Business of Coaching Workshop

Most nutrition clients have lost weight before. They just didn't keep it off.

Jeb Stuart Johnston, founder of Food on the Mind, joins Andrew Jackson to explain why he starts clients with maintenance skills first, why relapse is practice and not failure, and how to have difficult conversations with clients. Plus, live Q&A on clients who relapse and clients who ghost.

Topics: - Jeb's path from music and hair to behavior-change coaching - Flipping the model: maintenance skills first - Awareness, physiology, and skills: Jeb's coaching model - Relapse, plateaus, and the spiral staircase - Discipline vs. structure - Role-play and character work for coaches - Name the request: a simple tool for difficult conversations - AI and the future of coaching - Q&A: clients who relapse and clients who ghost

Connect with Andrew: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender

Connect with Jeb: Website: https://www.foodonthemind.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jebstuartjohnston/

Why would anyone shut down a coaching business making $100,000 a month?

According to Bakker Shields, it often happens because the coach built a business they never actually wanted to run.

Bakker, co-founder and COO of AR Funnel, joins Andrew Jackson to break down the two founder archetypes he sees across online fitness coaching: the head coach founder and the entrepreneur founder. The head coach lights up when coaching clients and developing coaches. The entrepreneur loves the game of business and building the machine. Neither is better, but confusing the two is behind a lot of burnout, stalled growth, and coaches who quit.

Bakker explains why coaches commonly quit under $5,000 a month and above $100,000 a month, why so many get stuck in the $25K to $50K trap working 50 to 60 hours a week, and how a short A-or-B quiz can help you figure out which founder you are.

He also lays out what scaling looks like on each path, stage by stage: when to raise prices and extend programs, why the head coach founder's critical hire is an operations manager, why the entrepreneur founder's critical hire is a great head coach, and what your role becomes as the business grows.

If you are an online fitness coach trying to scale without building yourself into a business you dread showing up to, this conversation will help you decide what you are actually building.

Connect with Andrew: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender

Connect with Bakker: IG: https://www.instagram.com/bakker.shields/ Website: https://arfunnel.io/

You became a coach to help people get stronger. Not to spend your days posting on Instagram, making reels, and selling your services.

But here's the reality: being a great coach doesn't matter much if nobody knows you exist.

In this episode of the Business of Coaching Workshop, Andrew Jackson sits down with Dan Shell and Stephen Woolery to discuss what they're learning about marketing their coaching businesses.

This isn't a masterclass from marketing gurus. It's a practical conversation about getting started, making mistakes, building confidence, and figuring out what actually works.

They discuss:

• Why posting consistently matters more than perfect content when you're starting out

• How to identify your ideal client and speak to their problems

• Simple ways to create content without spending hours on it

• Using AI, Instagram Edits, and everyday training footage to make posting easier

• Why views and followers aren't enough—and how to turn attention into leads

• How to overcome the fear of posting and improve through practice

If you're a personal trainer, strength coach, or online fitness coach who knows you need to market your business but doesn't know where to start, this conversation is for you.

Start posting. Learn what works. Get better as you go.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ Connect with our Guest Website: https://www.instagram.com/danshellstrengthcoach/

PS - Want to increase your dollar-per-hour earnings? Learn how to, for free, RIGHT HERE.

Money isn't just something you earn, save, and try not to spend. It's a finite resource that represents your time, energy, effort, and priorities—and learning to use it intentionally can completely change the way you run your business.

In this Business of Coaching Workshop, Andrew Jackson sits down with Jesse Mecham, founder of YNAB (You Need a Budget) and author of Never Worry About Money Again, to rethink what it actually means to be "good with money."

Jesse explains why saving and spending aren't opposites, why every financial decision involves a tradeoff, and why the most important question you can ask about your money is simple: What is this money for?

They also dig into how the same principles apply directly to coaches and small business owners. Jesse shares how applying YNAB's philosophy to his own growing company helped him realize that a large bank balance wasn't necessarily security—it was money without a clearly defined purpose. Once he assigned jobs to that money, decisions around hiring, advertising, salary, and growth became much clearer.

