Ep #67: Let’s Break the Rules: Join the Short, High-Impact Coaching Session Movement

Hey coach, one of the traditional coaching rules that I ditched early in my coaching business was this idea that you have to deliver hour-long coaching sessions. Seriously, that was not gonna work for me and it can lead to a whole host of challenges for you in your coaching business, challenges that you just don't need, when what you're craving is loving coaching, making a lot of money, and working with high quality clients.

I'm Kendall. Tune in this week to discover why 30 minute coaching sessions are my gold standard, five reasons why longer sessions may be secretly sabotaging your ability to sign on high quality clients, and the three skills you can quickly develop to shift into the power and freedom of delivering high impact coaching in 30 minute sessions. It's all here for you in this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. Let's dive in.

Welcome to The Money Coach School Podcast. To really excel at coaching women, you have to be skilled, confident, and even fearless at money coaching. If you're passionate about women holding genuine money power and love supporting women entrepreneurs, then this is the show for you. Now, here's your host, money feminist Kendall SummerHawk.

Hello, beautiful coaches. Thank you for being with me here today. It is so interesting. When I look back at some of the things that I did or did not do early in my coaching business, that turned out to be rule breakers, meaning breaking the rules of the coaching industry.

I've been coaching for over 23 years, so when I started, it was still early days, but there were already well-established rules in place about how you are "supposed to" coach, how you are supposed to lead coaching sessions, how you are supposed to sell coaching. All these things that when I looked at them made sense if you remember that coaching modeled itself a lot on the world of private therapy.

But all those things don't make sense or don't fit when you separate coaching from therapy because coaching isn't therapy. And allowing coaching to have its own purpose, its own identity, its own way of being.

Now, if you've known me for more than like two minutes, you know that I'm both woo-woo, definitely, and highly practical. So when I saw all of those rules, I said, what? No. And I innovated like a lot. I innovated a lot. I really looked at how I would want to be coached. I looked at how to get coaching into the lives of more clients. And it turns out by trusting my intuition and being practical, what I was innovating changed my coaching business for the better by a factor of like 100 times and changed the lives of the thousands of women entrepreneurs that I've been coaching since over the past two decades of my career.

Now, one of the many things I innovated was this idea of how long a coaching session should be. Therapy sessions are typically 50 minutes, 60 minutes. So guess how long the typical coaching session is as it's being taught in a lot of certifications. Yep, 60 minutes. Coaches, that is too long, by double.

Now, the gold standard that we teach that I use in my business for 20 plus years and that we teach inside certification is 30 minute sessions. That's it. In-depth, transformational coaching that is highly valuable in 30-minute sessions that clients love and look forward to and don't cancel or ghost you on.

Now, we've had quite a number of coaches coming into certification with us who, about 50%, have already had coach training. The other 50% are totally brand new, which is awesome. Clean slate. But the ones with prior coach training, they often come in coaching at 75 minutes, 90 minutes, some even two hours. Oh, no, no, no. This needs to stop.

So there are five key reasons why this is such a huge mistake and could be a contributing factor as to why signing on new clients may be more difficult than you wish it was. So let me run through these with you.

Number 1, going over 30 minutes is overcoaching, plain and simple. Meaning you're going to overgive, you're going to exhaust yourself, overload your clients, and ultimately you're going to find that clients don't continue with coaching very long.

Now Compare that to designing your coaching business with the 30 minute gold standard that we teach, and you'll find that you get to enjoy the results of what I call the three crown jewels of a coaching business. Time freedom, money freedom, and fulfilling your purpose at a deep soul level.

Number 2, long sessions mean you are much more likely to be winging it, not really sure where you're going in the session.

Number 3, long sessions set you up to often miss creating that in-depth feeling that truly lights you up. Because even though you may have those moments, they're not concentrated. So everything is kind of dragging out instead of being focused and diving in deep right at the start of the session.

And number 4, your clients lose focus, they lose motivation, and they start canceling sessions. Or worse, they start ghosting the coaching with you altogether. Oh, that feels terrible.

And number 5, and this one is deeply personal to me, you secretly feel insecure during and after delivering your sessions. And I really get that. In the early days, I used to feel incredibly insecure about my coaching sessions. And I know it's hard to believe that now because I'm just the opposite. I'm super confident, bring it on. I can coach anybody on anything. But in those days, that was not the case. A lot of insecurity.

My head was filled with thoughts like, will they like me? What do they think of the coaching? Is this okay? And then what would I do? I would do things like ask more questions, trying to get even more results. Or I would bring up a new topic five minutes before the session was supposed to end, or worse, I would just keep coaching while the clock kept ticking, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, 75 minutes, oh my God.

What I realized was that these weren't just bad coaching habits, which they certainly are. They were a reaction to a fear that maybe my coaching wasn't good enough. And if you can relate to that at all, then you'll recognize how much those kinds of thoughts can unconsciously sabotage your confidence and credibility, which of course impacts your ability to sign on new high quality clients.

You should not have to wonder if your coaching sessions are "good enough". Your coaching sessions can get to the heart of the real challenges that your clients experience and create meaningful results in every session.

So the turning point for me came when I decided that being exceptional as a coach was my priority. Because mastery matters. I love excellence. I'm a person of excellence. I love it. Oh my God, it makes me so excited. I get really geeky about it. And mastery matters. It's what brings in the best clients, what gives you confidence. It's what keeps your coaching business alive and fresh and exciting for you, whether you're full-time or your coaching is a side business for you, it doesn't matter. And you can be exceptional as a coach, even if you're new as a coach, and even if you've been coaching a while and it's time to hit that refresh button.

