Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous. This is episode number 301. And we have the brilliant Milana Leshinsky back on the show today.

Unknown Speaker [0:09]
Hi, this is Milana Leshinsky and you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:15]
I was so looking forward for the next conversation with Milana, we will be talking about “A Brilliant Way To Add More Value To Your Clients Today”. And I hope you really really benefit from that because she has some amazing strategies she is sharing. Milana is an entrepreneur, a business strategist, and a marketing mentor to coaches, authors, and speakers. She is an author herself, she has two books called “Coaching Millions” and “Simplicity Entrepreneurship”. And Milana is also the creator of “The Telesummit”. She is the creator of “Group Coaching Genie” that is an online platform for designing and delivering coaching programs with ease and in case she is not working. She writes music herself and enjoys Latin ballroom dancing. So I’m so looking forward to the next conversation with her. Let’s tune right in. Well, I am so super pumped, you’re back. Milana. Welcome.

Milana Leshinsky [1:15]
Thank you for having me back.

Christine Schlonski [1:16]
We touched a lot on the last episode about group coaching, about the opportunities to scale to impact more people. We talked about your amazing Genie software, which I love, I love the name because that’s what it is. It’s like you have this little lamp and you can rub it and then all of a sudden you have like your whole group coaching program and your back end mapped out and started in 12 to 15 minutes. And everything is organized. I just love the idea. Because sometimes, you know creating a group coaching program, delivering all these single steps, reminder emails, sending the zoom link maybe for the life course, that can be quite an organizational challenge.

Milana Leshinsky [2:06]
Yes, yes. And Group Coaching Genie really allows you to have all those pieces consolidated into one place. So your clients don’t have to log into multiple places and, you know, look for this stuff on different platforms.

Christine Schlonski [2:22]
Yeah, I would love to catch up on so when you transition actually from one on one coaching to group coaching. Right? I see a lot of people who then say, well, group coaching, especially was pricing, I have to charge less, or this group coaching, well, then several people on the call. And if I only have one hot seat, the other people might not learn anything. Like, tell us a little bit from your perspective, what are actually the benefits by side scaling to teaching in a group?

Milana Leshinsky [3:00]
Yeah, I think for me, the biggest benefit is that I’m not the only one creating the value. So the pressure is lifted off. I don’t have all the answers. But when you have eight people in the group, you know, depending on how big your group is, you can have 28 and facilitated a little differently based on the size of the room. But when you have other members in the group, and you facilitate it in a way that everybody contributes to each other, it makes such a huge difference. It’s a different experience, people who join group coaching programs, they actually crave being in a community. Right? So there is time to do one on one coaching and to offer one on one coaching. I love working with coaches one on one because I get that full attention. But I also love being in a group. Because I get feedback from multiple people, multiple perspectives.

Milana Leshinsky [3:57]
I get people who give me that one on one attention. Just it comes from group members. And you’re just facilitating it as a coach, right? So there’s a lot of value from that perspective. I also think people really enjoy being in a group of like-minded people, I call it an affinity group where we really relate to each other’s challenges. We value each other’s experiences, and we understand each other’s dreams and goals, and aspirations. You know, I remember I was coaching somebody who was working with parents of children who have autism. Imagine how much in common those parents have how many similar challenges they can discuss with each other and compare notes and say, this is what worked for me and this is no it didn’t really work. And these are the challenges we’re having with schools. You know, so that affinity is a big part of why people join groups. They want to be understood, and they want to be part of a community. So you can continue offering one on one coaching. And you can have this other offering where it’s a group coaching, arrangement, or group coaching program.

Christine Schlonski [5:13]
Yeah, I love that. And also what I noticed when you actually teach in the group, so when you are the person running the group coaching program, even though you might just talk to one person, and the other people will always get something out of it, or they might think I haven’t even thought about the census. Such a great point, let me make sure that I’m not running into this challenge by implementing right away what was taught.

Milana Leshinsky [5:41]
Not only that, I actually intentionally say to people, I may be coaching right now, somebody else in the group, but I want you to listen really carefully. Because the mindset that they’re dealing with, may actually be something that you are dealing with, without realizing it, or the problem that I’m helping somebody else with, you might actually be able to prevent this problem or, or to have a solution even before it happens. So I make sure that they expect to gain value from me coaching someone else, right. Yeah. I love this part of that.

