Setting and Maintaining Boundaries with Clients as a Coach!

Hey girl, hey!!!

In today’s episode we are talking about how to set boundaries with clients in your coaching business! What to do when your clients become FRIENDS, and how to navigate the client/coach relationship as your business grows.

I walk you through my own experiences and business examples so that you can implement solid boundaries early on. I also help you discern how to manage friendships with clients because I’ll be honest – some of my BEST friends were previous clients of mine!

I hope this helps you and that you enjoy.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):

Hi friend, welcome to another episode of the show today. We’re talking about how to maintain boundaries as a coach, how to navigate when a client becomes a friend and what those lines look like, and also just maintaining boundaries inside of your coaching business, as far as time and expectations

(00:22):

And all of that. Good, good goodness. Enjoy. Hey friends. So if you want to work together, step one, you need clarity. That is what I recommend is clarify your calling, which takes you through 30 days, really intensive work. It is an hour of training every Friday. Plus you get access to my 30 minute live power coaching that we did. And it’s pretty Epic and it’s super, super affordable. Loves.

(02:07):

Plus I have a payment plan for you. Okay? So if you’re like honored clarity, clarifyyourcallingcourse.com too. You want to start a podcast, you’ve got the clarity, but you want to create an impact using your voice and move into the kingdom entrepreneurship space. You want to sit behind a mic and your PJ’s braless and flawless and spread love to the masses. Spread love teach, inspire, motivate. And if you’re like, what would I talk about?

(02:32):

Don’t worry. It’s covered in my course. If you’re like, how do I record it? Don’t worry. It’s covered in the course. If you’re like, how do I promote it? Don’t worry. It’s covered in the course. If you’re like, where do I host girl? I promise you my course leaves nothing to be desired. We cover every single thing. Whoa. Oh my gosh. My son is standing behind me and totally scared me.

(02:54):

Hi miles. Say hi. Hi BRB. Okay. I’m back. You guys. I totally left that in because I want to show you how amazing that podcasting is. If I wanted to, I could not have asked. I did not orchestrate that. Okay. If I wanted to delete that out, I drag my mouse and click cut. Instead of if you were doing a video, talk about stressful, your kid’s in, he’s staring at you creepily over your shoulder scares you.

(03:22):

You poop your pants a little like this is the beauty of podcasting you guys. So if that is how you want to grow an organic audience and you want to build something that’s 100% yours, evergreen, forever. And it builds, holds. It is the funnel. The podcast is the entire funnel. You don’t need opt-ins or any other fancy thing, unless you just want them, okay. Go to podcastprouniversity.com. Finally, you have a podcast.

(03:48):

So my podcasting sisters, we are booking right now or taking applications, shall I say for podcast to profit, which is kicking off April 30th. So you need to get your application in ASAP. We do not. We take only 20 women so that it is small, intimate focused, intentional. And we, my eyes are all over your business.

(04:10):

My team’s eyes are all over your business. So go to, if that’s for you and you want to scale your show, create a passive product with your podcast and you ain’t playing.

(04:19):

You’re like, this is my year. Like I’m all I’m going in. I’m going in. I’m like, this is the thing. And I want to go full, full in and monetize it and drive that passive revenue stream by helping people and figuring out what their solutions will be. Then podcast to profit is for you. You can, you can apply at podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. Okay, let’s go. All right.

(04:43):

So the first thing I want to bring up is that you cannot treat a coaching business like a beginner coaching business. Even if you’re a beginner, are you like, what does that mean? Basically what I’m saying is it’s all good and fine and fun. When you start coaching to take on someone and then overcompensate, you know, Hey, this is my first person. Yay. Let’s get him boxer. Let me support you, send me all your homework. I’ll go above and beyond.

(05:09):

And you kind of set this precedent from the very beginning of what it looks like to work with you. And I think the biggest piece of advice I have when it even just comes to setting boundaries in a coaching business from the very beginning, is that you want to always act as if so, what I recommend you do is create a vision of what that coaching business will look like a year from now.

(05:32):

So when I started coaching about three, two and a half years ago, probably two and a half years ago I really wanted to create a six-figure revenue from coaching. Then I also wanted a six figure revenue from the courses. And of course it’s like, you know, all God’s timing, but those were just some goals that I was shooting for. And knowing that I wanted to have a six figure coaching business, I started off, you know, just going hard with coaching.

