#192: Creating Your Coaching Package: How Long? How Much?

Hello there health coaches. Last week, we talked about your signature program, what that's all about, and if you even need one today, we're gonna be talking about the logistics, like the length of your program. For example, if you missed last week, be sure to check that out. You can get it on apple podcasts or Spotify or YouTube or wherever you like to get your stuff. And speaking of that, I need to give a shout out to an apple podcast listener whose username is appropriately enough health coach. So kudos to you, Health coach. Health coach submitted this five star review and said, if your health coach and looking for ways to increase your profit and enhance your business, then this is the podcast for you. Michelle and her guests are an amazing inspiration. Health coach, I need to send you a little thank you gift, and also like a congratulations gift for getting the handle health coach on apple podcast.

So please email us at support@thealthcoachpower.com, reference this episode, and for everybody listening, your reviews, help us reach more health coaches. Your reviews help me continue to bring you this free content every single week. So please, please take a minute to review the show and then maybe I'll be sending you a gift next week.

But today we are not talking about podcast reviews. That's not why we're here. We're talking about how long your coaching program should be. I know the very, very first thing we do when we sit down, put our thinking caps on, all right, I'm gonna design my program. We think how many months, how, how many weeks, how long is it gonna be? How many sessions, how long should the sessions be? This all seems like very, very important details that we need to iron out, right? What's the price? Ugh! And you know, all these things really shouldn't be that hard to decide, but there do need, there does need to be some amount of thoughtful planning that goes into making the decision, of course.

So, today we'll talk about the logistics and if you're here live, whether you're on Instagram or you're over here on Facebook, go ahead and tell me in the comments, what your program looks like right now. And some of you may be like, I'm just brand new. That's okay. Let's pretend that I walked up with a check in my hand check today. And I was like, I would like to be your client. What would you have me write that out for? What would you tell me? How long is the program? How many sessions, what is the cost? In other words, let's just take the temperature and see where we're all at. As of right now. Now, if you really wanna design a unique program that clients cannot help, but say yes to, it does need to go beyond the logistics, you know, couple months, however many sessions.

That's like I said, these are, it's like details, details. If you wanna create something that people are like, yes, I need that. I literally don't even care how long it is or how much it costs or anything else. I just know I need this thing that you're selling. Join me for our free upcoming training. It's called create your signature program in just five days. And you can register for that at healthcoachpower.com/signature. And I'm gonna place that over here in the comments on Facebook, for those of you on Instagram, maybe somebody can type it in for me, healthcoachpower.com/signature. This is something that I have held before, by the way, but it was years ago. So if you remember it, that means you've been around for a while and you're pretty awesome, but it was super popular. The last time that I ran this training, I wanted to bring it back of course, with some new updates, cuz I'm not just teaching you about signature programs.

Like in theory, we're not here to learn theory. We are creating it together. What I mean by that is by day number five, you can start enrolling clients in your new program. Sound pretty good, right? So definitely join me for the free. It starts April 24th. And even if you're busy that week, you're going on vacation. Good for you. I'm jealous. Even if you can't be there, sign up anyway and you'll get access to all materials. So go to healthcoachpower.com/signature and create your signature program with us in just five days. Awesome. Let's see what, so some of y'all are saying over here in the comments. TJ's saying he's figuring out his program week by week, I charge right now $185 per month. Doesn't have a signature program yet, but that is going to change. Cuz TJ is one of our newest, Healthy Profit University members.

So don't worry, TJ, you're gonna get there. um, he says, I just jumped in. I'm at least doing something while I do HPU. Yeah, absolutely. We all start by charging X number of dollars per hour or per month. Right? That's how everybody starts. It's the easiest thing to do better to do something than to do nothing. So you are in the exact right place for right now, TJ, but we're gonna get you to that next level very quickly. Nicole is saying she's thinks she registered for the training? Yes. Create your signature program in just five days is a free training. If you're already signed up. Awesome. If you're not sure, sign up again, you know, it's okay. You're not gonna get a billed twice. It's free. It's free. Doesn't matter. Okay. So of course, one aspect of your signature program that everybody gotta think about is... Are these logistics.