Christine Schlonski [6:22]
Yeah, I love setting that expectation. Because it opens upright, it opens up the understanding and, and really the intention to learn more than what they came for.

Milana Leshinsky [6:36]
And the way the Group Coaching Genie makes it even easier is people can group members can comment on each other’s progress. So if I had to comment on all of my 58 clients’ progress, weekly progress, and our comments, I would be spending a ton of time. So what I do is I say, please be sure to post your weekly progress report. And answer you know, the three questions that I present to people every week. And be sure to comment and at least two other people’s progress notes, so that everybody gets some feedback and some support and encouragement throughout the program. And that’s exciting because I don’t have to be the one to do that. And people still get value in the group. And so in Group Coaching Genie, there is a place for you for group members to post comments in response. And people can journal and have their journal entries shared publicly if they choose to do that. And other members can read and comment on their journals. So it’s, it makes that whole group coaching community experience, much easier for you to create.

Christine Schlonski [7:53]
Yeah, and I just feel the connection with those people, right. It’s like a little family, like a little unit, where you grow together, where you cry together, whether you love together, where you just take those steps that need to be taken to get you to the result that you desire.

Milana Leshinsky [8:11]
Yeah, and of course, it starts with you, the coach and your personality, your passion, your, your coaching style. Not every coach is the same. And so if you have that personality, where you can easily create a safe place for your group members, then that’s how it will go on and people will feel safe and nurtured and most importantly, heard and seen. So I know there are ways to do that. It’s a learned skill, there are just a few things that you have to do at the beginning of the orientation, to set expectations to really make people feel comfortable. And if you do that with intention, then it’ll work beautifully.

Christine Schlonski [8:56]
Yeah, yeah, I even had group members who met each other in person and sent me pictures.

Milana Leshinsky [9:03]
Wow, I’ve had the same thing happen. I actually, my group members who were working on their virtual summit together, they met in Sweden, of all places, took a picture and I have somebody also go out for a cup of coffee in New York and send me a picture. There’s definitely that sense of community where people feel like they relate to each other’s challenges. Yeah, yeah. I love that. You know, Christine, I think that a lot of people are a little bit overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of starting a group coaching program. Because if you think about it, there are two issues you have to create a coaching program, and you have to feel your group. And that feels a little intimidating if you’ve never done that before. So what I actually suggest is that you start by creating a program, create your program first, and maybe even created with your individual clients in mind. I remember when I hired a media coach who helped me get on TV and be ready for radio interviews. And I remember thinking, wow, she’s actually walking me through a program. She sent me okay Milana, watch this video, and I will talk about it on our coaching call. And the next week, she would send me a worksheet. Okay, fill out this worksheet. We’ll talk about it next week. So she developed a program for coaching me. And guess what she does now? She now runs groups based on the same program.

Christine Schlonski [10:33]
Yes, yeah, totally. So what about the myth that for coaching programs, you need to make them cheap? Or you can’t, you can’t charge so much? Because it’s a group?

Milana Leshinsky [10:46]
Yeah, well, I think it depends on the topic, and then your niche, and the outcome that people will expect, obviously, and I think this has been your experience as well. If your topic is more business-related, where you are going to increase your revenue, because you take this program, then you can charge more. And if you take a program on, you know, life-related issues like stress, or parenting, health and wellness, typically, those are less expensive. There are some exceptions. For example, if you have a big name, and you’re well known in your industry, then you can charge more, regardless of your topic. Or if you have a really proven method, you can charge more as well. You can also base your price points on the fact around where your program fits in your overall business, for example, you know, when you buy a $97 toolkit, and then you see an upsell, and they’re trying to upsell you into a $1,000 program? Well, then you can see why a $97 tool kit is only $97 because there was an upsell. Right. So you might sell a program for $1,000 and then invite people into your $10,000 coaching program. Right. But to answer your question, I think that is one of the benefits that group coaching is more affordable, right? So if I had to work with a client, when I want to deliver the same program, I just sold $4,000, I would probably charge easily 15 grand.

