Why you shouldn’t hire a “cheap” coach

Today’s episode is a bit of a controversial one, but it is a topic that I really wanted to speak about. And that is choosing the cheap option when it comes to investing in your business. And specifically when it comes to investing in a coach or a mastermind. There are many reasons that I am very passionate about as you’ll hear in today’s episode for why you should not choose the cheap option when it comes to investing in your business growth.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast, by myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom giving and global impact.

Before we dive into today’s episode, just a reminder that doors to my Profit Masters Mastermind are now open. And yes, it does align perfectly with today’s topic on the podcast. I’ll be completely transparent and share that my mastermind isn’t the cheapest mastermind out there. However, I know the strategies I teach inside absolutely work and if you are a regular listener of the podcast, you’ll have heard several of my guests share about the incredible changes they’ve made in their life by doing the money work. I have a proven track record in helping people achieve incredible transformation in their business and their life. The mastermind has a ton of epic and time sensitive bonuses, there’s too many for me to talk about right here and now, but please make sure you go and click on the link in the bio, if you would like to find out more about The Profit Masters Mastermind.

Things I don’t scrimp on in life

So diving into today’s episode.

Let me talk about something other than business to start. I personally do not choose cheap for a lot of things in my life. I don’t like to eat cheap food. I shared on the podcast before that me and my family shop at a butcher at a baker, and we go to a fresh grocer because we really value high quality food, we value high quality fruit and vegetables, high quality meat and we really value having things that are fresh and premium quality. I really believe that they taste better and to me, food is your fuel and it’s so important.

Another area that I don’t choose cheap and admittedly, this is something I did used to do when I was younger is I don’t wear cheap clothes. I used to shop at those really cheap shops that I’m talking about that make things in fast fashion, and you can buy 10 different tops at the cost of next to nothing. But from my experience, they usually fall apart pretty quickly and they end up not looking very nice. And it usually ends up cost of you more anyway, in the long run, because you are continually having to spend your time going to the shops and buying more things as compared to buying quality items that last much longer.

Another area I won’t do cheap. I won’t fly cheap airlines and I will put this a disclaimer in there, unless there are no other options. So sometimes you do need to catch a cheap flight, but I literally hate sitting on those cheap, crappy seats with no TV, with no food and drinks included. And I swear the service is so much worse and people are so much ruder to you when you fly with a cheaper airline. I’ve certainly done my fair share of traveling on cheap airlines over the years, but it’s something that I just won’t do anymore. So if you ever see me sitting on a Jetstar or a Ryanair flight you’ll know it’s because there was no other option.

Another thing I won’t scrimp on. I won’t go to a cheap hairdresser. I have blonde and very thin hair, thank you children. And trust me, it is worth paying to go to a professional to have your hair done by someone who knows what they’re doing.

Another thing that I won’t scrimp on. I won’t buy cheap wine. Let’s just say that I’ve reached an age in my life where a $10 bottle of wine leaves me with a sore head the next day plus there is such a difference in taste.

And another thing that I won’t scrimp on, is my mobile phone. I just won’t buy a cheap phone, just no. It’s my business, it’s my life and I believe in quality over quantity.

Perhaps some of these things are resonating with you and you are nodding alone thinking. I don’t like the cheap option either. And yet in business, so often, people opt for the cheap option when they are investing. I can’t tell you how many times a client has started working with me and told me that they’ve worked with five different coaches before and had no change in their results or someone will excitedly show me their new brand or website that they got for an absolute bargain and can’t understand why they aren’t yet attracting premium clients or I’ve also seen examples where someone hires a cheap photographer or a cheap copywriter and I quietly think, “Yeah, there’s a reason that they aren’t charging premium prices.”

So let me share why you shouldn’t choose a cheap coach for your business.

You want a coach that is confident to price their services high, to help you grow your business in the same manner

Number one, someone’s pricing says a lot about them. If a coach doesn’t have the confidence to increase their own prices, are they really going to be the best person to encourage you to maximize your growth? There are a bunch of stories around why someone doesn’t charge more. For example, I love to help people, but here’s a big fat profit truth bomb to make $1,000,000 you can either sell 100,000 things at $10, a pop or you can sell 10 things at a $100,000 a pop. There is so much more ease and simplification in having high end offers in your business. And I help all of my clients to create high end offers for this exact reason. It doesn’t mean your whole business offerings have to be high end. In fact, this year I’m creating some low price point products and offerings in my business, including my brand new book, which is launching very soon, they’ll be more on that later. Sorry, I got a bit distracted there, but the reason I’m creating a low end offers is twofold.

Number one, to help people who can’t afford my high end offers yet, but really want to work with me.

And number two, to increase the number of people in the sales funnel.

From my experience, when people have invested with me in my lower price point offerings, if they come and have a great experience, they will then come back and buy again and move into a higher end package. If a coach doesn’t charge a premium price, it’s because they still have money mindset blocks around their own mere worth. And I ask you, do you really want to have someone guiding you or mentoring you to scale who is scared to do it themself?

You will get a lot more out of an investment that makes you feel uncomfortable

The second reason why I really believe you don’t want to work with the cheap coach is because I believe you will get a lot more out of an investment that makes you feel uncomfortable. I’ve invested in a bunch of things in my many years in business, some of them are leaning too heavily and some I don’t. But usually the things I work hardest at have hurt me big time in the hip pocket. My last coach literally cost me the amount of a mortgage on a $1,000,000 house. So what kind of energy do you think I showed up to those calls with? I was always at the calls on time with my notepad in hand and I have saved down every one of our calls so that I can revisit them again. I know a few nights before my calls, my hubby might have cracked a bottle of wine and offered wine to me. And I would say no way I want to be in my absolute, most focused state for these calls to get the most out of my investment.

