Around here, we’ve monetized in dozens of ways online.
I experimented with these various methods (discussed below) over years and many (many) mistakes. But as I learned and wenI experienced the snowballing benefits of monetizing my coaching brand in multiple ways. If you are looking to get into info products or to expand your existing coaching or consulting business through live workshops, live events, courses, books, or passive income products, this post is for you.
17 ways to monetize your brand as a coach or consultant
a.k.a. 10 Services and 7 Products that are Super Epic for Coaches
Let’s look at this in terms of events and services that you can monetize as well as digital and physical products you can monetize.
1. Custom 1-on-1 Coaching Calls w/ Friendly Recaps
When you are first getting started in coaching, this will likely be one of the services that is simplest to offer. I think you need to plan what it entails along with what you will and won’t do, and I do still think it needs a signed client agreement. But, it’s a great place to begin because you can figure out what people really want and need, what really troubles your audience, and where you truly fit as a coach and teacher. What you learn in these sessions can be used to create scalable content to deliver in your online events to many people at once.
With your custom 1-on-1 calls (Skype or Zoom sessions, telephone calls, or even in-person meetings), you’ll typically:
- send your client a questionnaire (we love Typeform or Dubsado for this) and/or meet with them to discover their specific needs and where you fit in
- decide on a timeframe that y’all will work together or set up a rate per meeting or per month
- send out an agenda before each call (if you have some general talking points for the meeting–and hopefully you do)
- send out client notes sheets or a link to a shared doc where you client can take notes digitally (optional, but cool and a great way to add value)
- conduct your session (usually 30 – 90 minutes depending on the type of call–this should be clear and communicated ahead of time so that all expectations are met or exceeded)
- (with permission) record your session so that you can take a deep dive on problems/solutions
- recap your session via email (or send the recording/replay to your client – the rules of recording are to make sure you have permission and to make sure to hit record, if it’s not automatic! Also, in your contract, specify how long you’ll be hosting the call and by what date your client needs to download it.)
2. 1-on-1 Coaching Program w/ Calls, Check-ins, and Homework
Once you’ve done custom 1-on-1 coaching for a while, or once you have an understanding of the general steps that your audience needs to go through to reach their goals, you can develop your custom coaching into an online program. In a formal coaching program, you guide multiple clients through a framework (the same general steps + processes) on an individual basis.
You still check in with your clients, have calls, and provide customized recaps and help to them, but it’s all based off of one formalized system.
In a coaching program, you’ll usually:
- give your potential client an overview doc/email that outlines the programs, timeline, and steps, to help them decide whether or not it’s a good fit (again, Dubsado is a great tool for this)
- have a call/questionnaire that helps you determine if the client is a good fit
- send a welcome kit (optional, but wonderful) with your client’s first homework assignment and an invitation to schedule their first call after the homework is completed (we love Acuity Scheduling and Calendly for scheduling calls)
- conduct your first call (via phone or video conference such as Zoom or Skype)
- send the next pre-developed homework assignment (w/ a recap of your call)
- repeat this process for as long as your program lasts
Note: To fully protect yourself and your client, your signed agreement with them should outline your refund policy, and the point at which the client is forfeiting the rest of their package (ex: you haven’t heard from them in 45 days and you’ve emailed them at their provided email address at least three times).
I once had a web project that lasted over a year because my client would never get back to me but I didn’t have a helpful “forfeiture clause” in my agreement–and P.S. I had spent every dime they’d paid me, so I wasn’t to keen on refunding them. Side note: The project ended up being super attractive and the client loved their site but a lot of angst and stress could have been avoided with a clear policy.
3. Custom 1-on-1 Email Coaching w/ Guaranteed Responses
Imagine this: either one of the options above (1 or 2), but instead of doing calls, you do emails. Or Voxer or WhatsApp.
You can tailor the process to each client (and just agree on a certain timeframe or a certain number of email “meetings”), or you can take your email coaching clients through a specific program (with homework and pre-set steps) and provide customized responses and email support. Bam. Magic. Great for introverts.