And we spend way too much time here. You can't imagine how many times health coaches are asking me, what do you think about this? What do you think about that this many months, that many months. And I'm like, I don't, I don't care. Like, you know what I mean? This is like the, the, the details. Um, we spend a lot of time, second guessing ourselves here. So I just wanna lay it out for you. Just take off, you know, all the, maybe this maybe that I wanna take all that off the table so you can just move forward. Sound good. Here's what I see in the industry. I've been in this industry for 13 years, right? I've been, uh, running this health coach power community for gosh, nine years now, something like that. Most health coaches these days from what I see from my vantage point are offering either a three month package or a six month package.

So you don't really have to reinvent the wheel here. Usually it's, you know, three months, six months. And we're meeting with our clients every other week for an hour. This is not scripture. By the way, you can meet weekly. And some coaches do, you can do half hour meetings. You can do 45 minute meetings, right? It's not, there's no rules here, but generally every other week is pretty common. Even if you think you're gonna meet every week, invariably something comes up and ends up being every other week. Anyway, that's been my experience. So is that what you guys are mostly doing every other week? Just curious. Am, am I right? Is that like still what most health coaches are putting out there? I find that between my schedule and my client schedule, we're lucky even to find that day that works every other week, um, to do it every single week would probably be impossible.

But again, this is gonna vary depending on who you're working with and what their schedule is like. And you know what yours is like. So again, no rules, but the every other week model seems to work. It's been forever. It's what I was doing 13 years ago when I graduated from health switching school. And it's more or less what I'm still doing now. So if you are stuck trying to make a decision like this, here you go. This is a baseline that you can just start with. Good. See, I just wanna make it easy for you. I know sometimes you just need to know like, well, what's everybody doing? What's working. What not working. I just wanna spell it out for you. All right. So why would you choose then in terms of length of time to offer a six month program where you're meeting every other week over a three month program, any guesses, anybody have an idea of why you would choose one or the other?

Nicole says, this is exactly what I'm doing currently the every a week thing. Okay. I do think that's still the most common. So are we gonna do a longer program or are we gonna do a shorter program in general? How do you decide some problems that we work with our clients on take longer to solve? Don't they, some problems take longer to solve than others. So if you like TJ help people who need to lose a substantial amount of weight, let's say a hundred pounds or more. That takes a while. That's not going to be accomplished in three months, right? So the program needs to be longer just to be true to the goal that you would never wanna promise someone that you can solve this gigantic problem in a very, very short period of time. If, if you can't or, or if that's not reasonable now on the other hand, if you help clients lose 10 pounds, you know, maybe you do only need two or three months for that.

So you really wanna consider the, the size, the scope of the problem that your signature program solves. And if you're not sure what that problem is, that is one of many reasons that you would wanna join us for this free training that I have coming up for free healthcoachpower.com/signature. And I'm gonna help you figure that out. What big problem do you help them solve? Shannon's saying not everyone wants to commit long term. Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say next, Shannon. I think you are looking over my shoulder at my notes because this is exactly what I was gonna say the other way to think about the length of the program that you offer is based on the type of person that you work with. So, um, let's say that you are working with a, a young woman, you in her twenties, not married lives in the city, very fast paced life, six months to her, might feel like forever.

You say six months. And she's like, what are we getting married? You know? So six months might be like, uh, too much of a commitment for some, but let's say that you're talking to a man and he's in his sixties and he's been married for several decades to the same woman. And he's recently retired six months. That doesn't seem very long at all. He might not be intimidated as easily by that. So you do wanna consider how the length sounds to your particular type of client. Is it going to feel doable or will it intimidate them? Nicole says, I let them decide the length, but I prefer six months. Ah, I used to do this too. I'd be like, well, I give out, I had like the buffet of options we could do the one month or we could do the three months or we could do the six months.

