EP 13: The Importance of a Coach

00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.
00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Alison]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Melissa]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Melissa]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.

00:00:33 [Alison]
Alright, y’all.
00:00:34 [Alison]
We are back this week, and we have a much more interesting topic than last week was for

00:00:39 [Melissa]
our group.

00:00:41 [Alison]
Remember, last week’s topic was important, but we know it was boring.
00:00:45 [Alison]
But this week, we’re gonna talk about something more fun.
00:00:47 [Alison]
We’re gonna talk more about the importance of a coach and hiring one.
00:00:50 [Alison]
But before we do that, we wanna make sure you guys subscribe button.
00:00:53 [Alison]
Hopefully, you’re sharing us with friends.

00:00:54 [Alison]
Allison and I are loving the feedback we’re getting.
00:00:56 [Alison]
I’m not gonna lie, guys.
00:00:57 [Alison]
When I get messages and stuff, I’m like, oh my gosh, you

00:01:00 [Alison]
guys are listening.
00:01:00 [Alison]
That’s so great.

00:01:01 [Alison]
Like, I get really excited.
00:01:03 [Alison]
I send Alice’s screenshots.

00:01:04 [Alison]
I’m like, look, somebody recommended us.

00:01:06 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:06 [Melissa]
It’s true.
00:01:07 [Melissa]
True story.
00:01:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:08 [Melissa]
Make sure you get in the show notes.

00:01:09 [Melissa]
Subscribe wherever you’re listening and get up on my my free pre move checklist.
00:01:14 [Melissa]
Make sure you’re getting that.
00:01:15 [Melissa]
That is gonna be really helpful for you if you’re moving.
00:01:17 [Melissa]
Okay, so y’all, it is it’s a God thing, I think.
00:01:20 [Melissa]
I just got my book.

00:01:22 [Melissa]
We are big Donald Miller fan in his Stratosphere.
00:01:26 [Melissa]
I don’t know if you’re gonna live on a rock.

00:01:28 [Alison]
I’m sure it’ll be.
00:01:29 [Alison]
But I’ve not heard of StoryBrand yet.

00:01:31 [Melissa]
Your StoryBrand Marketing Made Simple.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
His latest book, Coach Builder came out.
00:01:35 [Melissa]
I just got it yesterday, pre ordered it months ago.
00:01:37 [Melissa]
Page one, y’all.

00:01:39 [Melissa]
Page one, just got this last night.
00:01:40 [Melissa]
Listen to this.
00:01:41 [Melissa]
Donald Miller saying this.
00:01:42 [Melissa]
In fact, if a business owner had to choose between getting a master’s in business from a prestigious university or hiring a coach, I’d cancel them to hire a coach.
00:01:54 [Melissa]
Boom.

00:01:54 [Melissa]
End of shirt.

00:01:57 [Alison]
There we go.
00:01:57 [Alison]
Just kidding.
00:01:58 [Alison]
Donald Miller says it.
00:01:59 [Alison]
It is done.
00:01:59 [Alison]
There we go.

00:02:00 [Alison]
We can move along.

00:02:02 [Melissa]
That’s all.
00:02:02 [Melissa]
Just go hire a coach.
00:02:03 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:02:04 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:02:04 [Alison]
That’s the thing.
00:02:05 [Alison]
So we really Allison and I have gone back and forth on some polos this week.
00:02:08 [Alison]
So, again, we bring our polos to you guys on coaching and, like, why it’s important because not only, like, Allison offers coaching, she does one on one coaching.
00:02:17 [Alison]
I offer group coaching.
00:02:18 [Alison]
I’ve done one on one coaching in the past.

00:02:20 [Alison]
I also have coaches myself.
00:02:23 [Alison]
And so the first thing we’re gonna cover is finding a coach.
00:02:26 [Alison]
So I’ve coaches over the years, and these are mainly for, like, business specific coaches and things like that.
00:02:31 [Alison]
So some of the ways to find them are asking other people.
00:02:34 [Alison]
And I personally prefer a coach for a specific goal.

00:02:39 [Alison]
Don’t just go to your coach and be like, I want you to make me super successful.
00:02:42 [Alison]
Like, you need to unless they have a program, like, obviously, I’m actually in Donald Miller’s Business Made Simple flight school, which covers all kinds of different areas of coaching.
00:02:52 [Alison]
And I have a coach who’s helping me with that program.
00:02:55 [Alison]
But outside of that, that’s business.
00:02:57 [Alison]
So that’s my focus there.

