Everything I learnt in 2021.
A public reflection on the first full year running my coaching business, The Ask.
Hello and back in your inboxes for a final time this year. Very pleased to announce I reached the 1k subscriber milestone today! Rob W, you were subscriber 1,000 👏 so a BIG thank you to everyone here so far. It’s a huge privilege to write to you each week.
This week I am drawing the curtain back on my own journey as a founder. Reminiscing on hard won lessons from running my business — after getting my ICF accredited coaching diploma and launching The Ask in June 2020 this has been the first full year of operations. I am writing feeling rested after twelve days with family and dogs in the fresh countryside air over Christmas.
In January we’ll be back to strategies you can apply in your businesses.
Lesson 1: You can do almost anything, but you can’t do everything
Looking back, January 2021 was a laughable time. My goal setting document for the year was packed with plans and schemes that are ambitious by any standard. I set out to achieve a whole manner of things that never came to fruition.
For context: I thought I could run a fully booked coaching practice as well as launching a sponsored podcast, hosting a workshop every month, have thousands of (paying) newsletter subscribers, launch three digital courses, and do paid speaking gigs for businesses. Ha.
The lesson is that I can do any of these definitely not all of them at the same time.
The way you build a sustainable business is to layer activities one on top of the other, once they are already established. So if I’m writing this newsletter in 2025 and not doing everything on that list then I’d be somewhat disappointed. But to think it would happen in my first full year of business? Umm, no.
The reality is that I did manage to get a fully booked coaching practice but it took a long time to get there. I did some paid talks but can count them on one hand, and soft-launched one course, not three (more on that in a minute). My newsletter has grown but I have decided not to charge for it, and the podcast? Well that is not even in the pipeline.
Thankfully by focusing on the 1-1 coaching and putting the rest on the back burner, I exceeded the goals I set there.
This lesson is not about tempering ambition but making plans from a place of strategy and careful planning, not from a place of ego.
Lesson 2: Beware of what seems too good to be true
At the end of 2020 I was approached by someone building ‘the next Coursera’ for career focused content. He said that there was a space for one more coach ahead of the platform launch.
They would help me to produce a course, do the editing and production, and promote it to their viewers and I’d earn royalties with every view: the projected stats and earning potential were in the tens of thousands of pounds from year one. The opportunity quite literally sounded too good to be true.
We had phone calls, a contract was signed, and this time last year I spent my 2020 ‘Twixmas’ (I learnt this word today so I’m using it) writing, creating and filming my eight part video series.
However, when it came to the next steps, there was nothing. They never replied to my emails inquiring about the footage I’d sent over and I have never heard from them to this day. The business is no longer active on social media and so my hope is that nothing happened with my course (as opposed to them just using it without my knowing). Either way, being professionally ghosted and spending weeks on something I was excited by that didn’t come to fruition wasn’t the outcome I’d hoped for and it left a slightly cynical taste in my mouth.
So much so, that after being approached for another similar opportunity recently, upon sharing my internal debate over it with a friend he laughed and said “I just don’t think we are going to be sitting here in five years time reminiscing about how much this opportunity has defined your career”.
I’m sure he’s right.
So, the lesson here is not that you shouldn’t trust people or collaborate, it is that if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Do your due diligence and get a second opinion if you’re not sure.
PS. I paid to get my course edited and hosted on my own website. ‘Six Weeks to Success’ is designed to help you decide on meaningful goals and take the right steps to make them happen. It’s available to buy from today!
Lesson 3: You can turn the clock back on your business building journey.
There are stages to building a business, as we’ve covered in this newsletter.
Yet Q1 2022 I am going to be doing some very similar projects to the ones I spent time on in Q1 2021. These projects are around aligning on my mission, vision and values for the business and how they translate in terms of messaging.
If it wasn’t for the success of the past year it might feel like time has stood still and I’ve made no progress.
But in reality it means that I’m getting everything in order so that I can reach the next level. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. Get the foundations right and everything else can fall into place.
This was a lesson I’ve learned from working with my business coach Claire earlier in the year who kindly showed me how confusing my business was to the outside world. My various products and services that were solving different problems for different people was not in line with her own approach, nor those of her most successful clients.
So I spent a lot time last year stripping back. Going back to basics and deciding on just one type of client to work with. I settled on new startup founders who wanted help aligning their strengths and vision to the reality of what they were building.
Since realigning I have been able to better choose content to create, partnerships to build and delve deeper into the psyches of a particular kind of person to coach.
Whilst I did this work upon starting in June 2020, and again in Feb 2021, I am going to be working on this stuff again next year. Clarity is at the heart of success in business, but it can be hard to achieve on your own. It’s what I do with my clients so it makes sense I pay someone to help me do the same for my own business.
Lesson 4: Sales is a skill that takes time to master
It can seem mercenary talking about ‘selling’ in coaching. I’m hyperaware of the charlatan reputation that some coaches have; coaches operating outside of their areas of competence, or selling to people who are vulnerable or unable to afford their services. 2020 saw some exposés on coaches selling pipe-dreams to clients, leaving them £10k out of pocket and no results to show for it. The industry has its fair share of issues.
So that, on top of being British, can make talking about money publicly as a coach feel a little uncomfortable. But you cannot talk about sales without talking about money and without sales, I would not have a business nor would I have helped so many people achieve their career/business ambitions.