4. Group Coaching Program w/ Calls and Homework
Remember that one time, long ago, when we were talking about 1-on-1 coaching programs (#2 above)? Okay, now imagine that, but with more than one person. This is where the magic happens, my friend. Group online events that are well thought out (even in beta form) can add massive value to you and your clients. The client homework would go out to a group of people to complete individually or with accountability partners, and you would also:
- conduct group calls or video conferencing via Zoom
- provide recordings to clients who missed (optional, but super kind and especially thoughtful if you have clients in different time zones)
- choose to focus on one or two people per call after the meat of the call has been presented (this “hot seat” can rotate each week), or choose to address everyone’s needs in each call
- provide recaps, updates, and more homework via email or in the group coaching platform/community
5. Masterminds
Imagine that epic group coaching program that you created in #4 above, except that you added a supportive private community for your members. Things to think about — will you need to enlist help for moderation? Will the community extend beyond the end of your group program or will they have temporary access?
- provide a community or means for people to connect outside of your group calls – options include a Slack group, a private Facebook group, or a dashboard on your website. We frequently hear from our group members that the community is one of their favorite and safest spaces for online growth and development. Community works.
- provide Live Q&As or video recordings in the group as well as pinned posts of key information.
- provide guided threads for each day of the week (or once a week) to encourage discussion among members so that they can help each other.
- fostering a true community within your group can create IRL friendships that last for years. We’ve seen it time and time again! Digital communities create real communities.
6. Masterminds
Imagine everything we said above, but instead imagine that each week/month has a specific focus (growth, strategy, etc.) or that you are more of a facilitator and cheerleader than you are a direct coach.
You can provide a mastermind group that allows people to benefit mainly from others’ ideas and knowledge, but also from the regular accountability, and your presence.
7. In-Person Trainings or Workshops
Think of all the things you coach online 1-on-1 or in groups/masterminds—can it be applied or shared in real life as well?
You can create small workshops, pop-up events, and live trainings to help people with the goals you coach on. This is also a great way to collaborate with others in your community to help market and spread the word about your workshop. Think local coffee shops, co-working spaces and small businesses that might want the exposure from your event.
8. Speaking Engagements
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, eh? You can definitely decide to speak on the topics you coach on at different events, organizations, and conferences. It’s a great way to start to be seen as more of a teacher or “thought leader” (as they say), and it’s a great way to meet new people—some of them might even become your coaching clients. (p.s. Providing regular online events can boost your visibility as a speaker and expert.)
9. Online Office Hours
Perhaps people aren’t ready to commit to an online program, or perhaps someone really needs some targeted help with this one particular thing that you happen to be epic at, or maybe one of your audience members really wants the opportunity to “pick your brain.” Well, that’s where office hours come in. You can offer your time and expertise at a rate that’s comfortable to you, per hour or per day.
Office hours allow you to help people, make income, address audience pain points directly and swiftly, and keep your ear to the ground about people’s current needs and frustrations—which helps you know what packages and products you should offer.
10. Custom Audits or Reports
Often times, your potential clients will be in such a state of overwhelm/confusion, or in such a new place that they feel lost as to how to begin to get out of where they are to move to where they want to be. Also, you may have clients who just feel a slight bit off or frustrated with the current state of things and in need of some direction.
Doing a custom life audit, brand audit, situation report, or other type of organized document/delivery that outlines current areas that need improvement as well as current areas that are doing well, can be a rewarding, simple, and fun type of coaching that gives your client a strategic action plan that they can follow through with.
Custom audits and reports are also often a way for you to provide services to people who can’t afford your 1-on-1 rates yet or are looking to test you out before committing to your rates. You can also add this service as an add-on when people sign up for your online program. It provides additional income for you and gets them started in your program with one on one attention and laser focus.
11. Communities
An online (or IRL) community can be an add-on to any of your other products or services (as we discussed above), but an online community can also easily be its own standalone product. Providing partners, support, a venue, structure, and built-in friends and accountability partners for curated group of people who are all at a similar place in life/business is a seriously valuable thing that many people would be happy to pay for.
What is something you’ve had to struggle through on your own? Learn on your own? Do without support? Would you have enjoyed a community of people in the same position? Would you have paid for it? This has become one of the options that provides the most value for our audience – a place to connect in an online world.
Think of a community structure and virtual/physical meeting place you can provide for people. Is it something you’d be willing to add to your offerings?
12. Online Workshops w/ Live Q+As
These are so much more than your typical webinar. Think of classes that last 2+ hours and come with worksheets, videos, or some type of additional resources. Workshops have focused topics and may include guest speakers.