00:02:58 [Alison]
This is my business coach.
00:02:59 [Alison]
I’m working on that.
00:03:00 [Alison]
But you can have coaches like Allison’s a coach on moving your business.
00:03:03 [Alison]
So her line of expertise specific.
00:03:05 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:03:06 [Alison]
It’s very specific.
00:03:07 [Alison]
My coaching is on SEO or specific too of, like, just narrowing down on that.
00:03:11 [Alison]
So think about the problem that you have, what your biggest problem is, and what kind of coach you’re looking for from there.
00:03:16 [Alison]
And then that way you can start vetting things out.
00:03:19 [Alison]
Some other ways besides asking people, listening to podcasts.

00:03:21 [Alison]
A lot of people have cod podcasts now as we do too.
00:03:24 [Alison]
And you get a chance to go and listen to them and get to know them a little bit more before you hire them.
00:03:30 [Alison]
And that can be a huge thing for vetting someone.
00:03:33 [Alison]
You can look at industry groups that you’re in, ask in there, who do they recommend for different coaching and things like that.
00:03:39 [Alison]
Sometimes it’s just being open to these.

00:03:40 [Alison]
Like, I was telling Allison, I had a coach pop into my inbox around the holidays, and she actually it was her name is Jennica McDavitt, and she ran psychology for photographers for a long time.
00:03:51 [Alison]
I think her website’s still out there for all of that.
00:03:54 [Alison]
I’ve known about her for a decade now.
00:03:57 [Alison]
Like, she’s been around forever.
00:03:58 [Alison]
She happened to have sent an email talking about, like, ADHD and business and, like, how to deal with it as a business owner.

00:04:04 [Alison]
And then at the end, she, like, pitched that she was doing these two week Marco Polo style business coaching where she was just there to answer questions hide you.
00:04:12 [Alison]
And, y’all, I signed up, and it was great.
00:04:14 [Alison]
And for two weeks, it was short and sweet, and she pushed me on things, and it was a really great thing.
00:04:20 [Alison]
And if I hadn’t opened that email, if I had unsubscribed, if I hadn’t just been open to finding a coach in this random way, Allison laughs because on the last episode, y’all find out I’m terrible at unsubscribing.
00:04:29 [Alison]
So I’m on, like, mailing lists for decades.

00:04:31 [Alison]
Decades.
00:04:33 [Alison]
Be open to, like, where you find your coach and stuff.
00:04:36 [Alison]
Like, you wanna find somebody, but and vet them.
00:04:39 [Alison]
Make sure that they know what they’re talking about.
00:04:41 [Alison]
Even if they have their own podcast, have they been on cast, things like that.

00:04:44 [Alison]
Make sure other people have vetted them, that kind of thing.
00:04:47 [Alison]
Finding a coach, I think, is super important.

00:04:49 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:49 [Melissa]
I found I found my quasi coach on podcast.
00:04:53 [Melissa]
I was listening to his podcast.
00:04:54 [Melissa]
I started listening to it in 2016 when I had forty five minute drive one way to go to all my family sessions, and I just started deep diving, like, how to do this better, how to do this photography thing, the business side.
00:05:05 [Melissa]
And then it wasn’t until I didn’t buy anything from that person until 2021.

00:05:10 [Melissa]
It was the end of twenty twenty one, and it was golden.
00:05:12 [Melissa]
But I there had been years of trust, but it’d been, of course, a free Facebook group that was not terribly helpful because it was just so many people chaotic.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
But before I even bought from that person, he was offering it was a sale, and it was like this huge sale blitz around the holidays.
00:05:29 [Melissa]
And I wasn’t sure if it was applicable to me.
00:05:31 [Melissa]
I wasn’t sure if his offer could hit on my pain points.

00:05:35 [Melissa]
He put a Calendly link for phone calls.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
He was like, if you’re not sure, talk to me.
00:05:40 [Melissa]
Let’s get on the phone.
00:05:41 [Melissa]
And I was like, holy crap.
00:05:42 [Melissa]
This person who I’ve been listening to for five years at that point is literally a Calendly link for him to call me and talk about my specific pain points.

