EP 294 - Commit or Quit: How to Stay Consistent as a Coach (Even When You Want to Give Up)
If you’re wondering how to stay consistent as a coach even when things feel tough, this episode is for you. Has your coaching business NOT grown as fast as you hoped it would? Maybe you've been been starting and stopping your marketing, second-guessing your decisions, or wondering if you’re cut out to grow a successful coaching business. In this episode, you'll learn how to know when it's time to commit or quit your coaching business.
You’ll learn why most coaches quiet quit long before they ever officially quit, how inconsistency slows your momentum, and what commitment REALLY looks like when you’re growing a coaching business - especially if you’re a woman over 50.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- The hidden ways coaches “quit” without realizing it
- How to stay consistent as a coach even when motivation disappears
- Why confidence is CREATED through action, not the other way around
- The mindset shift from coach → CEO
- Why women 50+ have an advantage in coaching
- How to increase your capacity to market, serve, and grow
- How to know whether it’s time to commit fully or lovingly let go
If you're making excuses, spinning in indecision, and not putting yourself out there as a coach, then this video is for you!
Get Access to the Private Podcast Series here: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/private
Ready to build your coaching business in 2025? Register for our upcoming LIVE workshop here: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/workshop
Free Resources for coaches:
- Free Masterclass to Grow Your Coaching Business: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/masterclass
- Canva Workshop: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/register
Tools I recommend for coaches:
- Flodesk (email marketing): https://flodesk.com/c/DEBBIESHADID
- Descript (video editor): https://get.descript.com/cj4n2vzke4vu
Connect with Debbie:
Website: https://www.debbieshadid.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbieshadid/
🎙️ Listen to the podcast: Life Coach Business Building School: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/life-coach-business-building-school-with-debbie-shadid/id1502118085
Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly episodes on coaching business strategy for women over 50, tech tools for coaches, and simple business growth strategies that really work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz6RS8kQGMLJqJrK9uKdjtg
#DebbieShadid #LifeCoachBusinessBuildingSchool #CoachesOver50 #WomenCoachesOver50
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and forward this to a coach who is building and growing their coaching business. CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A REVIEW
Don’t forget to connect with me on social media: Instagram | Facebook
Transcript
If you're on the fence about your coaching business, today's the day that's gonna change. If one day you're excited about your business, you're inspired, you're doing all the work, and you're thinking the next day, I don't know, I don't like business. This episode's for you. Here's the truth. Most coaches don't even make that one big decision of like, I'm gonna quit. They actually just quit the whole time. Yeah. Every decision that you don't make that hesitation, the day that you don't post that inconsistency, every bit of that is you actually quitting on what it is you said you were gonna do. I'm Debbie Shaddid. I've helped over 10,000 coaches not only build, but grow profitable boutique style coaching businesses, and I'm gonna talk to you today about what it really takes to actually commit, or, here's the mind blowing thing. I'm gonna invite you to quit. No more half in, half out energy. No more confusion, no more waiting to feel confident. It's time to decide. I also wanna talk to you. If you are a woman over 50, a lot of you feel like, it's too late. I'm too far behind. I don't know how to do this. Here's the deal. You have more depth, more perception, more compassion, more perspective, more lived experience. And in most cases, a high level of commitment that makes you perfect to grow a coaching business, to commit to doing it. So let's talk about what commitment actually means, and then we're gonna talk about what it means to intentionally quit. Commitment is not about getting motivated. It's not, motivation doesn't just come and stay. Neither does inspiration. It's all about deciding to do what you're gonna commit to no matter what. You guys know how it is. It's the commitment to not eat dessert, whether you're on vacation or whether it's your birthday or whatever the case is. If that's the commitment you made to yourself, you keep it. This is how we build a business we commit, and this is what the most successful coaches are doing. They're committed, which means they are consistent. commitment means that you're not waiting for that emotional surge to come where you're like, oh, I've gotta do it. Okay. It just doesn't come Consistently. Commitment means that you decide that you're gonna treat your business like you have a business, not a hobby. That's a hard truth too, isn't it? Right? Some of you guys have a hobby and you have to decide that's the reality of your situation when you have a business. You treat it like one. This is such a great time of year to decide to do that. It's almost 2026. We are literally weeks away from that. What are you going to do? We always get inspired at the first of the year to make a commitment. I want you to make a commitment that will stick, not just a commitment to go all in. It's a commitment to stay all in, not just temporary, all in to see how things work out. So you want to treat your business like it's a business by having regular hours, by making a plan and following it by also not overworking. If you know anything about my boutique style business concept, it means that you build a business that fits the desired lifestyle you actually want. This is why you became a coach and went to work for yourself. Do you have those boundaries in place to actually create a business that you can honor? Right? The CEO honors the commitment that's made where you follow through on what you've said you are going to do versus waiting for the right time. The CEO is tracking what they're doing. They're evolving, and they're not starting over. Commitment requires you to believe in yourself, do you? You gotta take a chance and bet on yourself. You've gotta do the self-talk. It requires you to trust yourself. That's what commitment does when you trust yourself and you do that mindset