You know, I'm gonna say this. People are looking to you as the expert. So rather than letting the client choose, like how the heck do they know if they knew how to solve their problem? They wouldn't even be talking to you. They don't know. They don't know how big of a problem they have, but as you have a conversation with them, you're gonna go, oh, this is a person that, you know, eats the McDonald's breakfast five days out of seven, all right. We might have a significant amount of work to do here. You know, like you're gonna get a sense of where this person is starting from and they don't have that perspective. So in my opinion, it is the health coach who should be saying, this is the package for you because not only do you know best, but you know what, it just positions you in a way that they're going to respect you more.

You make the recommendation. And when we create our signature program, it is what it is. And it is what it, for a reason I always used to, when I was sort of inching my way towards this, I still had the buffet of options on the table, but I started making a recommendation. I would say, here are my three, you know, one month, three month, six month, whatever package. But what I would recommend is right, I would make a recommendation. And I always thought that that created a greater sense of respect, uh, between the client and myself, they felt like I was doing what was right for them. And I was sometimes I would recommend the smaller package versus the larger package, because, you know, I was trying to work with so many different people that sometimes I would be meeting with somebody and I could tell they really didn't need that much from me.

So, okay. We wanna consider the length of time. How else can we think about this issue of how long, how many sessions, what should the price be? Of course you gotta consider your own business goals. So when we're talking about length of time, what do you have time for in your business? I mean, really think about this. What are you trying to achieve? I know that in my health coaching business, I fit my private clients in between other big projects and other big promotions that are going on and I could never fit six month clients into my calendar. It would be very difficult. So that's definitely a consideration when we're talking about the length of your program, right? Or making big decisions about any of the programs. Logistics. Let me just recap, because these are the three areas to consider. One is the problem that you're helping your clients solve.

What's gonna help get them the best results. And this really is the most important consideration. You wanna think about your client's perception and making your package attractive to them. Also an important consideration. And you wanna think about your own business goals and what you need and what even what you need personally, in order to benefit and make this work for you. So the same exact principles apply. When you think about pricing, oh, pricing. I know scary. We talked a little bit about this last week, but first consider the problem that you're helping the client solve. Is it a big problem? Is it a major problem? If so, they don't want a $97 solution, cuz that sounds cheap, right? They're zero. They have something that they have been struggling with. They have tried other things, right? This is important to them. Price accordingly. You'll be taken more seriously and you're gonna price according to how big the problem is that you're helping the client solve.

Also, we wanna consider their perspective. So, is somebody, this potential client of yours, are they somebody who spends $4,000 on a handbag? Do they have other out of pocket practitioners that they've been paying mm-hmm ? Are they already spending money to solve this problem that they want your help with? I'm gonna say you want all those answers to be yes. Okay. Not necessarily that need to be buying designer handbags. That's neither here nor there. But the point is that they are used to spending money. Um, they are already spending money to try and solve their problem. And your program's cost is just gonna be a small blip on the radar. It's normal for them. But if you're working with somebody or if you're wanting to work with somebody who is on a fixed income, who has never spent money to solve this problem before that's gonna be an uphill battle and you don't wanna fight that uphill battle.

So I'm not saying to lower your price, I'm saying to target a different type of person. You wanna definitely consider the ability of your perspective client to hire you. Either their actual income level, their disposable income, their bank account, or, you know, they can have all the money in the world, but be the type of person that they're spending behavior is I don't spend any money. I save, save, save, save, save, I clip coupons, right? That's gonna be a more difficult person to sign up as a client. Does this resonate? How many of you see or have seen that clients who aren't willing to invest, aren't willing to invest. kind of a, just a, a personality type. Some people will pay out of pocket and go to the naturopath. Other people would rather keel over and die than pay anything more than a copay on their insurance.

Yes. So lowering your price will likely not change that. It's not gonna change their willingness to invest in themselves, monetarily, energetically or otherwise. Nicole saying, generally I bring up that working with me longer, like six months gives them the ability to have my support through holidays, vacation and gives them more time to get those new habits consistent. It's true. It's true. Um, again, you're probably gonna know best if this is somebody who needs that kind of support and then you would design a program that is maybe six months long so that, you know, it's not like, because it might be nice to have my support through the holidays. You're like I have designed this program to be six months and to run through the holidays on purpose. And here's why, and here's why it applies to you. And they're gonna be like, oh yep, thank you.

