Let me come right out and say it…group programs aren’t for every business or every business owner. I have wellness pros come to me quite often questioning whether they’re ready to add a group program to their business. The truth is, there are certain key signs to look out for to know if you’re business is right for and ready for a group program. We’ll go over those together in this episode so you feel confident knowing when it’s the right time to create your own group program.
“The way to build that audience is by way of your group program. They are such a great way to attract the right people to your work.” – Shawn Mynar
“Having a group program does not mean that you don’t take one on one clients anymore.” – Shawn Mynar
“If you need or want more time in your life, please add a group program. It will change everything for you when it comes to time.” – Shawn Mynar
“It is so powerful, so fun, and cool to see as the creator bringing these people together that can all become friends and support each other. Honestly, if you need a reason to create a program, this will do it.” – Shawn Mynar
FREE Masterclass “How To Burnout-Proof Your Business With A Group Program” – shawnmynar.com/burnoutproof
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: (expect errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar)
Let me come right out and say it…group programs aren’t for every business or every business owner. I have wellness pros come to me quite often questioning whether they’re ready to add a group program to their business. And the truth is, there are certain key signs to look out for to know if your business is right for and ready for a group program. We’ll go over those together in this episode, so you feel confident knowing when it’s the right time to create your own group program. Let’s dive in. Hey, hey there, friends. Welcome back to the unstuck entrepreneur podcast. So happy to have you here. Thanks so much for joining me as always, today, we’re going to dive deeper into the topic of this group program business model that you all know by now, I am obsessed with.
And more importantly, I want to really give you some ideas on how to know if you and your business are even ready for one or if it’s even the right idea for you. Because it’s not necessarily the best business model for everyone. Before we get into it, though, let me remind you if you have yet to watch the free masterclass that I have out right now, just for you, then this is your friendly reminder to get in on that one-hour free training, I’ve made it as easy as possible for you to go and check out and to really absorb all of this information that I have for you. This is like a jam-packed training. I don’t know how I fit it into an hour. But I’m really impressed with myself that I did. So many action steps that you can take and apply to your business today. And so you can find an hour of your own free time and watch it when it works best for you. You can go in and schedule it, you can watch it on-demand, it is totally up to you, whatever works for your schedule. But if you are at all interested in adding a group program to your business, especially after what we talked about today, then it’s something you need to check out.
I will be sharing in this one hour, I’ll be sharing why creating your own program is the best way to burnout-proof your business by helping more people at one time by uncapping your income potential and creating more free time for yourself. And that’s really, the three key ingredients to this burnout-proof business is to be able to help more people make more money, all while having more free time and flexibility for yourself. Also, we’ll be sharing my simplified foolproof process to bring your program to life in as little as eight weeks. The six steps you need to go through in order to start from zero and go out to launch this program into the world in eight weeks, I’ll go through every single step.
I’ll also share how to simultaneously grow an engaged audience full of Perfect Match clients that can’t wait to enroll in your program once it’s ready, even if you’re starting from zero right now. So this is really important how to simultaneously grow an engaged audience. So that’s already we have so many keywords in this simultaneously engaged audience and Perfect Match clients. I’m sharing the whole process on how to do that in this training. And I’ll also tell you a little bit about my newest offering called the signature program bundle, which as of right now, I’m only sharing to those people that join this free training because I have a special introductory offer that won’t be out into the world for a very long time. So keeping it kind of hush hush and only sharing about it in this free training. So you can head to shawnmynar.com/burnoutproof to watch on-demand or to save your time slot whatever works for you. And I will have that linked up in the show notes as well so you can access it easily. But again, shawnmynar.com/burnoutproof you gotta get in before it’s gone.
All right, let’s move on to our quote for the day before we get into talking about the signs you’re ready or not ready for a group program. And this quote comes from Amy Poehler and says great people do things before they’re ready. We’ve talked about being ready a lot on unstuck entrepreneur, or really the myth of the Getting ready because being ready in air quotes I’m using is one of those things that is like a mind game that our ego plays with us, that makes it like this excuse to not move out of our comfort zone to not do something that’s uncomfortable or new or scary, or something we haven’t done before, we can always fall back on the excuse of I don’t feel ready. And so I really love what Amy said, and just great people do things before they’re ready, because it is in that space of not being ready and doing it anyway, where great things happen. That is really what’s underneath that quote.