00:05:51 [Melissa]
Hell yes, I will do that.
00:05:53 [Melissa]
So we got on the phone for ten minutes, it was only ten minutes, he called me, his name popped up on my phone, and he validated all of my concerns and was like, Yeah, you’re a wild card.
00:06:03 [Melissa]
I don’t really know what to do with you.
00:06:06 [Melissa]
But he was able to address the concerns that I had for he was like, this course will help you here and it’ll help you here.
00:06:11 [Melissa]
But just hearing him say, should I do this or do that was incredibly validating to know that I am the wild card.

00:06:17 [Melissa]
My situation is completely different than everybody else’s, and traditional people don’t know how to handle that.
00:06:23 [Melissa]
It was so validating.
00:06:24 [Melissa]
When you are hiring a coach, you are getting so much personal attention.
00:06:29 [Melissa]
One, it’s an expert in that area.
00:06:31 [Melissa]
So typically, when you’re hiring a coach, it’s not just like a photography coach or a general very general coach.

00:06:37 [Melissa]
It is something pretty specific.
00:06:38 [Melissa]
Maybe it could be finances.
00:06:40 [Melissa]
Maybe it is how to run your business.
00:06:41 [Melissa]
Maybe it is SEO or moving your business.
00:06:45 [Melissa]
But you’re going through something that person is an expert in.

00:06:47 [Melissa]
They’ve had experience getting deep into your business.
00:06:52 [Melissa]
They are helping you wade through everything.
00:06:54 [Melissa]
They’re creating something that is very specific to you.
00:06:57 [Melissa]
They are getting in the weeds with you, separating emotion from confusion, and just answering your questions very specifically.
00:07:07 [Melissa]
It’s not like reading a book or a plan or a course that anybody could take or do or execute.

00:07:12 [Melissa]
It is highly personalized and very specific to you.

00:07:18 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:18 [Alison]
And talking about with that, you’ve just really been on someone that you feel comfortable with, that, like, that is trustworthy and things like that.
00:07:25 [Alison]
And sometimes even I forgot to mention this.
00:07:27 [Alison]
The coach I’m working with for the Donald Miller thing, she’s certified by Donald Miller.
00:07:32 [Alison]
Like, she’s gone through their training and stuff like that.

00:07:34 [Alison]
So she’s got that experience level there and that trust level.
00:07:37 [Alison]
And, actually, funny story with the coaching thing, when Allison when Donald Miller answer announced that he was got this book coming out and it was on preorder, Allison and I both ran out and preordered it.
00:07:46 [Alison]
And you got, like, a free download of, like, websites of coaches that he had certified.
00:07:51 [Alison]
And I actually found her through site through that example and stuff.
00:07:54 [Alison]
And I trusted her even though it was a whole new coaching arena for me.

00:07:58 [Alison]
It had nothing to do with photography, which was well outside of my wheelhouse.
00:08:02 [Alison]
I knew that Donald Miller trusted her because he had trained her, and I knew she had his process and things like that.
00:08:08 [Alison]
And so now that guidance and stuff that she’s able to provide to me is huge.
00:08:12 [Alison]
And in fact, I started off in just her general mastermind coaching and then ended up switching to one on one with her because Allison said, I wanted somebody getting elbow deep with me.

00:08:23 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:08:24 [Melissa]
Looking to you.
00:08:25 [Melissa]
How are you feeling about this move?
00:08:27 [Melissa]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.
00:08:30 [Melissa]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.

00:08:34 [Melissa]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start.
00:08:37 [Melissa]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:08:40 [Melissa]
So head over to alisonbell.co.
00:08:42 [Melissa]
That’s alisonwith1l,bell.co to get your pre move checklist.
00:08:48 [Melissa]
You got this.

00:08:49 [Alison]
I wanted that guidance of creating an action plan.
00:08:52 [Alison]
And most importantly, I wanted an accountability, y’all.
00:08:55 [Alison]
I there’s so many things on our to do list and stuff that I need somebody to make sure that I’m getting something done, getting the work done.
00:09:05 [Alison]
And having that deadline is gonna be so helpful.
00:09:07 [Alison]
And in fact, I have a call tonight with the mastermind group, and I’m presenting a quiz for it that that I’m watching on the website.

