Ste McGrath on Becoming a Successful Business Coach

I’m Ste McGrath, multiple business owner and CEO of Collective Coaching. I specialise in coaching entrepreneurs on how they can take their online fitness businesses to the next level, and have upwards of 1000 clients that have achieved 6-figure salaries with the help of me and my team. My aim is to create a space for entrepreneurs to grow and succeed; something that I feel I have definitely achieved with a growing portfolio of clients that reflect the time and energy myself and my team have inputted into this business.

Becoming a Coach:

Previously starting my online fitness business, Get Results Training, in 2019, I found myself looking for ways that I could offer a unique solution to the industry. I’d already gained experience and knowledge following my first start up, and with a huge success under my belt I started to see other entrepreneurs coming to me asking how they could do the same. This continued until I reached a point where I had to start charging for the time I was spending helping these coaches. That’s what made me realise that there was a huge gap in the market.

I had spent a huge amount of time and money going from person to person, taking course after course, to help me grow my business and gain the skills that were necessary in order to become a successful entrepeneur. I decided that in order to create the best solution for others in the same position, I needed to put this all into one program; one space with all of the information and resources that you would need when launching a fitness business of your own.

I began to build a team of qualified experts to create a hub for business coaching and it was a success. In January 2022, I officially launched Collective Coaching and haven’t looked back since. I decided to take a leap and shut down Get Results Training to put all of my focus onto this new venture. Now projected to hit £1.5million in my first year, I have an amazing team of 13 experts that have helped me successfully coach thousands, creating the necessary resources and giving the guidance and support needed to scale businesses.

Finding my Niche:

A huge thing I wanted to implement in this industry was an approach based on realism. We consistently make an effort to approach businesses with honesty, focusing on goals that are achievable as opposed to building false hope. You aren’t going to jump from making £2k a month to making £10k and that is something I’ve made sure our entrepreneurs are aware of. We build gradually instead of pushing too hard too fast to avoid leaving our clients feeling as though they have come on board under false pretences. We can of course aim to scale to a realistic goal, but selling them the dream without having a vision based on fact is not something that I wanted to do. Honesty is a key factor in running a successful coaching business.

We also offer an authentic approach to business coaching. With a large number of younger clients, we feel that it’s important to remain approachable instead of creating a space that ultimately feels exclusive or so formal that it pushes them away. We want our clients to be their true selves throughout their journey in order to create a safe space for them as well as to ensure sustainability in the long run. We don’t want our clients to feel as though they have to be something that they aren’t in their business journey.

Over the span of our first year we have evolved to more than just a simple coaching system. We work more as consultants, offering a close relationship with clients; a 1-1 approach that identifies the specific area that each individual business needs. This allows us to fully personalise each journey and have a full understanding of each business that we are working with and what will work best for them. Ensuring that we have the time and energy to offer each individual client is so important when helping them on their journey to success, so it is a high priority.

Challenges and Solutions:

When starting out the business a huge challenge was working through agencies.  I originally had a team of freelance professionals that were brought in to help me in my vision for the business. As we grew, I decided that the best approach was to take this team in house which led to the decision to hire these freelancers directly. Taking the team on board allowed for a greater focus on direct training that focused on the overall direction of the business. This allowed me to ensure that each team member had an in-depth understanding of our collective goal and allowed us to work more efficiently and effectively, as well as to build a strong relationship as a team.

Beginning the journey, I had a very strict mould in terms of the ideal client.  There was a heavy focus on finding clients that were in the right financial position with the right business model that would help us to take them higher. As Collective Coaching scaled, it was clear that this was not a sustainable approach and that we couldn’t continue waiting for these idealised clients. This meant that as the business grew we had the chance to grow and adapt our program in order to meet the needs of the clients coming on board that needed that extra help. We moved away from the ‘one size fits all’ model and bent our system which ultimately allowed for us to continue growing our numbers. Our scope of clients broadened to people that weren’t necessarily in the ideal business model or financial position, allowing us to take an adaptive approach to build those clients to where we wanted them to be.

A huge challenge that I faced as the CEO of the business was taking a step back in my role as the business grew. At the start, I was heavily involved with every client, which took up a lot of my energy. I soon realised this energy was ultimately better suited in other areas of the business though it was important that the standards remained high and the overall perception of the business was maintained.

I made sure that my role was replaced with quality staff that were highly trained. This process was thorough, with a handover process, over 3 months, that essentially meant that both me and the staff were working closely with the client to maintain that relationship and the standard that we had built. This process allowed me to feel more comfortable in taking that step back.

 Advice:

My advice to aspiring business coaches is to have a clear understanding of the importance of experience and results. Quality results with happy clients ensure that there is a solid foundation to scale a business, no matter the industry. Having that social proof as a starting point is hugely important when taking our clients from A to B.

Another huge thing that is often overlooked is understanding how the personal circumstances of your clients can impact your work as a coach. Being aware that if your client isn’t in the right place mentally then the impact of your coaching and advice is going to take a huge hit. Help your clients get into the right mindframe to work by creating a space where they can not only thrive professionally, but also personally. If you can achieve this safe space for your clients then your work will be all the more effective in the long run, allowing you to maintain your success rate.

My journey to becoming a successful coach has been full of trial and error, but ultimately it has lead to a strong system that has allowed me to achieve what I set out to do; to help other aspiring entrepreneurs, like myself, achieve what they deserve when they are willing to put the work into becoming the best they can be.

If you’ve found this article helpful I’d love to hear your thoughts! Drop me a message on Instagram or head over to our website to find out more about who Collective Coaching are.