Do you ever feel like you only have time to scratch the surface in your talks?
That’s not an uncommon feeling among speakers. With so much to get to, it can feel like you just don’t have time to cover everything you’d like to. This is one of many reasons why speakers opt to expand their career into coaching – whether that’s through a pre-recorded course or 1-on-1 coaching with those who want to go deeper.
While this is an awesome way to expand your speaking business, it’s often a confusing process that leaves many speakers wondering where they should even start. This week, Jeremy Rochford sat down with Maryalice Goldsmith on The Speaker Lab Podcast to go over his most important advice for starting a coaching program. Here are the top 3 takeaways from their conversation:
Focus on Building a Great Talk First:
Coaching is an attractive option to many speakers, but Jeremy notes that it’s more important to build a great talk first of all. He points out that coaching is really just an expansion of the message in your talk.
The core remains the same, but a longer format allows you to add more depth and detail. If you opt to sell 1-on-1 coaching, you have an even greater ability to personalize your message for specific situations. Regardless of your situation, having a great core talk will make expanding it much easier.
Plant a Seed Instead of Overwhelming Your Audience:
As speakers, there’s often a temptation to cram as much information as possible into your talk. While wanting your audience to get the most out of their time is an admirable goal, Jeremy warns that putting too much into a short period of time is likely to overwhelm your audience and make them less likely to take action.
Instead, Jeremy suggests merely planting a seed in the mind of your listeners. Those that appreciate your talk will usually jump at an opportunity to go deeper or get more information, which is why selling coaching can be immensely profitable.
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Take Advantage of the Flexibility Coaching Offers:
Another piece of advice Jeremy has for speakers branching into coaching is to remain flexible as you test new ideas and adapt your coaching gig to specific situations. For example, if you’re coaching 1-on-1, you may find that you have to repeat the same basic idea every session. In that case, you could record a video explaining the concept, freeing up time to dive deeper in those 1-on-1 sessions.
Another suggestion Jeremy gives is to leave time open toward the end of the course that you can dedicate to your client’s priorities. By intentionally leaving that time open, you can spend it discussing what your client wants to focus on, allowing them to get the most out of the course and feel like their specific questions have been addressed.
