Elon Says Stop Focusing On Retention

Elon Musk has a rule for engineering at SpaceX.

Five steps in a strict order.

First you must question the requirement for something, then delete anything unnecessary - then simplify what’s left, then make that go quicker.

THEN you automate it.

The most common mistake he says, is reversing that order - which is what we see with coaches all of the time.

Building onboarding sequences nobody sees, designing check-in templates for clients they haven’t signed yet, automating welcome emails that aren’t welcoming anyone as no one is coming in.

Weeks spent perfecting the backend of a business that has no frontend.

The actual step one? Does anyone know you exist. Whether people who’d pay can find you, hear you, and understand what you do differently.

I’m all for retention, all for good coaching practice - but this nonsense of ‘Retention over everything’ has to stop, because it creates dichotomous thinking that coaches tell clients to avoid (it’s not marketing OR retention, it’s both)

And it only serves those who are selling products based on coaching retention OR coaches where retention is the bottleneck.

I can’t believe I have to type this - but if retention isn’t the bottleneck, stop wasting money on retention?

It sells because coaches love working on the things they love working on - whereas marketing and sales is uncomfortable, difficult work - usually a sign you should focus on it more.

Before you start automating all your backend and building shiny bits and pieces for clients that don’t exist yet?

Consider whether there’s a requirement for that in the first place