Why I believe Membership & Mentorship is the best coaching business model in 2024

You’re reading Create Leverage, a weekly newsletter sharing tips and tools to help coaches and experts turn their expertise into leverage so they can work less, make more, impact lives, and enjoy life.

Truth is, there’s no “one way” to build and run a coaching business.

There are many ways to do it:

• High-ticket group coaching programs

• Low-ticket courses or digital products

• Memberships and communities

• Masterminds and events

And not to mention stacking different models.

Here’s the thing, every model and method can work. I’ve seen all of them work for different entrepreneurs and different industries.

There is no “best” way to build and grow a coaching business (despite what my headline says).

There is only the best way that will work best for you.

For the life you want, the business that will allow it, and the way you want to best serve your audience.

That said, there is a particular model that I’m noticing is on the rise this year, and for good reasons.

It’s the Membership & Mentorship model.

This model worked so well for 2 of my coaching clients that I started to shift both my businesses to this model.

I want to share with you what this looks like and why it could be a great model for you.

Let’s dive in!

Today At A Glance:

• How To Choose A Coaching Business Model

• The Membership & Mentorship Model

How To Choose A Coaching Business Model

When it comes to choosing a business model to start with or pivot to, you want to ask yourself 3 questions:

• What business and lifestyle do I want & how do I want to spend my time?

• What is my personal energetic capacity & desire to serve my clients & community?

• How do I want to feel about the money I’m making from my business?

I’ve realized from working with many different clients with different models that it’s not about which is the best, most profitable, or most scalable model.

It’s about being honest with which model will you enjoy growing to its full potential while creating the balance you want in your life.

Your business is a vehicle for the expression of your love and service to the world, to share the medicine that’s on your heart, to answer the calling of your soul mission.

It’s also a vehicle for creating LEVERAGE for the life you want.

• Financial leverage

• Time leverage

• Fulfillment leverage

All 3 are essential here.

If your business creates financial leverage but sucks the time and fulfillment out of you… then it’s not fully serving its purpose.

So you want to be intentional with which model you pick and give yourself full permission to shift and change it if it no longer serves you and the life you want.

Your happiness and fulfillment while running and growing your business matter the most.

This comes with releasing your attachment to making decisions based on what other people want for you vs what you want for yourself.

The secret ingredient here is alignment.

The Membership & Mentorship Model

Upon reflecting on those questions myself, the model I found that works best for me is the Membership & Mentorship Model.

One Offer, Two Tiers:

• Membership Tier: community & education (low to mid ticket)

• Mentorship Tier: hybrid coaching & DWY services (high ticket)

Why I believe this model is best for me (and possibly for you):

• Simplicity: one offer, one core messaging, one simple funnel, sell by chat

• Profitability: can run with a lean 2-3 person team, low expenses, higher margins

• Predictability: stacks recurring revenue, creates clearer projections

• Scalability: membership tier has an uncapped capacity and builds interest and trust for mentorship tier. Mentorship is capped at my chosen energetic capacity, the rest gets waitlisted which creates demand and urgency to join when seats open up

• Freedom: can operate this business on 3-4 hours a day, leaving plenty of time to enjoy my life

Here’s what this Membership & Mentorship Model looks like for me:

I’m teaching how I built out this model for my clients in Dharma Labs AND I’m building it in public, sharing my exact process for growing it here.

Which btw, we have a no-brainer launch price going on now for Dharma Labs if you want to snag that deal before we increase our price.

Check it out here.

Here’s how I’m growing this model while creating the life I want in 2024:

1. Content Ecosystem

My current content ecosystem is my newsletter. I’m expanding to YouTube.

One long-form educational video per week. Same topic as newsletter so it’s a “create once and distribute across”. Gets me off the content creation hamster wheel.

Builds authority and trust with my audience.

Promotes my Authority Assets as the CTA, “DM me to get XYZ…”

2. Authority Asset

A simple Notion page that hosts an in-depth training. Like this.

Demonstrates expertise and builds more authority and trust.

Links to my Content Ecosystem for those not convinced.

CTA is DM me to join for those that are ready.

3. DM Funnel to qualify and sell by chat

I have an Automated DM sequence that qualifies the leads for the right fit.

I ask 4-5 qualifying questions, from easiest to answer to harder to answer.

This earns the right to be replied to ← super important!

For those that are the right fit, I’ll manually take over the convo and sell my Membership tier in the chat. Yup, no sales calls.

The Content Ecosystem & Authority Assets should have done the selling already.

Anyone who’s not a fit or are a fit but not enrolled, I get to do more market research to validate and refine my messaging.

So whether they buy or not, it’s a win for me.

4. Membership Tier nurtures the community

When they join, they get access to courses and educational content.

They get access to an engaged community.

They get access to weekly Q&A and group coaching calls with me.

They can DIY their way to building their coaching business.

Or if they want the private mentorship with me, they can DM me for deets on the Mentorship tier.

5. Mentorship Tier scaled by energetic capacity

I keep this capped at my energetic capacity so that I continue to prioritize my lifestyle balance and fulfillment.

When I’m at my limit, I waitlist those interested.

When I’m available for more, I open up doors and it’s first come first serve to those on the waitlist.

This creates true urgency to join and none of that bro-marketing false scarcity. We don’t do that BS here.

Also, the way I structure the mentorship creates freedom for me while allowing me to get my clients results.

Clients are not paying for time with me, they’re paying for results.

Many people struggle with the “should I offer 1:1 or not”.

I’ve learned that it’s not about that, it’s about HOW you do it, and doing it in a way you’re protecting your energy while still getting to serve your clients in the best way.

I’ll wrap it here for now.

That’s why I believe the Membership & Mentorship Model is the best (for me) and that’s how I’m doing it.

If you believe this model will work for you too, then consider joining Dharma Labs.

I share my exact step-by-step process, templates, and AI prompts to help you implement faster inside. Plus you’ll get support from me on your entrepreneurial journey.

Either way, here for you and cheering you on!

Your Pal,

Colin