00:09:14 [Alison]
So by the time this comes out, the quiz should be live and everything on there.
00:09:17 [Alison]
They’re gonna test it for me tonight.
00:09:19 [Alison]
But if she hadn’t given me the deadline of, like, hey, I want you to present this, dude, that thing was probably would take me another four weeks.
00:09:25 [Alison]
Allison knows I’ve been working on this since the first week of January, and it’s March now.

00:09:28 [Melissa]
So It’s There’s so many pots on the fire, like, which one’s gonna get your attention?
00:09:32 [Melissa]
And with these deadlines and somebody, like, over your shoulder Yeah.
00:09:36 [Melissa]
They’re gonna get it done.

00:09:37 [Alison]
And it’s not like they’re about it, but they’re like, hey, you need to prioritize this.
00:09:40 [Alison]
This is your deadline, and I’m paying her to do that.
00:09:43 [Alison]
I’m paying her to hold me accountable.
00:09:45 [Alison]
I want her to hold me accountable.
00:09:47 [Alison]
And then also helping to in that accountability to help push your boundaries gently, but push them.

00:09:52 [Alison]
When I worked with the coach back around Christmas time, I was like, oh, I have this idea for this thing.
00:09:56 [Alison]
I’ll get around to it.
00:09:57 [Alison]
And she got she just started poking at it and poking at it and poking and asking.
00:10:01 [Alison]
And by the time we were done after that two weeks, I had a whole plan mapped out for the thing I told her I wasn’t worried about right.
00:10:06 [Alison]
And I’m glad that she, like, pushed my boundaries because otherwise, again, it would have sat on the back burner, and I wouldn’t have done anything with it.

00:10:14 [Alison]
Another thing sometimes with coaches and stuff with the accountability that they can do is just give you the opportunity to get the work done.
00:10:21 [Alison]
Like, right now, Stacy and I are working through the StoryBrand for my website.
00:10:26 [Alison]
And I told her, I was like, I want you to sit down with me and make sure I’ve listened to Donald’s videos a million times, but I need the coach there to hold me accountable and to get her expertise on looking at my stuff and working together on something.
00:10:38 [Alison]
So we spent an hour going through my homepage.
00:10:40 [Alison]
Man, like, that accountability and that co working together, is super helpful.

00:10:45 [Alison]
Or even if they provide co working where maybe you’re just doing silent co working with a group of other students, putting that on your calendar and making it a priority is something that is really amazing with coaching, I think.

00:10:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:55 [Melissa]
And even, like, you were talking about you were paying for that accountability.
00:10:58 [Melissa]
Just the act of putting our money where our mouth is that this is important and I wanna do this and having put skin in the game in the form of real dollars is its own kind of accountability.
00:11:08 [Melissa]
Like, it it really it helps to just put your money there.
00:11:11 [Melissa]
Right?

00:11:12 [Melissa]
A coach is also going to give you a fresh eye and a different perspective as an outsider in your business, especially as photographers and solopreneurs, we get so in the weeds.
00:11:23 [Melissa]
Even when

00:11:24 [Alison]
I’m not guilty of

00:11:24 [Melissa]
this, but when my husband gives me his outsider perspective or

00:11:29 [Alison]
I’m laughing like this.
00:11:31 [Alison]
This morning, my husband and Allison and I talk about this a lot.
00:11:33 [Alison]
But this morning, my husband and I

00:11:34 [Alison]
were talking about stuff and he looks at me because we’ve

00:11:37 [Alison]
had this conversation.
00:11:37 [Alison]
He said, do you want me to help you solve the problem, or do you just want me to listen and smile?
00:11:42 [Alison]
And I said,

00:11:43 [Melissa]
that’s a smart man.
00:11:44 [Melissa]
And that

00:11:44 [Alison]
but this has taken many

00:11:45 [Alison]
conversations together with husbands.
00:11:47 [Alison]
So ladies

00:13:40 [Alison]
Or gentlemen or whatever, if you have the same issues with your spouse, know that you are not alone.
00:13:45 [Alison]
You’re in good company.
00:13:47 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:47 [Alison]
And I said, no, I do wanna hear your perspective.
00:13:50 [Alison]
They have valuable perspective, but a

00:13:53 [Melissa]
lot of times, we don’t always give them due credit because they’re not doing this themselves.
00:13:59 [Melissa]
So a hiring a coach, and you’re gonna get all of that perspective and all of their experience on your project, your business, your everything, your whole little world.
00:14:11 [Melissa]
And so it’s so important as solopreneurs to step aside, to open up to just remove ourselves from the situation and see what somebody else might think, say or do in the same situation.
00:14:25 [Melissa]
It really removes emotion and confusion and clarity.
00:14:30 [Melissa]
And Melissa and I do the same thing on polo.

