Should Your Clients Really Start Small

I’m a recovering habits addict

I bought into the whole ‘Habits are the most important thing anyone could possibly ever focus on’ hype, on the back of the Clear, Fogg and Duhigg books

I even once ran a group programme that only focused on habit building.

Now I’m older, and (maybe) wiser - I’m not as convinced.

I think habits are important - if my thing is all about overwhelm in modern life, then something that saves the brain having to think as much to do something is a good thing.

But I think the pursuit of habits over everything else gets a bit silly.

When I think about habits as a business owner in particular, this is when I think it comes a little bit unstuck.

In a coaching business, you’re deftly trying to balance coaching and business (obviously!)

So you’re trying to balance things you think are key as a coach - with things that you think are great for your business.

In this scenario - helping with behaviour change, without doing so in such a small, incremental way - that you lose people who want refunds due to buyers remorse.

Which is why I have an issue with the sort of ‘My client wants to lose weight, but we’re going to start them on just adding an extra cup of water per day’

Aside from the fact I don’t think that would meaningfully change much

You’re blind to the fact that someone is sitting there thinking

‘How I do explain to my wife that I’ve just paid someone £200 per month for 3 months, and they’ve told me to drink an extra glass of water.

She’s been telling me I need to drink more, free - for 17 years…’

It’s absolutely crucial that we ignore the ‘business vs coaching argument’

And instead think about the interaction between them.

People spend the kind of money they spend on coaching

It’s inevitable they have some energy, most of the time - they’ve got drive, some acute motivation - some desire to do some shit.

It’s deflating to hear ‘We’re going to focus on a tiny change for now’.

It’s not great for them as the client

But it’s terrible for them as a buyer