Online Coaching Business

A recent worldwide pandemic and months-long lockdowns led to a boom in online business and transactions. One industry that saw a particular surge in growth was online coaching and education. However, as demand increases, so does competition. So what does it take to build an industry leading coaching business in an ever evolving marketplace? In a recent interview, CEO of Instinct Education Connor Marriott revealed his top 5 tips for building a successful coaching business.

1. Simplistic Content
2. Expand The Scope
3. Maximise Both Internal & External Motivation
4. Track User Behaviour 
5. Do The Basics, Better

About Connor Marriott & Instinct Education

Instinct Education is an Australian training & development company, helping clients start and grow success coaching businesses. As a marketer, Connor developed his skills in data analysis and conversion rate optimization. By taking those skills, and applying them across the entire business, he maximised client results with the same meticulous approach. 

 “When it comes to marketing, the difference between getting good and great results is about 1,000 split-tests – testing two variables at a time to make small improvements each and every day over months. By applying this same approach to client success, we’re able to identify exactly where users get stuck, allowing us to build systems and strategies to solve the bottleneck.”, says Marriott. “We essentially aim to find every problem, roadblock or hurdle anyone could ever face throughout the process, and remove it.” 

So, what has this process allowed Instinct Education to learn about building a successful coaching business?

1. Simplistic Content

A lot of coaches feel the need to pack their programs with hours and hours of content and information in an attempt to over deliver to their clients. The problem is, users aren’t purchasing a program to watch videos, they’re there to get a result. Instinct Education’s program takes this to the extreme, with their Evolution program providing less than 6 and a half hours of video content in total. 

“If I could figure out how to make it shorter, I would.” Marriott explains. “Over the past few years we’ve refined our content over and over again, with each iteration getting shorter, simpler, and more concise. Ultimately this allows clients to spend less time watching, and more time doing. Every time we make things simpler, client results improve.”

2. Expand The Scope 

While content is a good start, information alone is not enough to transform someone’s life. One of the biggest factors in maximising client success is finding ways to ensure users are taking the right actions. Often this means expanding your service to consider every step a user must go through in order to achieve the outcome. 

“The original plan wasn’t to create an entire business growth system, but rather to teach people how to do marketing. We quickly realised people needed help with their offer to make marketing effective, so we started teaching that. After a while, we noticed that most people didn’t know how to sell, so we added sales training. Eventually, it evolved, driven only by necessity, into what it is today.”

“We noticed some clients weren’t tracking their metrics accurately, so we developed the tracking platform to make it easier and more accurate. Some of our clients struggled with consistency, so we built a gamified behaviour tracking software to help them. To help motivate clients, we added daily mindset training, monthly health supplement packs that improved focus and energy, and daily accountability calls.”

The list of variables to consider is almost infinite, yet the impact of going above and beyond is what separates the top businesses from all the others. Instinct Education considers everything from their clients behaviour, sleep, diet, mindset and environment in an ever expanding effort to maximise client results.  

3. Maximise Both Internal & External Motivation

Internal motivation refers to a user’s own desire to achieve a specific goal or outcome. External motivation is achieved anytime there is an external force driving the user forward. Most programs rely entirely on the user’s own internal motivation to complete. 

In a recent YouTube video, Connor explains why internal motivation is often not enough for a user to get results. 

“Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter responsible for motivation, however serotonin also plays an important role as it impacts our response, or sensitivity to dopamine. Someone with lower levels of serotonin is not going to feel the effects of dopamine as much as someone with higher levels of serotonin. If we rely entirely on users’ internal motivation, there is always going to be a large segment of users that are simply less motivated to take the action, and therefore, less likely to get the result.” 

By breaking a program down into smaller, simpler steps, users will be more motivated to complete them. You can then add external motivations, such as accountability or ‘milestone calls’, to keep users engaged throughout the more challenging steps.  

4. Track User Behaviour

Any analyst will tell you, their predictions are only ever as good as their data. In order to take client results to the next level, you need to know what problem you’re trying to solve. Instinct Education’s ‘Business Intelligence’ Software allows them to track users actions and results, which is then used to improve the overall system. 

Our Intelligence dashboard allows us to monitor both the individual and global performance of our clients. We can provide customised training to clients based on their individual needs, as well as spotting trends and bottlenecks that our clients are facing at an aggregate level, and improve our systems and training to overcome them.”

The good news is, you don’t need to develop your own AI powered tracking software to implement this strategy, as Connor explains: “Analyse the program in its entirety and break it down into its different steps. Next, determine how many users are getting to each step, and what you can do to increase that number. After doing that every day for 2-3 years, you’re going to be able to build something pretty great.”

5. Do The Basics, Better

‘Do the basics, better’ is an Instinct company tenet, which, according to Instinct’s CEO, encompasses the often overlooked yet all important key to building a great business. “Often the best businesses aren’t the best because of some ground breaking technology or secret method. The best businesses simply do the basics better than anyone else. Consistently doing the small 1 percenters that make all the difference long term.”  

At the end of the day, Instinct Education’s approach can be summarised as a never-ending commitment to leaving no stone unturned. The process of making a world-class product does not have any quick fixes. Even so, Marriott and his team continue to prove that consistent effort is the key to long-term success.

As a result of Marriott’s relentless pursuit of improvement and ultimate client success, Instinct Education is consistently raising the bar for what it takes to build an industry leading coaching business. Clients aside, Instinct Education’s focus extends beyond just helping their clients. The company recently announced the launch of a brand new online business course, which if free for all business owners to access on their website.