The brainy guide to group coaching with Mariana Ruiz
Today on Just the Tips, Dean and I try to mend fences after the earth-shattering news that Dean has not seen Star Wars. But we get off to a rocky start when it’s revealed that our guest, Mariana Ruiz, also hasn’t seen the most important movies of our time! Luckily, Mariana (if not Dean) is still a true asset to the show, as she is an enormously successful business coach who actually coaches other coaches on how to scale her business. If helping entrepreneurs is your passion, this is a can’t-miss episode of Just the Tips.
Connecting neurology to business
Mariana came to marketing and to business coaching from a completely different path. She became fascinated with neurology at a very young age, and started reading about it. And then she went to nursing school and worked in an ICU, helping stroke victims recover. She then moved on to hospital administration and became fascinated with how not just the brain works, but how a business works. So she started a side hustle helping business owners in the healthcare industry and eventually made it her full-time gig.
What mindset breakthroughs do you need to have as an entrepreneur?
Because Mariana knows so much about the brain and psychology, I had to ask her what the major mental or mindset breakthroughs entrepreneurs need to have in order to be successful. And right off the bat, she said: You need to be okay selling. You need to know that you’re always going to be selling something, whether it’s goods or services, and you need to be comfortable having that conversation about money with potential clients or business partners. And, she says, a lot of people have trouble talking about money because they think about the money coming to them, rather than the value they’re providing to the customer. One of the really interesting things Mariana said about the money mental barrier is that entrepreneurs often want to undercharge, because they think more people may buy what they’re selling. But the truth is that when you undercharge, the customer actually suffers, because then they won’t value what you’re offering.
How to scale a coaching business
The biggest problem people have when they try to start a coaching business is that they don’t do the research. That could be pricing or competition research, but the big one is whether you’re solving a problem for people. When you’re selling to one person, you can customize your coaching services. But as Mariana says, when you’re pitching to a group, you have to be very dialed-into the problem you’re solving in order to scale it. You need to be very specific. You can’t say, “You’re going to love yourself.” Instead, you should say, “You’re going to learn how to survive the first three months as a parent,” etc.
How to run a group coaching program
Mariana is a total pro when it comes to running group coaching sessions. Her programs vary in number of participants and length of program, but the one thing she says you need to do is lay out the infrastructure. Figure out how you’re formatting your program (pre-recorded sessions, live sessions, etc.), and what solution you’re offering. If you do that, a lot of the other concerns fall into place. As she says, often when she does live sessions, by the time she gets to the fourth person to check in with them, she’s already answered their question, because she has clearly communicated what they’re all there to do. This is expert advice from one of the best.
Outline of This Episode
- [4:32] Is Mariana the biggest geek?
- [7:04] How Dallin got into video and storytelling
- [9:27] What are the mental breakthroughs you need to have?
- [12:00] Why undercharging hurts customers
- [15:10] How Mariana built her coaching business
- [20:28] Running a group program
- [23:34] Setting proper boundaries
- [27:06] Can the main entrepreneur remove him or herself from the deliverables
- [28:50] Who would use this sort of coaching program?
Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
