Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous. This is episode number 300. Can you believe it? 300 with the brilliant Milana Leshinsky.

Milana Leshinsky [0:10]
Hi, this is Milana Leshinsky and you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:17]
Well, I am so pumped to celebrate Episode 300 with you, with our wonderful, wonderful guests Milana Leshinsky. She used to be oh well she still is a classical musician from Ukraine, who has moved to the US and has built a $7 million coaching business doing group coaching. So you will dive into a lot of wisdom today. We are talking about “How To Create Much More Impact As A Coach”. Milana is an entrepreneur, a business strategist, and a marketing mentor to coaches, authors, and speakers. She’s the author of two books, “Coaching Millions And Simplicity Entrepreneurship” and she is the creator of the “Tele-Summit”. Can you imagine I have done summit, I love the way to do the summit. And Milana actually is the creator of them. She’s also the creator of “Group Coaching Genie”, which is an online platform for designing and delivering coach programs with ease. And when she’s not working in her business. She writes music and enjoys Latin ballroom dancing. So that’s so much fun. Let’s dive right in. Well, I am so excited to have you on the show today Milana. Welcome.

Christine Schlonski [1:36]
Thank you so much for having me.

Christine Schlonski [1:38]
Yeah, you know, I mean, we’ve known each other for a short time, but I know you provide so much value to your audience. And what I really like is, you know, talking about scaling, talking about how to systemize your business in a way that gives you more time freedom, that helps you to bring in more money, right? Because you can have more clients at the same time. So let’s just start with it right away. How did you discover that secret, so to speak?

Christine Schlonski [2:12]
Well, you know, a lot of coaches who started their business, they start coaching clients, one on one, and I didn’t start out that way. First of all, I started my business as a web designer, and a lot of coaches were hiring me. And so I got really curious about this whole coaching thing. And that’s how I got introduced to the idea of, uh, you know, being a coach and building a coaching business. But very quickly, I realized that if I just do web design, one website per coach, per client at a time, there’s a lot of time involved. And once I had a few clients I couldn’t handle anymore. And I was only making $60,000 a year doing what I did. And I wondered, you know, what’s next? How do people grow their businesses to the next level? How does anybody make a million dollars?

Milana Leshinsky [2:59]
Can’t do that designing a website as a web designer, one client at a time. So there had to be some kind of a shift that I was not yet aware of. And then I started writing ebooks and creating information products and building coaching programs. And that’s when I actually started seeing six-figures and I hit 250K, and I hit half a million and then started another business and ended up ultimately building a seven-figure company, just with that shift of realizing that when you leverage your expertise, and you can transfer your knowledge without you personally being there for the client. That’s when you’ve got a scalable business. And coaches are perfect, perfectly positioned to create something like this because all coaches are experts in something, and the more they coach their clients, the more issues they deal with, the more of an expert they become. So we are really greatly positioned for creating a business that is easy to scale.

Christine Schlonski [4:10]
I just love that. Because I don’t think that a lot of people are starting out their coaching business even thinking about scaling. Right? They just think how can I get my first client?

Milana Leshinsky [4:22]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [4:22]
When can I get my first testimonial? How can I get my second client? And I know it’s a little bit outdated, but I read them from the ICF some kind of report that in 2016, an average coach had like 10 clients and made about $50,000. So that’s, you know, not, that’s for me that those are not numbers where you have a huge impact or where you thrive.

Christine Schlonski [4:49]
Yeah, well, I actually wrote a book, years ago back in 2007, it was published. So it’s very outdated, however, even at that time, I did a survey, I did some study, and 750 coaches responded to my questionnaire. And what I discovered was that only 9% of coaches actually were in six-figures. And everybody else was under it. And most people were under 50K. And so it’s, you know, I really don’t like the idea of judging people will $50,000 is not a business. Because some people will say, a million dollars, that’s not a business, that’s just one agency. It’ll sustain one agency now at $20 million, that’s a business, who is to say, what’s a business to you? And what’s a scalable business looks like, looks like for you, personally.

Milana Leshinsky [5:49]
I was celebrating my six figures, I was on top of cloud nine, I took my whole family out to the best restaurant I could find in Baltimore, to celebrate. And then later, somebody told me $100,000 business is not it’s hardly a business, it’s just a hobby. And so everybody has a different idea of how much money makes a business. And so I would say that for a coach, who works with one-on-one clients, a six-figure income is pretty good. It’s really, really good. There’s not a lot of overhead. It’s very, it can be a very low tech business. So it’s a lifestyle business. Right. And, and many coaches are happy with it, they would be super happy with six figures $100,000, the challenge happens when mentally and emotionally you start burning out. And that happens when you realize that you are coaching people on the same issues. You ask them the same questions, you tell them to do the same things, and suddenly you realize that everything you’re doing is repeatable. And it’s both bad and good. It’s bad, because yeah, it can get a little boring in your business if you are constantly saying the same thing. So you’re helping clients with the same challenges. And it’s good because that means that you can create a repeatable system, or what I would call a coaching program, that you can offer to clients, and you can even offer it to groups if you love the idea of facilitating a group program. And of course, that’s what I specialize in. I’ve done over 100 group coaching programs, designed, created, facilitated, launched, and super fun. That’s how you build a higher income business.

