More Clients Less Hustle

Exposing the Shocking Truth: The Dark Side of Business Coaching No One Talks About!

• Caroline Balinska - My #1 Goal Is To Help Your Business Flourish • Season 1 • Episode 25

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Have you ever been locked into a long coaching contract only to find no real value? On this episode of More Clients, Less Hustle, I tackle the alarming rise of unqualified business coaches who prey on unsuspecting entrepreneurs. Drawing from my own frustrating experiences and client stories, I'll expose the tactics these so-called experts use to appear credible, like selling pre-made templates and systems. You'll learn how to spot these charlatans and find genuine, flexible coaching options that truly build trust and deliver results. Don't miss the downloadable PDF for a comprehensive guide on selecting a credible business coach! >>>> Join the VIP AREA here for free https://moreclientslesshustle.com/free-resources-page


In the second half of our episode, we delve into the significance of choosing a business coach with a diverse industry background. I share my personal journey of launching and selling multiple ventures across sectors such as e-commerce, beauty, and manufacturing. Through a real-life example of a client who wanted to pivot into e-commerce despite her current coach's narrow-minded advice, I highlight the pitfalls of working with inexperienced or biased coaches. We'll discuss the importance of testing ideas and making decisions based on facts, ensuring you get the tailored guidance necessary for multiple income streams and long-term success. Tune in for actionable insights that will empower your entrepreneurial journey!

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Caroline Balinska:

Welcome to More Clients, less Hustle, the podcast where we break barriers, defy labels and empower busy entrepreneurs like you to sort a new house. Let's pave the way for more clients, less hustle. I'm your host, Caroline Ballinster. Today's going to be a little bit of a different episode. I wanted to just jump in here really quickly and give you some advice. I've been a little bit sick so my voice is a little bit gone. I just did another recording of this and realized how depressing it sounded, so I really wanted to get in here and give it to you at a different angle. That didn't sound so depressing really.

Caroline Balinska:

So the whole point of today's episode was that I have, in the past couple of weeks, worked with a couple of people who really got me thinking and got me really frustrated, and that is why the last episode sounded so depressing, because it's actually not a nice thing to think about, not a nice thing to talk about, but I think it needs to be said. So a couple of women three women have come forward just in the last few weeks. I've had plenty of these over the last eight months, but the whole thing is is that there are a lot of people out there claiming to be business coaches and are just not really business coaches. So I need everyone to be aware of this. I want everyone to understand that is something that you really need to take care of and really think about when it comes to choosing a business coach. I'm going to give you some examples. You really need to think it through. There is a couple of things going on. It's very smoke and mirrors. I've been in this industry for about 20 years and doing online marketing and in this time it's gotten worse and worse and worse, and what I found since I came back from maternity leave. It is ridiculous and I know exactly what's going on. I'm going to explain it to you now because I want you to look out for these exact issues. This all came about, like I said, from a couple of people that I've worked with in the last few weeks. They are in a situation for example, one of the ladies I spoke to she has been locked into a 12 month contract with a business coach. She's now in a situation she has to keep waiting and the advice she's getting is not good. She's given me some of the information that this uh, that this coach has told her and it's really not good advice, the. She said the growth in the beginning was okay because, um, this lady was new to the business, but now she's in a situation where the business coach is not helping her.

Caroline Balinska:

If you're getting locked in for a 12 month contract, while at one side, it is true, locking someone in to work with you for 12 months Like if I was to lock in someone for 12 months there is the truth that it means that you have to be dedicated. You need to keep, you know, putting in the effort. However, there's another side to it. What I have personally found is I do a one month, three month and 12 month package. I offer those three packages. I always have. I did that before I went on maternity leave as well, and I do that now, and the reason for that is is that I say, hey, if you know me enough, you'll work with me for a year. That's great. If you're not sure, then you can work with me for one month. It is a bit more expensive that way. If you work with me for three months, this is the price.

Caroline Balinska:

What I find is that every person I've ever worked with on a three month deal has always come back for at least another three months with me at the very least, and a lot of them sign up for 12 months after that. A lot of them just keep on signing up every three months. Some of them ask for, you know, a bigger package than they can pay, more of a discounted rate. There's different ways that they do it, but I don't get people working with me for three months and then saying I don't want to work with you anymore, and the reason for that is is I can prove myself. I don't need to lock someone in and force them to stay with me for 12 months in the beginning, because I know that I can prove that working with me is worth it. A lot of these coaches are locking people in for 12 months, for exactly what this lady's gone through is to make sure that now she's stuck for 12 months.

Caroline Balinska:

I'm going to give you some advice on what to look for, because there are a couple of things that I am seeing at the moment that is making a making it really hard for people to realize if they're working with a good coach or not. I do have a PDF download which you can get that gives you a little bit more information about choosing a business coach, but really, here is the low down on it. So I've had quite a few people say to me over the you know, especially the last 12 months, they've been saying to me things like hey, I feel stupid that I didn't realize that this coach is actually not any good. However, there's such a big smoke and mirrors issue going on at the moment that it's not your fault if you've chosen the wrong coach or if you fall for it. And I'll tell you why.