That's why you want them to feel, oh, you made this for me. You've already thought about what the stumbling blocks I'm gonna have and what I need. Thank you. Shannon's saying. And some people won't even do it if it's free. Yes, yes, exactly. You can lower your price and lower your price and lower your price. And you still have people tell you there's some reason that they can't do it. So you know what, that we don't care about them though. We care about the people that are ready to invest both monetarily, but also energetically, right? This is, uh, coaching truly is an energy exchange. So the other thing we have to think about of course is our business goals. Remember that? So when it comes to pricing, what are your goals? I now not every health coach wants to be a millionaire. That is fine.

That's not why we got into this business. So we're not like how can I make my zillions and zillions of dollars, but how much do you need to earn to get you excited about working with your next client? And think everyone's, it's always exciting at first, but think like month, two, month, three, are you still raring to go with them? Or are you starting to feel resentful? Because you're earning minimum wage, you dropped your price and now you're are like, oh, I gotta meet with this client. You don't want that energy drop. So there always needs to be a fair exchange of energy. Has anyone ever been in that position where you do discount your price and then you regret it later or somebody signs up with you because you discounted your price, but then they don't show up either. They literally don't show up for sessions or they're just really not showing up for themselves cuz they're not invested enough.

This is a thing. So, uh, speaking of prices, I told you earlier, some very common health coaching programs and what they look like, you know, lengthwise number of meetings. I can also share that most health coaches and least the ones that I am privy to, um, I'm gonna estimate are charging between 1000 and $1,500 for their program. And if they're below that, um, maybe you, they probably need to charge more. Okay? No. So this is a business decision again, not because we're trying to make a gabillion dollars, but how many clients can you work with at a time? Okay. It's important that given that number, you're able to earn enough to stay excited and to support yourself, right? We all deserve to be comfortable. We all deserve to bring energy to the table. Our prices need to reflect that Nicole saying, I want to earn $15 a month consistently.

Okay. That means one client sign one client each month and there's your $1,500. You're gonna find that the more a client pays, like I said, the more invested they are, the more they take action, the better client they just are. I don't even know how to explain it, except for this idea of it being an energy exchange. So it really isn't, everybody's best interest to charge a premium. And your idea of what premium means will go up over time. But that's why I wanted to let you know that around that thousand dollars, mark is a sweet spot. You're not doing anyone any favors by charging a couple hundred dollars for your coaching program. Got it. Okay, good. And if you're like, I can't imagine that. I can't imagine charging more than a couple hundred dollars for your work as a health coach. Like we need to talk because there are so many people out there with really big problems to solve and they need you.

They need you not the person. And who's like, oh haha. I might like to do a little bit meal planning and be a little bit healthier. Eh, it's not a necessity for them. There are so many people out there who really, really do need your help. So if this is you and you're like, I can't imagine actually turning this work that I love into something that supports me. Yeah. Make sure you join us for our free five day training to create your signature program. And remember what I said earlier, the logistics are the least important part. I know I did a whole podcast episode today about the logistics. They are the least interesting thing about your program. You will sign new clients successfully, not because of the package, not because of the price, but because of the promise of how somebody is going to feel.

And we're gonna cover all of that starting on April 24th. So make sure to register for free at healthcoachpower.com/signature. Nicole says, I know I need to charge more, but I feel like people are already feeling it's too expensive. AKA They don't see the value or they aren't ready that right there. They don't see the value. Very few people see the value of health coaching. You know, who sees the value of health coaching, other health coaches, maybe people who have hired coaches in the past. That's not many people. That's not the majority of people. We need to help people see the value. We don't need to explain what health coaching is. We don't need to twist their arm and be salesy. We need to help them see the value. That is what a signature program does.

So, thanks for that comment, Nicole, that really wrapped it up nicely for me today. And thank you all for joining. I'll see you next week and I'll see you starting April 24th for our free training to create your signature program in five days. Have a great one. Everybody see you later.