The ROI of Free Life Coaching
Can you remember the last time you bought something because it was on offer or just really, really cheap?
Maybe you were unsure and the cunning sales person closed the deal by offering a never to be repeated ‘sweetener’ that kicked into gear the “Wow, I’d be a fool to pass up on such a great deal, and anyway I really need a free new pair of lederhosen and silly hat” decision making process?
Last night I was thinking about my offer of free coaching as I started to work my way through the blogs trying to decide whom to work with. I was getting frustrated because I wasn’t so much narrowing the field as widening it. Each new blog had me thinking, “Wow, this would be a cool person to work with” A lot of my original criteria had upped and left as I sorted through all the great blogs, and after initially thinking about 10 people looked really promising, I soon had that up to 30.
I started to wonder how many people wanted coaching because it was free, as opposed to really, really wanting it?
In other words, how many of the people could actually afford it, but didn’t want to spend the cash and therefore placed a lower value on it? Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that because I feel sure in such circumstance I may very well have done likewise. It intrigued me nevertheless.
When I owned my record store we used to sell a lot of vinyl to dj’s. The upstairs part of the store was devoted to vinyl and other associated dj’ing paraphernalia. Like all stores we’d occasionally have sales, mainly to shift old stock purchased by a good friend that insisted on employing the buying stuff I really like method.
Every now and then during such a sale a regular customer would come up to the counter with a pile of vinyl containing some of the stuff that we were desperate to get rid of.
I’d pick up the 99p record off the counter and there would usually follow a conversation that went something like this:
Me: “Would you have bought this at full price Ben (it seems that all our regular dj customers were called Ben, something that to this very day confounds me.)?’
Ben “Probably not, but it’s cheap”
Me: “Yeh it is, but you’ll have forgotten how much you paid for it in a few weeks and will play it on it’s merits, not because it was cheap.”
Ben “Hmm, good point. Can I bring all the other crap I bought here back then?
Me “No mate you can’t, you’re being silly now”
As a ‘making me fabulously wealthy’ policy it probably left a bit to be desired. Having said that, at least I could recommend tracks and not have people thinking I was just trying to push crap on them, because all the crap was sat in boxes marked ‘crap’ in our inventory room gathering dust.
It seems to me, too many people confuse cost with value.
They will see something they vaguely want, look at the price and decide how much they want it based on that. This is almost the antithesis of how successful businesses operate. They tend to look at something, decide whether they need it or will benefit from it and what the ROI (return on investment) is likely to be. They then base the buying decision on that information.
Although ROI sounds like something that should be left in the business world along with breakfast meetings, product drives and downsizing, I’m not so sure.
In fact, if more people adopted an ROI mindset I feel confident there would be less debt, less wasted cash and we’d all be far less likely to be swept along in the feeding frenzy that is Black Friday or any other major sales day for that matter.
If you’re anything like me you’ll have lots of items in your possession that have returned close to a zero ROI. Books unread, clothes barely worn (often the most expensive ones) and gadgets hardly ever used. By the same token I suspect you’ll have books that have been read and then re-read, clothes worn to tatters and gadgets used over and over again.
Using ROI for every single buying decision would be tedious at best. In my case it would probably guarantee a few icy glares from my wife if I got my calculator out and pondered the relative merits of buying a luscious cantaloupe melon versus purchasing some super nutritious and tasty blueberries.
However, I do think it could add value with major purchases such as cars, vacations and yes, even life coaching. An average phone client spends about $500 with me and I’d be mortified to think they didn’t get $500 worth of value. In fact I expect them to get much more than that out of the process otherwise they probably shouldn’t be doing it.
Of course it becomes problematical to put a monetary value on things like coaching, retreats, learning, seminars etc that may increase peace of mind, help people feel happier, more confident and deliver a greater sense of direction.
Which is why some people feel they are luxuries they can ill afford because they seldom don’t sit down to work out the long-term ROI.
This is another one of those posts where I had a general idea in my mind where I was going with it and the reality has taken me down a few paths that not only did I not intend going down, but I didn’t even know were there. So let me cut to the chase.
I said I was going to coach one person for free, but I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided to put up 3 free places each of 4 sessions rather than 1 of 6 sessions. I may well extend that on an individual basis if things are going great and there are lose ends to tie up, but that’s what I’ll be aiming at.
The only condition other than time zones for the other two places is there’s no way in hell you can afford coaching if you have to pay for it. I don’t mean that there’s no way in hell you can afford coaching if you have to pay for it, especially with your Caribbean cruise coming up and that night out at Ruth’s Chris to pay for.
There’s no need to leave a comment below unless you want to because I don’t want to cause anybody any undue embarrassment. I’ll not even insist you blog about your experience if you’d rather not, although it would be great if you have a blog.
If you’re up for this drop a line telling me why I should work with you. Do this even if you’ve already made yourself known because I’m looking for the most committed people that really want this. If you can’t be arsed to do that, then coaching isn’t right for you.
I’ll post on either Saturday or more likely, Sunday who I’m going to be working with and hopefully we can get things up and running within a week or so.
Ustream: The live Ustream broadcast went well last week and I had fun doing it and the feedback was others did too. I’ve decided rather than make this every other week I’m going to make it weekly on Monday’s at 4.00pm EST (9.00pm UK). I‘ll probably limit it to 30 minutes although I’m going to see how that goes.
On Monday I’m going to attempt to demo how you can remove fears such as flying, snakes, public speaking etc. This could be a train wreck without a subject to work with, so please be gentle with me. Click here to join in.
BTW, a massive thanks to Tracy O’Connor for her review of my book on her excellent ‘I Hate My Message Board’ blog this week. She even uses the word wankery which is good enough for me!
