Want to know how you can hold a powerful one-on-one coaching session?
After all, coaching is a skill you can learn — EVEN if you don’t have any experience or a coaching certification. And by being a great coach, you get incredibly loyal clients and can grow your business to six figures and up.
Today, you learn how to hold coaching sessions, including:
Want to learn more? Read on!
A coaching session is a meeting that’s part of your overall coaching package.
The focus of a coaching session (and your coaching program) is to help your clients get results.
But coaches aren’t teachers. And contrary to what many believe, a coach is *not* someone who speaks with their clients on a call once in a blue moon, asks a few questions about how they’re feeling, and that’s it.
Instead, in this post you’ll learn what it really takes to be a great coach.
After all, there’s a lot of potential in coaching because the industry is growing… fast. (The e-learning industry, which coaching is a part of, is expected to grow to $325 billion by 2025.)
And when clients work one-on-one with you, they get tailored support. You keep them accountable and there’s a much higher chance that they will reach their goal.
In fact, research shows that people who share their goals with people they think are more successful are more likely to reach them.
But what makes an effective coaching session?
You’ll plan your coaching session. This includes setting goals for your clients.
Then, you have the actual “meat” of the coaching session.
And finally, you’ll help your clients take the next steps.
What the most effective coaching sessions look like.
Here are the different steps of a coaching session that helps people get results:
Recap and transition into the call (10-15 minutes)
Ongoing clients: Review the previous week.
New clients: Talk through what your coaching session will look like.
Set a goal (5-10 minutes)
Next, establish your goal for your session.
Reframe challenges and keep clients accountable (20-30 minutes)
Problem solve together with your client to help them work through their challenges.
Keep clients accountable if resistance comes up for them.
Provide a vision (10-15 minutes)
Hold your clients’ vision for them – even if they don’t believe in it themselves.
Recap your plan (5-10 minutes)
Recap action steps and set clear deadlines.
Next, let’s look at how to use this template in an actual call.
Before you jump into structuring your call, decide on what type of coaching you want to provide.
I’m a big proponent of “coach-sulting.”
As a coach-sultant, you give your coachees actionable steps and together, you work to achieve a goal.
This is very different from how a lot of people think about coaching.
You see, there’s this school of thought that coaching is asking a series of questions like “Why do you feel that?” The idea is that people really know the answer themselves.
Now, I’m in no way downplaying this approach.
But the way I see it, your clients don’t hire you to ask them questions. They hire you for your experience and to get your guidance.
Coach-sulting is essentially a mix of coaching (helping people achieve a goal) and consulting (giving people a strategy to achieve a goal).
Understanding this is key to holding great coaching calls.
But how long should your coaching sessions be?
Your coaching calls can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
I recommend having one to four one-on-one coaching calls per client each month, depending on your offer.
Now, let’s structure your call.
If you want to watch a video instead, take a look at this quick video where I recap my structure:
I talk more about what it means to be a great coach in this short video:
Okay, so now you know how to plan your sessions.
While your first calls are just about figuring out how YOU coach in the best way, at some point you’ll be far more comfortable in the role of a coach.
At that point, you can start figuring out how to incorporate more advanced concepts into your coaching.
How do you take your coaching to the next level?
There are various different coaching styles and models you can use in your sessions. I personally prefer what I call “coach-sulting,” but you can use models like GROW, OSCAR, or CLEAR.
What is a good coach?
Someone who helps their clients achieve their goals.
But ‘helping’ doesn’t mean the same thing as doing the work for your clients.
After all, that would be a huge disservice to them – after their time with you ends, they should be able to go out there and get the results for themselves.
That’s why I prefer to teach my clients to ask the questions (instead of me always leading and asking questions).
They become self-led and they lead the coaching call.
The tools you need as a coach.
You don’t need a lot of tools to conduct coaching sessions.
In fact, the only tools you need are a Zoom account to hold your sessions and Google Drive to share material with your clients.
You can also use Calendly to schedule your coaching sessions.
Alternatives to Zoom include Google Meet and Skype.
If your client doesn’t get results, but does the work, it’s a solvable situation.
Think about what’s going on with the client.
Is there a tactical or mental piece that doesn’t quite line up?
For example, one of my students, a college admissions consultant, saw her sales drop even though she was doing everything the way she was supposed to.
When I dug into her webinar, I understood why.
Before, her content had resonated with her clients. But now, her market was changing, her target clients had become savvier, and so she needed to update her content to keep it fresh.
If the client isn’t doing the work, problem-solve together with them.
But remember: You can’t do the work for your clients.
You can only show up as much for your clients as they show up for themselves. YOU can’t want the results more than them.
This is a super common fear. What do you do if someone asks you a question… And you don’t know what to say?
I used to feel so scared that this would happen to me and that my clients would think I wasn’t as good as they thought I was.
But this isn’t a big deal. Be prepared and honest about your lack of an answer.
You can either relay it to something that can help them (a similar scenario) OR tell them that you’ll get back to them with an answer.
Finally, what’s the best pricing strategy for your coaching sessions?
The best way to price your coaching is to price per package rather than by session.
If you’re a new coach, then a good price point is $1,500 for a three-month coaching package.
When you have a few testimonials, you can increase your rates.
There you have it. Now you know what it takes to hold an invaluable one-on-one coaching session.
YOU are the leader who guides your clients to achieve results. That’s why coaching can be an incredibly fulfilling business (and yes — a coaching business can make it possible for you to quit your 9-5 and make good money).
However, delivering a great coaching session is just step one of building your coaching business.
How do you get the right clients?
And how do you build your business in a manageable way – even if you have a busy 9-5?
I share it all in my FREE PDF that shows you how to build a six-figure coaching business:
