What's the Secret to Sustainable Success for Coaches in 2025?

00:03
Laurel Elders
Welcome to business Success for coaches 2025 mastermind kickoff. Your hosts today are myself, Laurel Elders, founder and CEO of the Institute for Integrative Intelligence, and coach Tabitha Danlo. Tabitha is a senior faculty coach at the school, and she is our resident expert in business launch for coaches and beyond, actually, just business in general. Welcome, Tabitha.

00:32
Tabitha Danloe
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks, Laurel.

00:35
Laurel Elders
Yeah, we have been wanting to do this for a while because we saw the need, uh, for group process and how group process helps people elevate in just such a more empowered way. So I'm really excited to dive into this today.

00:52
Tabitha Danloe
Me too. I'm glad we finally made it.

00:56
Laurel Elders
So this year, for those of you tuning in, Tabitha and I are empowering new coaches to successfully launch their coaching business and create a legacy of inspiration with their business practice. So today, we're going to be discussing what it takes to map out a successful launch. And, you know, really, um, our desire to support coaches is what is fueling this conversation. And it's so. I feel like it's such an important conversation because considering marketing for coaches, you know, there's a lot of coaches that I've talked to. Well, there's three things that come up for me. One is, I hear so many coaches, myself included, when I started, we just have this, like, I just want to coach. I really don't like marketing. I don't like the idea of it. I don't want to do it. I just want to coach. Um, so we see that a lot. If you're in that boat, that's very common also, because coaching can be so misunderstood. To succeed as a coach, you have to market in unique ways and understand what that entails. And that can feel daunting and kind of nebulous, like, you know, what do I need to do? And then the third thing that comes up is most coaches don't realize that their coaching skills can translate into their marketing, making it much more effortless. So connecting those dots can feel like a huge relief. Sigh of relief. Yeah.

02:37
Tabitha Danloe
Love that. Yes. And I think sales is, like, a dirty word, right? So sales to this marketing conundrum. And sales is this, like, bad dirty word. And it's just what you said. Sales doesn't have to be what you think it is. It can be really beautiful, and it can be an invitation. Um, and so your coaching skills are everything. You need to actually be really good at marketing and sales for your business.

03:03
Laurel Elders
So that's. That's a really good point. And, you know, I can empathize because, you know, Marketing done unethically on, you know, unwell comes across as smarmy. We've all had that experience. And so it makes sense to me that there is that. I know I had that when I was starting. I'm like, I don't want to be pushy. I don't want to be all these things that I was seeing happening in the marketing sales area. And the truth is, marketing doesn't have to feel overwhelming, confusing, smarmy. It can be done well. It can be fun. It can be authentic. It could be non salesy and organic. So that's the good news that we want to share with you today.

03:48
Tabitha Danloe
And I would just add that, like, because marketing is truly an important aspect of running a successful business. We have to find something that feels good for you or you're not going to do it. Right. That consistency matters. So the authentic finding that authentic joy in marketing is possible because there's thousands of ways to do marketing. But we just got to find what really resonates with each coach.

04:15
Laurel Elders
That's so true. I'm so glad you brought that up because I had this epiphany the other day. Like, success in any area. Leadership, business, parenting. Success is math.

04:30
Tabitha Danloe
Oh, say more.

04:31
Laurel Elders
Success is math. You're only two to three formulas away from a prosperous new outcome.

04:37
Tabitha Danloe
Ooh, I like that.

04:38
Laurel Elders
Okay, now the other side to that is other people's success formulas may not work for you. Like what you were just talking about.

04:48
Tabitha Danloe
Yes. That's so true. Yes. Okay.

04:50
Laurel Elders
Yeah. So finding a program, a coach, a process that knows that is huge. So many people are teaching. This is what worked for me.

05:01
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah.

05:01
Laurel Elders
Follow my process, and then maybe anybody that's like them might succeed, but we're seeing a lot of that too.

05:09
Tabitha Danloe
Oh, yeah.

05:09
Laurel Elders
Yeah.

05:10
Tabitha Danloe
It's like, okay, if you have the same personality, if you are an extrovert or an introvert like them, if you, you know, have similar values, core value. Like, there's so many things that would have to magically stars align to probably have the same results as that person. Yep.

05:25
Laurel Elders
Yeah. So true.

05:26
Tabitha Danloe
I love that, that math equation. Good one, Laurel. I like it.

05:31
Laurel Elders
Um, I'm curious though, how. How do you feel about. You, uh, know when you teach people the formulas to succeed, but then you coach them on making it personal to them. Just curious if you want to share more about, like, what are. What are you seeing?

05:47
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah. So I have been a Coach now almost 10 years. Laurel. Can you believe that? Because Laurel was my first instructor. So I love that. And I've worked with mostly businesses Mostly coaches. Um, I do a lot of helping coaches launch. And so one of my gifts is seeing patterns. And so for me, what I feel like more of my, you know, helping someone with marketing, sales and business is showing them the formula. Like I love this metaphor we're using because I do see patterns. And I'm thinking of actually yesterday I was teaching a group of people some formulas of hey, it's, it's usually this or this, it's usually this or this, right? We were actually talking about income producing activities and non income producing activities. Meaning what are the things, what are the behaviors and the actions I'm doing on a daily basis, a weekly basis, that, that actually are, uh, creating income for my business that are actually bringing in clients for my coaching practice. And the non income producing activities are so important, but they don't actually drive income such as filing paperwork, such as taking notes, such as a lot of the administrative tasks that bookkeeping. Like you have to do it, it has to get done. Maybe you don't have to do it by the way, but it does need to get done. But there's, there's a lot of times where I'm saying like this or this is what I found works the most for people right now. Let's look at you. What aligns, what feels good in those two or three options that stays in your authenticity, that feels like something you can duplicate on a daily basis or weekly basis, depending on what it is. Because that's the thing with marketing and sales and growing. A practice of any kind is consistency. That's always going to be what will work more than, you know, a lot of activity, nothing. You know, okay, let's do a lot. Oh, uh, taking a break for a month and you won't see the same results. So I feel like that's the piece of being a coach. Like the true essence of being a coach is my belief that all of my clients have this connection to something greater, to wisdom, to, I don't know, divine guidance perhaps. Um, and it's intuition, it's something more that will guide that process. So my job is sometimes say, hey, here's these really broad things that work for most people. This tends to work more for introverts, this tends to work more for extroverts. I figured out a lot of those patterns. Now I want them to self identify and, and be willing to be a little brave, maybe try some things that are a little, little scary, not too scary, but a little bit, and find that authentic path of what really resonates, what they feel Intuitively called to do. Let's do it, let's try it. And we can tweak things as we go to amplify it. Mhm.

09:01
Laurel Elders
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I love that you touched upon, you know, the introvert extrovert. That really speaks to the unique success formula that we all have. Um, I was just reflecting the other day that. So I graduated from my first Coach training in 2005. This year's 20 years. Yes, I know. Amazing. And I remember, like, I graduated, I was so excited because I was head over heels in love with coaching. I had no clue it existed. And when I found it, I was like, this is it. I love this. And then crickets. And as an introvert, that was really devastating. I just wanted to hang my hat and say, I'm a coach now and how open for business. And it doesn't quite work that way because in coaching, you know, it can be misunderstood. So I went back to learn the marketing pieces, but I did it the hard way without even knowing it. I was trying to read blogs, I was trying to sign up for all those free one hour seminars. I was like grabbing different books. And then I ended up feeling even more confused. Um, and then I slowly began to inch my way into some success. But it wasn't until I invested in education and learning the formulas and then meeting coaches like you who were like, hey, I know the marketing side. And then also, um, I want to give a shout out to Mark Silver of Heart of Business. Like he was huge in helping me feel authentic as well.