Christine Schlonski [12:32]
Yeah,

Milana Leshinsky [12:32]
Because more access to you, more individualized attention, more personalization, right. And not everybody can afford a $15,000 program. So there will be so excited that you are offering it in a group format, and they only have to pay one or $2,000

Christine Schlonski [12:51]
Yeah, I totally agree with that. I just sometimes feel that people think all of a sudden because they put a group together, they have to lower the price. And I just believe if you create the great value and you’re set on your price, you don’t have to lower your price just because you’re getting together three, four or 5 10 15 people if they get what they came for, right. And if they feel it’s a win-win you marketed in the right way, you don’t need to say well, because of this group, I have to go down.

Milana Leshinsky [13:27]
You don’t have to. Usually, it is the case, though, usually, the advantage for the client is that they get to pay a little less. But also, there is another little thing here to keep in mind when you have a group coaching program, you can actually raise your private coaching fees because now you have something to compare it with, you know, if you’re charging, let’s say $2,000 for your coaching services, and $2,000 might buy, let’s say three months of coaching privately with you, right? That’s a typical coaching fee. You know, we get three months of coaching $2,000, that’s about $700 a month. You know, most coaches are comfortable charging that, and now you have a coaching program. And your coaching program now sells $4000, the same material, the same system that you are taking people through. So now you can actually charge $5,000 for your private coaching, right to create a bigger gap in pricing and I know you are an expert on sales. So I know you have your own experiences with what happens. But I think it’s pretty safe to say that when you have a product of your own. Whether it’s a coaching program or a book, your rates go up simply because now you have a higher level of authority.

Christine Schlonski [15:05]
Yeah. yeah

Milana Leshinsky [15:06]
You’re not just a coach anymore. You’re not just, uh, you know somebody who does coaching, you’re now an expert who delivers programs, and therefore you can charge more money for working with you one on one.

Christine Schlonski [15:20]
Yeah, yeah, I totally, I totally agree. Like, you know, I think at the end of the day, it’s always what do you deliver, what do people get out of it? And then this needs to be in relation.

Milana Leshinsky [15:33]
And it also depends, like you were saying, Christine, depends on how you market how you sell it. If you do it through discovery sessions, it’s easier to charge more, because you make that personal connection you take the time, to connect with a potential client. In my experience, when you offer that program online, through a webinar through a series of videos or emails, typically the price point, the sweet spot price point is $1000 – $2,000.

Christine Schlonski [16:03]
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Milana Leshinsky [16:05]
If you want to charge more than that, then you will most likely have to offer discovery sessions and talk to the potential clients to find out if it’s a good fit for them, and actually do the heart-centered sales.

Christine Schlonski [16:22]
Yeah

Milana Leshinsky [16:23]
At that point.

Christine Schlonski [16:24]
Yeah, that’s also what I have seen in the market for up to $2,000. People are comfortable investing that money without talking to someone on your team or yourself. That’s a good price range. So let’s talk about creating the group coaching program. So when you say creating, before you are selling it? Do you mean like map it out to the tee or do you mean, half the modules define, know what comes into the modules? But don’t yet? I don’t know how to record the videos?

Milana Leshinsky [16:59]
That’s a great question. Because I definitely teach people to sell it and then create it. But if you’ve never created a coaching program, it may be super scary for you to sell something that you don’t even know how to create yet. So what I like to guide my clients through is developing an outline, developing an outline, and maybe completing your first module. And that’s it. Because when you sell it, at that point, most people will deliver their program every week, you’ll have a whole week to create the next module and to get ahead, right. So what I like to do is, before I see the program, I like to have a welcome page. And on that welcome page, I’ll have, you know, a couple of things that they can get started with. Maybe it’s that Getting Started video, maybe it’s the first module. So I have a program on virtual summits. And as soon as people buy the very first thing I know they’re craving is.

Milana Leshinsky [17:59]
So what am I going to create a summit about? So the very first thing I give them is a video from my first module that’s called choose a theme for your summit or discover a theme for your summit. The video is only nine minutes, but it gives them that immediate gratification. Now they can start thinking about it. And then I invite people to, you know, post their first introductory journal entry, or if I’m using Facebook groups at the same time with because you absolutely. You can continue using Facebook groups for social purposes. For chit chat and social connecting, you can just invite people to introduce themselves, right? I haven’t. I always use a Facebook group in addition to Group Coaching Genie, because people like to socialize. But once they’re on Facebook, they’re also distracted, they can ever find any assignments. This way, I can just point them back to Group Coaching Genie. Just log into your account, log into your account. This is where all your stuff is all your homework, all your modules, or your replays or your emails and schedule, everything is there. But if you are to socialize, go to Facebook. And so that’s kind of how, how people have been using it as well.