work to build the belief that I am becoming the woman who does this. I am on my way to having a successful coaching business. I trust myself to keep my word. I trust that I will figure out how to do this thing. I trust that I can learn every skill, including the technology, no matter how old you are. There's also this identity shift that has to happen. I talk about you becoming the CEO of your coaching company. It's time to commit to not just be a coach, but to be the CEO of your company. You are an entrepreneur. You hear me? Commitment is about making this emotional investment. It's about you showing up on camera as you're filming yourself, even when you're like, I don't like the way I look, you do it anyway. It's about allowing yourself to be seen. It's about making mistakes and doing it anyway, It's about putting yourself out there and being scrutinized for the way that you. Didn't do this or didn't do that. I always say the people who are not doing it, they're the first ones to say, Hey, you should do this instead and I want you to borrow this for me. I'm like, listen, you go try it until you try it. Don't be pointing a finger at me. So I always chuckle myself and I think, oh, if they only knew what it really took to do it right, I understand what it takes. Commitment is an emotional investment. That means you show up when you don't want to. That means you allow yourself to be visible even when you are like, I don't like the way I look today. My hair is bad. When I lose weight, I will. None of that matters. Commitment means you're doing it anyway. It means that you allow yourself to be seen even when you're not perfect. It means that you allow yourself to make mistakes and put it out there anyway, and more than anything. This means that you're opening yourself up to people criticizing you. You know your best friends and close friends and family, whoever that is for you, they're gonna be really ready to say, Hey, you should do it this way. And you know what? Instead of getting aggravated, I always chuckled myself. Please take this advice that I'm sharing with you. I always think this is pretty funny. Like, I'd like to go see them do it. I know what it takes to put yourself out there. And until you've done it, people don't get it. So look, just give 'em a little grace, just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks. And then have a little chuckle like, I'd like to see you do this. That's what you open yourself up to is that feedback that you didn't ask for. So don't wait to be confident. You actually will build your confidence the more you do it. You can do all the learning in the world, but none of it matters until you apply it. That's when the real lessons take place. That's when you really learn how to do things. Commitment means that when you start a strategy, you stay working on it. It's not about trying some social media thing for a week or two or three and saying, well, that didn't work. No. Commitment means that you say, I'm going on social media every single day. I did this for a year. I did a walk and talk series where I just gave myself permission to be outside while I was already walking. I talked to my phone, did a video. I didn't have to look great, and I just put 'em out there. I'm not saying that you need to do that, but that's what commitment is. We're not waiting to see if the strategy worked. We're giving it time to allow it to work. Commitment is what most coaches don't have. They quit before they actually create momentum. How many people start emailing or start telling people about their coaching business and they're getting people interested but they quit because they're like, nobody's liking my stuff. And you know what? Somebody was secretly watching you and you quit before they had a chance to really know you. So strategy means you are in it until it works. It doesn't mean that you're like, okay, well I'm gonna give this a shot and this is like the last chance. If it doesn't work, I'm done. That is not the way you build a business. Commitment means that you say no on purpose when you have the next best idea. You're like, Nope. No, no, no. Even to yourself. When my team comes to me and they're like, we need to do this and this, I'm like, Nope, we have this one thing we're working on. When that is done, we will decide what we're doing next. This is a skill that I have had to learn, and it's a skill you have to learn. You say, no, no, I'm not gonna do it that way. No, I'm not gonna change my niche. No, I'm not gonna move to another piece of software. Big mistake, you guys. You don't need to move to a new software. You need to commit and market your business. Buying another course, getting another certification, Uhuh. It's not at you guys. Implement what you already have. You gotta focus to create some momentum. And the momentum, as I already said, will help you get confident. when you're confident and you're consistently putting yourself out there, you will attract clients. There's this other interesting piece about commitment. You don't know, and that's that you need to increase your capacity. When you are building your business, you're thinking like, oh, I could have 20 clients. It sounds so simple. I could have 20 clients. That's 20 hours. I'm gonna make this much money. You know, the coach math, how we do that. But here's the deal, once you start gaining clients. You're like, wait a minute. Okay. That's a lot of people, and I don't know if I want to work with 20 clients, but you have to grow your capacity. There's this balancing act that happens where you have to learn how to work with clients while you're also managing your business. None of these things are hard long-term, especially when you're committed. It's like when you say, I'm committed to spending the next 90 days to figuring out how to work with these five clients, how to have more consultation calls, and how to bring people in. That's how you increase your capacity, by the way capacity to earn, capacity to serve, capacity to market consistently. All of those things require commitment and consistency. This is how you become an entrepreneur that really has a thriving business. Commitment requires you setting boundaries. I know you're like, what? I thought I just had a commit. No commitment means that you tell people I work working hours, and you keep your word to yourself. It means that even when you feel crappy, like you're fighting a cold or you've got a little flu bug, you go to work anyway. There's no calling in sick. You work for yourself. This is the good news. I know you're like, Ooh, this all sounds so hard. Maybe I wanna quit. No. The good news is you work for