Andrew and Jesse also discuss variable income, preparing for future expenses, spending without guilt, creating more agency around financial decisions, and why your business finances should ultimately reflect your strategy.

If you're a coach who earns money but still feels uncertain about when to spend, save, hire, invest, or pay yourself, this conversation offers a different framework for making those decisions.

In this episode:

• Why "save more, spend less" can be an incomplete way to think about money

• Why all saving is ultimately spending later

• How intentional spending creates more agency

• The five purposes Jesse uses to think about money

• Why every spending decision involves a tradeoff

• How to handle variable income with less stress

• Why a big bank balance doesn't necessarily tell you what you can afford

• How Jesse used YNAB principles inside YNAB itself

• Using your business finances to reveal your actual business strategy

• Making clearer decisions about hiring, growth, advertising, and paying yourself

• Why becoming good with money is a skill you keep developing over time

Jesse Mecham is the founder of YNAB (You Need a Budget), a company built around helping people give every dollar a purpose and make more intentional decisions with their money. He is also the author of Never Worry About Money Again.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ Connect with our Guest Website: https://www.ynab.com/

PS - Want to increase your dollar-per-hour earnings? Learn how to, for free, RIGHT HERE.

Online coaches should spend their time coaching, not repeating the same admin tasks every week.

In this Business of Coaching Workshop, Mac McGregor hosts an open office-hours session focused on making the day-to-day work of coaching easier. The conversation covers ways coaches can streamline programming, client check-ins, scheduling, workout delivery, and other repetitive parts of running an online or hybrid coaching business.

You'll hear how tools like automatic program advancement can reduce the time spent copying workouts from week to week, how better client dashboards and check-ins can reduce unnecessary back-and-forth, and why the right automation should support your coaching rather than replace it.

The goal is simple: remove repetitive work so you can spend more of your time making coaching decisions, helping clients, and growing your business.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ PS - Want to increase your dollar-per-hour earnings? Learn how to, for free, RIGHT HERE.

More clients. More revenue. More content. More growth.

That sounds like success—until the business starts taking over your life.

Jon Vlahogiannakos has been a fitness coach for more than a decade and has spent the last five years mentoring hundreds of fitness coaches. At one point, he grew his own roster to more than 70 clients while also mentoring other coaches. The business was growing, but his training, nutrition, family time, and ability to step away from work started to suffer.

Jon joins Niki Sims to talk about how online fitness coaches can grow without building a business that eventually burns them out.

They discuss how to choose the clients you actually want to work with, why your content should speak directly to those people, and how to stop comparing your social media to every other coach online. Jon explains why coaches do not need to follow every trend or copy what is already popular. Instead, they should find a content style that fits their strengths, get more reps, and become better at communicating their own message.

They also dig into the other side of growth: capacity. How many clients can you actually coach well? What does your income goal require from your time? When should you simplify, delegate, or stop doing something completely?

Jon shares his "subtraction list" exercise, which helps coaches separate the work that gives them energy from the work that drains them so they can build a simpler and more sustainable business.

If you are an online fitness coach trying to get more clients, improve your content, and grow without making coaching your entire life, this conversation will help you think more clearly about what you are actually building.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ Connect with our guest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strongjonfitness/ Website: https://strongjon.com/diagnostic PS - Want to know the next step for your business? Learn it HERE, in under 2 minutes.

Getting more clients is great. Keeping the right clients is better.

Wyatt Christensen of Rebuild Stronger joins Andrew Jackson and the Business of Coaching Workshop to break down what actually drives long-term client retention—and why it starts before a client ever signs up.

Wyatt explains why coaches need to set clear expectations, understand who they coach best, and be willing to turn away clients who aren't a good fit. Instead of trying to serve everyone, coaches can build stronger relationships by being honest about their expertise, their personality, and the culture they create.