Christine Schlonski [7:55]
Yeah, and also a higher impact.

Milana Leshinsky [7:57]
Higher impact, for sure.

Christine Schlonski [7:59]
You can touch so many more people if you have some scale in your business. All right, and there’s nothing wrong. I mean, everyone you touch and they have a transformational moment or life-changing moment, obviously, that’s gold. But thinking about a bigger vision, like where do you want to go? What do you want to do with your business, with your life, with your lifestyle? How many people do you want to impact in a positive way? I feel you have to look at those other opportunities and just learn about them and start using them.

Christine Schlonski [8:34]
Definitely, I like the word impact, because when you work only with one on one clients, your capacity is very limited to how many people you can help and how many people you can impact. And again, a lot of coaches are totally fine with this kind of model. Christine, they don’t want more than $100,000. They don’t want more than 10, 12 clients. They’re totally fine with that. And a way to grow this kind of business is simply raising your rates, raise your coaching. That’s right. And so that kind of fills your calendar, right? I did a retreat many years ago. And one of the participants looked at my calendaring. And she said where are all your coaching calls where all your meetings and appointments and I said I only do maybe one-two calls a week, I don’t do that much. And that’s because I was delivering group coaching programs and I had a lot of empty whitespace in my calendar. And so I never realized that that was unusual. Then I looked at her calendar, and it was every day blocked with calls and meetings and sessions. And I thought to myself, I couldn’t function that way. I need more space. So again, it’s your personality that will impact how you see your business and the future of your business growth. So I personally crave a lot of whitespaces. And that’s why I only have two calls with clients a week because those were group coaching calls. I just delivered a program, we had one program, I had eight people, another program, I had 58 people. So it depends on the kind of topic and the kind of things that you want them to work on. So you design your program, a way that fits your business and your niche.

Christine Schlonski [10:35]
Yeah, yeah, totally makes sense. And I think yeah, like, how do you want to create your business? That’s a very personal question and decision. But sometimes I think people get stuck. And they use it as an excuse, like, oh, I’m fine with that, because they don’t know how to move forward.

Milana Leshinsky [10:53]
That’s true.

Christine Schlonski [10:54]
I would love to inspire them with what you have created? And, you know, just to show them that there are different paths that they can.

Christine Schlonski [11:05]
Yeah, a hard word to say plural.

Christine Schlonski [11:07]
I was just thinking at the same time, didn’t ever see that in plural? There are different ways and, yeah, and if you don’t know what you don’t know, you probably won’t find it out. Right. So I would love for them to inspire them. So what could somebody do? Who, you know, maybe they struggle? Or maybe they’re just fine, where they are? How can they create more impact?

Christine Schlonski [11:39]
Yeah, I think, well, like you were saying that, um, scaling your business is a business that can impact a lot of people. And those scalable businesses start with the idea of disconnecting time from money. Right. So the way that happens is when you’re actually able to package your knowledge in some type of a repeatable system, again, a coaching program, I truly believe that every coach, consultant, expert, a trainer needs to have some kind of a program where they teach, and then help with implementation. Which is what a coaching program essentially is, you have some content, the steps, the building blocks, and then you have some implementation support, which you might deliver through live coaching calls, laser coaching sessions. And then you might have some aspect of our community where you create a sense of community where the group members support each other, so it doesn’t all lie on your shoulders. But the value also comes from being in the group and other members in the group. So that, to me, is the beginning of a scalable business model. Because when you have a program like that, you can deliver it to one on one clients, you can deliver it to group clients, you can package and delivered as a course, an evergreen course, you can also deliver it as a virtual event as a live event, as a retreat, as a VIP day, there are so many ways to deliver it. But it starts with you having a program, having some kind of a process that you take clients through, and help them implement a process.

Christine Schlonski [13:32]
So what could people do to figure out where to start? I know some people who are listening probably have that process in place, they have their own, like five or seven steps people need to take to overcome whatever challenges they have to overcome. But for someone who was kind of new to this conversation, what do they need to think about to make it work?

Milana Leshinsky [13:57]
Yeah, um, you know, the first thing is to realize that when you sell your one on one, coaching services, or one on one services, you have an opportunity to talk to the potential client, find out what their biggest challenges are, and then build a custom program just for them. When you want to have more leverage, you start by creating a program that you want to create, based on what you believe about your target clients to solve a specific problem to address a specific issue. And then you offer that program. Right. So you find out what your target market needs as a group versus personalizing each package to each individual client. And that’s the biggest shift that I see that coaches struggle with is it almost feels like too much of a commitment. So I actually don’t like talking about a niche.