00:14:32 [Melissa]
We coach have a little, yeah, a little hiccup on a client.
00:14:35 [Melissa]
Oh, my gosh, hey, this didn’t happen.
00:14:36 [Melissa]
What do I do?
00:14:37 [Melissa]
And it’s easily like, this is what you would do X, Y, and Z.
00:14:40 [Melissa]
And it’s so easy to help her and but like, when the roles are reversed, it’s like, oh, no, I’m doing the same thing.

00:14:45 [Melissa]
Like, I’m in the same situation.
00:14:46 [Melissa]
I don’t know what to do.
00:14:47 [Melissa]
And it’s just because we’re in it and we’re close to it.
00:14:49 [Melissa]
And we have emotions about it.
00:14:51 [Melissa]
We are just doing the same thing yesterday of talking about the coaching website.

00:14:54 [Melissa]
And I was like, oh, thank you for reminding me of all the things I’ve already known and have and bringing to my remembrance all the stuff I forgot about.

00:15:02 [Alison]
And that was like our blow that week where we said we need to talk about why coaching is important to do a podcast about.

00:15:08 [Melissa]
So here we are.
00:15:10 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:15:10 [Melissa]
So a coach is gonna give you a really fresh different perspective on any project that you might have.

00:15:16 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:15:16 [Alison]
And, you know, when it comes to we’ve talked a little bit about the experience of the coach and things like that.
00:15:20 [Alison]
Keep in mind, in my opinion, a coach doesn’t have to they don’t have to be that much further ahead of you.
00:15:28 [Alison]
They just need to be ahead of you.
00:15:29 [Alison]
And now I’m not saying that you need to go if someone’s two steps ahead of you, you need to go spend thousands and thousands of dollars on or whatever.

00:15:35 [Alison]
I don’t mean that.
00:15:36 [Alison]
I’d but I do mean they have a perspective that you don’t necessarily have.
00:15:40 [Alison]
Sometimes I wanna talk to the person who’s only three steps ahead of me because they still remember the step I met.
00:15:45 [Alison]
Exactly.
00:15:45 [Alison]
Versus if I talk to someone who’s 15 steps ahead of me, they’re like, oh, I remember when I had that scenario.

00:15:50 [Alison]
This is what I’m like.
00:15:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:15:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:15:53 [Alison]
So it doesn’t obviously, I I rate, like, what the pay should be per se.
00:15:57 [Alison]
Right.

00:15:58 [Alison]
Like, how much I’m willing to invest on someone who’s a couple steps ahead versus someone who’s much farther ahead.
00:16:03 [Alison]
Sometimes when it comes to cost of coaches and stuff too, sometimes for a system that they might be bringing with them.
00:16:09 [Alison]
And that can be well worth it.
00:16:11 [Alison]
I had a coaching program this summer that I was part of.
00:16:13 [Alison]
It was a very, very specific on how to do something, and the back end office system that she set me up with was well worth the money.

00:16:23 [Alison]
And in fact, I’m trying to switch other systems of ours over to that because it just works seamlessly and flawlessly.
00:16:29 [Alison]
And I’m like, oh, that was amazing.
00:16:31 [Alison]
So it’s not just, you know, the experience of the person and, oh, they have to be they have to have all these credentials and they have to have all this stuff.
00:16:37 [Alison]
You need them, and they need to be able to get you to the next step of where you want to be because they have been there before.

00:16:46 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:46 [Melissa]
And think of all the mistakes that you’re not gonna make because they’ve already done it.
00:16:50 [Melissa]
You know?
00:16:51 [Melissa]
Like, that system was tried and true because it had been put in place for so long and worked so well.
00:16:56 [Melissa]
Think of all the things here, oh wait, and the pitfalls.