They also discuss the value of building a referral network, why referring someone elsewhere can actually generate future business, and why a positive offboarding experience matters just as much as onboarding.

Most importantly, Wyatt argues that client retention isn't something you manufacture with a tactic. It's the outcome of doing your job well and consistently delivering a great client experience.

In this episode:

• Why client retention creates a more stable coaching business
• Setting expectations before a client signs up
• Filtering for clients who fit your expertise and personality
• Why coaches shouldn't try to be someone they're not
• Building a referral network for clients you shouldn't coach
• Finding your niche when you're still a newer coach
• Prioritizing client experience over client count
• How to handle clients who decide to leave
• Why a great offboarding experience can lead to referrals—and even returning clients
• Building systems before aggressively growing your roster

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender Connect with our guest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyatt.strength.coach/ PS - Want to keep more clients. Check out the churn calculator HERE.

What separates a good coach from someone who can build a sustainable coaching business?

In this Business of Coaching Workshop, Andrew Jackson breaks down key lessons from the Scalable Coaches Conference, including how to create repeatable systems, use hybrid coaching, move beyond selling individual sessions, improve client retention, generate more referrals, and identify the bottleneck limiting your business.

They also discuss why your clients are paying for the result of your coaching—not the amount of time you spend working behind the scenes—and why getting a new client an early win can have a major impact on long-term retention.

If you want to serve more clients without simply working more hours, this episode gives you practical ways to make your coaching business more scalable.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender PS - Register to attend the weekly, free Business of Coaching Workshop HERE.

Fitness coaches understand why clients hire coaches. The information is already out there, but information alone does not tell you what to do first, what to ignore, or how to avoid wasting months making preventable mistakes.

The same is true in business.

Business coaching for fitness coaches can provide sequencing, confidence, accountability, permission, and access to a valuable network. The right mentor can help you solve problems faster and compress years of trial and error into a much shorter path.

But not every course, certification, or mentorship is worth the investment.

Andrew Jackson breaks down how coaches should evaluate paid education and mentorship, including whether the person has real students with verifiable results, whether they still operate the kind of business they teach, whether they can explain the mechanics behind their advice, and whether the community surrounding them adds real value.

The bigger question is not simply, "Can I afford this?"

It is whether the investment can help you get where you want to go faster, avoid unnecessary mistakes, and make better use of your most limited resource: time.

Topics include:

• Why more information is rarely the real solution

• How coaching and mentorship compress time

• When paying for education makes sense

• How to evaluate a business coach or mentor

• Why real-world experience matters more than theory

• The value of community and professional networks

• Certifications versus practical experience

• Imposter syndrome and knowing when you simply need more reps

• Finding people who have already built what you want to build

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender PS - Want to grow your coaching business without continually adding more hours? Attend the Scalable Coaching Conference on August 27. Reserve your seat HERE.

Knowing how to coach is not the same as knowing how to turn your expertise into a coaching business.

In this episode of the Business of Coaching Workshop, Andrew Jackson and CJ Gotcher break down how coaches can turn their knowledge and skills into a clear, repeatable coaching product. CJ explains his framework for building an offer around the right audience, creating a service you can actually deliver, and developing a predictable process for sales, onboarding, and fulfillment.

They also discuss why coaches should start with the client rather than the features of the service, how an introductory coaching session can become an on-ramp to ongoing coaching, and why defining your fulfillment process is essential if you want to grow without creating more work for yourself.

Finally, Andrew and CJ look at how courses and educational resources can fit into a coaching business—from lead magnets and onboarding to standalone products—and how TurnKey Coach can bring programming, communication, courses, and client fulfillment into one ecosystem.

Whether you are getting your first coaching clients or trying to make an existing service more scalable, the goal is the same: build an offer that is appealing to the right person, deliverable at a high level, and repeatable enough to improve over time.

Connect with Andrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbarbender/ X: https://x.com/AndrewBarBender PS - Want to grow your coaching business without continually adding more hours? Attend the Scalable Coaching Conference on August 27. Reserve your seat HERE.