Milana Leshinsky [15:03]
I like talking about solving a specific problem because a niche kind of feels final, like a lot, I’m committing to this niche and this kind of coach. But solving the problem is very specific, very tangible. You know, I want to solve the problem of helping parents deal with a child who has social anxiety, for example. That’s a very specific problem. Right? So now you can develop a program that handles that specific issue, you might be a stress management coach, you might be an anxiety coach, but let’s get it even more specific, right? Because in order to sell a program, people need to recognize themselves in it. Yes, that’s me, that is exactly the problem I have to deal with on a regular basis. Right. That’s the reaction you want from people. And so that’s kind of the first step is to really narrow down that topic that single topic that you want to create a program about. It doesn’t mean that’s going to be your only program, it doesn’t mean that that’s the only thing you ever talk about. It’s just a program.

Christine Schlonski [16:15]
Yeah, I love the idea, because so many people are afraid to niche down, right? Like, I can help everybody with this challenge. And it’s true. But the more specific you are, the easier it is for your ideal client or soulmate client, as I call them to identify with what you do.

Milana Leshinsky [16:34]
Yes.

Christine Schlonski [16:35]
I would love to stay in that explanation of niching down on or not niching down, but being in the solution mindset. So can we just do it, like people who are afraid of sales, right?

Milana Leshinsky [16:52]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [16:54]
Like why you could niche down and say, well, I would just work with coaches who are afraid of sales, that would be a niche, but then consultants or healers or creatives would miss out. So how would you shift that so that people feel aligned with that solution?

Christine Schlonski [17:17]
You know, often people will try to name their target market right in the title of their program. And that’s not always necessary. So you don’t need to say, sales solution for coaches. Using a language that your target market uses, you can name your program, and they’ll recognize themselves in it. One of my programs used to be called “Recurring Revenue Revolution” a very old program 10 years ago.

Christine Schlonski [17:47]
I love the title.

Milana Leshinsky [17:49]
Isn’t it. And it’s a little bit of a mouthful, but I’m so connected with it myself, that I felt that anybody who wants recurring revenue, whether it’s a coach or consultant or an expert, author, speaker, online business owner, I didn’t have to name each person individually. I simply named my program after the result that people wanted recurring revenue, right. So I think that that feels more limiting is when you say who the program is for, try to name it or reference the program, using the language of your ideal client, because I can say that I work with coaches. But Christine, you know, coaches are so different from each other. There are life coaches, stress coaches, relationship coaches, and they speak one language, then there are business coaches, who help entrepreneurs, and then their executive and leadership coaches, I have a hard time relating to them, because I’ve never been an executive and I’ve never done executive coaching. So most likely, executive coaches wouldn’t even respond to the idea of recurring revenue. Because there’s so much invested in the idea of leadership coaching, recurring revenue may not even be part of their thinking or their dreams, right? Or maybe it becomes part of their dreams later in their career. But the bottom line is just finding the language that your clients, your ideal clients would want, would really connect to. And so that becomes less limiting. So now you don’t have to worry about pushing away non-coaches. You can wrap your arms around anybody who wants to learn how to sell with heart, right?

Christine Schlonski [19:51]
Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that’s interesting because you know, I am building a membership called the Heart Sells Members Community and It’s actually for heart-centered business building. Right? So it teaches business building, and everybody who wants to sell with heart and build this heart, as you know, is the ideal person to be in that. So I just love the idea of letting go of that niche like niching, down niching, down niching, down, which I do get the concept, but it’s so often so counter-intuitive. It does work, but I love the idea to say. Okay, well, if it’s a group coaching program, why not call it after the result? And then everybody who wants a result, they can learn the steps?

Christine Schlonski [20:41]
Exactly, exactly. They’ll be attracted to the outcome that you are communicating? Yes, yeah. And maybe sometimes it does make sense to say sales secrets for coaches because then it’s very clear that what you are going to be sharing is going to be specific to coaches. Yeah, coaches are more likely to say yes, because it’s so specialized. So there is, there’s time to do that. And there is time to allow more space for different types of people. I think, uh, I used to teach the idea of horizontal niching. And vertical niching. Or, you know, vertical niching is where you go into a specific target market segment like coaches, and that’s what you’re doing right. And horizontal is where you say, I teach sales. And my method of sales training is very heart-centered. But I can teach it to coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, service providers, web designers, graphic designers. And so yeah, that’s a more horizontal approach. And so you decide how you want to do that. I know that when I started, my business, coaches, and coaching industry kind of landed in my lap, accidentally. And I really liked learning about coaching and coaches, and I started developing products for coaches, you know, create your first go to your website, how to get coaching clients, with your website, how to create passive income if you’re a coach. So I stayed within the vertical niche. But I targeted different topics. And that is my favorite way to pursue, you know, a niche, marketing niche, because I can build the community once and sell to them over and over and over again, constantly staying tuned in to their biggest challenges and their biggest problems that they want to address.