00:17:00 [Melissa]
Amy Porterfield says you only have to be 10% ahead to be a qualified leader.
00:17:05 [Melissa]
So, keep that in mind.
00:17:06 [Melissa]
10% ahead, that’s more than enough.

00:17:10 [Alison]
So now let’s dive into formats of coaching.
00:17:13 [Alison]
And I’m gonna jump into this one because I have done the different formats.
00:17:18 [Alison]
And like I’ve talked to you guys, I’ve been on the receiving end, and then I’ve also been on the giving end.
00:17:22 [Alison]
So I think for a lot of us with coaches and stuff, you start off one to one.
00:17:26 [Alison]
I think even before that, you start off coaching your friends because that’s really how I got started with SEO.

00:17:31 [Alison]
I was coaching Allison.
00:17:32 [Alison]
We were I was coaching another friend of ours because I had already had good experience with stuff.
00:17:37 [Alison]
And then other people started approaching me, and so I started coaching them.
00:17:41 [Alison]
And so I was able to define things and really get in with them.
00:17:45 [Alison]
It’s definitely a one on one is a more intimate coaching experience.

00:17:49 [Alison]
And typically it ends up being more expensive because you are getting that one to one FaceTime with someone.
00:17:54 [Alison]
They may have a group coaching program and they may have a one on one.
00:17:56 [Alison]
And that one on one could be way more than the group coaching is because you are getting that Face to FaceTime with them.
00:18:02 [Alison]
And when I think about, like I said, I just did the two weeks over Marco Polo.
00:18:05 [Alison]
That was a one on one coaching.

00:18:07 [Alison]
I was doing group coaching with my coach, Stacy, and I’ve now switched to one on one because I of that together, us looking at things, her, as Allison said before, elbow deep in my business versus just the generic.
00:18:20 [Alison]
So I have offered one on ones in the past, and I like one on ones, but one on ones too, for me, were very intensive.
00:18:26 [Alison]
So, yeah, it was a lot of work, and it felt like when it came to SEO that it was I was fire hosing people with information.
00:18:33 [Alison]
So I personally have switched to more of a group coaching environment because a lot of the information I’m giving is the same.
00:18:40 [Alison]
It’s the same for everyone.

00:18:41 [Alison]
I would say 75% of it is the same for and there’s 25% that might be specific to individual people.
00:18:47 [Alison]
And so one of the things I do with that is I have a hybrid.
00:18:50 [Alison]
I have the group coaching that is covering, like, open q and a’s, question and answer with everybody.
00:18:56 [Alison]
And then I have a little bit more one on one where I review individual client information on, like, their home page or their keywords and things like that.
00:19:02 [Alison]
So they still get a little bit of that one on one and my eyes on their stuff, but we’re more in a group environment for the open q and a’s.

00:19:10 [Alison]
And the open q and a’s can be great because you’re getting exposed to other people who might be further along in the course, might be for their career.
00:19:16 [Alison]
They may have similar problems that you have.
00:19:19 [Alison]
And then typically, because it’s a group coaching environment, it’s less expensive.
00:19:23 [Alison]
That’s another way.
00:19:23 [Alison]
And then the mastermind, Alice and I have a little difference of opinion on what a mastermind is.

00:19:28 [Alison]
It could be both.
00:19:29 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:30 [Alison]
So I’ve typically seen, at least in the photography industry, that a mastermind is a smaller, more intimate group.
00:19:36 [Alison]
Usually, it’s maxed out at 10 people that have a leader that has some kind of thing that she is guiding everyone through.
00:19:45 [Alison]
Their typically, businesses are in similar and stuff, and I have found that those types of ones, you have a lot of access to the person.

00:19:52 [Alison]
You may have Voxer access.
00:19:54 [Alison]
You may have weekly calls with them.
00:19:56 [Alison]
You have a lot more a lot more exposure to them, and it’s usually much more expensive.
00:20:01 [Alison]
I don’t know about y’all, but a lot of the masterminds I’ve heard about from bigger name, $10.20, $25,000 for these things.
00:20:07 [Alison]
It can be insane.

00:20:08 [Alison]
Allison, what was your you were talking about your Nuva Mastermind.