Christine Schlonski [19:19]
Yeah, I love that you pointed that out. And that was actually where I wanted to go. And I kind of knew that you would give this advice. Because I’ve seen in the past that people have invested so much money creating a whole program and recording all the videos, maybe even in a professional studio. And then they didn’t sell it.

Milana Leshinsky [19:38]
Yeah, yeah, that’s

Christine Schlonski [19:40]
Right,

Milana Leshinsky [19:41]
Definitely, a reason to sell first.

Christine Schlonski [19:43]
Yeah, definitely and I also teach my clients to map it out, get really clear what the modules entail, or what the result is your client walks away with. And then just create it from module to module. And depending on the group, sometimes you can adjust A little bit, right, sometimes a group needs a specific thing that the group before didn’t meet. So you could just put it in and leave something else out, that’s not that important to them. And you can walk that journey with them.

Milana Leshinsky [20:16]
And this is especially important when this is your first time delivering your coaching program. In fact, content creation is one of the biggest obstacles for people. This is why they don’t create programs. And so I say, you know, forget content, just teach something every week for 10 minutes in a video format. You know, go through the, you know, like three teaching points, that’s all and then get on the call. And as you’re delivering these group coaching calls live, people ask you questions, people share their fears, you experience resistance. And from that, you can enhance your program by creating more content by creating more tools. So don’t obsess over getting your program content created before you even start talking about it. To your audience.

Christine Schlonski [21:07]
Yeah.

Milana Leshinsky [21:08]
Allow yourself to create nuggets of information for each week. And then it’ll expand organically, through people asking you for more help on certain things, right?

Christine Schlonski [21:20]
Yeah, totally, totally. So do you remember the very first thing that you ever sold in your life?

Milana Leshinsky [21:27]
I do. And not only that, I remember how much and the customer’s name.

Christine Schlonski [21:33]
Let us hear.

Milana Leshinsky [21:35]
The very first thing I sold was an Ebook that I wrote, I took three months to write it. And every page that I wrote, I would tell my husband that I finished another page today. And he would be like, laying in his bed and saying just show me the money. And then I did. And then my first customer was Andrew Smith, he paid me $39 for an ebook called “Create Your First Business Website in 10 Days”, that was my first product for sale. First customer.

Christine Schlonski [22:06]
Awesome. Congratulations, Andrew Smith for getting this amazing product.

Milana Leshinsky [22:10]
Right.

Christine Schlonski [22:10]
And so was there anything you sold before as a child, or like the very first memory, you have of doing or exchanging something for money?

Milana Leshinsky [22:23]
Wow, that’s a great question. Um, so I come from the Ukraine. And I was a classical musician. There was no proprietorship, there’s no entrepreneurship in the Soviet Union.

Christine Schlonski [22:40]
Yeah.

Milana Leshinsky [22:41]
Right. So I don’t think I actually exchanged anything for money on for no money. Well, I collected calendars, little calendars, you know, calendar cards. So there was more of collecting and we traded. But the first time I actually experienced doing something, and getting money for it was piano lessons in America.

Christine Schlonski [23:08]
Wow

Milana Leshinsky [23:08]
I would charge $6 for a piano lesson because I could hardly speak any English. And here’s a teacher from Russia, who doesn’t speak English, but she’s from Russia. She must be a good piano teacher. Right. So that was my first entrepreneurial venture. And then I started creating hat magnets. You know, I was just fascinated by the fact that there are some raw materials that I could assemble little magnets in the shape of hats, and I could return them all back to the company and they would send me back the money. The only problem was that those hats would get disassembled on the way there, and I didn’t get any money. So that was a disappointment. But I guess I’ve always been a little drawn to entrepreneurial ventures. Yeah, sure.

Christine Schlonski [24:01]
Yeah. And you just have a new one, like coming from the world we’re living on right now being locked up at home.

Milana Leshinsky [24:07]
Oh, gosh, yes.

Christine Schlonski [24:07]
You started a new online store. I hand-painted stones, and they’re so beautiful.