Caroline Balinska:

There are coaches out there, there's particular businesses out there at the moment that are selling packages of we will make you look like the authority and we will plug and play your system for you where you buy the templates, you buy the emails, you buy everything all done for you and then, when you set that up, you look like you're a business coach. How do I know this? Because I can see that there are people out there at the moment who all have the same style posts and the same style of everything, and I'm seeing it quite a lot at the moment. So I'm seeing these particular coaches who are out there and literally they look like they are just carbon copies of each other, slightly different colors, but they're all coming across as if they're these fantastic business coaches, once you delve deep into them, they don't really have much behind them and they've just suddenly popped up. Be really aware of that. The other way to tell if these people are that style of just plug and play and they've got this business set up.

Caroline Balinska:

What I'm seeing a lot of is that the main company business coach A gets other people to look like they're famous and well-known and successful, and then that person is getting testimonials from other business coaches and those business coaches are leaving reviews for the other business coach saying, oh, they're so fantastic, I did really well and now I'm making 20,000 a month as well. Now I'm making 50,000 a month. But the reason why those coaches are leaving those testimonials is because they're also business coaches trying to get business. So they're saying that they are making all this money to make themselves look like they're really successful, but then that props up the other business coach as well, and so it's almost like a pyramid scheme. So it's like one coach saying that the other coach is successful because of them and blah, blah, blah, and really none of them are doing anything. So be really, really hesitant if you see business coaches that have a lot of business coach testimonials, because that's happening a lot, so be really aware of that. The other thing you have to be careful of is are these business coaches just suddenly popping up from nowhere? Do they just suddenly pop up saying, oh yeah, I'm really successful? And they don't have anything behind them? So be careful of that as well.

Caroline Balinska:

I have had, well I've had many businesses. I've sold five businesses. I've started or bought businesses that I've gone on to sell. Each of those are in a different space. None of them are in the same space. They've all been different businesses. I am across so many different areas. I sold my last business before I went on maternity leave. That was in the e-commerce space of marketing, and I've worked across. You know beauty, I've worked across. I've had a singles dating agency. I've worked in many different spaces rental properties, you name it. I've done many, many different things Manufacturing. I've done many different things. So the good thing about having a business coach that's well-rounded someone like me is the fact that I can help you with many different areas, and I'll give you an example why it's so important this particular lady that I was just mentioning.

Caroline Balinska:

She has now come to me and said that she would like to set up an e-commerce, shopify, etsy sort of business as part of her business. Her current business coach the one that she's locked into a contract with doesn't want her to do that. I'm not sure why. I haven't gone to the bottom of why that is but I can tell you that if you are a business owner, having multiple streams of income is a really good idea. So I know enough about her business to think she's actually the right person to do that. Is it going to be easy? I'm not saying it is. Is it going to take her some extra work? Of course it is. I will, of course, have to explain all of that to her, but her message to me was after our initial talk, she's come back to me now and said oh, this is another thing that I want to add to my business, and my last business coach my other business coach tells me not to do it. So I'm going to have to sit down and talk to her about it. But because I've worked in that space, it's very easy for me to give her all the pros and cons of taking action in that space. Will she need to put in extra work? Yes, she will, but I can go through those different areas.

Caroline Balinska:

There's a lot of business coaches out there at the moment, like I said, who have just they're smoking mirrors or they have had one small success. So they might've said, oh, I made $40,000 in my business and because of that I'm going to show you how to do it I can be a business coach. The problem with that is whether it be, let's say, for instance, in the fitness industry. If someone says I've been a fitness coach, I've made a whole lot of money in my, in my industry, um, I'll show you how the problem with that is is that that person only has success that one time in that business, and that means that they're not going to be ready for a lot of the questions that you might have. Your business will never be a hundred percent like theirs. It's just not possible.

Caroline Balinska:

In all of my years of coaching I've been coaching for about 12 years In all my years as coaching, mentoring, I can tell you I've never, ever, had never, had one business that was identical to another business that I've worked with, even if you were a franchise. I've worked with some franchises as well, even as a franchise. No, franchises are exactly the same. Different locations means it's slightly different things happen. Let's say you have two McDonald's franchises. They're not exactly the same. There's a reason why the franchises still offer individual franchisees to change up their marketing for their location. There's a reason why McDonald's in China sells different things from McDonald's in the Netherlands, for example. There's a reason for that is because local markets are different.

Caroline Balinska:

So following the advice of one business coach who has done something once is actually not in your benefit. You need to make sure that you are actually going to get advice that's really well-rounded. So be really, really hesitant about working with someone who's had one place of success, someone who's had one one place of success. The other thing that I find, um a problem is bias, being biased to your own opinion, and a lot of these coaches who are, you know they don't have a lot of experience they get really stuck on personal opinions. Um, stuck on personal opinions.