00:20:11 [Melissa]
So I have friends that are not in the photography industry that are part of Masterminds, and they’re really more iron sharpening iron, like peers coming together for a specific purpose and a specific agenda to support one another moving forward in a business.
00:20:23 [Melissa]
And there might be multiple different businesses and industries in one group, but it’s anywhere from three to eight all working together without necessarily a leader.
00:20:31 [Melissa]
There might be like a facilitator, but they’re doing the same thing and there’s not like one one expert leading the group.
00:20:38 [Melissa]
So I’ve seen both.
00:20:39 [Melissa]
I think they can be both.

00:20:40 [Melissa]
Mastermind seems like a buzzword, so to speak.
00:20:42 [Melissa]
So

00:20:43 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:20:43 [Alison]
I do like the idea though of and we’ve talked about this in previous podcasts about, you know, getting involved in your new area and stuff.
00:20:50 [Alison]
And even if you wanna set up the the mastermind style that Allison is talking about to get to know other businesses in your new area, that could be a great idea.
00:20:59 [Alison]
And you’re getting together, you know, once a month or something and talking about a specific topic.
00:21:03 [Alison]
Like, the coaching that I’m doing, like I said, I’m presenting tonight on quizzes.

00:21:07 [Alison]
That’s how she runs that part of the mastermind.
00:21:08 [Alison]
Because I’m in the one on one, I still get access to the mastermind portion.
00:21:12 [Alison]
And it’s there’s a topic once a month that we are gonna go over, and then we do breakout groups and talk about different things.
00:21:17 [Alison]
So getting the best of both of those on that aspect.
00:21:20 [Alison]
Running into that, like, I we’re gonna talk a little bit about, like, how our coaching works.

00:21:24 [Alison]
So I’ve already talked a little bit about mine of, like, I offer group coaching now.
00:21:27 [Alison]
I don’t offer one on ones anymore.

00:21:29 [Melissa]
I enjoyed one on ones.

00:21:30 [Alison]
I liked my clients and stuff like that.
00:21:32 [Alison]
Just I hit a point where I was, like, constantly having meetings, and I was

00:21:35 [Alison]
like, I cannot do all these meetings.

00:21:36 [Alison]
And the information was just it was too much.
00:21:39 [Alison]
So it works much better in a group environment where I have courses and videos that everybody can refer back to.
00:21:45 [Alison]
And I love with my group, I talk about that I used to play volleyball in high school, and I had a coach.
00:21:52 [Alison]
And so when there was something that, like, I needed help on a serve, my coach would help me with that.
00:21:57 [Alison]
And that’s what I think about with my group and stuff.

00:21:59 [Alison]
Of, these girls are submitting their stuff to me so that I can take a look and I can make them bet versus just an open some of the coaching groups are just you can ask q and a, but you don’t still get some of that individualized attention except for the question time frame.
00:22:13 [Alison]
And so I try to hybrid it a little bit more with getting a little bit more one on one, and my group is still I try to keep it small too because I know how much I can handle.
00:22:21 [Alison]
I don’t want a 100 people in my group coaching.
00:22:23 [Alison]
That’s Amen.
00:22:24 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:22:24 [Alison]
Even 20 scares me a little bit of if I had 20 people who were like, hey.
00:22:28 [Alison]
I have questions.
00:22:28 [Alison]
I’d be like, that’s a lot.

00:22:30 [Melissa]
What’s the time frame on your group coaching?

00:22:32 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:22:32 [Alison]
So our coaching, we I started it out.
00:22:34 [Alison]
It was two months.
00:22:35 [Alison]
Realized real quickly that two months was just too short of a time period.
00:22:38 [Alison]
So we went ahead and extended it to four months.

00:22:40 [Alison]
So it’s four months for our group coaching.
00:22:42 [Alison]
We have calls twice a month.
00:22:43 [Alison]
We have silent coworking twice a month too.
00:22:46 [Alison]
So that way, you guys can literally put it on your calendar of, well, I’m gonna work on either the course or something SEO related on my website at least two hours a month.
00:22:54 [Alison]
Like, I know I’m getting that done.

00:22:55 [Alison]
They have Slack access, so they can ask me questions in Slack, and I respond back.
00:22:59 [Alison]
And then like I’ve talked about a lot, they submit their work to me, and I’ll review it and all of that kind of stuff.
00:23:04 [Alison]
And then there’s modules for all of the courses with video on keyword research, homepage optimization, portfolio page optimization, blogging, bonuses on AI and blogging, Google My Business, all that kind of stuff.
00:23:15 [Alison]
So all of that is wrapped up into my group coaching program.
00:23:18 [Alison]
So I will link that we’ll link that in the show notes, but mine is it’s under picture perfect rankings.