13. Pre-Recorded Workshops, Bootcamps, or Conferences
Packaging previously-recorded workshops or bootcamps together as paid products is genius. When you’re a coach, an online trainer or content creator, repurposing your best content is a strategic (and really really smart) way of doing business.
14. Courses
Seriously. Online courses (along with online events) are some of our favorite things in the world. Learning that can happen from your couch, or your cubicle on your lunch break, or during your commute, etc. #Epic.
And think about it. You’ll be able to package your knowledge, coaching skills, and experience together in a neat way that allows you to help more people at once.
You can also structure many of your courses to be forms of almost entirely passive (little to no maintenance) income once you create them. BUT…as you may know by now, we have found that the live component of online events and programs is what gives massive value to students since they’re able to get feedback in real-time.
15. Email Coaching Program (w/out Custom Support)
So, instead of framing your materials as a course and delivering it on some epic, 3rd-party system such as Teachable, Podia or Thinkific, you could also frame them as email coaching (without the custom replies).
“A new coaching session in your inbox each Monday for 8 weeks!” sounds pretty epic. And, it’s scalable, because those same sessions can be sent out to 10 people at a time or 10,000 people. #SuperEpic.
16. eBooks and Digital Workbooks
A digital file that can be automatically delivered to your customers as soon as they purchase it? Yes, my friend, that’s about as close to passive income as it gets in this coaching world—and it’s an epic way to make additional income while helping your ideal audience who needs items at different price points than your higher-priced coaching programs, online events and courses.
17. Printed Books and Workbooks
Yessssss. You can use printed books or workbooks with your clients as you take them through your coaching program, you can sell them separately on your site, or you can sell them through Amazon.com and get them fulfilled for you, so that you don’t have to ship off each order or accept + process returns. That’s brilliant, my friend.
So, if I’m not being too nosy, may I inquire how you currently monetize your online event hosting business or coaching business? And how you plan to monetize in the future? I hope this post helped, and I’d love to hear what you’ve got poppin’ in the comments below.
I love this. You are reading my brain this morning!! Sometimes coaching feels all up in the air and this is such a good way to organize offerings. Totally using this as I redevelop my coaching services.
Your website is so amazing, Kim. So pretty.
And thank you for taking the time to read this and to comment. I appreciate it.
Awesome article, right when I needed it!
Having been lost in the “should I/should I not make the move into coaching” bubble for a while, these tips certainly provided a nice push in the right direction!
And seeing how my native country isn’t big on the whole coaching “culture”, I’m especially intrigued by the email and online methods – I think I’m going to give some of these tips a try!
Thanks for sharing this!
Mathias, first, thank you so much for reading + commenting. Second, I’m laughing so hard at your awesome post titled “4 Steps to Creating a Master Plan Worthy of a Super Villain.”
You’re cool.
And I hope the post did indeed help a little bit. Thank you again.
What a timely post Reg as I’m in the process of creating my first course ( on guest blogging). I was even going to write and ask if you thought it was a good idea but now I just read this lol No idea why it has taken me this long to finally create one! I also just collaborated with Blurb and made a photobook, and now that I’ve figured out their editing software I think I’m going to start self publishing.
Elizabeth, I’m legit so freaking excited about your course on guest blogging. Niiiiiice. Such a great idea. I haven’t seen a course like that before.
I also think you could easily create a workshop on building an engaged online community.
P.S. Epicness with the self-publishing. I’m a believer in it!
Ok, I want all of your courses for Christmas this year. (I hope my family sees this!). Thank you for another great post. As a health coach, I’ve always looked into ways to monetize what I do. I even co-hosted a belly dance/nutrition 8 week course for women at a dance studio. It was fun to pair up with a dancer and to work together on the program together. A few of the women went on to become great clients! Thinking about it, it would be cool to offer it as an online product.)
Awwwwww, Mia. Thank you for that sweet comment.
Your collabo with a dancer sounds amazing and I would selfishly love to see that as an online course so that I could partake!
Thank you for taking time out today to read + comment. I appreciate it, Mia.
That would be the best Christmas present ever! I’m in pretty much all of Regina’s courses and highly recommend them.
As always, this post is spot on. Life has been busy so I’ve been unable to attend your webinars. However, I always keep an eye out. Just sent an email for some advice. Thanks! Maritza
Maritza,
I will definitely go look for your email right now. Thank you for sending one, and thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate you, as always.
