Business coaching I've had
The good and the bad of investments I've made, decentralised social media and other interesting links this week.
I’m a big believer that investing in yourself is always money well spent and even more so when you’re a “company of one” and therefore the business = you.
Early-on in my career this mainly looked like skills-based investments. Courses in marketing disciplines like SEO and PPC, attending events on the latest marketing practices and mentoring from other marketing professionals. Some of this was paid for by the companies I worked at, and I spent about £1000-£2000 a year on my own “learning & development” budget outside of this.
As I became more comfortable in my career and discipline, and particularly after I started freelancing, there was definitely a shift in the type of investments I made.
After going freelance 2015 I quickly felt like I needed a business coach to help me get better clarity on what I was doing and where I might take this. The person I chose was a coach whose content I had been reading/listening to for a while and whose ideas always really resonated with me (the power of content marketing folks 🙌).
I think the investment was close to £2000, which I wasn’t even bringing in a month at that point but I had a feeling it would be worth it.
The good part of that investment was that I did get clarity around how I might want to work as a freelancer and it also raised some early red flags that people pleasing and setting boundaries was going to be a work in progress for me. However, a few sessions in I felt a bit frustrated with the coaching experience. It felt like we didn’t have much to talk about during the sessions and I also realised I wanted someone who would give me their opinions and bounce ideas with about the routes I might take with my business. Hearing “well what do you think?” felt a bit counterintuitive. This may have been a misalignment in the coaching I chose but was also partly on my side: perhaps coaching was like therapy where you’re meant to get to the answers on your own?
I didn’t make another investment in coaching until 2021 and this time it was a completely different area I was looking to work on.
In this instance I paid almost £5000 to sign-up to a six-week container for self-development with a life coach called Monica Yates. I’m mentioning Monica directly as I honestly feel like she changed my life and if that isn’t testament to what a good coach should do then I don’t know what is!
The coaching was a mix of self-paced learning/journaling and a weekly live session covering areas like money mindset, inner child work, limiting beliefs, feminine/masculine energy and so on.
This was an investment I was making for myself personally and wasn’t something work-focused (this was the post-burnout year remember) but wow I can honestly say that out of all of the investments I’ve made this 100% contributed to the way my business changed from 2021 onwards.
Through this coaching I realised things like:
I had a deep-rooted guilt about earning money which stemmed from my childhood and this meant I often underpriced my services
I was completely unable to hold boundaries which meant repeatedly letting myself down if it meant not disappointing anyone else - work or otherwise
I had spent the past decade approaching work from a masculine energy and perspective and being very fearful of the feminine
Realising, accepting and then working on these things meant that almost naturally my approach to my work changed. I believe this was a huge contributor to how I got my business from averaging about £56k per year turnover, to a six-figure business that felt easy, joyful and sustainable to run.
It also made me realise the type of coach I wanted to be - someone who could facilitate self-realisation BUT also offer tangible business and marketing advice from my own experience. This is something I now bring to my own coaching and group programmes and I think it’s what makes it so suitable for other marketing freelancers - having someone who’s been there and is ready to share as well as ask the right questions.
Self-development work isn’t easy (although perhaps it is for us millennials, we seem to love it 😂) but I honestly believe it’s the best way to get unstuck, open your mind and gain new perspective on the areas you may not even know are holding you back.
I don’t have any plans to invest in more business coaching this year but I know it’ll be something I return to in the future - and that when I do, it’s an investment worth making.
Have you paid for business coaching? How did it make a difference (or not) to your business/life/goals? I’d love to hear about your experiences - hit reply and let me know.
Yours,
Beth
Interesting reads 👇🏼
Ever heard of decentralised social media? It’s the idea that you could post an update and it could been seen across platforms, without having to chose whether to post on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook. But of course, this concept now has a buzzy new name: meet the “Fediverse” people. Great guide here from The Verge if you want to go in deeper on what it is and what it means for the future of social. Thanks to Taylor Loren who first shared the article in her newsletter.
If you’d like to gain better clarity over your freelance business including how to manage your time, clients, proposals and invoicing processes then I’d love for you to checkout my Thriving Freelancer programme. We begin next month and you can read what people think of the programme here 🥲
If you missed it, Google’s date for removing third-party cookies was set to happen on 1st April 2024. However Google is currently battling concerns by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about what this means as they effectively keep the data for their use in Chrome, while limiting it to third-party advertisers (Facebook, Microsoft etc.). As a marketer I’d still assume that the change will be happening imminently and prepare your brand/clients for what this means (i.e. less targeted advertising, retargeting, ability to cross-track customer journeys).
I like that Instagram is testing the ability to comment on specific photos in a carousel. In my experience carousels & reels are the most effective way to share content on Instagram at the moment (not sure about you but my reach on stories tanked this year). I think carousels are great for sharing education/information with your existing audience, with reels being the preferred way to reach new audiences. What do you think?
Thanks for reading ❤️
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