A few years ago, I joined a mastermind and the same thing happened. When I first joined, it was a massive stretch for me. A huge chunk of my profit and just after I joined, COVID and lockdowns hit, can you imagine how terrifying that was? Will my business fall apart? Will I go bankrupt? Will she sue me if I can’t meet my repayments? It was a global mastermind and calls often early in the morning or late at night. And I didn’t miss a single call and I took action like a boss. I did everything she suggested, and I had a massive income breakthrough. In fact, I doubled my income. But by the end of the 12 month mastermind, because my income had increased so much, there were payments didn’t feel like they were such a big hit. In fact, truthfully, by the end, I stopped going along to most of the calls. It was nothing to do with her. I just didn’t feel like the investment was hurting me in the back pocket that much anymore.

I have a couple of clients of mine who have shared with me that they have joined memberships that are a hundred or a couple of $100 a month. And they confess that they’ve never even shown up for a call or even logged into the online portal. And I know I’ve had the same experience myself. The first course I joined was $2,000, which was a huge stretch for me and I religiously did every activity and watched every video and of course I got great outcomes and I know this might trigger you if you’re not at this stage yet. But the last $2,000 course I invested in, to be honest, I’ve only watched a few videos and I certainly haven’t done the exercises. It’s just that investment didn’t really feel that big to me. Now, I know this isn’t always the case. You can show up to an investment that hasn’t felt like a stretch for you. You can read a book and implement it and have massive changes in your life. So what I’m sharing is just that for the most part, if the investment is making you feel uncomfortable, I truly believe you’ll lean into it more. I do want to put a disclaimer in here. What feels uncomfortable will be different for everyone. I have a biz friend of mine who literally remortgaged her home to join a coaching program and she said she doesn’t regret it to this day, but that would not energetically feel good for me. For some other people investing in their business, investing the whole profit back into their business will make them show up like a boss, knowing the end result that they’re chasing. But for other people that will make them feel anxious and stressed. I personally, at this stage of my business journey spend between 25 and 50% of my expenditure on either a coach or mindset training, but that might not be right for you, but I will say this picking something, just because it’s cheap won’t always get you the outcome that you want.

You will find price dictates the calibre of people in the room to connect with

The third reason why I believe you do not want to pick the cheap coach is because the pricing will determine the caliber of who is in the room. This point is going to trigger the hell out of a lot of people. At our previous home before we moved to the beach, our son was at a private Catholic school. It wasn’t a high end or necessarily really expensive school, but it was private. So we did have to pay school fees for our son to attend. And at the first parents’ event we went to, my husband said, “Paying for a school seems to have gotten rid of the riff-raff.” Okay, before I go on, I do want to say a few things.

Number one, we completely recognise that there is riff-raff everywhere. There are plenty of rich bogan people and there are plenty of unsophisticated people who choose to send their children to private schools. And I would hardly describe my husband and myself as fancy people. Anyone who knows us will attest. And secondly, this is not a public versus private school discussion. In fact, my son now goes to a public school, which has very high rating and we are very happy with it. So I don’t want to make this a private versus public school discussion. I was just highlighting a point about how for the most part, the price does dictate who is in the room.

Let’s pick another example flying in business class. Yes. There are people who fly business class who have not really any money and maybe spent their last few cents on the flight. Or there are people in business class who are rich and have no class, of course. But as a general rule, there is a different demographic flying in business class to Ryanair. And trust me as someone who’s flown Ryanair a lot, I can make a generalization like that. And it’s the same with courses, retreat and mastermind. When I went on a retreat a few years ago, it was a five figure investment about $10,000. And I knew that anyone that would pay that much for a few days was so damn serious about their business that even if they weren’t wildly successful already, that they soon would be. And me and the group of ladies who attended are all continuing to thrive in our own businesses and in fact, we are all meeting up together to go on our own retreat again soon.

The people you surround yourself with have everything to do with the outcomes you achieve in life. There are so many scientific studies around this, that you earn the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. And that if someone around you gains weight, you are more likely to gain weight as well. Google it, the science behind it is fascinating. So if you join a mastermind that is a couple of $100 a month, there are different people attending that kind of mastermind. And more importantly, there are different energetic commitments to the outcomes they are wanting to achieve as compared to a mastermind there’s several $1000 month.

I personally love to be in the energy of people who are all in when it comes to business, who are fearlessly investing in their business because they know their success is inevitable. People who are playing it safe in their business investments, in my opinion, on some level, don’t really believe that they can make it. So be careful of the energy you to surround yourself with. I am aware today’s episode has probably triggered the hell out of a lot of people, but this is something I feel really passionate about. It drives me nuts when someone says they really, really want something and they have the capacity to afford it and then they chicken out and choose a safe option. I respect people’s right, 100% to follow what feels good for them. And I’m certainly not into high pressure selling people things at all. But I do see people making decisions from a place of fear and then finding themselves stuck and repeating old patterns for months or years later. People are often looking at the cost of something, but they forget to consider the cost of staying where they are.

So in summary for today, the reason why I believe you shouldn’t go with the cheap coach.

1. Someone’s pricing says a lot about their own confidence and ability to charge premium prices.
2. I believe you’ll get a lot more out of an investment that makes you feel uncomfortable.
3. The pricing will determine the calibre of who is in the room.

If you are really ready to step into your next level of growth in business, make sure you do check out my Profit Masters Mastermind and the doors are now open. This mastermind is for six figure and multiple six figure service-based businesses who are hungry for their next level of growth and want to get in the energy of people doing big things in their own business too. There are a ton of time sensitive bonuses that are available right now. So make sure you click on the link in my bio to find out more and to book in a discovery call with me.

Have a fabulous week and I look forward to chatting to you again soon.

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @clare_wood_coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week. And I look forward to talking to you again next week.