so every time the payment hit, there would be there would be like this feeling of like, Fuck, it's happening again. And it'd be reminded of the money that they didn't have and that they weren't getting it. And so I just long story long I blast and I released it. And I had that conversation and she was really appreciative of being been let out of it. And it ended amicably, but it still was like it left me having to rebuild my confidence and get my footing back of like, am I capable of this? Am I a good coach? And it left me It left me questioning thinks for a bit.

Lexie Smith  

Looking back, do you think she was very coachable?

Emily Merrell  

No, and I should have and I think there were some more red flags. And that's something that I should have sought out a little bit more like was this someone who had been coachable? Is this someone who you when I hear like stories that she told I should have listened for certain things? She was very stubborn. She was a very stubborn person. And I should have I should have asked some more inquisitive questions to you know, learn more about her stubbornness?

Lexie Smith  

Oh, we'll call that one the uncoachable Karen.

And like that, it's been talks

Lexie Smith  

about that unsatisfied, Karen. Now we're talking a little bit more about the uncoachable Karen. And actually there was a conversation and send the ReadySet coach community context, if you're not in the community for stuff what you're doing and get in there. We have a channel called Client Support Group, where because we're at a community full of coaches, if you're encountering a given issue with the client, we ask you to not use their name, you can bring it to that chat group and other coaches can help you workshop how to solve. And this is one that came up recently, in a little bit of a different way. It was the they're working with a company and the company had paid for some of their employees to receive coaching access. So the person this, this coach was coaching didn't even necessarily want to coach. Right. So she was an uncoachable Karen. So I think there's some flags we can set up ahead of time or some questions, you get better at time. Understanding your own craft, you know, let's say health coach, for example, you can tell them, you know, eat these healthy snacks, this healthy snacks do this X, Y, or Z. But if at the end of the day, they're still sitting and watching Netflix for 10 hours, like there's only so much you can do. One of our favorite scenes in coaching is you can lead a horse to water but you can't force them to drink. I've seen this come up. It's been a while but because I've gotten better at really, really narrowing in who I worked with. But it has to be so clear to me that this person wants to do the work. It has to be an equally wanted partnership. This can't be something I talk them into. Because if I talk them into or force them into like giving coaching a try that often is when we result with an uncoachable Karen. So the opposite of that is someone who is ready for this is someone who wants this ensure they might have some price objections, but they're ready and willing and wanting to do the work? Because if not, like you can be the best coach on the planet coach out your little your little tail off. But if the end of the day they're not in a mindset state to receive an act, then yeah, they're not going to get results. For me this looks like, you know, in the PR coaching realm, if I share with them, you know, it's going to take could take 90 days and let's send out like, I'm just throwing an example like 10 pitches ratio everyone received but they only send out one pitch and then they just decide PR is a failure. Like that's, that's not on me if you're not going to show up and do the work. Yeah, soapbox done. So the uncoachable

Emily Merrell  

Karen's basically, I love that you said that I think that is so true. And to your point. So it's like when you when they are not doing anything that you're telling them to and then they're frustrated with the results.

Lexie Smith  

Let's talk about argumentative. Karen's, have you ever had them or negative Nancy? Karen's?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and it's funny doing this exercise because a lot of my brain I think is like, let me delete these people from your memory bank. So you don't resurface them. So this is a trip down memory lane. Yes, I have had the argumentative. I've had the combative Karen, I guess you would call them. And yes, I've and and you feel it. Like before you go into every session, you're like taking deep breaths, because you're like I am going to I'm going into war, or I'm going into to be battered, or they're like, Oh, I did the thing that you told me to do. And it didn't work. Yeah, you got me into Forbes, but I thought I would get more inquiries, or like the editor just like mother effing effer. And this is so hard. So I think argument is I think the hardest thing about having an argumentative client is a not sinking to their level, and not sinking to a level of like arguing back but just like letting them treating it kind of like business therapy, where you're like, letting them say their piece and then unpack whatever is happening in their brain. What about you, Lex? Have you had like a specific client that comes to your mind? Um,

