I'm a rubbish coach. On purpose.
A proper coach holds space and asks the question that gets you there yourself. Enormous respect, and I'm hopeless at it. I've already walked the road the long way round, so I'd rather just tell you where the potholes are. It still has to end up being your idea, or you won't run with it.
Before you spend anything
Everything else is free.
Almost everything I know is already free in the Lab: the channel, the builds, the write-ups. No gate, no email wall. Go and take it. I'd rather you solved it for free than paid me for something you could have got on a Tuesday night.
What actually happens
Part coach, part consultant. Hence the daft name.
I'll actually listen
Properly, and for longer than you'd expect. Almost two decades of running rooms, and most of it comes down to shutting up and hearing what someone's really saying underneath the thing they said.
I'll give you answers
Not questions designed to make you find the answer. If I know it, you get it. If I've made the mistake you're about to make, I'll say so and save you the year.
I'll get in the weeds
Sleeves up, into the actual thing. The pricing page, the pitch, the email, the org chart, the AI tool you half set up. Advice is cheap. Doing a bit of it together is the useful part.
And when it isn't me
If it's not my lane, I'll know someone whose lane it is.
An agency, the books and a stage career means I've collected an absurd number of people who rock at one specific thing. Tax, brand, ops, legal, the weird bit of Meta ads nobody understands. The worst outcome of talking to me is a warm introduction to the right person.
The bit people don't expect
You're not just getting me.
I run a learning design studio with a team who are better than me at things I'm only dangerous at. If your problem needs a second brain or someone who's built the exact system you're describing, I'll bring it to the jam. You're renting a studio's worth of pattern-matching for the price of a conversation.
Pick your stuck
What people usually bring.
Business and marketing
Getting seen, getting sold, go-to-market that actually goes, local area marketing.
Customers and service
Turning one-off buyers into people who come back. Speed to lead. The leaks.
People and training
Onboarding, workshops, holding a room instead of losing it.
Tech and AI
Which tool, where it goes, and whether it'll actually save you time or money. I'll build a bit of it with you.
Speaking and pitching
The talk, the pitch, the launch. Speaking Gym in fifty minutes.
Going out on your own
Backing yourself to leave, without building a new cage.
The business that owns you
Hours you can't get back and a door you can't close. I know this one intimately.
Story and legacy
Something important to get down and no idea where to start.
Legacy →Not sure it fits? Ask anyway. Worst case I point you somewhere better and it costs you an email.
What you're actually signing up for
$500 a month. Momentum, not homework.
Most coaching fails in the gaps. You have a good session, you leave full of intent, and then three weeks of real life happen before anyone checks in. This is built the other way round.
The session
We work on whatever is actually in front of you that month. The pricing, the pitch, the hire, the launch, the thing you've been avoiding. I listen properly, then tell you what I'd do and why.
Voice note coaching
Send them when something comes up. A decision, a draft, a wobble, a win. I answer properly, out loud, usually the same day. It keeps the momentum between sessions instead of losing it.
The rest of my contacts
If it isn't my lane, I know whose it is. Tax, brand, ops, legal, the weird bit of Meta ads nobody understands. A warm introduction costs you nothing.
No twelve-week commitment, no workbook, no modules. Stay while it's useful and stop when it isn't.
Not sure it's the right shape? Talk it through with me first, or look at a jam session if you'd rather go hard once than steady for months.
Why monthly and not a programme
I'd rather you got moving than got a curriculum.
A lot of practitioners measure themselves in hours delivered. I don't. The point is what's different in your business by the end of the month, not how many calls we stacked up.
Get to the point
Ten minutes of honest questions beats an hour of context setting.
Build the thing
Not a plan to build it. The draft, the offer, the page, the script.
Get real feedback
From the people who matter. Customers, not us.
Go again
Change it and repeat. That loop is the whole job.
When fifty minutes isn't the shape of it
Mentoring, board seats, advisory and projects.
Some things don't get solved in one session. I take on a small number of longer arrangements, and I'd rather have three I can actually think about than twelve I can't. Nothing's productised, there's no package. Tell me what you're building and I'll tell you straight whether I'm the right person.
Mentoring
Ongoing, one to one, for someone building something who wants a person in their corner who's already paid for the lessons.
Board and advisory
A seat at the table for organisations that want someone who's built, run, sold and closed things. Learning, customers, marketing, AI and the human side of all of it.
Projects
Bigger pieces of work with a start and an end. Sometimes through Learn Awesome with the whole team, sometimes just me. Occasionally on sweat equity if the thing is genuinely interesting.
What people say afterwards
Straight to the point, and useful on Monday.
"So enthusiastic and straight to the point! Loved it!"
MeryemAstraZeneca"Energetic, relevant and no 'rabbit hole' talk as a time filler."
StephanieNestlé"Great session Steve, I got a lot out of this."
AndyConference attendee