I have created a new and improved version of K Money Mastery which is called, Mastering Book Publishing!
The final way that I make money online is through coaching and consulting. Coaching and consulting was one of the first ways that I monetized my blog and is often one of the easiest ways to make money online, if you have the following and visitors. When you're an expert or authority in your market, people will often seek you out for help and advice.
In my case, I literally receive hundreds of e-mails and messages everyday asking for my help, advice or to mentor people. While I wish I could help everyone and had an unlimited amount of time, it's unrealistic for me to think that. That's why I decided to create coaching programs for those that wish to work with me 1-on-1 or at least in a group coaching format. This is the best way for people to get access to me and for me to help them. As a result, I've been able to make additional income month after month by offering my services as a coach and consultant.
There's potential for coaching and consulting in almost any industry – whether it be health, fitness, dating, relationships, business, finance, investing, real estate, online marketing, etc… In fact, just go to Google and type in “raw food coach” and you will see that there's even coaches available in the raw food industry!
In this video blog, I share exactly how I make money online as a coach and consultant. I also share some detailed steps that you can take on getting started as a coach or consultant in your own field, so that you can begin making money online.
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
How I Got Into Coaching And Consulting
At the age of 21, I decided to start my own dating coaching business called Lifestyle Transformations. I had two friends that were my partners in it and we ran this company for 4-5 years in Vancouver. We started by offering 1-on-1 coaching and then eventually hosted our own seminars and workshops. Our business model was to offer free seminars in our city, have up to 20-30 people attend, offer massive value to them for free, and then up-sell them on one of our 3-day bootcamps.
As a result of this, I gained massively experience working with and coaching hundreds of people. While it was fun and I gained a lot of experience doing it, I eventually learned that it wasn't the most profitable business model.
You see, coaching and consulting requires time. It's not a “passive income stream” by any measure and doing it means you're still stuck in the paradigm of trading your time for money. As long as you're trading your time for money, you'll never be able to scale up your income or have freedom. That's why I'm huge on creating AUTOMATED SYSTEMS that make you predictable, repeatable passive income while you're sleeping, day-after-day, month-after-month.
Kindle Publishing, Affiliate Marketing and Information Products are all systems that will make you passive income. It's a “set it and forget it” type model, which doesn't require your time or attention down the road.
However, I learned that there's still a lot of opportunity to be made from coaching and consulting and I've learned the right way to do it.
The mistake that I made when I was a dating coach was that I was constantly hustling to get clients. Every month we'd need to get enough clients to fill our seminars with and to be able to work with 1-on-1 to cover our monthly expenses. It was very stressful and challenging, as you're always exchanging your time to get more and more people out. We were never really getting ahead, but just working our butts off just to maintain how well do did the previous month.
When I started blogging with Project Life Mastery, I invested my time producing quality content that would help people. I wrote lengthy, high quality articles and video blogs (similar to this) that would provide value to others. While doing this was very time consuming, I was willing to do it because I was creating an asset.
Each video blog I produce is a way of leveraging myself by creating an asset that will be on the internet forever. It will be a consistent way of people finding me and driving traffic and visitors to my website. I only had to invest the time and energy to do it ONE TIME and it will be around FOREVER.
When people discover my content and receive value from it, then they'll come to my website and have the opportunity to hire me as a coach if they choose. My content and website does all of the marketing and selling for me. I no longer have to “hustle” to get clients or customers, but instead they SEEK ME OUT.
For example, right now as you're reading this, there are hundreds of other people that are on my blog reading my content. There's hundreds of people right now watching my videos on YouTube, too. These people are receiving value from me and building a relationship with me, without me having to actively do anything. At the same time, they're visiting my blog and they're applying to work with me as part of my coaching program.
That is what I've learned to be the RIGHT WAY to getting clients and customers. Most coaches or consultants think, “Hey I want to be a coach or a consultant” and they spend hours each day trying to find people and convince them to hire them. What a horrible business model! Instead, you want them coming to YOU and for YOU to be the selector of who you want to work with.
The best way to do that is by producing high quality content and helping people as much as you can. As I've done this over the years, my coaching and consulting business has grown rapidly. The more that my blog, Kindle books and Mastering Book Publishing program grows, the more requests I get from people for coaching.
Since coaching and consulting isn't a passive income stream and it actively requires my time, there's an opportunity cost for me in taking on clients. That opportunity cost is it takes away my time that I could spend on creating passive income streams. That's why I'm in a position where I can charge whatever I want if people want my 1-on-1 help. As I grow and make even more money, I will be forced to continue to raise my rates, as whatever I'm charging now won't be worthwhile enough for me to take on clients at.
I believe coaching and consulting can be an excellent way to make money online, but only if you have the system set up right. It has to be worth your time and I only would recommend it as a secondary source of income. I continue to offer coaching and consulting on my website simply because there's a big enough demand and market for it. I also enjoy it immensely too.
There's always people that prefer to work with someone 1-on-1 and require that personalized attention and feedback to get to where they want to go. Some people don't just want to “read the manual”, but want someone to SHOW THEM HOW TO DO IT and guide them every step of the way. They want accountability. They want access to someone that can answer their questions and give them that feedback that can make a huge difference in their lives. This is the fastest way for anyone to achieve results and to get to where they want to go.
I know in my case, the clients that choose to work with me for Kindle publishing end up making a lot more money and having a lot more success than those that just sign up for my Mastering Book Publishing course. I can simply get people results much faster than they ever could on their own. That's the main value that a coach brings.
