Hi Brooke! This month has be a little wonky in the scheduling department (school starting, travel and my big business shift happening now that those things are past). I have set goals to complete my website for my mind body coaching business to help self employed moms struggling with physical symptoms of being over stressed (chronic pain & autoimmune &a mood disorders) self care is a huge focus for my emerging program. At a girls weekend with my best friend and 6 other of her nearest and dearest, I realized that so many women struggle with exactly the things I want to help moms with. Naturally over the course of conversation 3 of the women pursued asking me about coaching. One (without children) asked to be in my initial trail cap hung group beginning in October. I am charging 60% of my full rates (anticipating $80-100 per hour initially but in 6 week programs) thru the end of the year to try out and receive feedback since it is my first foray into coaching outside of my wellness practice. I had a follow up chat with one woman (the brides mother in law) who is mom to adult children and in a very different life circumstance than my niche. She texted me about her grocery shopping trip and articles she had read about anti inflammatory diet for her chronic pain. During our phone call, she declares that she wanted to hire me to be her coach and she wanted to know what that would look like. I know selling coaching sessions by the hour isn’t really a great idea. She isn’t really the right fit to benefit from my whole program, though elements would be helpful for her. I told her I’d like to work with her in a series of sessions and that I’d like her to think about a goal or focus she’d like my help with. She understood that we can both commit to addressing a priority for 4, 6 or 8 sessions weekly or biweekly to address her chosen focus. The rate would be in the $80-100 range per hour but I’d come up with an amount when we decided on what we were trying to accomplish. The conversation felt good. I was honest about being new and offering a reduced rate for my “beta test groups” through the end of the year. I am confident in my ability to help her despite her not being exactly my target market. I also understand the target marketing to be the best way to market yourself, not to be something to limit my practice but help it grow more intentionally.

I suppose my question is how have you handled coaching with people outside your programs or marketing? What would you suggest I do in this type of situation. It seems valuable for me to have a “name your own problem” type coaching program that can be customized to an individual, if approached or referred by clients outside of my niche or programs but I don’t want to confuse things either for myself or for potential clients.

Thanks always! Erica