So what keeps well-intentioned coaches from acquiring the skill of the high impact 30 minute coaching sessions? Well, what I've seen is it's both mindset and just practically knowing how to do it. The mindset too many coaches adopt is thinking that a 30 minute session is gonna feel rushed or pushy in some way, or they'll say, well, Kendall, how do I get everything done? And I think that thinking comes from comparing how you may be coaching now, or how you were taught to coach, and trying to fit that into 30 minutes. That's probably not going to work.

Delivering high impact coaching sessions in just 30 minutes, it does not require you to feel rushed, feel pushy, or to start from scratch with each client, but there is a strategy to this. And once you learn the strategy, honestly, it's the easiest, most natural way to coach. It's like your internal clock gets used to the 30 minutes and you just make that happen. It's really quite special and magical.

So when you learn how to lead high impact coaching sessions in 30 minutes, you're going to see and feel the results in your coaching business, happier clients, measurably better client results, you making more money and you enjoying an abundance of time freedom, which you know is something I value and cherish so deeply.

Now I have a brand new masterclass where I teach you in detail, step by step, everything you need to confidently deliver high-impact coaching sessions in 30 minutes. It's called the Strategy to Delivering High-Impact Coaching Sessions in Just 30 Minutes. I have to laugh because the title says it all. You can go to kendallsummerhawk.com/30. That's the number 3 and the number 0. So 3, 0, kendallsummerhawk.com/30, stands for 30 minutes. I'll also link to it in the show notes.

In that masterclass, I give you the framework, very specific detailed framework that successful and caring coaches use to consistently deliver high impact sessions that create results and keep clients coming back for more. So I teach you a repeatable session framework that ensures your clients will create results and breakthroughs in every session. I teach you how to artfully engage your clients to take action. I teach the secret to keeping clients deeply connected to the value of your coaching, something I know is really important to you.

I show you how to steer clear of what I call session messiness with coaching that doesn't really go anywhere or produce results, and how to consistently experience feeling all that positive energy and fulfillment that comes from you delivering a high-impact coaching session. I mean, it feels remarkable, doesn't it?

So as a result of learning this, you're gonna experience sessions that feel energizing, deeply connected and create results. You're gonna know exactly how to lead a high-impact session. You're gonna have happy clients who keep coming back for more coaching. You're gonna get better client results, clients renewing and getting word of mouth referrals.

So to get you started today, how you're going to experience results like these is actually really simple. You're going to stop showing up to a coaching session without a plan and just asking a client, hey what do you want to coach on today? That is an amateur way of coaching. It's not very effective. Clients don't get consistent results and then your ability to charge what you're worth really comes into doubt.

Instead, you're going to show up for your coaching sessions with a clear outline of how you're going to move a client through the session, whether you're coaching on a signature process that you have, or if you're coaching on what your client has brought to the session. Either way, you are leading. You're leading the session and your client is going to feel and appreciate your leadership.

Now, the next thing I wanna give you here today to get you started is clarity. Specifically, that hitting that magical 30 minute session mark means sharpening three core coaching skills.

Skill number one, learn how to deliver coaching that is bold, sensitive, and creates a breakthrough within just a few minutes. Like what we teach in my Courageous Coaching Certification.

Skill number two, commit to ending your sessions on time without feeling rushed. There's no need to feel rushed.

I hate feeling rushed and we don't ever want to create that feeling with our clients and you can end on time without ever feeling rushed. And Skill number three, let go of feeling that you need to over give. And I think this is a real biggie here because so many coaches believe that giving more somehow equals more value. Trust me, it does not. Value is not based on time. It's equated by your clients to the results they're experiencing. So no, more or longer sessions is not better.

People will not think you're bringing your A game based on how long your sessions are. They don't say, oh, the sessions are an hour, I must be getting better coaching. That is not what's going on in their heads. And they will not negatively judge you if your sessions are 30 minutes. They don't care about any of that. What clients care about is how effective is your coaching? How impactful for them is your coaching? And you can be highly effective and high impact in 30-minute sessions.

I believe 30-minute coaching sessions are the secret of a successful, scalable coaching business. You'll never burn out. Your clients will stay excited about coaching with you. Your business will have that flowy grace and ease that you're craving, and you'll create an abundance of time freedom that you can use to grow your business and live your life. And most important to me is, 30-minute sessions make you an exceptional coach. You will be a sharper, better, braver coach who goes deep with her clients in every session and your clients will get faster, more powerful results.

Now I know you love mindset, so here's one for you that really hits home. 30-minute sessions are about cutting time, not cutting connection. All right, so be sure to check out that new masterclass titled The Strategy to Delivering High-Impact Coaching Sessions in Just 30 Minutes. You can head over to kendalsommerhawk.com/30. That's the number 3 and the number 0. And you can enroll in that training there. I will also link to it in the show notes.

I hope this episode has inspired you to join me in the 30-minute coaching session movement that I created. I promise you, it's life-changing for you and you'll get better results for your clients and you'll make more money with greater time freedom.

So in other words, all of the good things. All right, as always, remember coaching changes lives, starting with yours. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your loyalty. I appreciate you so much for being on your coaching journey and on your money reinvention journey here with me.

So be sure to screenshot this episode, share it on social. You can tag me @KendallSummerhawk on Instagram. I would love that. And mostly, oh my gosh, I would love it if you would leave a five-star review.

All right, thank you so much, my beautiful soul, and I will see you next week in our next episode.

Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you follow so you never miss an episode. Also, I would so love and appreciate if you would leave a 5-star review. Your review supports women just like you in discovering all of the juicy tips and insights I’m sharing here on how to coach women on money.

And if you want to learn how to excel at coaching women on money, definitely go to KendallSummerHawk.com and check out the wealth of money coach trainings that we have for you. Thanks so much for being part of this money coaching movement and for tuning into the show every week.