10:36
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah, that was very empowering for you. Yes.

10:39
Laurel Elders
Yeah. So all of those things helped me get to that point where it was more sustainable because I had learned that as an introvert, I can write, I don't have to go speak. But when I was signing up for BNI and speaking on a regular basis, I was exhausted and I was getting clients and I was exhausted. So we don't have to do it that way. Right. That you can create that sustainable success according to your unique success formula. M. I think that's really important for coaches to know.

11:12
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah. And I want to tie into something you said earlier about like, your coaching skills are everything you kind of need. I think we just have to unlock that and help people see that perspective. Most coaches have been trained in some type of personality training. I know at our school we focus on the Enneagram. We love the Enneagram. Um, I definitely am a giant Enneagram nerd. But oftentimes when I'm looking at marketing, I'm Pulling in five different personality frameworks in my brain, I'm looking at strength finders, Enneagram Disc, Myers Briggs and human design. Even a little bit. Not a ton. But there's elements to all these things that I think through these formulas of like, okay, uh, what you just said about energy is so important. It worked. But you were exhausting, exhausted. And by the way, guys, I saw her at one of these BNI things one time and I. I was like, who is this person? Like, I. I've. I've never seen you so drained.

12:17
Laurel Elders
Yeah. Tabitha invited me to a meeting. It was years after I'd said no to. To marketing in person. And I was like, okay, I'll go. And she's like, oh, I'm so sorry. Never do that.

12:27
Tabitha Danloe
I was like. And, you know, I knew it wasn't going to be her main jam, but I was, you know, we're really good friends. And I was like, oh, you know, come hang afternoon, you can tell which one's the extrovert and which one's the introvert. I was just like, I'm so sorry. We got back in the car and that was a good lesson for me. You know, this was 10 years ago, so I've continued to learn and grow and refine my formulas. I was like, yeah, we really have to honor people's, like, inherent design and authenticity and just how they were made to walk through this world. And there is a solution to everyone. For everyone.

13:05
Laurel Elders
Yeah, do that.

13:07
Tabitha Danloe
If your dream is to be a coach and to. And my goodness, does this world need coaches. So, please, we need you to be out in the world doing what you do best. But there is a way to do that successfully, with joy and maybe a little fear as you're learning some things, but, uh, not a ton of fear and in total alignment with who you already are, who you're supposed to be on this planet.

13:31
Laurel Elders
Yeah, no, that's well said because you do. Anytime we want a new outcome, we do have to grow and stretch a new race.

13:37
Tabitha Danloe
Right.

13:38
Laurel Elders
We're not just gonna. It's not like a plug and play. There is efforting and. But it's intentional efforting. It's authentic efforting, you know, and that. That makes a huge difference on the. The drain level. So it doesn't have to be draining. It can be inspiring, but still maybe push you a little bit into new territories.

13:59
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah. And again, checking back in with your intuition if someone's inviting you to do something that you already know is not in alignment. That's where as coaches, we already Have a step ahead of other, uh, people to know. This is wisdom we must listen to. Yeah, right. And my job sometimes again is to lay out options and say, hey, here's your menu. Here's what typically works the best. And maybe we're going to invent something new today. I love that. Right. You know, maybe we take a little from column A, a little from column B and like, this really fits this coach. And now they're just like on fire, you know, creating a lot of, of sales and marketing for their businesses. But if I'm presenting a menu and this thing sounds really disgusting, let's not even worry about that. Like, uh, let's look at the menu and be like, ooh, this, this really lit me up, Tabitha. Oh, this. Okay, this feels good. Little scary, but like excited scary. Right? Like, we're growing, we're pushing, but not like, oh, I'm not. I want to do that one. Yeah, let's not waste time on that because that's something I see is people waste a lot of time and a lot of money, uh, on these programs that are guarantees we'll make you six figures. And it's like, there's not a one size fits all.