00:23:23 [Alison]
It’s our group coaching for SEO.
00:23:25 [Alison]
And so if you’re looking to work on your SEO, that’s my favorite way to do it.

00:23:30 [Melissa]
Highly encourage it because I’ve had success with SEO.
00:23:33 [Melissa]
And, of course, Melissa had a hand in that and making sure I was doing it right since moving to Hawaii.
00:23:38 [Melissa]
So with moving, I’ve moved seven times.
00:23:40 [Melissa]
I am an expert in moving a service based business to a new location, and that’s something I offer.
00:23:44 [Melissa]
I have Keep It Moving coaching.

00:23:47 [Melissa]
So the whole point is getting elbow deep into your business, your move, where are you coming from?
00:23:53 [Melissa]
Where are you going to?
00:23:54 [Melissa]
What’s working in your business?
00:23:55 [Melissa]
What’s not?
00:23:56 [Melissa]
What do we need to focus on?

00:23:57 [Melissa]
And how do we minimize income loss?
00:24:00 [Melissa]
Because you are gonna lose money.
00:24:01 [Melissa]
And SEO takes so long, you cannot rely on that.
00:24:04 [Melissa]
You’ve gotta do more.
00:24:04 [Melissa]
And so with my coaching, the Keep It Moving coaching, we get together one on one.

00:24:09 [Melissa]
We turn an hour at a time, and we make a plan.
00:24:12 [Melissa]
I get to know your business, I get into the weeds with you, I ask you a lot of questions to really make you think things through, separate that emotion like we were talking about.
00:24:20 [Melissa]
And then I give you homework, and you get full access to me on Voxer so we can chat and talk as questions arise.
00:24:26 [Melissa]
You can reach out through that anytime while you’re doing your homework.
00:24:29 [Melissa]
The whole plan is to create a plan, remove the confusion, and execute your move as successfully as possible.

00:24:36 [Melissa]
So, yeah.
00:24:37 [Melissa]
So if you’re interested in that, head over to alisonbell.co.
00:24:39 [Melissa]
Links are in the show notes, of course.
00:24:41 [Melissa]
Contact form, there’s an application at the bottom.
00:24:43 [Melissa]
There’s no obligation if you apply.

00:24:45 [Melissa]
Every application, we get on a call first.
00:24:47 [Melissa]
I like to get to know you a little bit, figure out if I can help you, make sure I’m confident that I can help you succeed before I ever accept any application.
00:24:55 [Melissa]
We’ll get on the phone.
00:24:57 [Melissa]
So yeah.
00:24:57 [Melissa]
So head over there, links in the show notes, poke around and fill out that application.

00:25:01 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:25:01 [Alison]
I can say, guys, obviously, Allison helped me a lot when I was moving.
00:25:05 [Alison]
I had the SEO portion down, but it was all of the rest of the stuff, including, like, just the personal things, which I’ve talked about too of, like, setting aside time boxes, getting your house set up, getting all of that in order because I was, like, hyper laser focused on just get the business.
00:25:19 [Alison]
I gotta get more leads coming in and stuff.
00:25:21 [Alison]
It will actually help your overall mental health if you do some of these other things that she’ll help you with too.

00:25:26 [Alison]
But yeah.
00:25:26 [Alison]
So thanks for hanging out with us today, guys, and talking about coaching.
00:25:29 [Alison]
If you have any questions and stuff, obviously, you can hit us up on on Instagram and everything.
00:25:34 [Alison]
We love it if you left us a review.
00:25:35 [Alison]
We’d love to work with you guys too.

00:25:37 [Alison]
So if you need help with moving a business, you need help with SEO, go check out the links in the show notes.
00:25:42 [Alison]
And, yeah, I think that wraps it up.

00:25:44 [Melissa]
See you later.
00:25:45 [Melissa]
Bye bye.

00:25:50 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:25:51 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:25:54 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:25:55 [Melissa]
Stars would be awesome.
00:25:56 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:26:01 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:26:04 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog or Melissa in her Facebook group, Raise Your Ranking.
00:26:11 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.