The Business of Executive Coaching

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing coach and business person extraordinaire – Jean Balfour. We explored Jean’s own Corporate to Coach Story including lots of juicy details about her coaching business. We talked about when she says no to work, how she is working on her own money stories, what famous figure she would like to coach and more. Jean has also undergone a second transition as she also now runs Bailey Balfour – and ICF accredited coach training company. I get to ask lots of questions about why and how she grew this business, what is important to her when it comes to coach training, and when she thinks it is important to do advanced PCC level training. You can find Jean in lots of places: Bailey Balfour  Podcast – Making Sense of Work with Jean Balfour  LinkedIn  Jean also mentioned a few books: Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi The Happiness Trap, Dr Russ Harris The Way of Integrity, Martha Beck I love the work of Russ Harris but the other 2 are new to me so I’ll be diving in!   You can learn my top 5 mindset shifts for coaches who want to grow their business in this free resource: Mindset Tips Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.

I am pleased to share with you today, the masterclass that I ran last week called The 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business. This session is jam packed with ideas, tips, and tools to help guide your thinking when it comes to setting up, or growing your executive coaching business. The 8 foundations we cover are: - The importance of your business owner mindset - Building a compelling offer suite - Getting known (marketing!) - Getting clients (sales!) - Managing your business finances - Strategic professional development - Systems, tools and processes - Building your support team. You can get access to the video recording along with the slides and assessment document here: www.elliescarf.com/8foundations You have a few more days to join the Impact Coach Collective so check it out here -  Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.

What is the Impact Coach Collective? Who is it for? Listen in while I answer those questions. I also share the launch bonuses if you join this week, and an extensive list of launch activities. Hope to see you at one of the events! We are opening doors to the Impact Coach Collective from 7 – 14 May, and during our launch week I am offering a free Masterclass on the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business - if this sounds interesting you can register at www.elliescarf.com/8foundations  You can learn my top 5 mindset shifts for coaches who want to grow their business: Mindset Tips Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.

We are opening doors to the Impact Coach Collective for a short time in May and during our launch week I am offering a free Masterclass on the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business - if this sounds interesting you can register at www.elliescarf.com/8foundations  This episode is about visibility. By nature, and by training, many coaches find visibility a very challenging topic, which often manifests in avoiding doing many of the marketing activities we know we need to do to grow our businesses. In this episode I share why I think coaches are so troubled by this topic, my experience of this subject and a step by step guide to gradually increasing your comfort with visibility on LinkedIn. There is nothing like exposure therapy! Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. 5 mindset shifts for coaches who want to grow their business: Mindset Tips Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.  

We are opening doors to the Impact Coach Collective for a short time in May and during our launch week I am offering a free Masterclass on the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business - if this sounds interesting you can register at www.elliescarf.com/8foundations  This episode I am sharing my Corporate to Coach story – warts and all. Particularly the warts. I share the journey from corporate lawyer to executive coaching business owner, the challenges along the way and why this makes me really care about coaches building sustainable and profitable businesses that support their life goals. *Not literal warts Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.  

We are opening doors to the Impact Coach Collective for a short time in May and during our launch week I am offering a free Masterclass on the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business - if this sounds interesting you can register at www.elliescarf.com/8foundations This episode I am talking about the power of “one at a time”. The truth is, focus is something I believe in deeply AND I struggle with immensely. In this episode join me for a quick chat about why executive coaching business owners need to focus, and a few tips on how to do so. Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here.

First up in this episode I share that I am offering a free Masterclass on the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching Business - if this is of interest, register at www.elliescarf.com/8foundations  This episode, all about the most frequent questions I get asked about LinkedIn was prompted by the fact that a good amount of all the questions people ask me (members of my paid mentoring and education community and other folks) are about LinkedIn. In this episode I answer the questions: Should I be posting from my personal account or my business account? Should I get LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator? How often should I post? Is there a 'best' time of day to post? What should I post? What should I avoid in my LinkedIn posts? I hope this is of interest - please let me know what other questions you have!  Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here. Join the 8 Foundations of a Thriving Executive Coaching business masterclass here. 

Maybe this is a bit of an advanced episode, but I think it is sensible for all business owners to be thinking about the offer suite. Part of that thinking may include thinking about offers that scale, because let's be frank - coaching is wonderful work, but you are limited by the time that you have available.  There are however, scalable offers that you may want to consider having in your toolkit. In this episode I share 5 of them, including a little about what it is, how you could use it and a few 'bewares' while i'm at it.  If you are interested in building a digital course, take a look at Tina Tower's programme. She breaks down the steps to build and market the course in her course Idea to Launch - you can check it out here. I build my course on Kajabi - it is a great one stop shop for website, course hosting, email platform and more. Check it out here. Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here. Interested in building a Corporate Coaching Offer the Sells? See my free Masterclass here.

  Love them or hate them, as business owners, we need to track our metrics. Or do we? In this episode I talk about why I think metrics are important (even if I don't love them!), what specifically coaching business owners should be tracking, what to watch out for when it comes to metrics and how to get started now so you can look back in 6 months and see the progress you have made! Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here. Interested in building a Corporate Coaching Offer the Sells? See my free Masterclass here.

This episode is all about outsourcing for executive/leadership business owner. Learn more about: What you could outsource How to know when you can afford to outsource What gets in the way of outsourcing The importance of outsourcing domestic tasks Gender dynamics in outsourcing. I'd love to hear what you do or don't outsource and why! So drop me a line here and let me know. Learn how to save time in your coaching business using AI here. Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find me on LinkedIn here.    

