One honest read on what is actually working in coaching, and one thing worth applying this week. For coaches who want results, not hype.

Hey Coach,

Most coaches ask the wrong question about marketplaces. Should I join one. Which is the best one. Is the fee worth it.

Here is the better frame. A marketplace does not sell you clients. It rents you demand. And while you are renting, the platform has a say in what your work is worth.

THIS WEEK

We mapped fourteen of them this week on two axes: who actually pays, and what you get back. The map sorted itself into three groups, and then it did something we were not expecting. One square came out empty. Employer pays, visibility only. Nothing lives there. No directory exists where companies browse coach profiles and pick one, because employers do not shop that way. A company buying coaching is buying a managed programme with matching, scheduling and reporting attached. They are buying the removal of work, not a list of names.

Getting listed is a consumer strategy. It does not become a corporate strategy because you put the word executive in your profile.

WHAT'S WORKING - FROM THE FIELD

Work out what one marketplace client actually costs you. Not the listing fee. The all-in number.

Take the platform's cut, apply it to every session that client will ever book with you, and add any lead fees you paid on the ones who never converted. Here is the part that surprises people. A 25 percent cut is not a 25 percent discount. If your rate is $300 and the platform rate is $300, you earn $225 for the same hour. To hold your economics steady you would need to charge $400 there, which makes you the expensive option on a page built for comparison.

Run that number on one platform you are listed on right now. Then compare it to what a referral costs you.

If you want organizational work, the routes are enterprise networks, referrals, and people who already know your work. A better directory profile will not open that door.

READ IT HERE →

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Some coaches close more than ten clients in a year, some close none."
Noomii, from its own coach FAQ

Worth sitting with, because that is a platform describing itself. More honest than most. It is also the whole risk in one sentence.

P.S. If you know a coach about to pay for a directory listing, forward this to them before they do. The empty square on that map is the part nobody mentions in the signup flow.

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The world needs you,

COACHILLY MAG