Caroline Balinska:

I am very aware of this and I'm constantly saying to my clients that might just be my opinion, so let's test it and find out. I'm very aware that my opinion is not going to make the money. For example, I was talking to one of my clients who is in the fitness industry just the other day and she has a new ad. So she's working with a Facebook ad expert for fitness and I'm not impressed with what's going on there. And I made some comments and I said, look, I don't like that ad. And then I said but hang on a second. I don't want to say that I'm correct because I personally, looking at that, I'm a mom, I want to get back into fitness, I am your target audience, but that ad just does not do it for me. And Bex straight away said, oh, oh, my God, should we change it? And I said, look, maybe that's just my personal opinion, so let's test it and find out if maybe it's just my opinion. So that also is something that needs to be done when you work with a business coach. They cannot put their personal opinion into it. It needs to be based on facts, it needs to be based on testing and for someone who's new to the industry, has not done a lot of different things, their opinion is going to be, um, usually just their own opinion. It's just their own opinion usually. So that's something you want to stay away from.

Caroline Balinska:

A lot of these people who say that they're experts are not well-rounded enough to give the expertise that they are trying to give, for example, this fitness ad Facebook ad expert. She has got a situation where she says that she has run her own business. In the past she's been in a situation where she says that she's sold a business we don't know how much for, we don't know exactly how successful that business was. But now, working with her personally I didn't know her before. Working with her personally nice person, nothing wrong, nothing against the person. But working with her personally, I didn't know her before. Working with her personally nice person, nothing wrong, nothing against the person. But working with her personally, I'm not seeing anything in her work that tells me that she's actually an expert in this field. I'm not here to, you know, rain on anyone's parade. I'm not here to put people down.

Caroline Balinska:

I don't like saying things like this, but at the end of the day, my client spent a lot of money to work with an expert in this space and I've worked with Facebook ads for a long time well over 10 years and I turned around and said look, if she's saying that she is like, so fantastic at it, I'm not one to say that I'm better than someone else. Um, you know, who knows, maybe she's better than me at it. So I said you know, if she's really as good as what she says and you want to work with her, I'm more than happy for that to happen and I'll facilitate it. Um, on my side and you know, in this situation I haven't seen it, so even for me standing there and it wasn't my choice to make but even for me I can sit there and say you know, choosing certain people for a job needs to be done in a really specific way and it needs to be tested, it needs to be checked properly. So someone who's had experience once, or maybe twice, has only got that experience. You need to be working with someone with a lot more experience. Now you might want to help out a friend. Let them be, you know. You might want them to be a business coach as a friendship offer, but then you're not paying the full top price and you're not locking yourself in for a year contract. That's a different situation. But if you want to work with an expert and you want to work with someone who says that they know what they're doing, please do your research and find out exactly who this person is. It's so easy to create the smoke and mirrors these days, so you need to be aware of. Is this person actually the expert that they claim they are, or are they just, you know, having a facade of who they are?

Caroline Balinska:

For example, I have my podcast. I had my other podcast winning with Shopify that that was the last business I sold. I've had a lot of success there and now I'm doing this new podcast and people can come and listen to my podcast to find out if they want to work with me. And now I'm doing this new podcast and people can come and listen to my podcast to find out if they want to work with me. And then I also have I had the influencer summit that I ran for my winning the Shopify podcast. I've had a lot of different areas of expertise. You can find podcasts from interviews that I've done for the last 10 years.

Caroline Balinska:

And the thing is I have got a lot of backup for what I claim. And on top of that I do free consultations. I don't lock people into hey, you have to pay me before you get to talk to me. You listen to me on the podcast and then you still can come and speak to me privately, one-on-one and we can see if we're a good fit and then you decide if you want to work with me or not. I do not need to lock someone in until they are sure.

Caroline Balinska:

And my last bit of advice is use your gut intuition. What does your gut tell you? Does your gut tell you that this person is someone who is going to be able to help you, or are you still questioning them and are they trying to scare you with? You know urgency tactics of hey, you better hurry up, it's a last chance to work with me. You won't get this offer again. I'm not giving you this offer. If they're going hard on that sale of. You will never get this offer again, or you're. This is your last chance this month to work with me and you'll never get to work with me again things like that. If they're pushing you in that way, on a call to work with them, use your gut. Does that sound like it really is your last chance? Or does this sound like someone that's saying to you hey, I'm going to try to lock you in as quickly as possible so you don't change your mind. So take your gut intuition into account and decide if that's the right person that you want to work with. So that's all I'm going to say on this matter at the moment.

Caroline Balinska:

If you have any questions, go and download my free PDF in the show notes. Keep listening to my podcast, come and jump on a call with me and have a chat to me directly. Every single business is different. I am able to let you know what I think of your business and how I think I can help you, always happy to do a free call with you and let you know what I think I can do for you. So until next week, take care and keep marketing yourself and keep smiling. Thank you for tuning in to the more clients, less hustle podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. If you have any questions or topics that you'd like me to cover, feel free to reach out. Until next time, keep marketing yourself and watch your business grow.

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