Christine Schlonski [22:45]
Yeah, but the beauty is, like, once you handle one problem or challenge, and you get to your next level, guess what, that’s the next challenge waiting for you.

Milana Leshinsky [22:55]
Absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [22:55]
Yeah, if you have a great community, and then you can serve them, and find ways to support them on their way, then that’s brilliant. So time just flies, I would love to obviously continue this conversation, especially about group coaching. It’s something I’m thinking about a lot. I just finished one of my programs, which was so much fun. And I know the value of coaching in a group as well that I would love to discuss with you. In the next episode. What happens also, when you go from one on one to a group, all the wonderful synergies that present themselves, why coaching in a group? But what I love about what you have, you actually have software, and it’s Group Coaching Genie, where you help people to get that together. And yeah, you brought us a little training, a demo where people can really get a feel of all those possibilities. So the link is on the show notes in the resource section. But what do people get when they go and check that out?

Milana Leshinsky [24:06]
Yeah, so I can talk a little bit about Group Coaching Genie and I will say that what gave me the inspiration to create it is that I’ve done a lot of coaching programs. And I never was able to find just that perfect tool or platform to deliver it. There are so many little pieces involved like you have to deliver content, you have to deliver email reminders for the group coaching calls, you have to connect members of the group so that you have a sense of community, you want to build in some kind of accountability. So there’s weekly progress activity that you can see from client to client. You might need to customize some clients because they’re more advanced than the rest of the group. For all of these things that I wanted to do there is nothing like that available. And so I decided to actually build my own platform and we launched last year, and it was absolutely amazing and got an amazing response. So when you go to learn more about Group Coaching Genie, you’ll be able to get a free demo, you can sign up and test it out. You can build unlimited modules, unlimited programs, unlimited groups, and people who are using it are telling me number one, they become the most organized coach on the planet because they can put all of their coaching content in there and then share it with their clients, private clients or groups. And number two, people were telling me that there’s a 20-minute learning curve, I actually just watched somebody start a group and account. And 12 minutes later, he was shocked to see that it was all set up. So super easy to use. And once you start using it, you will actually begin to wonder how you’ve ever delivered your coaching programs before them?

Christine Schlonski [26:09]
Yeah, so so cool. Well, thank you so, so much, I’m really excited to share that with people. Because I know the amazing value that you have built, as all your experience went in there, so you can help people to make their life easier. So thank you so so much. I’m really looking forward to our next conversation. And yeah, thank you for today.

Milana Leshinsky [26:32]
Thank you, Christine.

Christine Schlonski [26:33]
Well, what a conversation, right? Life can be so much easier when you actually move from one on one coaching to a group. And I feel that every coach is going through that evolution, so to speak because we have to start somewhere, right. And usually, you start with one on one coaching, you get results, you get testimonials. And then at some point, there are not enough hours in the day. And it might not also be aligned with your lifestyle. So you have to make a change. And the easiest way to make that change is obviously to put people in a group so that also in a group, they can support each other. And they can benefit from the wisdom they all have by sharing in the group coaching.

Christine Schlonski [27:16]
So I just love that I had the same experience in my business, where I’m only taking on a handful of private clients because it’s such intense work. And the rest is done through group coaching. So I’m so super excited that Milana shared her wisdom in this episode. And I hope you are inspired to either get to the next level and create a group coaching. Or if you have a group coaching that you feel that you are definitely on the right path. And you’re figuring out a way how you can make it even easier for yourself. Hop on over to christineschlonski.com, check out the show notes, the transcripts, the resources, and the wonderful gift that Milana is giving us Group Coaching Programs, that rock. Is a training, you can watch all the links to Milana are there, it’s just one click away, I highly recommend you connect with her and you dive in deeper into her wonderful work. And once you’re over there, there The Empowerment Notes. So if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so. And you will get empowerment right into your inbox for strategies, tools, inspiration, a motivation that I usually do not share on social media, and also some updates on heart cells podcast. And when you’re over there and you are looking for more leads, there is the amazing Heart Centered Lead Generation Summit Experience. So you can basically experience the whole summit like it would have been live when we had it. In the same way with all the interviews of 40 experts sharing their wisdom on lead generation in paid ways and organic ways and in partnership ways. That will also be super inspiring for you. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com and enjoy the page. Enjoy the resources. And I am looking forward to another episode of Milana where we will be talking about “The Brilliant Way To Add More Value To Your Clients”. Thank you so much for having been here. Have an amazing day wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.