Is the online coaching industry making some business owners helpless?
I think so - and I know I’m partly to blame.
In this episode of the Courageous Content Podcast I’ll share why I believe online coaches can make business owners helpless - and ask what we can do about it.
Here’s what I cover:
How online business coaches encourage helplessness
Why blueprints and strategies disempower business owners
IMPORTANT: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED. WE GIVE IT A QUICK CHECK THROUGH BUT WE DON’T CORRECT EVERYTHING AS IT’S INTENDED TO HELP YOU FIND PARTS YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AGAIN - NOT AS AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT. SO THERE MIGHT BE A FEW QUIRKY WORDS/PHRASES HERE!
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Something I really struggled with as a content strategist and teacher is clients who want a tutorial on everything. Oh, seem to, for example, tech is one of the biggest barriers for many, and I'm good at breaking things down step by step for people like adding text, the Instagram reels, or I think captions on videos. Plus I have the tech skills to create them and I enjoy doing it,
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but sometimes it feels like the more I get the more some people want other, they just think that I'm the problem because I'm part of an industry that doses people up with so much high quality information, step-by-step guides, bleed wins, strategies, cheat sheets, checklist, absolutely free that effectively lenders, some business owners helpless. I'm Janet Murray. I'm a content and online business strategy.
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And I was really struck by two things. Number one, how many people asked me if I could create tutorials, even though I'd already created a bunch and shared them in numerous ways. And number two, how many people asked me for other tutorials when they hadn't even watched the first one? So for example, people were asking me if I could create a video for them on how to add text Instagram reels specifically,
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how's it getting the text to come in at the right time. Now I'd already created that video, but it seems that lots of people were worrying about the tutorial for step five when they hadn't even mastered step one. And this is something I see all the time and I'm not proud to admit this, but there are times when I find myself thinking, good Lord,
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do you want to do a tutorial on how to make a cup of tea? As well? Last year, I dealt with an angry customer who bought one of my planners as a gift for a sibling who was apparently outraged, that it wasn't filled with pre-written posts, but no amount of explaining why we don't provide pre written posts in the planet seems to get through.
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And if you're in any doubts as to why it's because it wouldn't actually help her siblings to find clients for her new business, because her posts would potentially be the same as thousands of other people and not tailored to her ideal customers or clients, which is what we need to create to sell our products or services, sending links to helpful podcasts, didn't help either or explaining diplomatically that if most doing content marketing for a small business was as easy as spending 39 pounds on a content planner.
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I might have wiped out the whole social media management and content marketing industry by now, and probably partly wiped out a few others, but no, it was my fault. And I was just a scammy business owner who was duping people into paying me money for eight blank planet. And if you've ever seen one of my competitors, concept planners, you know,
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it's anything that blanket comes with full instructions on how to create a content plan, annual quarterly, weekly, daily at Scott, thousands of awareness days and key dates. It's basically a concept planning system that you can follow. So these are really some quite outrageous claims and I'm not blaming these people here. If you've never run a business before, and you've never created content for a business before,
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why would you know any different? I mean, you do wonder why it seemingly doesn't even cross some people's minds, but that's probably for another podcast episode. So just to be clear, I am not looking for sympathy here because I know it's my fault. At least partly for being too helpful to my clients for not being like one of my business buddies who calls clients out when they get into helpless mode,
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telling them that if they can't find a, how to video on YouTube, but they shouldn't be in business, which is absolutely true, but it does take some guts to say that to someone who's asking you for help, I'm also to blame. And I think this is the really significant bit for being parts of an industry that doses people up with so much high quality information,
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step-by-step guides, blueprints strategies, cheat sheets, checklists, absolutely free that effectively renders some business owners helpless like frozen in headlights. Aren't able to implement anything without a blueprint or strategy or a coach or mentor telling them what to do when the truth is there is no right way to do anything. Yes, there are tried and tested strategies that get good results for many businesses,
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but they never work in the same way for every business. And there are no guarantees, which is why you have to tweak and test everything and be okay with making mistakes and getting things wrong because that's typically how you learn what's right. I also feel that being too helpful, disempowers me as a teacher and mentor because if I'm spending all of my time,
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creating content, people could find elsewhere on the internet. I have less time to help people with the more strategic stuff. During on the extensive experience I have of creating offers, building funnels, sales campaigns, the stuff that really makes a difference to the bottom line of a business. And I actually know this is the case because every so often I'll get an email from a former client who no word of a lie will email me and say,
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I'm moving on from your membership program or some other program. I was wondering if you could recommend someone who could help me with content and business strategy. And when that happens, I think to myself, you've been being too helpful. Again, you need to get back to empowering people and stop making them helpless. So I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic.
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Do you feel like online coach years, teachers need to encourage their clients to be more resourceful, to stop spoonfeeding them information and give them real skills. Maybe you're a coach yourself, and this is something you've noticed in your clients, or maybe you feel your coaches or mentors should be giving more. I would love to get your thoughts on there. So do reach out to me on social media.
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The best place to connect with me is at Janet Murray UK. My personal opinion is that when you're looking for a coach or mentor, you should be looking for someone that is committed to helping you become resourceful. Because once you've moved on from that coach or mentor, you're going to be out there on your own. And you're going to have to make decisions.
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Sometimes you're going to make the wrong decision, and then you're going to have to figure out why it was wrong, puts it right. And for me, that's what I do every single day. And I've been doing it every single day since I started my online business. And it's one of the reasons that I think I have managed to create a successful business,
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because I think I've got all the answers. I know that things are changing all the time and it's that resourcefulness, that commitment to figuring things out that I think really makes the difference. And if you found this episode interesting, there's a few others. I definitely recommend listening to one is, is it time to shake up the online coaching industry and the other is shady practices to watch out for in the online business space.