I've also personally hired and worked with so many coaches in my own life and received so much value from them. I know I wouldn't have the success that I enjoy today if I tried to do things on my own and didn't make those investments in my self. I continue to find coaches and mentors that I can learn from, in all areas of my life. It's the fastest and easiest way to get to where you want to go. Just find someone that's done it and do exactly what they say. It's pretty simple.
How To Become A Coach And Consultant
I've provided 5 steps that someone can take to become a coach or consultant. These are the steps that I took and is my “method” of doing things, as this is exactly what has worked for me. These steps work for any industry that you're in.
1. Start Putting Yourself Out There With High Quality Content To Get Found.
The first step is really just putting yourself out there with a blog, videos or a podcast so that you can get found. Publish high quality content and give it away for free. This will help you attract visitors and a following. If your stuff is good, people will WANT to work with you and hire you as their coach. You can also do this through publishing Kindle books or selling your own information products, as people will see you as an authority and expert and will be more likely to hire you.
If you just had a website up with your picture that says “I'm a coach, hire me!”, people will say “Who cares?” People are much more likely to hire and work with someone if they've already provided value to them in advance (through your content) and they've established a relationship with you (through your content). If you just have a coaching website that offers coaching – nobody cares because nobody knows anything about you, haven't received any value from you, nor do they have any relationship with you whatsoever.
2. Begin Offering Coaching And Consulting Once The Demand Is There.
You really only want to start offering coaching and consulting once the demand is there. The demand is there when you have a certain number of visitors coming to your blog per day or you have people contacting you asking for your help and advice. Once you have people contacting you and asking for your help, this is a good sign that they trust you and see you as an expert. They now WANT your help and advice. All you have to do now is put together a coaching page or website that makes yourself available to them as a coach.
3. Consider Coaching People For Free At The Beginning To Gain Experience.
When I first wanted to become a coach, I offered myself to people for free. I just wanted to gain experience and get a few testimonials to help build my business. After I became more confident with the coaching process, I began charging a bit of money for my time. At first, it was around $40/hour. As I gained more experience, helped people get more results and became in even more demand, I was able to raise the rates to over $100/hour and beyond.
4. Find Out Exactly What Your Followers Want And Give It To Them.
With my blog, I realized that the #1 thing that people were coming to me for was how to make money online. 80% of my coaching requests are for that and so that's why I decided to create a coaching program specifically for working with me to make money online. This way it's targeted and geared towards what people are looking for from me.
I also realized that there's many people that can't afford to work with me 1-on-1, but still want to receive value from me, get their questions answered and receive feedback and advice. That's why I decided to create a Group Coaching Mastermind. This has allowed me to take on a group of people and coach them every two weeks in a webinar session where they can ask me questions and receive feedback. This was another way of leveraging myself while giving people something that they wanted and was valuable.
5. Qualify And Screen People To Weed Out The Tire-kickers And Those That Aren't Committed.
The truth is, in order to be successful at anything you have to be COMMITTED. Most people simply aren't committed enough to be successful and therefor they never will. They aren't willing to do whatever it takes. They “want” success, but aren't “committed” to it. They basically only way to be successful if it's convenient and falls in their lap. Most aren't willing to invest money or commit themselves fully and I'm not willing to work with those people, as it's often a waste of time.
I have a lot of people that come to me and say, “Stefan, I want to be successful at making money online, can you show me how?”
I will then ask them, “How bad do you want it? What are you willing to do be successful at making money online?”
They then come back and say to me, “I want it so bad! I will do anything – I will do whatever it takes!”
I then say, “Okay, here's my rates, hire me as a coach. Or you can sign-up for my Kindle Money Mastery course that I have.”
Then after that I start to hear the excuses and you can see the crack in their commitment level. A moment ago they said to me that they'd do ANYTHING and now all of a sudden they say, “Oh, I can't afford that…” or “I don't have the time” or “I can't do this because xyz…”
I can point out to them the fact that I didn't have money, time or had the same limitations as them when I wanted to be successful at a younger age… but the difference between me and them is that I didn't let those excuses get in the way. I found a way to make it happen. I always believed that “Resourceful people find the resources”. I was willing to work extra hours at my job or find ways to come up with the cash to invest in myself. I was willing to work late and on weekends. I was willing to bust my ass and be resourceful.
THOSE are the people that I want to work with – the ones that are committed and make things happen. They find a way. They don't have excuses. They take massive action. They are COMMITTED. And guess what? I have many clients that don't have money, work full-time jobs (or go to college) and don't have the time, have their families, etc, etc… but they find a way to hire me and take action, because they are committed and willing to do whatever it takes. These are people that get results working with me.
So how do you qualify people? You create an application process that they have to fill out before they decide to work with you. This will help you screen people and see who's committed and be selective about who you want to work with. You can see an example of this that I do on my coaching page here.
If you follow these 5 steps then you'll be able to easily make money as a coach or a consultant.
I will say that while coaching and consulting isn't passive by any means, it is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things that I do. While creating passive income streams is fun and the best use of your time, sometimes you lose that human connection and relationship with people. I've found it to be very pleasurable and rewarding to work with someone on a personal level and help them achieve their goals. You don't get that same level of joy and fulfillment through a video blog or a course, as you're sometimes disconnected from people.
That's why I love coaching and consulting and will always continue to do it. Every client that I coach becomes my friend and I form a bond with them that can't be created in any other way through the internet. Sometimes I even become emotionally attached to my clients and it's fun to share the victories and successes with them, as it makes me feel good that I helped them to achieve it. So that's the other reason to do coaching: the emotional rewards and fulfillment that it can bring!
To view the other video blogs of this series on Exactly How I Make Over $40,000 Per Month Online, click below:
Please leave a comment below if you have any comments or questions about coaching and consulting. I’m happy to answer them for you!