15:23
Laurel Elders
Yeah. It's following someone else's formula. So I think, you know, the other reason why I'm really excited about this group process is because a mistake that I see a lot of coaches make is they, they try something and if it doesn't work, they immediately pivot to something new and they hop from thing to thing to thing and nothing is working. And then they feel exhausted from that. And success takes intentionality, accountability to take a step. Oh, that didn't work. Let me pivot, not let me change my entire strategy and redo my website and redo my message. And now I've got to redo my branding. I've seen some of that hopping, really, um, create some exhaustion. So, um, it's really about with group process. It's taking a step, seeing what works, keep what works. Then you pivot to something else, see what works, and you keep doing that and you edge into success. So it's not overnight. And therefore we decided to do a six month support because we want to see, you're going to plant seeds, you're going to water those seeds, you're going to plant some more seeds, you're going to water those seeds, and before you know it, as a group, you're going to see growth together. And that's. Once you get that growth going, it can continue to grow because you found something that works for you. And I'm so excited about sustainable success. You know, we teach that in coaching all the time. We don't want our clients to just leave a session and go, yay, I had an epiphany. That's great. We love those moments.

16:56
Tabitha Danloe
They're fun.

16:56
Laurel Elders
That's not the goal. The goal is sustainable success where you don't have to come back and relearn things so you can keep going.

17:05
Tabitha Danloe
Absolutely. Um, I resonate so much with so much of what you're saying. I think of this idea of when people jump from thing to thing and again, that's not the consistency. And one of the things that I love to teach, and I'll just let my nerd flag fly here, is like looking at some of the data behind the marketing and sales you're doing, which is not anything that most people are taught. This is definitely a skill that you need to learn. And it doesn't have to be hard, it doesn't have to be scary. If you're like, tab, I don't do math. Tab, I don't do spreadsheets. That's fine, we'll find a way that works for you.

17:42
Laurel Elders
But Laurel said math is success. Success is math. Well, it's, it's easy math. It's easy math, what you're talking about. You can look at metrics.

17:52
Tabitha Danloe
Yeah, exactly. So like data analytics. Metrics can be a lot of math and information. I, uh, really love it. But it also doesn't have to be scary. It can be easy math, which we're talking about. And that informs some of those pivots that you're talking about. And so having it in a group, sometimes we don't have the luxury of a, ah, year's worth of data to look at. But in the six month container, what I'm hoping we'll get is some actual data analytics from peers and from colleagues to be like, um, here's what this looked like for me, here's what this felt like for me, and here's what I would have liked to have seen differently. Here's how I would have felt welcomed in more to your marketing message. So we have real people, real users to test essentially, um, before you maybe actually put it out to the market, before you go out and share it with potential clients. You have some buddies to test a little bit safely. And that data is absolutely just so critical. I think, uh, especially with how much we're just inundated with things every day, it's really easy to just jump to something new because that's the newest thing on Instagram or TikTok that we're seeing. Right. And it's. Yeah, maybe that's not actually creating success. Sustainable success.

19:16
Laurel Elders
Right? Yeah, I've experienced that where I just felt discombobulated and more confused because it wasn't like a step by step process. It was so disjointed.

19:25
Tabitha Danloe
And I love, I love, um, sharing the idea of the phases of business because I think people know this in the back of their head, but like, maybe they don't know it in their conscious part of their brain. We have startup phase. That's where everyone has to start.

19:43
Laurel Elders
Are you ready? So in the program it's called are you ready?