Lexie Smith  

I have, I think more like they have Karen moments, I've had moments and how I like to handle those is like the word you said unpack is I meet them with questions, I try to get a little bit more to the root. So let's play this example out, let's say we're deciding are on advising because I will say both you and I m our style of coaching because we're in the business and marketing space, also is a little bit advisory. So it's not purely question based. So let's say we do something, and they meet it with resistance, I might go. So let's say social media, like I think it'd be really great for you to like, lean in and do some reels on social media. They go, I hate social media, I've tried that. I lean in and ask some more questions. And like, if you don't mind, I'd love to kind of explore a little bit. If they say no, by the way, then again, there's only so much you can do. But in theory, hopefully, through a series of thoughtful question asking, you can get them to uncover what the real objection is. And it could be, you know, they're self conscious, because all their friends from high school can see them, or they tried once and they took them three hours, and they only got 10 views. So they now think it's a whole waste of time. You know, there's usually something under, under when they get argumentative, whether it's you've triggered them, or it's a poor past experience. So I think it behooves you as a coach to kind of lean in a little bit when that happens. But also on the same time, protect your own boundary, and then recognize they're slipping in to an uncoachable Karen moment.

Emily Merrell  

I think that's a beautiful way to to take what feels very confrontational and very argumentative and then also make it into like a very active and productive coaching session where a lot of times to your point, like the argumentative side comes from resistance or it comes from fear comes from something else. So like being able to scrape past the rough exterior to uncover what it is. It's not fun to receive as a coach, but that's also your work as a coach is to distract past that. Yep. So I'm curious though, you know, like argumentative something. It's not great, but it's something What about when you have a client that doesn't come prepared or doesn't have a problem to to work on or to workshop? Or doesn't fill in the check in form before your session? Silent

Lexie Smith  

Karen or what do we call her like the eye color?

Emily Merrell  

catatonic Karen.

Lexie Smith  

Um, You know what, this has actually happened quite a lot to me. And it used to freak me out. And I used to overcompensate early on. I was like, oh, like, they don't have a problem to workshop, what am I gonna do, I'm gonna fill that space, I'm almost gonna like create a problem so that we have something to talk about and the reframe I had at some point through coaching, twofold, part one, if they're coming to the call feeling good, and they're feeling confident that our work is in the right direction. So if that's the case, I usually address it head on, like, Do you have something you want to workshop through today? Or would it be a better use of our time to co work? Or would it be a better use of our time to reschedule because I don't want to sit here, I'm pretty direct. I don't want to sit here and like, force you to have a conversation. If you're feeling good. That's a huge win. Like, let's lean into that. And if next week, for example, something comes up, we can address it then. But rather than fill space, which is how I use that, I now choose to address it head on, and see if there's a better use of both of our times.

Emily Merrell  

I like that. Yeah. I like the productive productivity angle. I will typically I'm trying to think of like an example. Hmm. I would probably revisit their homework and be like, you know, do you have any questions about that homework? Or I see you didn't finish this in your homework do did you get stuck in a particular area? A lot of times people get tripped up? And I'm like, we'll we'll talk about that. I would also then reflect back on, like, what has been working in a we've been working together the last six months. Like let's let's talk through some of the things that you may have implemented, like, how did this go? I know I gave you a lot of homework. Yeah. And kind of just pull from the past to eat the future. That's so

Lexie Smith  

great. I think it's a really great point, too. And if you know they've been procrastinating on something, or let's, again, this depends on your line of coaching, if there's something you could do productively together, at least offering that for me, it could be do you want to work through like that Forbes pitch that, you know, we haven't done yet? Yeah, you could use that time. But at the end of the day, I actually kind of mind boggles me when people do this, because they're paying for something and they're they're the ones not fully

Emily Merrell  

benefiting from their own money that they're

Lexie Smith  

leveraging the full experience. And you guy that's not on you. Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

1,000%. And I, I noticed that even myself, like, in a coaching container, like I'm like, Oh, I'm going to use Slack. So aggressively, I'm going to be the most annoying person. And then I like totally don't. And they're like, hi, just confirming you're still alive. And like, oh, yeah, permission to like, unload all my stuff here. So my bad. Oops. Which brings me to also how frustrating it is when people don't do the homework. Like when people you as a coach. And I know, I think a lot of coaches provide homework, but like, it takes me sometimes like an hour just to prepare homework that is so tailored and perfect, perfect for that particular client. And then when I see it, hear them being like, Oh, they don't feel like they've achieved what they wanted. And I realized that they haven't done any of the homework. I just want to like, I want to scream into a void. Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

