"If you can implement what I teach in this book - and implement it consistently - you can build a coaching business, and with it, transform lives."

Are you a coach struggling to find clients who value your expertise and are willing to pay professional rates? Sarah Short’s A Coaching Business in a Book is your essential guide to overcoming these challenges and building a financially sustainable coaching practice. Sarah, the founder of The Coaching Revolution, shares her extensive experience helping thousands of coaches worldwide. This book goes beyond theory, providing actionable strategies, real-world examples, and frameworks tailored for coaches who want to master marketing and client acquisition - a vital skillset often overlooked in traditional coach training programs.

For those interested, you can read my full review of A Coaching Business in a Book.

This book is not only a valuable resource but also a practical workbook designed to help coaches implement marketing strategies that truly work. Whether you're an aspiring coach or a seasoned professional, I highly recommend A Coaching Business in a Book for its accessible and actionable guidance.

An exclusive interview with Sarah ShortQ: What inspired you to write A Coaching Business in a Book? Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked the idea?

Sarah Short: There was a point where I realised that I don’t have enough years left to live to help all coaches who want to build businesses, and the only way I could think of to help all the ones who are interested was to write it all down. Another reason I wanted to write it all down was that there are some coaches who will never work with me for one reason or another, and if that reason was money, I wanted a way for them to access my help at a tiny price. I even recorded my book, and it’s on Audible for those who prefer to listen than to read.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your background and how it led you to become an expert in the field of coaching and marketing?

Sarah Short: I have a performing arts degree and I’m an English and drama teacher, though I’ve never worked in schools. I ran my own drama school in the UK and Botswana, and subsequently ran my own English language school. In short (no pun intended!), I have been self-employed for all but five years of a 35+ year career. This experience has made me proficient in finding people who want to pay me for my services.

When I discovered coaching in 2009, like every coach on the planet, I was blown away. My life was transformed by coaching, and I wanted to give others the opportunity to experience the same thing. At first, I used coaching with the language students who came from all over the world to improve their English. Coaching kept them on track and motivated throughout their 12-month courses.

In 2013, I started my own coaching business. By 2017, I had discovered that most coaches fail to build thriving businesses because they don’t understand how to find people willing to pay a professional rate for their coaching. This led to the birth of The Coaching Revolution.

Q: What do you believe makes your book different from other books in this genre?

Sarah Short: It’s a practical guide, almost a workbook, to building a coaching business. It’s not simply about the “why” you might want to build a coaching business; it’s about the “how,” and that is what I think is missing from other books in this genre. It’s based on what we’ve been teaching for years, and we have solid evidence that it works for coaches.

There are some books out there that firmly put the blame for not succeeding onto the coach. For example, they say if you don’t lift up your eyes and have enough deep and meaningful conversations with strangers, then you’ll fail. I don’t believe this works for anyone - and the idea leaves introverts cold!

Q: As an author and coach, what is the most important lesson you’ve learned throughout your career?

Sarah Short: Be consistent. I wish I’d had the tenacity I have now when I was 20 years younger! I flitted between things and prided myself on being someone who could start projects and get everyone enthused about them. When it came to what I scathingly called “business as usual,” I walked away.

The Coaching Revolution was seven years old on 27 September. I have never worked anywhere for seven years before!

Q: What key message do you hope readers will take away from your book?

Sarah Short: Marketing is both ethical and authentic. It is also a process, and just like the coaching process, it can be trusted.

Q: How do you envision the concepts in the book helping coaches enhance their own practices and better serve their clients?

Sarah Short: The thing about books is that they’re easy to read, and yet the knowledge they contain is often hard to implement. We use the book as an introduction to marketing for the coaches who become Coaching Revolution mentees. Almost all of what we teach is in there.

If you can implement what I teach in this book - and implement it consistently - you can build a coaching business. If you can build a coaching business, you’ll have clients whose lives you can help transform. If you don’t have clients, there isn’t really any serving to be done, is there?

Q: Many coaches struggle with client engagement and transformation. What advice from your book can help coaches overcome these challenges?

Sarah Short: I don’t touch on coaching technique or methodology; that’s not my area of expertise. The reason we only work with coaches who have completed their coach-specific training is that we need the “delivery” side of a coaching business already accomplished.

A financially viable coaching business has two equally important skill sets. The delivery skill set - coaching qualifications, etc. - and the “creating the opportunity to do the delivery” skill set. The latter is sales and marketing, and it carries equal weight in terms of importance in any business. I’ve never seen a coach fail because they are a lousy coach. I’ve seen countless fail because they have no clue about client acquisition!

Q: In what ways do you think the coaching profession will evolve in the next few years, and how can coaches prepare for these changes?

Sarah Short: I think that AI is going to take away many (most?) of the associate coaching opportunities that exist. I read recently that a digital coaching platform has just been given $40 million to spend on AI research. What that means is two things:

Coaching by a human will become something that only the most senior people receive, and competition for this work will be fierce.
Coaches who have private clients will be the ones who get to coach. Our micro-niches are not as interesting for “big corporate” because they will never attract tens of millions in fees, so investing in R&D won’t be a good use of money.

Q: What advice would you give to new or aspiring coaches who are just starting their journey?

Sarah Short: Learn to market your coaching business because without a robust client acquisition process, you’ll never build a coaching business. Be safe in the knowledge that it’s not about marketing you as a coach; it’s about offering a solution to a problem that a chosen group of people have.

Don’t be fooled into believing the various myths that surround client acquisition for coaches. Here are a couple of those myths:

Once you have your first client or two, the rest will come by referral.
Delivering strategy/discovery/chemistry sessions and networking is all you need to do.

Q: As a final question, what would you say is the most important mindset or habit that coaches can adopt to ensure they are truly making a difference in their clients' lives?

Sarah Short: As coaches, we all know that true success comes from taking consistent action, and marketing is exactly the same. Marketing isn’t an event (e.g., I now have a website); it’s a consistent process. Commit to learning what you need to do and take action every day towards your goal.