19:46
Tabitha Danloe
Are you ready? Yeah. And then we have like systems, which is getting some systems in place because if say we go from 0 to 100 overnight, that's not sustainable, which is what Laurel just said. And that's not what we're here to do. Right. And so set, which is the second part is the systems. And we're going to do a lot with systems and planning and structure. And for some people that sounds like really calming. I think for some people they're like, oh, that sounds like the boring part. So it depends on the person, but I promise we'll make it fun. But that there's a lot of comfort, there's a lot of ease if we actually set things correctly in the foundation. Because what happens next in launch. So we're ready, set launch is we're in that scaling portion. So now we're okay, we built our foundation of the house, we now put in some scaffolding. So I think of systems as my scaffolding. And now we're ready to scale, which is like building on the next stories. Well, if we just go from foundation to skyscraper and we didn't put in scaffolding or like an elevator to get down, that's. That's mhm. We call that vertical growth. And that seems really exciting at first. And it's completely unsustainable. That is 100 where burnout happens 100%. Where mistakes start to get made, critical errors start to get made. That's also sometimes where ego comes into play. And we get so into the next, the next chase, the next success, the next sale that I feel like if people haven't built in their systems, they get caught in the adrenaline rush and it's not sustainable. And that is the fourth and final stage that we're going for is sustain.

21:44
Laurel Elders
Mhm.

21:44
Tabitha Danloe
That's where every business owner hopes to get, whether they realize it or not. Have I built something that will feed my family, give us financial abundance, give me time and freedom, give me this dream that I hoped that this would give me. And from here to here, we kind of get lost along the way sometimes.

22:05
Laurel Elders
Yeah, I'm really.

22:07
Tabitha Danloe
My vision for this container is a really clear path of, um, we're all doing this together and we know exactly where we want to go and we're going to hold each other accountable and we're going to hold hands and we're going to do it together and we're going to support each other. Um, because this is where some really cool magic can happen too. This is where we can talk about legacy and how we're going to leave this earth a little bit better maybe than how we found it.

22:33
Laurel Elders
Yeah. Yeah. And coaches are a really profound part of that. I mean, it's, it's really transformational to see. Yeah.

22:43
Tabitha Danloe
And I'll just say this one last thing. You as coaches, learning these phases and learning this walk to sustainability, whether you're going to do business coaching, life coaching, leadership coaching, it doesn't really matter because these phases exist in life in all these different ways, not just in business. Right. Parenthood, um, as you're growing with your, your family in different ways, uh, phases of your life, your career, retirement. Right. There's, there's a reflection of all these phases that we all walk as paths. And so as coaches, you are going to support people somehow on this path. You walking through it yourself will simply make you an even better coach than you already are today.

23:31
Laurel Elders
Mhm. Yeah. Really, really well put. It's so, so true. So the good news is that if you are launching this year or you've started to launch and you're just not, it's just not working well, we invite you to join us because you don't have to do it alone. You don't have to learn the hard way. And you can have the guidance and support to create your unique success system. And that is huge. I wish I'd had that when I was first starting out. So this year we're going to be teaching the exact formulas to apply the exact steps to take and end the proper sequence, like Tabitha said, um, so that you're not having to go back and rework things later, which is very, I mean, again, I wish I had known that sooner and really also receive personalized support throughout the whole process. We're going to hop on one more call in the next coming weeks and we're going to also talk about who this mastermind is. For and who it's not for. This group is not for everyone. And we, in order to keep the quality really high touch because that's what we are about at the school. We're going to be helping 10 coaches to launch this year and walk them through this process together. We're all going to be together. So we kick off April 21st is when doors close in 2025. However, if we fill the 10 spots before April 21st, we are going to close the doors at that time. So if this is something you're interested in, you can check out the program. The webpage is live. We're going to put the links below. And, um, the other thing is, if you sign up before March 24, early registration saves us a lot of time and energy. So we want to pass that on to you. And it comes with a $297 discount for the entire six months. It actually ends up being a little bit longer than six months because we're with you. Um, we get you started right away once you sign up. So look for those links. And I hope you have enjoyed this conversation. I hope it has illuminated your path in some way today and hope to see you on our next call.

25:58
Tabitha Danloe
Thank you, Laurel. Thanks, everybody.

26:00
Laurel Elders
Thank you.

26:01
Tabitha Danloe
Bye.