yeah, it's so true. I, I'd say when those scenarios, especially when I had that regimented curriculum program, I would take the approach of understanding why did they not think it was going to be useful? Are they feeling like they don't have time, like, what is preventing them from doing it? Once we understand that then we can overcome if they're feeling overwhelmed, like, okay, let's scale back for a second. Or if it's, I just can't find time. Great. We have a 45 minute coaching session, let's take the next 15 minutes and bang it out. You know, like coming up with solutions, or if they truly the end of the day, just are aren't going to do it again, you can lead a horse to water but you can't.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, 1,000% Agree. Oh, and then can I tell you my biggest pet peeve or my biggest? Karen? Yes. Is when you have all of A to Z of what we just listed above. And then they hire another coach. And or they hire a coach while you're in a container together. And then they will bring the advice from the other coach, and kind of like use it as their argument and be like, Well, my coach so and so says that this is not how you should be doing it. And like talk about like having a tutor. Tell the teacher something else. Like it is the worst in the most frustrating feeling because you were feeling so conflicted of what you were telling the person and then you were also like, you kind of feel like you're being talked about behind your back to a whole nother person with a whole diff methodology and philosophy. And it's like, why the heck did you even hire me? In the first place?

Lexie Smith  

Oh my god, I've definitely had this. I'm definitely over committing Karen's, like that. I feel like I could get better the title of this, Karen,

Emily Merrell  

Karen's, the do's the don'ts, then coaching.

Lexie Smith  

Actually, it's not that, okay. You know, I can think of these parents who do to do that. And in retrospect, it's very much ingrained in their personality type. And what I find is that they're not yet ready to face that back. That may be their, their the issue, and that they're looking for a magic pill, something they can buy someone else to prevent them from having to do the hard work. So, yes, you ever thought go? Well, I was gonna say like,

Emily Merrell  

I love coaching. I'm a coach. But so many times the code, the answers do lie within. Once you have like, let the work marinate a bit more. So for example, like, I've found that a lot of my clients will leave, and maybe they feel like they still have loose strings, but then they'll come back to me for months. And they're like, You know what, I finally like, finished the homework. And I like, did the thing that you told me to do. And it's been working. And like, it takes time to marinate. And I feel like even for me, like I need to take some time off between hiring coaches. So I can finish, like savoring and soaking up all the goodness of that person before I move on to the next person.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, agreed. I'll also depending on my rapport with the client, and how deep into the relationship we are, when this starts happening, I like to only highlight that there is such thing as having too many cooks in the kitchen. And I will say I'm one of those cooks. So you have three cooks you're working with right now, okay. And, you know, I imagine you hired us for different reasons. I can only speak to my kitchen, at the end of the day, like you're the master chef, you need to since you've decided to hire all these sous chefs. Well, I'm on a roll here to tune in, and take what lands and push away the rest. Because sure that person might be telling you to a this person might be telling you to do B, if you have a list of 20 things, you're probably just going to be in the spinning in the pot. So I'm actually very pro unless it's a completely different, like, let's say you have a health coach and a business coach,

Emily Merrell  

those are different non, you know, some percent non competitive, non

Lexie Smith  

competitive, but I am a huge, huge. I'm hugely against hiring multiple coaches have similar practices, at least at once. It's too confusing. It's too easy to get swayed. And you end up not listening to the person who matters most, which is yourself.

Emily Merrell  

Drop, Mike.

So what's your homework? Oh, my God. Oh, man. Um,

Emily Merrell  

I think your homework is first off just a deep breath. Like, I think there is a deep breath here. Like we just talked a lot about things that we have gone through. And I'm curious, in listening to this episode, like, are there people that stood out to you, or their memories that were brought to the surface again, so just take a deep breath, and let's release it, because those Karen's sort of Karen's of the past and the Karen's of the past, were also gifts for you to learn on? Oh, yeah. So you in the future, will know and be able to identify that red flag to know when or how to lead out of a contract or never have that happen again, because you'll never be hiring, or work with someone that would get you into a position to get out of a contract or not get paid. You know, now with great confidence, like you want to work with a type of person that is a homework focused person, and they're going to do the homework, and they're gonna show up and they're gonna move forward towards the goal and without argument, so again, I think while the parent Karen's of the past were like, painful, hopefully this episode, and this homework is like a reflection of blessing and releasing and prepare preparation for the future. Love you.

Lexie Smith  

It's also like anyone you've ever dated before you find your life partner. There's a reason they were in your late um, with that said, Until next time, on the Ready Set that

Lexie Smith  

okay, day