In this Episode I get a chance to speak with the inimitable Dr Saba Hasanie. Saba has an extraordinary corporate to coach story, and currently runs a thriving business employing a team of executive coaches. But beyond that, Saba has a fascination with how our history, and how we have made meaning of our history, shows up in our coaching, our businesses and our leadership.  In this episode Saba and I explore her history and the challenges she faced in establishing her coaching practice. We also dive deep into her approach to pricing and selling - this is worth a listen because I haven't come across many coaches who do these things as well as Saba does. Saba also shares her new programme for coaches, The Biographical Dimensions of Leadership using BDMM. If you are looking for one of those programmes where you get to go deep into your own 'stuff' while building new perspectives and tools that you can bring to your coachees - this is for you. I was stunned by Saba's research (which she shares in the episode) that this is a commonality to the approaches of the most successful and respected coaches that she interviewed. To learn more about Saba's programme - check it out here: Biographical Dimensions of Leadership and you can Register Here.   Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective. Find Ellie on LinkedIn here. Interested in building a Corporate Coaching Offer the Sells? See my free Masterclass here.

This episode is an interview with my mentor, good friend and extraordinary coach and business person - Dr Louise Kovacs. In our chat we cover a lot of ground. We talk about: Louise's corporate to coach story Thoughts on pricing How associate coaching has been part of her journey Getting ok with rejection Her research into how coaches can work with complexity (I told you she was clever!) You can connect with Louise on LinkedIn . Learn more about the Impact Coach Collective here. Connect with Ellie on LinkedIn here. Download my guide to the Top 5 Mistakes of New Executive Coaches (and what to do instead).

In today's podcast episode, we're diving into the world of chemistry conversations. Do you love them? Or is there more dread happening?  In this episode we explore the upside and downside for the 3 parties who have a stake here - coaches, coachees and client organisations. In this episode I will share a few tips for navigating chem check conversations including: Remind yourself it's a two-way street. Assess if you need to talk more or less. Mind those insecurities; we've all got them. Match your energy to their desired state. Get a strategic time slot. Deeply understand their challenges. Boost your credibility by sharing relevant experiences. And hey, a word of encouragement – these conversations are part of the gig. Embrace them, learn from them and they will lose some of their sting. Let me know your challenges and war stories! If you want to debrief in a community of peers, you might be interested in joining the Impact Coach Collective. Have a look at www.elliescarf.com/icc to see if you are a fit!    

Welcome to our special BONUS episode to celebrate the launch of the Impact Coach Collective - our online business education and mentoring community for executive and leadership coaches. If you'd like to learn more, jump on the www.elliescarf.com/icc and join while doors are open! This episode is a live recording of a session run on LinkedIn where I take time to decode marketing buzz words and whether or not they apply to us as executive coaches. We cover leads (yes you should know about these!!), lead magnets (maybe), containers, funnels and much more. Have a listen and check which terms are part of your marketing vocab and which are new to you. As always, get in touch with me if you have any questions or comments - all are most welcome. The best place is at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliescarf/ or send me an email to ellie@lucentorg.com  I'd love to have you in the Impact Coach Collective, our focus for March is going to be warm outreach strategies so if that sounds like something you shouldn't miss make sure you join this launch.  

Hey there, welcome back! Today, let's talk about something fun – your executive coaching home office. I'm Ellie, your host, and I've got opinions about your working environment! Creating your coaching space is crucial. It sets the tone for client interactions and helps you stay focused. But forget about perfection. What we want is intention and clarity. We get these things by being clear on how we want to feel in our space, and what purposes the space needs to fulfil. On the practical side, invest in a good chair, a big monitor, and consider a sit-stand desk. For remote coaching, your AV setup matters – high-speed internet, good sound, quality video, and the right backdrop. Privacy is also key because confidentiality matters. Now, inject personality! Plants, art, fresh flowers – make it uniquely yours.  Share your ideas with me at ellie@lucentorg.com!

In this podcast, we dive into pricing for executive coaches.  Coaches are altruistic beings, so alongside practice challenges with pricing, there is also a lot of mindset at play. But being well-paid is not selfish but necessary if you want to sustain a meaningful and impactful business. In this episode I touch on the three factors influencing pricing: coach factors, client factors, and market factors. I then share five practical tips for coaches to up their prices without feeling weird, covering mindset shifts, rethinking our benchmarks, the perils of over-delivery, avoiding unnecessary discounts, and making regular price increases a habit. A bonus tip reminds coaches not to assume things about clients' wallets but instead focus on showcasing the value they bring. These tips will help you look at pricing with new eyes, and hopefully encourage you to increase your prices!      

Welcome to Episode 1 of "The Business of Executive Coaching," where we're diving into a truth many coaches miss during training. Coaches often start driven by their passion for people and their experience of coach training. It's all about helping, impacting, and those one-on-one coaching moments. Sadly, loving coaching isn't enough if you can't sell your services and run a business. It's like having a fantastic car but not knowing how to drive it. Stats show coaches giving up their dream practices because they forget to invest in the business side—the unsung hero behind the coaching magic. Time to dive into the nitty-gritty of your business, from marketing plans to understanding profits. Let's make your coaching dream last! Don't miss the free webinar on Feb 22nd, "How to Build a Corporate Coaching Offer That Sells." Register at www.elliescarf.com/offersthatsell.

Welcome to The Business of Executive Coaching! Join your host Ellie Scarf to dive into the world of executive and leadership coaching businesses. In this episode meet Ellie, learn about her background and what you can expect from The Business of Executive Coaching. Enjoy!