Alright, so let’s get into, first of all, we’re actually going to talk about when you are not ready, I really only I tried, I really, really tried to come up with reasons why you wouldn’t be ready for a group program. And I only came up with two. And the first one is that you don’t want to take your business online. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have a brick and mortar business that you can’t do group programs in person. Absolutely, of course you can. And that is a great way to use your brick and mortar space and still create more freedom and flexibility in your business is to have a group come into your space and do the work together. Great use of that. But I would really say even in that case, you still would need to have an online presence for that group, like an online portal where they can get some extra lessons, extra guidance, some PDFs, some things to work on maybe a workbook or worksheets, something like that, I think it still is super beneficial to have an extra place for them to go besides just coming into your brick and mortar space, and only doing the program, then it’s just really nice to have this alternative, some things to do on their own. And I think we’re beyond the days of just handing out worksheets, like paper worksheets and workbooks. I think we’re just beyond that, as a community as a society.
And so having an online presence along with your in person work is important. And so if you don’t want to take your business online, if you want to remain an offline business, then having a group program in the capacity that I’m talking about today is probably not going to work for you. And then if you haven’t gotten certified in your field, your area of expertise yet, well, then you need to focus on getting certified first, and then you can be ready to have a group program. So focus on that. And in the process, I would say really see if there are some foundations that you’re learning that you could then put into a group program. So keep in the back of your mind. But let’s focus on getting certified first. I know I really did try to think of more reasons why you wouldn’t be ready for a group program. That’s all I got right now. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else. How about that. But let’s dive into what are some reasons that people think they’re not ready, that actually aren’t true. And this is what I see most commonly.
The first one is people think that because they haven’t taken enough or any one-on-one clients yet, then they’re not ready to host a group program. And there is no magic number of clients that you need to have taken before you’re ready for a group program. That’s just a something you’re absolutely making up in your mind, which is fine. And again, it’s one of those things kind of keeping us safe and out of the way of doing something scary and something we’ve never done before. And I think where it really comes from is that there’s this idea that you need to have a certain level of experience, and that for some reason, one on one clients are the way to get that experience. But really, I mean, if you think about it, if you’re looking for more experience, well then what better way than to get everyone together in a group and experience it all at the same time experience, their stories, their situations, what they need help with what they respond to what they don’t respond to doing that in a one on one setting.
First of all, it takes a long time, but there are a lot of nuances that you won’t ever experience or know until you get into a group program. So one on one is really aren’t a very efficient way time efficient way to get the experience that you’re looking for to suddenly feel like, Oh, I’m ready to do more. It really is one of those situations where you just need exposure to situations to new things. And that’s how you get your experience and what better way than to get everyone together in a group. And you’ll also get your experience of coaching a group at the same time look at that. The second thing that I hear a lot is that people think they need an audience, before you have a group program, like you need to have a certain number of followers or certain number of podcast listeners, something like that. But the reality is that the way to build that audience is by way of your group program, they are such a great way to attract the right people to your work and build that audience like you are going to get more Instagram followers.
When you have a group program, you’re going to get more people to listen to your podcast, when you have a group program, you’re going to get more people to watch your YouTube channel, when you have a group program, you’re going to get more people onto your website, when you have a group program, you’re going to get more people on your email list when you have a group program. So group programs are the way to build your audience because you actually have a specific direction, and topic that’s going to guide all of your content now. So if you’ve ever been in that place where you feel like you don’t know what to post, or what to share, or what to talk about, it’s simply because you don’t have like a specific enough topic or direction to guide you. And so having this group program already built will be the thing that really drives your content creation. And also, what’s the point of having an audience if you don’t have anything to offer them? Like the I don’t have an audience? So I can’t do XYZ yet is very flawed.