yourself and you know what that means? You can make as much money, you get to keep all of it, and you actually get to make your hours. So what I'm saying is you set your hours and you show up to 'em. You put some protection around your business so that everybody is not pulling on you. So your kids and grandkids, in my case, are not screaming up the stairs saying, gee, gee, come here. I have to let even my grandkids know, look, during these hours when I'm upstairs, I'm working. You can't call me. So you know that is commitment and that's what you have to do. And then here's the deal. You also commit to being out of your office. That's the other commitment you have to make to yourself. When you set those boundaries over what you're going to do to work, you also commit to being out of your office. You do. There are periods of time when you are hustling and I mean it, and you're building your business. There's periods of time when I'm building something new that requires more time, but otherwise. You don't have to work 40 hours a week. Decide how many hours you want to work. Maybe it's 10, maybe it's 20. And then set the boundaries up, and then you make this intentional decision. You know what? I'm gonna spend a few more hours for the next four weeks working on this project. Then you give yourself the freedom to be out of the office without guilt. And for goodness sakes, you see this thing in my hand? Put that thing down. Stop getting on social media. Protect your own peace. Give yourself a break from your business. Commitment and boundaries keep you from burning out. When you burn out, you are much more likely to quit on the thing that you've committed to. Commitment is like this steady feeling. It's like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm in it for the long run. It's not this energy of like where you're on it all the time, you're just in it, You're not looking for hype or energy or you're just in it. I'm committed to serve my clients no matter what. There's never for me a discussion of like, am I doing it? Am I not? Nope. I do it. I always tell our clients when they're starting their business and they do workshops, I'm like, look, when you have a workshop, if it's 10 o'clock on Wednesday, 10 people sign up. Nobody shows up. You know what you do? You committed to do the workshop at 10 o'clock. You do it for nobody. That is commitment. That's actually how you build that self-trust and how you build your business. So don't look for, that rush of energy and inspiration. Instead, work on that steady feeling, that consistent feeling where you can feel confident. This is what I talk about when I say build your boutique style coaching business. Finally, here's what I wanna say. If you've gotten to the end of this and you're like, I don't know, I don't know if I wanna do this, I wanna tell you, Commitment doesn't mean that you have to do this forever. I know. I love to say you're building a business for a lifetime. I'm 61 and I can't even imagine quitting. I really can't. But that's me. So for you, it might be differently. You might say like, I'm gonna work on my business for the next five years. But the main takeaway I want for you is commit to do this for the next 12, 18 months. Give your business the time that it needs to grow. Give yourself the time that you need to develop into somebody who can hold onto marketing, manage clients, and have a life, All of those things, the people that you look to that inspired you to become a coach, they've done that. They stayed in it long enough to get to that point, so now it's time to make your decision. In just a few weeks. I want you to commit today and start paving the way for an unbelievable 2026. The coaching world is growing. The opportunity that awaits coaches is massive. You only need a small part of that, but you have to commit to do what it takes to do it, or here's the deal. I want you to set yourself free. I actually have people that have spent a sizable amount of time and money with me who have said at the end, you know what? I don't actually like business. I thought I wanted to do it. It looked fun. What I love is self-development. I love helping my friends. I like coaching. It was fun to learn how to be a coach, but I don't wanna be in business. I don't wanna send an email once a week. I don't like having consultation calls. And I wanna tell you there's freedom in making that decision because how would you know if you liked it or didn't like it if you didn't do it? So let go of the guilt of investing in coach certification, investing in hiring a business coach, or whatever else you've done. I know we've all spent a lot of money on this, but every business does this. It's not just coaches. There's no business anywhere that doesn't make a sizable investment to get going. And other businesses decide, you know what? I don't wanna do that either. So you have the freedom to say, you know what? I learned a good lesson. What I learned is I don't wanna be a coach in business. Then let yourself go decide. You know, I'm gonna love coaching, I'm gonna cheer my friends on, but it's not for me. you deserve better than that. You probably right now, are beating yourself up for not getting there. You're beating yourself up and maybe even hiring another coach that you're hoping is gonna get you there. Don't do that. Just decide, you know what? I'm done. Or decide to commit. I cannot wait to see what's gonna happen for you. I wanna invite you to make sure you subscribe and also comment the word private, or there's a link in the show notes, or right below this video I have a four part private podcast series that I'm gonna share with you where I actually walk through exactly what it takes. To grow a coaching business, all the steps. Niche, offer, price, marketing, plus I even talk about the technology that you need to have a coaching business even if you are terrible at tech. Yeah, I'm talking to you women over 50. Okay. So make sure you comment the word private. I hope this inspires you to commit, but I also understand that I can give you some loving grace Say, I understand if you are ready to quit, all the love either decision you make, that's what I'm giving to you. So that's it for today. What's it gonna be? Commit or quit? Either way you do it. I'm sending you so much love. Both of those are big decisions. Both of those are the right decision. Based on what it is that you want in your business, okay? Make sure you subscribe, follow, like you guys. I cannot wait to share all I've got already laid out for you in the coming weeks. Again, come at the word private. Make sure you follow me, and I will see y'all very soon. Bye-bye.