Milana Leshinsky [24:13]
They’re totally beautiful. Can I actually say the name?

Christine Schlonski [24:16]
Yes, please.

Milana Leshinsky [24:17]
Yes. So I wanted my stones to evoke emotion. I wanted people to hold a stone in their hands and to feel something. So I gave it a name. That’s very funny. It’s called feelmyrocks.com

Christine Schlonski [24:31]
I love it. I’m going to put a link in the resource tab because I think people have to check it out. It’s so new.

Milana Leshinsky [24:38]
Thank you and they are pretty and what’s amazing is that I never painted in my life before. I always carried an image of myself as Milana cannot draw, Milana cannot paint, not an artist.

Christine Schlonski [24:52]
And Milana cannot dance.

Milana Leshinsky [24:56]
That’s another one. Yes. But I love that rock painting because it’s therapeutic, it’s meditative. And it’s also very tangible. I always had a problem selling ebooks, because they’re so intangible. It’s just a file download, right? Or a coaching program. It’s just videos on the machine bits and bytes. But rocks, you’re going to hold it in your hands, and you can give it to people. And it just, it feels amazing. So I do hope that people check it out because each rock is unique.

Christine Schlonski [25:31]
Yes.

Milana Leshinsky [25:32]
Once I sell it, I cannot replicate it, because I simply cannot like I cannot.

Christine Schlonski [25:37]
Okay, it’s not that scalable, hands down. It’s

Milana Leshinsky [25:40]
It’s not scalable, no,

Christine Schlonski [25:42]
But it doesn’t need to be because you get the freedom created on the other business side, I just, I just love that. So again, I want to invite you guys, hop on over to the show notes page. And they’re all the links that connect to Milana. Make sure you connect with her and her amazing work, definitely check out her beautiful handpainted stones. And if you are a little bit business-minded, which I think you are, that’s why you are listening in, you need to have a look at the Genie Webinar to have a demo on how her program works. And just take us through real quick to wrap this up. Like what is the value that when people create the programs in your software, that, you know, they save so much time and money at the end, like what are they getting?

Milana Leshinsky [26:30]
They’re getting a sense of complete control over their coaching business and their coaching programs. A lot of times, coaches need to hire a virtual assistant and pay them for every little change that they need to make in their programs and their emails. Because software is complex. So my biggest core value in life and in business is simplicity. And so the software is extremely simple, it’s very easy to use, so easy that as a coach, you have complete control over all of your programs, content, emails, clients, as you know, your fingertips. So it’s super simple, it saves you a lot of time, simplifies automates your business, in ways that you didn’t imagine that it’s possible to do that. And it just makes you super organized. Everything is in one place. And when you watch the demo, the free demo that Christine you’re going to link people to, you are also going to learn “The 9 Keys Of Highly Effective Group Coaching Programs”. We talked about one of them today. That’s affinity, there’s 8 more, there are 8 more things that you want to deliver in your group coaching programs in order to provide your clients with great results and also re-enrollment, retention, reputation, all of those wonderful things that you want as a coach in order to grow your revenue.

Christine Schlonski [28:04]
Yeah, I love that. Well, I think this just gives us space for another conversation. And so thank you so so much, Milana, I had so much fun, this is such great content. Thank you for being on Heart Sells! today.

Milana Leshinsky [28:20]
Thank you so much for having me Christine it was super fun and I loved all your questions. I hope your audience will find this useful. And I look forward to hearing from everybody.

Christine Schlonski [28:30]
Thank you so much. I don’t know about you Gorgeous. But I’m just amazed by the path that Milana has taken from classical musician, selling single hours of piano lessons to building a $7 million coaching business. And I just think that’s such an inspiration. So no matter where you are, you can always work on a different path, you can always make a new decision. I hope you’ve gotten so much out of this, hop on over to christineschlonski.com, find the show notes, the transcripts, the resources we talked about, as well as all the links that connect you to Milana. And I highly recommend checking out her wonderful work and dive into deeper, make sure you connect with her. And once you’re over there at christineschlonski.com also sign up for The Empowerment Notes. That is empowerment right into your inbox, where I share things I usually do not share in social media, where you will learn strategy tools where they will give you inspiration and motivation so that you can grow your business with heart and from the heart because heart cells are pretty simple. So thank you so so much for having been here. Have an amazing day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.