I am Brazilian and I do not speak English … I hope that this text does not lose meaning for using google translator.
But let’s get to what matters … Regina it is INCREDIBLE! His impreendedora and modern mentality is a balm of encouragement and motivation for the realization of ideas and business.
I hope someday to have your material translated into Portuguese or Spanish. I will be happy to buy it.
Good luck in all your projects
Virginia,
Thank you so much. I hope to actually hire a translator to work on translating my content full time. I think that would be so wonderful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. You are so very sweet.
Another epic post that’s helped fill a gap for me. I’m still working on getting content together for my new site, but have turned a portion of my brain towards next steps to help me stay motivated. Coaching is definitely something I’d like to offer when up and running, but I was unclear about options. Until now! Brain is sparking ideas all over the place, thanks to your knowledge smackdown. Regina to the rescue, yet again. Awesomesauce.
Tors, you are too good to me. I love everything you’ve been doing with your new site and I’m pretty sure I’ll be one of your customers soon. I love, love, love, and need what you do.
Thank you for checking out this post, and for leaving an epic content. It means so much to me and really encourages me.
Regina, this post is epic! I opened like 20 tabs next to this one. 😀
As for my business, I’ve been doing 1-on-1 call sessions so far, but I’ve been wanting to branch out and find the right approach. Also, because I love creating the most, I am writing books and planning to launch courses. I literally started my business 2 months ago, so the future is my oyster.
Keep giving value, girl. I read everything you post. 🙂
Violeta, haha to the 20 tabs; how awesome. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. And to comment!
I’m excited to hear about the books and courses you plan to be doing. And I of course love your tagline, “Authentic Marketing for Creative Rebels.” You are too cool!
Regina,
I recently hired bmays to help with building my website. I found her through you and can’t thank you enough. As for this post, epic as usual and so so generous. My question to you: if you were giving advise to someone 100% committed to taking her business to the next level (ME) and doing whatever it took (hard work I mean) what would be your top three areas to focus on: the ones that would make the most sense to gaining visibility, validation for experience and expertise, and generate a good return on the investment what advise would you give us?
Thank you for being so wonderfully generous with your knowlege, seriously, wonderful.
What an excellent question! There’s so much information out there it’s hard to know what’s the best investment of our precious time.
Another amazing post and a ton of new ideas to work on. Seriously, I need to lock myself in a hotel room (hello room service) for a year to just work on all the ideas I’ve had while listening to you and reading your posts… so much inspiration. I can’t wait to see what Infopreneur Ninja brings!! 🙂
I currently have an eBook that I released on Nov 1st, planning to have another up by the end of this month and my 3 Day Bootcamp running by the end of the year. Also looking at doing free workshops for small businesses in my local area – will be interesting as I live in a very small town.
I currently monetize with a 4 week long eCourse that includes daily emails. Each email is sent out a 7am including a video lesson/tutorial and some examples/worksheets. The students then have a homework assignment. When they finish their homework they must share or comment in the courses FB Mastermind group (this has been a great way to give them a sense of community).
However, I am looking to do more in the future with some additional course and one-on-one coaching.
Refreshing content, very detailed and straightforward — just what I needed! So happy to subscribe! I’m in the middle of reshaping my blog and your post gave me some much needed direction, thanks Regina!
I think that live events are definitely key. It is so important to meet with people personally and get to know them. They will feel so inspired and feed off of your energy.
Great advice here. Keep up the good work and live unstoppable!
Wow Regina! Your posts and checklists never cease to amaze me! I was just determining some of my coaching packages and really needed this. Thank you so much!
Hi Regina,
This is exactly what I needed to read today. I just discovered email coaching a few days ago and this post helped me to clarify services I can offer through my consulting business. Thanks for such valuable content.
Ok I needed this today.
I’m making the scary leap and cutting some paid hours to devote time to my online coaching. 6 month goal to #goindependant (mostly, I still need teaching hours for my yoga cert lol)
Hi Regina, I’m a true believer that nothing happens by accident. You started showing up in my Pinterest news feed at the time I decided to officially do my coaching business full-time after being blessed with a layoff. I started a paid mastermind which I call an alliance that builds community. You have confirmed for me that 2016 is truly a breakthrough year. Thank you for your ideas, tips, and tools. Week two is going to be awesome when I implement what I’m learning from you. I’m looking to take your class bundle, soon. Thank you for being a blessing.