(06:00):

I had a really, really affordable rate and it was great because I really got to know people. It was great. It was wonderful. And one of the things I did right from the very beginning was I had pretty hardcore boundaries in place. So the time was the time, the time they purchase was the time they got they got the audio recording, like I promised my rough draft notes.

(06:22):

And it was, that was that there was no free back and forth. There was no free homework grading or any of those things. It really was laid out, clean, clear, and as promised. Now, what I did notice is that some people were wanting additional support. So in the beginning, what worked for me was I added boxer, which is basically, we don’t know what boxer is. It’s just like a text message, voice app.

(06:51):

I added Voxer as an option that they could pay for on a monthly basis. Now this was fine for a while, while, and then, because, because of my podcast, the coaching business absolutely exploded. Okay. So with the coaching and requests with demand increasing and with your calendar being booked out solid for roughly two or three months, you know, that it’s time for a few options. Okay.

(07:15):

One, you got to raise your prices because you need to move with demand or two. You have to limit who you can accept. And that just felt really weird to me at the time of like, I’m only gonna take five people and turn the rest of you away. So I did raise prices and I’ve done so roughly every year there was a year in there that we had to raise prices twice and there probably will be a day that coaching will no longer make sense because the price will not make sense.

(07:39):

Right. Because the demand just grows and that’s great. And that’s wonderful. Or I’ll have to say, I can only take X amount of people per month wonderful problems to have. Okay. And I’m here for all of that, but basically what I’m telling you, that story is to share with you that if you’re podcasting with all your heart and you are changing people’s lives with your free stuff, your demand will continue to increase.

(08:01):

So treat your coaching business as if you were at full capacity from day one from client number one. All right. Now the next thing that comes up is what happens when you have a super awesome connection with somebody and you want to be friends. I know, I know I totally get that. And there are a few, okay. So there’s a difference between you bring on these clients and they become acquaintances and they become, you know, social media friends.

(08:29):

And I have so many of those and lifelong peeps that are like my, just my work sisters, you know, they get in my DMS, they’ll probably work with me in every capacity possible in the future. I’m sure they’ll do retreats with me in the future, all of that goodness. But then, and that’s fine. It’s, you know, we’re basically friends on social, which is great for me because I delete social media on the evenings and sometimes even full in the week and every single weekend.

(08:57):

And so I still am able to really maintain those boundary levels having those acquaintances that were, or our coaching clients, but that also want to be social media friends. Great. Now what about those people who you’re like, Oh, but I have like an incredible connection. They actually have become a real life friend. You know what I mean? So I’ve got a couple of those as well.

(09:21):

And basically the way that that went down is during the coaching client relationship, it really did stay mainly coaching coach and client. And then we would be social media friends with maybe a couple of in between like voice memos on social, that type of thing, and kind of really keeping that work, focus time on work.

(09:43):

And if there was something we wanted to talk about separate of that, that would happen outside of it in the DMS, but kind of keeping a light relationship, not really letting it grow and flourish the way that it would if we’re not working together. So I don’t know if that makes sense, but let me give you guys a couple of examples. So let’s say I have this client and they worked with me for a year and I knew this was going to become a friend.

(10:07):

I would know that was gonna become a friend, but I would really maintain that client and coach relationship and have maybe like a 10% friend line where, you know, we’re just keeping it in the Instagram chat, maybe a boxer casual that’s about life stuff, but then anytime we’re meeting, it’s 100% business hat on.

(10:24):

Okay. Next once they were finished working with me, then I was really able to open those friendship Gates, right. Because it’s really, I think it’s difficult to maintain a real true raw friendship where both of you are bringing everything you have to the table and be a business coach for that person or, and be a life coach for that person. Because those lines maybe get a little bit blurred, not a hundred percent of the time.

(10:53):

I have a coach who is also a dear friend, so I know that that can work. But I think when you think about scalability, you’re going to get stuck there. If you have too many of those going on, like maybe one, right? So just asking yourself, is this a forever friendship of mine? And if so, you know, it’s worth waiting until that client relationship, maybe it’s done or coming to an end and then opening those friendship, flood Gates.