Because what are you going to do with that audience? What are you going to offer that audience? What’s the point of having it? Right? All right, the next reason why you would potentially think that you are not ready or you don’t have the right business for a group program is because you enjoy taking one on one clients. Let me remind you that having a group program does not mean that you don’t take one on one clients anymore, it can if you don’t want to take one on one clients. But if you like it, and you just don’t want to take as many or you want to be a little more discerning in who you take on as a one on one client, well, then that’s when a group program comes in. So you can have that group program going on. And then if someone needs additional help beyond what you do in the program, they can apply to work one on one with you. How cool is that, then you have a lot more freedom and flexibility in your one on one schedule as well, without it affecting your income at all. All right, now let’s move on to the clear signs that you are ready for a group program, I have eight of them.
Number one, you need or want more time. I think this is probably pretty obvious, but we’ll go through it anyway. Helping 20 people, each at their own time, is gonna take a lot more time than helping 20 people at one time. And if we’re really thinking about how the group program works, what’s actually happening is you’ve recorded the vast majority of the lessons and the content and the coaching and the teaching and everything they need ahead of time. So they are getting a ton of resources and teaching and lessons and coaching from you while you’re not doing anything and because you already did it. And so then helping those 20 people at one time, could actually look like having one group coaching call per month or every other week for six weeks or eight weeks. So you get a lot of time back when you add in a group coaching program. And so, like I said, if you need time, like maybe you have to be able to pick your kids up from school or be there for your family in some capacity.
Or maybe you do have another job or another commitment that you need to be available for or if you want more time if you value an open calendar and a flexible schedule so that you can kind of do what you want and need to do in each moment. If you need space To take care of yourself, you need some time to work on your own health or your own self care. I mean, that’s a real thing. And this was the case for me, because when I created my first group program, not only was I completely burnt out from my one on one clients schedule, but I was also going through treatment for mold illness, and I was feeling pretty terrible, I needed time for myself to like, literally take a nap, or go on a walk and get some fresh air or just like, heal, like I just needed some time to heal my body. And so that was a really helpful thing for me to add to my business at that time, so that I could have that space to heal myself. So if you need or want more time in your life, please my friend, add a group program, it will change everything for you when it comes to time. All right, next, number two, you need or want to make more money.
Again, this is pretty obvious, but let’s talk about it. Group programs are super easy to scale. And scale in the business world means that you can make more money, and in this case, help more people to which I know is so important to a lot of you, without it taking any more of your own time, or energy. So nothing really changes in your life in your schedule with what you’re doing in your business, even as your bank account grows. And even as the amount of people that you are reaching and helping and supporting grows, that is some cool stuff. So having 10 people in a group will be the same as having 20 people, or 30 people or 100 people. And I would say the biggest difference that it would take from you, as it grows, would be in the level of interaction that you have, if you have like a private Facebook group or slack group, you need to be in there a little more often answering questions. But then once you’re up until like 100 people going through your program at one time, and probably away sooner than that even you’re going to hire someone to help you in that community. So it still won’t take that much time from you. So really, I think that’s the biggest factor that would potentially change, when you start adding in more people to your group would be a little more time spent, you know, checking in on everyone, like I’d say, going from 10 minutes a day to 15 minutes a day to maybe 20 to maybe 30 minutes a day at the most.
That is what would change, everything else stays exactly the same. There is no more marketing that you need to do. There’s no more behind the scenes, there’s no like more paperwork or anything else that you need to do in order to scale. So if you want to make more money, it is highly possible it is going to happen, it’s kind of inevitable, because when you start your group program, so you start it, you get 10 people in that first time, well, then as you continue to talk about it, to create content around it, and to really hone in on this one thing that you do in your group program, then that audience builds. And you you know, you collect their emails, you have them listen to your podcast, or read your blog, or go to your YouTube follow you on social media. And then they’re ready for the next time you offer this program. And now you have more people to invite in. It just naturally happens as it progresses very much a snowball effect that goes on with your group program. All right, number three, and this one might surprise you guys. And by the way, my dog is snoring in the background. And so you’re just going to hear dog snoring for a little while she’ll get over it. She’s just having a dream. But anyway, just so you know, number three, you are not getting any, or very few one on one clients.