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Comment by Pace on 5 February 2009:
Ope! My bank account is too fat, so I’m out. I’ll try again next time, when I’m on the side of the road with my “Will Blog For Food” sign. (:
Paces last blog post..Book Bonanza Wednesday! Chapter 4: The other half of communication
Comment by Tim Brownson on 5 February 2009:
@ Pace – Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I’m still going to pick one person without consideration of their financial situation. It’s the 2 other places that I’m giving to people that aren’t able to afford to pay at the moment.
Comment by Pace on 5 February 2009:
Awesome.
And I will talk to Kyeli about working it into our budget anyway if I don’t get the free one, because it does sound pretty darn spot-on. (:
Paces last blog post..Book Bonanza Wednesday! Chapter 4: The other half of communication
Comment by Ali Hale on 5 February 2009:
@Pace – If you can afford, like, 2 sessions with Tim – GET THEM. It will seriously, seriously be worth your money. (I had two phone sessions with him a few months back. Helped me get very clear about how my values and goals worked together, and helped me make better progress than I’d ever managed before in getting over some body image issues. Happy to email if more details would help – ali@aliventures.com)
@Tim – Thanks for this post, you’ve somehow put into words stuff that I’ve had in nebulous globs in my head for a while.
I’m managing to get out of the “it’s so cheap, buy it (though it’s crap)” mindset, but this helps me get a handle on the thought process behind that and why I do it.
The ROI is a great way to look at it: I’d not thought of it like that before.
I have a rule of thumb (that I constantly forget about) that I should buy the best quality I can afford, in terms of what I need. When I’ve done this (laptop, clothing, etc) it’s definitely paid off in the long time. When I’ve gone for the cheapest option (hoover, umbrella) it’s been pretty much worse than useless. The hoover was sucky in completely the wrong sense of “suck” and the umbrella blew inside out on a regular basis, broke, and went floppy, and dripped rain down my neck.
We now have a new, REALLY GOOD hoover (and yes, it was a bit of a push to afford it – like life coaching is a bit of a push for some – but it’s saving time & frustration every week now. It also has a smiley face, which makes me childishly happy). And today I bought a new umbrella for £10 (about $14?) which looks considerably sturdier, cuter and long-lasting than the previous one.
I have rambled for longer than I meant to. Basically: don’t buy cheap crap, because it won’t do whatever it’s supposed to do, and it’ll just hassle you or clutter up your life for weeks/months to come. And then you’ll give in and spend the money you should’ve spent in the first place.
Oh, and if you can afford life coaching, and you have anything at all that kinda bugs you about your life/thoughts/habits/fears/etc — get life coaching already. The sooner you do it, the longer you’ll get the benefits for. That’s gotta be a good ROI, right? :-)
Comment by Michelle on 5 February 2009:
Ali I understand your sentiments on buying the best. Anything I buy has to give me a fantastic ROI before I will consider it, if I need something enough to spend my heard earned on it then I owe it to myself to find that item at the best available price, even if that means waiting for it.
I did have a well paying job, but gave it up a few years ago because it took up too much of my life. Now, although I am much worse off financially, I do have time to smell the roses.
I’m sure Tim’s coaching would be worth every penny, but could only be cost effective for me, if, in the long term it paid for itself, which I think would mean I’d be looking for some monetary improvement in my life and I’m not. I’m happier living on less and appreciating the value of what I have, which I lost sight of when cost wasn’t an issue.
Comment by Tracy O’Connor on 5 February 2009:
Hi Tim! Thanks for linking my post, I’m glad you liked it enough to refer other people and hope it will encourage people to read your book or find their way to this blog. I’ve found it enormously helpful.
I did put my name in the hat for the free life coaching because it’s something I’ve been seriously mulling over for the past few weeks but we just don’t have the spare cash. However, I erased several posts where I declined to sign up because as much as I hate the term, I will be on the “mommy track” for the next 2-3 years and wouldn’t want to take the place of somebody prepared to go full throttle now. Not that I don’t think I wouldn’t benefit enormously from life coaching now and I think I could do a good job writing about it; more that I don’t think it would do me any harm to wait until next year when I can afford it. So, please consider me, but also keep my situation in mind if by luck it happens to be a very close choice between me and somebody else.
It did me a world of good just putting my name up for consideration – kind of an affirmation of hey, I am a person worth investing in. Even though I wouldn’t be spending anything, you would be investing your very valuable time on me. I very much look forward to following all the people you choose and getting some free life coaching by proxy.
Re: the ROI, that’s something I am working on in my own life. I grew up in the kind of house where if it was 75% off you grabbed it. Even though I laugh at my mother for doing it, it’s so engrained with me, I do find myself with ridiculous amounts of stuff to manage and wish I’d invested the money instead or saved it up to buy something that would give me lasting value and enjoyment. That has been the blessing in disguise with our current tight finances, I’ve discovered that I’ll live if I don’t go to Gymboree every time there is a sale and they’ve sent me a coupon!
Oi, I’m long winded, it’s just a very interesting subject and I could rattle on about all the stuff I don’t buy now for ages. I’m worse than a reformed smoker!
Comment by Tim Brownson on 6 February 2009:
Thanks everybody! I’ve had a number of e-mails privately and some have gone into a great amount of detail.
I’m hoping to go through them over the next 24/48 hours and post the ‘winners’
I said the closing date was Friday 6th February at 12.00 noon, so this thread is now closed and I’ll not be accepting any more requests because I’m already struggling to deal with what I’ve got!
I’ll post on here, but please forgive me if I don’t go into my reasons for not choosing somebody. The fact is I know some people will be unhappy, but I guess that is the nature of doing something like this. I really didn’t expect the level of response I got. Last time I had 15 people contact me, this time it has been almost 50!