Hi Regina. Thank you so much for sharing your insight… my journey has been a long, albeit haphazard one as a freelance copywriter slash hopeful content consultant type person. Business from a freelance perspective has been more or less good over the past 5 years since I went solo full-time, but it was lacking something. Inspiration, maybe. I dunno. I fell out of love with it, which sucked. In the past few months, I have fallen back in love with what I do, however I realised that change was needed.
As I have been giving away my 10 odd year experience at a cost of zero cents, and as I spend a lot of time helping clients and other would-be freelancers and enjoy that side of things more and more, I am re-positioning myself to a content/creative consulting and strategy role. Maybe not coaching exactly, but something that allows me to help and plan rather than simply continue to churn out copy.
I’m rambling, so going to shut up now. What I really wanted to say is that your tips/advice and the mini-course I downloaded on making first er, mini-course (so meta!) have really helped in this journey. Rock on. 🙂
Hey Regina,
I loved this post! Your blog posts are always packed with a lot of actionable tips. I never considered office hours or email coaching before.
At the moment, I’m only doing one on one coaching with a ‘beta’ coaching programme I’ve just developed, but I’m looking to branch out into one-day intensives and online courses. ?
Hi
As a newbie coach I had thought about a few on your list so thank you for the inspiration about the others.
Carine
XXX
Wow.. your blog is so helpful in so many ways! Thank you so much 🙂
My brain is about to combust with all these epic ideas!
Hi Regina! A friend of mine suggested your site to me. I love to help women in their pursuit of self-education for little to no cost. What would you suggest in the area of monetizing my site? Thank you for any insight you have to offer and for the posts you have that I’m working through and gleaning from!
You are a recent find for me, and now are both a go-to resource and a delightful treat! Thanks so much for the endless awesome, valuable, extremely helpful content which is all presented in a fun and easy to understand style! I’ve begun linking your site in my emails, messages, and in a future post. This article in particular is helping me organize the next steps of my coaching business. It would have been SO much more difficult without you!
You are so prolific! I love everything you put out – it all seems to flow out of you naturally, elegantly and passionately without sounding like a nutter. Thanks for this article – I am about to move from running workshops and retreats & coaching in person into the online world and your article gave me a lot of clarity. I am going to do one of your courses on content very soon – time time time!! Thanks again Regina – you are having very positive impact on solopreneurs all over.
Hello, so happy to find your website, I luvvv your fresh, to the point approach.
Watched yesterday the infopreneur workshop over 2 hours of great content and workbook! Thank you for sharing. Compared to other who talk for 1 hour and you think what the F** am I listening to, my story bla bla, i did this bla bla with no real valuable content. So expect a 5 point tips you didn’t learn much for your 1 hr-90 min time investment UNLESS you decide to buy their (expensive) program.
Will definitely keep following you here…
Great post!! Veru useful. Thank you for offering this for free.
As always Regina, you give the best content in the most likeable way. I was just trying to work out what direction to go in now and with two posts, I have gotten great insight and have actually started to get a real plan together.
My first task was to unsubscribe from all the other stuff I follow as yours is far and away the best (and I have subscribed to a lot of others!)
Thank you so much for all your work
Karrie xx
Regina, I’m so glad that your blog still exists and I can just look up a post if I’m stuck.
I had decided to become a coach earlier this year because I don’t necessarily like freelancing (also, I’ve never quite got around to working with an ideal client). Recently, after launching my website and brand and establishing my content model, I got stuck because I was working on other things and now my time is constrained by my new job and things are getting hectic. Also, I accepted to work with someone on their website and they’re an ideal client (yay!). So then I thought, maybe I’m meant to be a freelancer. And I’ve been going back and forth with it.
But now this post has helped me refocus on the things I actually need to do. Currently, I’m beta testing the custom 1-on-1 coaching session before I launch and I think I got it down pat.
I would like to get into in-person trainings and workshops in the new year. I’ve set in place a workbook that I have yet to promote (I’m waiting till I launch the content to funnel to it) and a Facebook group (which is also not promoted, just linked to).
I’m going to be moving forward with online courses, online workshops, and custom audits and reports in the near future.
Great ideas. Thanks for sharing. As a relatively new coach for freelnancers it’s nice to create a growing list of income streams for the future.