Let’s start simple
A product is typically described as a tangible item that is marketed to be sold and fulfill the needs and wants of the market. Coaching is a service; it is intangible and may face the challenges of scalability. If you are in the manufacturing business, you can always set up more factories and machines to produce more units. But, if you are coaching, you can only increase the price and hours put into coaching to a limit.
It is in the sheer nature of a product to be produced in mass and be sold to a larger audience. When a product is sold, the customer has the ownership control over the purchased goods. Maybe customers like to invest more in things that they can touch and feel, this could be a reason why creating coaching products would be lucrative to all the amazing coaches out there.
‘But how?’ You may ask. Let’s explore that together.
Tangible Coaching
As a part of coaching, we constantly challenge the unsupportive beliefs of clients. It would only be fair if we used the same approach towards our own coaching practice. I am here to challenge the belief; ‘Coaching isn’t a tangible product’. But before we do that, let’s understand the mutual ground where the purpose of a tangible product meets the purpose of coaching.
Coaching is a solution-based service where the coach partners with clients to support them in achieving their personal and professional goals. A tangible product is a physical item that the customer can use at any time for the purpose of buying the respective product. So, it might be fair to say that tangible coaching consists of physical products that customers/clients can use at any time to progress towards their personal and professional goals.
So far, I have created two coaching products, you may use them as an inspiration to create coaching products for yourself and/or for your clients.
- The Deck of Life: This is a blank deck of cards on which I have written the rules/mottos/principles of my life or the life I want to live. I use my deck of life to remind me of the ‘who’ I really am and the ‘why’ behind my actions. It allows me to re-mind myself and achieve a sense of synchronicity.
- Perspective Coin: This is a coin that says ‘Yes’ on one side and ‘No’ on the other. The ‘Yes’ refers to ‘YES, I CAN!’ and ‘No’ refers to ‘NO, I CAN’T!’. I flip my perspective coin to the ‘No’ side when I feel ‘No, I can’t!’ do something. This helps me channelize my unsupportive thoughts and normalize how I am feeling at the time. Here comes the interesting part! As I flip it to the ‘Yes’ side, I am able to challenge my beliefs and visualize the same task with a ‘Yes, I can’ perspective. It is astonishing to witness how our thoughts (intangible) can be conditioned to a coin (tangible), resulting in changing one’s perspective with just a flip.
3 Ways to Create Your Own Coaching Products
- Look for Inspiration – Isaac Newton could have simply cursed nature for dropping an apple on his head, but it was up to him to use that experience to his curiosity and ignite the inspiration to curate his laws of gravity. There are opportunities all around us, but our energy flows only where our focus goes. Look around you, do it! How can you use your inspiration to make even the slightest progress towards creating a coaching product? I am sure you will come up with something.
- Use a coaching filter on existing products – Now that you are looking for inspiration, this might be easier to follow. Look at a product (any), now ask yourself; what can I add/do differently to make this into a coaching product? I used this method to create the “Perspective Coin” which was formerly marketed as a ‘Decision Coin’. I created a coaching product by simply adding connotations of ‘YES, I CAN!’ to the ‘Yes’ side of the coin and ‘NO, I CAN’T’ to the ‘No’ side of the coin.
I have also been using ‘sticky notes’ to write my daily intentions and practicing the law of attraction. For example: on a day of an important meeting, I would write ‘The meeting went very well, I am very happy with it. It was such a nice day <3’ at the beginning of my day to channelize my intentions. This could too be converted into a coaching product. - Bring coaching tools to life – As coaches, we know how imperative our coaching skills, tools, and techniques are, so why limit them to the coaching sessions? We can use our coaching skills to create coaching products. Let me explain that with an example: One of my clients wants to work on eating healthier.
As a coach, I often challenge my client’s unsupportive thoughts by reframing them. So, if my client says ‘I could not stay away from chocolates for even 2 days, I am so useless’, I will probably respond by saying ‘I sense that you are upset because you bought into your cravings for chocolates, which makes sense. But you also discovered something in you that made you stay away from them for 2 whole days, what do you think about that?’
This technique usually shifts the focus of the client to the gains from the pains. Now, imagine a small book that contains similar unsupportive thoughts on one side and a reframed sentence on the other. For example, the top half of a page says, ‘I failed at _____’, and the bottom half says, ‘I learned about myself that ______’. Similarly, the top half of another page says, ‘_____made me really upset today’, and the bottom half says, ‘Today’s experience taught me to _____’. And just like that, you have successfully derived a coaching product from your coaching tools, skills, and techniques
In conclusion, you already have everything you need to create your coaching products. I am not saying they will all be the product of the year, but failing at something is also a pathway to success. Because as you fail, you learn what not to do.
So make the most of this experience, and have fun!
Tushaar Chaudhary
I am a well-being and productivity coach with a vision to make the world more content, one person at a time. I consider myself to be in the miracle business as I witness my clients find their ‘AHA!’ moments, and create the magic they need to progress towards their personal and professional goals.
Tushaar Chaudhary
Tushaar is an ICF Accredited Life Coach specializing in well-being and productivity with the mission to make the world more content, one step at a time.
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This Post Has One Comment
Hi Tushaar, Very interesting examples you have cited in your article. Enjoyed reading. I can also say that I got some useful tips for developing my coaching content. I’m starting out on my coaching journey. Thanks.