So disclaimer up top — I only ‘sell’ to people I’ve spoken to at length to ensure that my services can indeed help them and to ensure they are in the right place (emotionally, financially) to work with a coach.
When I started my business the sales bit came easily with around 70% of my consultation calls resulting in a new client. However, this was at low volumes and low fees. Considering I was still learning my craft, at this time I was more concerned with getting as much coaching experience as possible, than charging the most.
However six months into running my business it was not financially sustainable. To grow, I thought I would be able to just do more of the same and it would all work out — I had assumed my professional experience in ‘persuasive’ roles such as hiring executives would translate to aptitude in sales.
This did not quite turn out to be true and I began to doubt myself.
My entire business survives or dies based on my ability to sign up new clients and so a lack of results caused me grief. Not only did I have costs for the business itself, I needed money to live and my savings were starting to dwindle.
Similar to dating, in sales conversations people can smell desperation a mile off and so if you really need the business it just makes it much less likely you will get it!
I took some other projects on to ease the pressure on money and then things began to pick up by March 2021. I’ve been consistently booked with clients since then and this December signed up another six for next year already.
One of the biggest lessons here was that people need to understand what they are buying. They say that ‘a confused mind never buys’ and a big part of my role in these sales conversations is to help people to clearly understand the outcome they will get from coaching. No buzzwords, just what is in it for them.
The challenge here is that the outcome they get entirely depends on them, and so it is different every time you speak to someone new. My coaching is not a prescribed ‘5 step plan’; I help people achieve what is important to them uniquely in their business, to make hard decisions or push through mental barriers so that they can reach the next level. It can be hard to explain this to someone who has never experienced the power of coaching.
This has been about learning how to structure these conversations to get the right information across but also help people to see their problem effectively (the one that needs solving in the coaching). For the most part though, I’ve learnt that sales is about practice.
It has been tough at times, especially hearing a ‘no’ from someone I really wanted to work with. But whilst I am still learning some of these lessons - and always will be - I am proud to say that I have still built an incredible client base of founders working on pressing problems, who I feel so privileged to work with.
Lesson 5: Play the long game.
A theme from this year is one of patience. Of understanding that sustained growth is designed to take time. There are many stages of the founder journey that you cannot rush through.
One of the most popular newsletters I wrote this year was “How much confidence is too much confidence when building your new startup?” that referenced a theme I was seeing in my clients and even myself.
This is when founders oversimplify the process of building a company in the early days, and believe that it will be easier than it is. Their confidence begins high; ‘The Arrogant New Founder’s Illusory Superiority’ as I called it. However, after not too long, this confidence wanes once the sheer volume of tasks and learning required becomes evident. The founder realises just how far they are from their end destination and how many challenges lie ahead of them.
Eventually, however, the founder defeats the trough and triumphs following a period of hard work and determination.
My lesson this year is recognising that in some areas of my business I’m being arrogant. In others knowing that I am in the trough and in others appreciating that I’m regaining my self-belief and back in the home stretch.
Knowing that I am playing a long game puts challenge into perspective. Knowing that I’ve ‘found my thing’ I want to do for many years to come means that if something feels hard or results are slow then I just have to push through.
When my clients face challenges I stick with them through the pit of doom knowing if they don’t give up (as many do) that they will come through to the other side.
It is the moat around your business that makes it hard for newcomers to cross. The pit of doom keeps at bay the people who are in it for the wrong reasons, or not ready for entrepreneurship. Founders should see this challenge as opportunity to prove their greatness. The book The Dip, by Seth Godin explains this well.
Building The Ask, I’ve found ways to make the trough feel easier or speed it along. From investing in coaching (to make sure I am aware of my blind spots and have a sparring partner for my thoughts), by delegating tasks that slow me down, and by continuing to promote and share what I’m working on.
When you’re a solo founder promotion can feel self-aggrandising or even embarrassing (why would anyone care!?) but it is an essential part of the journey I’ve chosen and it’s no coincidence that the more I show up authentically and talk about my work and my clients’ wins then the more my business benefits as a result.
Some of these 2021 highlights I hear you so kindly ask?
Becoming resident Business Expert and columnist for Found & Flourish
Delivering workshops and events for brands including Le Wagon, On Deck, Year Here and Bethnal Green Ventures.
Running an eight part company building newsletter series, hosting incredible guests from the founder/creator world.
Clients renewing their work with me including joining my first group programme in 2022 (1 space remaining if you’re curious)
Having a close friend and fellow Founder, Mel, support me on strategic projects
Trademarking The Ask® name.
Consulting for a VC backed startup
Being selected as Mindset Champion for Clementine App
Early signs of monetising this newsletter with sponsors and affiliates
These wins are possible in whatever line of work you’ve chosen to build your business in. I help my clients to get clarity of vision about what they are building, and promote it effectively so they can reach the next level. If 2022 is the year you want results you’ve not seen yet, let’s talk.
Thank you for indulging me in my reflections. I’ll be back in 2022 with strategies you can apply in your own businesses.
Ellen Donnelly, Founder + Chief Coach, The Ask.
Re-reading this right now; inspiring, Ellen, thank you and congrats on a great year (and incredible things to come)!