Can Your Coaching Business Survive A Ruthlessly Changing Market?

EP57 cover image

One thing coaches and experts need to know…

…is that the coaching industry, like any market, is volatile.

Case in point: COVID.

When COVID hit,  seminars went from being everywhere to zero. 

Our business also went from booming to NOTHING. 

We really thought we were screwed when clients started dropping off like flies getting sprayed by Ridsect. 

Trends can make or break your business. Nowadays it’s AI and automation.

So the question is, how can your coaching business ride a trend, instead of being decimated by it?

In this episode, Steven Proud from the Radical Global Marketing Podcast asks Terence Tam, our founder, about the challenges we face as a marketing agency that serves high-ticket coaches and experts.

You’ll learn:

  • How to spot opportunities in chaos (and future-proof your business)
  • The secret to staying relevant in a competitive (and skeptical) market
  • Why hyper-niches are great for scaling your business
  • Future trends in the coaching industry

Check out the full interview with Radical Global Marketing Podcast here:

https://www.brandigochina.com/terence-tam-founder-ceo-radical-marketing

Full Interview:

OR

Main Keypoints

  • 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
  • 00:34 Challenges in Marketing for Business Coaches
  • 02:15 Building Credibility in a Competitive Market
  • 04:02 Customizing Marketing Strategies for Clients
  • 05:39 Exploring New Niches and Future Plans
  • 06:05 The Future of Coaching and Marketing
  • 07:41 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Full Transcript

[Steven Proud] (0:00 – 0:40)

My name’s Steven. As ever, I’m joined by another fabulous marketer and business leader for conversation today. I’m delighted to have Terence Tam on the podcast with me.

Terence is the founder of Radical Marketing, a name that fits very well with this podcast, but is also an agency that partners with top-tier business coaches and expert speakers. Terence and his team help them to scale their business, working almost as a fractional CMO to create effective marketing strategies and funnels. Terence and his team partner with real experts for genuine life-impacting content.

And I think it’s a really unique sector that we’ve not had on the podcast before. So I’m really looking forward to getting into this one. What are some of the common challenges that are associated with marketing from your part of the world?

[Terence Tam] (0:40 – 2:14)

The challenges that are associated with marketing for my industry in my part of the world, I’ll say like, you know, just looking at what’s out there in the marketplace right now, it’s getting pretty competitive, right? Whereas, you know, when I first started with that client, this was like going 10 years ago, and we were probably, I wouldn’t say the first, but one of the very first, if not the first to actually advertise seminars online, right? But then today, like, you know, you just open like, say, YouTube or Facebook, and you just get, you know, new guys all the time coming out and say, oh, I’ve got this new webinar doing blah, blah, blah, right?

So I think the first thing is that it’s way more competitive, and that is a challenge for anyone who wants to enter this industry. It’s way more competitive. And I guess audiences are also way more skeptical than they were, like, say, 10 years ago, because like, they’ve probably been burned by, you know, buying some course that promised the world and delivered very little.

So yeah, those are the two things. And I think one of the other key things is that most people or coaches in my industry are like, they don’t have a clear point of difference, or they don’t put enough thought as to what their clear differentiating point is, or unique selling proposition. So, you know, if they are teaching investing in stocks, they just say, oh, I am a stock investor.

But so what makes you different to other people teaching stock investing? And I think really, people in this industry should put in a bit more time to think about that, because that’s super important.

[Steven Proud] (2:15 – 2:42)

There must be some sort of, I think you kind of alluded to them some issues about communicating the credibility as well, because you just, you know, using your stock investor example, you might be very good at it, but it doesn’t mean you’re good at teaching it, or passing on that kind of methodology also, or it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a good public speaker that can put together a structured program that the audience is going to be able to follow.

So that must be a challenge, I’d assume for you and your team to get that credibility across as well.

[Terence Tam] (2:42 – 3:33)

Especially for new people that want to enter the industry is super, super challenging. And I think that’s where, you know, it’s so important if say you’re new in the industry, like, I think that’s where price comes into play, right? If you’re say, charging $10,000, you’d really need a lot of credibility, right?

Whereas if you’re new in the marketplace, maybe you can charge like, you know, $501,000. And a few people will say, oh, yeah, that’s, you know, sounds decent enough. And I’ll give it a try.

And from there, you can start building your credibility, because you have case studies of students actually succeeding. And then you can slowly over time, increase your price. So that’s one way to do it.

