“What is a Try Before You Buy coaching experience?”
The short answer is that it’s pretty much what it says on the tin. Although, for the avoidance of confusion, please note that that is a metaphorical tin, and no actual tins are involved in this. Well, not unless you want them to be. You are more than welcome to bring your therapy tin to a Try Before You Buy session, or to eat baked beans from the tin while experiencing it, if that’s what works for you.
(Oh dear, it appears that all my good intentions about not digressing were blown out of the water before the end of the first paragraph – I don’t know why I bother with those intentions, frankly. May as well just change my name to Digression (I now want to write a book with a heroine called Di Greshun) and have done with it.)
Anyway, as I was saying before the tins and Di so rudely interrupted, a Try Before You Buy coaching experience is exactly what it says it is: an opportunity to experience a coaching session with me before you decide whether to commit to buying coaching from me. It really is that simple and straightforward (unlike my writing style).
“Why do you offer a Try Before You Buy option?”
Personally, if I go shopping for clothes, I want to be able to try them on before I decide whether to buy them or not. When I’m looking for new make-up or perfume or lotions and potions, I want to be able to test them before making my choice. And if I walked into an electronics store to buy a tv, I sure as hell wouldn’t consider one that no one would switch on to show me the picture.
So it seemed to me to make sense to have the same option for coaching. I mean, let’s face it, coaching is not cheap. It requires a commitment not only of money but of time, and it can be emotionally and mentally demanding.
If you’re going to make that investment of time, money and energy, you want to do so on the basis of an informed choice, don’t you?
Secondly, how many people actually know what coaching is?
I can tell you that it’s a safe space to get all the shit out of your head for a while, and that doing so not only grants a little respite, but allows you to see things from different perspectives, in different ways.
I can tell you that it’s an opportunity to be truly, fully heard without being offered unsolicited advice or comparisons that make you feel more inadequate, alone and misunderstood than you did before.
I can tell you that it’s a conversation focused entirely on YOU: on exploring what’s going on for YOU, what YOU want to have happen, and how YOU can make changes in ways that feel right for YOU.
I can tell you all that until I’m blue in the face or you lose the will to live (I’m not sure which one is most likely to happen first), but you can’t really understand the benefits of it until you experience it – because that’s simply not how normal social conversation works, is it?
My final reason for offering a Try Before You buy experience is that, to be blunt, it’s a chance for us to check each other out. Coaching does not depend on coach and client being soul mates – far from it. But it’s important that you get the right coach for you. It’s quite probably the case that you can’t define upfront what the right coach for you is like, but, after a Try Before You Buy experience, you’ll know whether you feel I suit you or not. Similarly, I’ll know whether I feel that I can work effectively with you.
“What’s the catch?”
There isn’t one. Honestly.
You’re not being lured in with a freebie only to discover that you really want more, but the only way to continue is to spend thousands on a coaching programme. My coaching is based on individual 90 minute £90 Booster sessions that you book to suit you – you can schedule them at regular intervals, or book in on an ad hoc basis when you feel you need a bit of a boost. Whichever approach you prefer, you can either pay as you go, or get a bulk booking discount with The Six Pack - £480 for 6 sessions.
And if you don’t want more? There’s no hard sell, no pressure or emotional blackmail. No means no. It’s the same as deciding not to buy any of the clothes you try on.
I don’t want to work with you if you don’t want to work with me, because I don’t believe coaching is effective in that context. You have to be an engaged and proactive participant in coaching to get results, and that’s not going to happen if you’re feeling resentful about being bullied into paying for something you don’t really believe is right for you. And you’ll probably end up – quite rightly – slagging me off to anyone who’ll listen, and that’s not good for my business.
It's much more to my benefit to wait for a willing and engaged client, who will get the results they want, come back for more, and tell everyone how amazing my coaching is!
I was about to say that I hope to see you in the changing room soon…but that sounds all wrong, doesn’t it?!?!
For a Try Before You Buy coaching experience,
and select the Try Before You Buy experience as your reason for wanting to chat.
(The above is true at time of writing, but I plan to update the website to show TBYB as a separate booking option, so it’s even easier.)
Questions? Just shout!
You can email me on kirsty@coachingbykirsty.co.uk
or message @coachingbykirsty on FB or Insta.
