As a coach, you pour your heart and soul into guiding clients, transforming lives one conversation at a time. But what happens when you’re ready to scale beyond the personal touch and build a true coaching business? This question is at the heart of what we explore in this episode with an absolute legend in the coaching world: Amy Applebaum.
Amy is not just a coach; she’s a serial entrepreneur who’s built businesses to the multi-million dollar mark. After a successful 20-year run in coaching and even building a $5 million logistics company, she’s back to share her unparalleled insights on business coaching. I was genuinely honored to have her on the podcast to mark her official return – she truly is one of the O.G. business coaches.
Why Return to Coaching Now? The New Perspective of Scale
Amy’s journey back to coaching isn’t just about repeating past successes; it’s about leveraging a deeper understanding of business. As she explained, there’s a significant difference between a $1 million company and a $5 million company – it fundamentally shifts how you think about business. Her experience building a logistics company, seemingly random but actually the “back end of business,” provided her with invaluable knowledge that she’s now eager to share. This new perspective allows her to offer insights on scaling that many coaches simply don’t have.
Finding Your People: The Nuance of Niche
One of the most common pieces of advice coaches hear is to “niche down.” Amy resonated with this, emphasizing that clarity in your niche builds trust and confidence with potential clients. When clients feel you truly understand their unique pain points and have a proven plan, they’ll be confident taking your direction.
Interestingly, Amy, like our recent guest Heather Stewart, primarily brands her services for women, especially high-achieving, ambitious women looking to scale past a million dollars (or even those who are successful but burned out). However, she also works with men if there’s a strong connection. This highlighted a crucial point for me: while niching provides necessary clarity for marketing, genuine connection and the universality of business principles can often transcend gender or other narrow categorizations. Business, at its core, is formulaic; while women face unique challenges, the underlying belief systems and actions needed for success are often universal.
From Coach to Business Owner: The Power of Team
The biggest shift when transitioning from being a solopreneer coach to building a full-fledged coaching business? It’s all about team. As Amy shared, you move from being the sole product, service provider, marketer, and salesperson to leading a team. This demands a different skill set: how to hire, how to think strategically about your business as a separate entity, and how to create diverse product offerings for scale.
It means stepping out of the day-to-day “employee” mindset and working on your business, not just in it. While you start by working hard to get clients, as you grow and incorporate team members or launch group programs, you free up your time to focus on strategic growth. This requires a clear plan and understanding the kind of life you want to live and how your business model will support that vision.
Standing on Solid Ground: The Foundation of Coaching Success
Amy was refreshingly candid about a crucial issue in the coaching industry: “Most coaches aren’t qualified to be coaches.” Her point wasn’t to disparage anyone, but to underscore the importance of having proof of concept for your coaching program. You need to have tested your methods and demonstrated results. It’s not enough to take a weekend workshop and declare yourself an expert, especially if you haven’t achieved significant success in the area you’re coaching others on. Authenticity and tangible experience are paramount.
This “standing on solid ground” provides the clarity and credibility necessary to genuinely help clients and stand out in a crowded market. Being clear on the specific outcomes you help clients achieve, rather than offering vague “business coaching,” also helps you attract the right clients.
The 90% Mindset: Beliefs and Actions in Alignment
Perhaps the most profound insight from our conversation was Amy’s revelation that 90% of her business coaching is personal development. Mindset, she firmly stated, is everything. Our beliefs, shaped by our upbringing and experiences, determine how we perceive the world and, crucially, how we project ourselves into it. If you’re experiencing repetitive negative patterns in your life or business, it’s often a sign that your thinking needs to shift.
To break through perceived ceilings in your business, you need to uncover and reprogram limiting beliefs. This isn’t just about positive thinking; it’s about choosing new beliefs, practicing them, and aligning them with the actions you take. This constant process of self-reflection and recalibration is vital for sustained growth, whether in business or life. My own journey with collaboration, moving from a desire for anonymity to embracing partnership, perfectly illustrates this mindset shift.
Beyond Profit: Building a Business with Quality and Impact
Amy and I both agreed that true success extends far beyond just financial achievement. While money is necessary for a business to function, the ultimate goal for many, especially those building new ventures, is impact and quality of life. Building a business holistically means considering all aspects of your life – health, relationships, spirituality – and integrating them into your business model. When you approach business with the “glasses” of impact and quality, something truly different shows up. It’s about consciously choosing to build a business that serves not just shareholders, but its people and the wider world.
My Reflection
Listening to Amy, I was reminded once again that genuine growth—both personal and professional—comes from a willingness to challenge our own thinking and adapt. As coaches, creators, and entrepreneurs, we are constantly evolving. It’s easy to get comfortable, but real impact often demands that we step outside our current “box” and embrace new perspectives.
If you’re a coach ready to scale your impact, or an entrepreneur looking to build a business that aligns with your deepest values, I highly recommend exploring Amy’s work. She’s offering two incredible gifts for our audience: her “10 Commandments of Success” and a “Successful Thinking” meditation audiobook. These resources are designed to help you make those crucial mindset shifts and gain clarity on your goals. You can find more information and connect with Amy at her website: amyapplebaum.com.
Let’s continue to build businesses that not only thrive financially but also enrich our lives and the lives of those we serve.
Connect with Amy Applebaum:
- Amy’s website: https://amyapplebaum.com
- 10 Commandments of Success (FREE): https://amyapplebaum.com/free-gifts
- MOVE Meditation: https://mymovemeditation.com