And obviously, you know, if you have done it before yourself, don’t be afraid to show the results you have achieved, like say, for example, stocks, right? Yeah, because that speaks 1000 words.

[Steven Proud] (3:33 – 4:02)

It’s because it’s not geeky. We’ve got a whole series of podcasts all about aspects of marketing.

So right, right.

So with our audience, it’s not geeky. This is the type of stuff that we really enjoy chatting about.

And we’re now post COVID.

And the world is is opening up again, we’re seeing a lot more trade shows and seminars and things like that wrapping up where I based in in Shanghai, for sure. What sort of the next five years look like for Radical Marketing? And what are your what are the opportunities for growth?

[Terence Tam] (4:03 – 5:26)

I think one of the challenges we need to address in Radical Marketing is the fact that every one of our clients is requires a customised marketing strategy customised plan to some extent. So like, for example, even if I have three clients teaching people how to start an e-com business, for example, they each have their own personality, their personal brand, they have the methodology and everything. And while the formulas that we have somewhat work for all of them, it’s not like, hey, I can have one ad that works for all three clients. It doesn’t work that way in my industry. So as as one of the one, I think there was a famous guy that was saying, you know, listing all the various industries, the agency should go into which ones are hard, which ones are easy. And yeah, coaches are one of the hardest.

And yeah, say, for example, someone like physiotherapy, super easy because you have, you know, one ad that works. You could duplicate it for different physios in different regions. Right.

And it all works. Right. So, yeah, that that is the one challenge that we have, which is like, okay, how do we scale the agency without always having to require my brainpower and my input?

Because I’m the bottleneck right now. Yeah. So that is the big challenge for the agency.

[Steven Proud] (5:27 – 5:38)

Is that almost sort of building on a more programmatic approach or kind of an almost an off the peg solution that you can apply to multiple potential clients? Yeah, correct. Correct.

[Terence Tam] (5:38 – 5:57)

Interesting. Yeah. We’re kind of exploring different niches at the same time, but, you know, we’re not stopping our core business.

We see it as a separate division. So we might we’re looking at different, you know, smaller niches where, say, for example, we’re looking to dental right now to see whether that’s a viable option for us as well.

[Steven Proud] (5:58 – 6:05)

Interesting. So there’s different sectors that are opening up as potential avenues for growth to.

Yeah, correct.

Correct. Yeah. Fascinating.

[Terence Tam] (6:06 – 7:13)

I think if you come back to the, sorry, the coaching industry about what the future is like on that, I would say that first of all is like what we talked about is the branding thing, the personal branding thing. Second thing I’ll say is like, OK, events, hybrid events are probably going to be more and more popular. And the third thing is that the whole general webinar or topic is becoming like irrelevant.

So say, for example, let me give you an example. Like instead of talking about, oh, come and attend my three hour program on how to invest in stocks. Right.

It’s more like, right. Come to my three hour program that shows you how to invest in penny stocks, for example. That would attract more people than investing in stocks in general. Okay. Right. Or you would say like how to buy tech shares, for example, rather than say invest in stocks in general. So it’s becoming more segmented, I would say.

And that’s where the money is in the niches. Yeah.

[Steven Proud] (7:13 – 7:23)

So that’s almost changing the mindset with the potential with the coaches and the speakers as well in terms of breaking it down even further, what their insight and what their experience is relevant to.

[Terence Tam] (7:24 – 7:40)

Yeah. And that’s just because the space is getting more competitive. So, you know, you just have to become more niche in your focus.

And secondly, as Eugene Schwartz would say, introduce your mechanism and make that mechanism really stand out. So that’s that’s the other thing you can do.

[Steven Proud] (7:41 – 8:00)

Fascinating. It’s like I said, it’s a really interesting sector that’s gone through a challenging time sort of pre, during and post COVID. You’ve navigated lots of challenges.

So it’s really interesting to see a business like yours that’s that’s growing, that’s that’s got this really distinct specialization, which I think is really, really interesting.

This podcast is hosted by Terence Tam, author of Lead Surge: 8 Radically Effective Marketing Funnels for Coaches and Experts. He is also the Founder of Radical Marketing, a digital marketing agency that partners with high-ticket coaches to scale their businesses with Webinars – by using a proprietary blend of story ads and battled-tested sales funnels to achieve better returns on ad dollars.

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