My group coaching program was so bad, I had to give everyone their money back.

🚀

4 Years ago I had to write $26,000 in refunds.

Not exactly my proudest moment... but definitely one of my greatest lessons. Maybe this will be helpful for you (and in the comments I dropped a Prompt I created to help you avoid this mistake)

So what happened?

I was doing well with one-on-one clients.

Really well.

So I figured it was time to scale. lol

And then because I didn't know any better I thought that just meant time to do some group coaching.

(later realized there are so many other levers we can pull to scale but anyways...)

The thinking was...

Same content, same approach, just more people at once.

Turns out that's not how it works.

The Problem with Most Coaching Programs is half the people teaching others how to do stuff are not actually experts at it themselves. Beginners should not have courses.

So many "experts" are just teaching frameworks they found on someone else's YouTube channel.

Real expertise isn't just knowing your stuff.

It's having repeatable systems that get consistent results.

It's being able to distill big ideas into simple frameworks and processes.

It's being able to take someone from where they are to where they want to be without them getting lost halfway through.

But here's what I learned the hard way:

what works in one-on-one doesn't automatically work at scale.

When you're sitting across from someone, you can adjust in real time.

You see confusion, you pivot.

You see overwhelm, you slow down.

In a group program?

If your process is unclear, everyone gets confused at the same time.

And they all ask for refunds at the same time.

One of the frameworks I learned after this expensive lesson is the 3x3 concept for service offer design.

1️⃣ First, identify your 80/20.

What's the 20% of work that delivers 80% of the results?

Everything else is just extra.

2️⃣ Second, find the three biggest obstacles between where your client is now and where they want to be. Then break each obstacle into three actionable steps.

That's it. 3x3.

What are the 3 to 9 micro steps that if your clients took

would get them exponentially greater results?

It sounds almost too simple, but simple works.

Complex gets people lost.

Less Content Actually Works Better

The biggest mistake in online education is thinking more equals better.

More modules, more videos, more worksheets.

The online space is drowning in information.

And overwhelm is the enemy of progress.

So if you have been thinking that building your course feels hard or heavy consider:

building good courses is simple.