(11:18):

Now I’ve also had this scenario where I’ve opened the friendship, flood Gates with somebody, they became a dear, dear, dear friend, dear God sent friend of mine, one of my most incredible kingdom sisters ever, ever, ever. And then they’re like, Hey, I got to hire you again because we have this project or I’m relaunching this course, or I have a new course. I want to create an, and I’m like, great. Come on in. Here are the rates.

(11:40):

The rates are the rates, right? Guys, the rates are the rates. There you go. So there’s that. And when we meet for her client work, it’s business hat on, we’re not talking about our friendship. We are not talking about our lives. We are, we are business focused. And it’s just that I I’m able to maintain those boundaries. And that put on that hat and perspective a through really clear communication.

(12:04):

So letting her know like, Hey, here are the rates. Number two, when we meet we’re doing this. So we’ve got clear expectations. And then when we get off, we’re back to the friendship zone. Okay. So that doesn’t mean free coaching in the DMS all day long, either guys, because they’re your friend. So just clear communication about that and just saying, Hey, we’re super good friends. I’m chill with doing coaching for you. Here’s the rates. Here’s what we’re going to do in the hours.

(12:27):

And then just remember, like there was no coaching happening in boxer or email in between. They’re like, cool, sounds great. And it has been zero of an issue. The only other thing I can think of here that I want to bring up. So I guess what my takeaways are so far for you are number one, treat your coaching business as a six-figure business from day one, from the very first client treat each client the same number three have set boundaries between the client and friendship relationships.

(12:58):

Number four, if it becomes a friendship, wait for that floodgate friendship to open up after you are finished with your contract with that person, or just make sure that that is a, maybe one time, very special friend for you because you can’t be doing that for everyone. Or you will be drowning. Number five, if they’re already a friend and want to work with you, treat them like a normal client and have really super, super clear communication. Okay.

(13:21):

So the other thing I want to mention is what happens when you have a client who then becomes a dear friend, and then they’re constantly popping into the box, the inbox asking about advice, free advice, coaching advice all of that stuff. So again, you have to have discernment, you have to have boundaries. And so for me, here’s my role with them. If I can answer something in 60 seconds or less, I’m chill.

(13:50):

Cool. I’ll answer you in the box. I’ll answer you in Instagram, DMS, I’ll answer you via email. If it’s going to take more than 60 seconds, I’m going to funnel you to one of my Facebook groups to ask, because there’s so much support in there that you can find or be I’m an emit say, Hey, let’s grab a coaching session. And I do it all the time. Even to my friends, y’all, I’m like, Hey, sounds like we need a coaching session.

(14:13):

They could take it or leave it, but they get the point. You know, because there are boundaries you have to maintain. And then once you scale past that big number of clients, you have these beautiful boundaries in place. You are not drowning in Voxer messages, giving free advice left, and right, you really are leading with intention, leading a business, the way that you should be.

(14:36):

Now, the only other thing I want to mention here, just bonus tip is as you are getting all of these questions, do not answer them. Even if they take you 60 seconds or less, don’t answer them in the Voxer, in the email, move them to the Facebook group because someone else has that question start duplicating. Anytime you answer something, use that to answer the masses.

(14:58):

Okay. Mentioned I’ve had friends come into the DMS and they’re like, Hey Stef, how do I pray for my business? I’m like, cool. I’ll do an episode girl. Right? Hey Stef, I have a question. How do you set boundaries with your coaching clients? I’m like, Hey, cool. I’ll agree to a podcast episode on this. Right? So like, this is me answering my friends and clients questions, because if they’re asking you someone else has that same question. So there are my tips for maintaining boundaries.

(15:23):

Also how to move to friendship from your clients when that naturally happens without burning bridges and making sure that you are intentionally running your coaching business from a position of scalability, because girlfriends that is what’s up. All right, love you. I just pray over you today. And every single day that you are just fueled with excitement, joy, peace, prosperity in your business, in your life that you are given that patience and that provision that you need to be an intentional mama and an incredible kingdom business woman.

(15:53):

I pray that God is with you, that he is for you, that you are walking his path with just fearless audacity God-sized confidence today, and every day, let it be. I’m so proud of you. Keep walking in at girl. His plan is always bigger and better than our plan In Jesus’ name. Amen. Love and God’s light.