And this is specifically for those of you who are attempting to get clients you talk about it you do these free consultations to see if you’re a good fit for your clients. You’re offering all that stuff, but you’re not getting any or not very many. And believe it or not, then this is a sign that you might be better off with a group program because it could very well be a case where the people that you want to help like your niche your dream client They either don’t want to work one on one with someone, or they can’t afford to work one on one with someone, like, for example, if you’re kind of focusing on stay at home moms, there’s a pretty good chance that they don’t have their own disposable income, and maybe they are pressed for income. And so they may not feel like they can afford to work with you, one on one, but they still need that help, and they want that help.
So if you were to offer it in a group format, well, then that makes the price point lower for them, so they can work with you and get the help that they need. And this is one of the biggest benefits that I think people don’t realize. They’re just kind of in their bubble of thinking, like, is this the best thing for me, but also thinking about is this the best thing for your clients, and quite often it is because you can make it more affordable, you can make it more accessible to your clients. And they still get the same help the same transformation out of it. And they get to do it in a group of like minded people, which is so undervalued, like, I am going to talk about this later, too. But I cannot tell you how powerful it is, for your clients to do this work in a group of people that are also doing this work. It is so so beneficial for them, and so valuable. So there are things to consider beyond just like, is this the best thing for me? But also think about? Is this the best thing for your clients? And a lot of times the answer is yes.
So anyway, getting back to this, if you’re not getting any are very few, one on one and clients, it could honestly just be because a group program is a better offer for the people that you want to work with right now. So consider that. And then the next one, I think we’re on like number four or five, already lost track. Yeah, we’re on number four. If you have too many, one on one clients, I think this goes without saying, obviously, if you have too many one on one clients, please save your sanity, save your energy, save your time, and offer a group program to these people instead of putting them on a waitlist or turning them away or taking them and then really hating yourself for taking them on because you don’t have the time or energy. Save yourself, offer a group program. Next up number five, if working with one on one clients doesn’t excite you. If you don’t like or don’t want to do one on ones, there’s absolutely no rule anywhere in the universe of anything that says you have to if you are an introvert, if you’re an empath, if you are highly sensitive, and working with one person at a time is energetically draining or mentally exhausting, or you just don’t want to do it or don’t enjoy it, then don’t do it. It’s definitely not worth sacrificing your time, your energy, your joy, your happiness, your peace, whatever it is that it would be interrupting. It’s not worth it.
There are other options and our group program is the next place to still help those people and make an impact and do what you love to do without it impacting you in a negative way whatsoever. So if working with clients doesn’t excite you, then don’t, it’s that simple. And I will say I don’t know if anyone will relate to this. If you do, please message me and let me know. Because for me, this is so strange. But when I have things on my calendar, like I have to be at this place at this time, or I have to be doing this at this time. It disrupts my entire day. Like I don’t get anything done. If I have something at 10am. And then at 3pm My whole day is just shot like I can’t get anything done. Just I guess my brain doesn’t work that way or my energy doesn’t work that way. I don’t know what it is. But it really does hinder my ability to make progress and any other aspect of my life essentially, when I have things on my calendar, and for me that was a big reason why I wanted to switch to the group program and just have the one group call which at the time when I first started doing the fat burning female project was like once a month I did or a group call and that was it. That was really, really nice. So again, if any of this just is appealing to you, well then You’re ready for our group program. That’s really all it takes. But we’ll move on to the next one, which is if you have a framework or a system, or steps that you want to take every client through, this is important. I like to think of this as a foundational program.
And I can pretty much guarantee that every person listening to this who has gotten certified in their specialty, has a foundational program within them. And it’s probably pretty close to what you learned, when you were studying. It’s like, you know, there’s certain foundational steps that every client you work with will need to go through. For example, if you’re, say, doing like hormone balancing for women, well, everyone’s gonna need to do some work on their stress and their sleep, and their blood sugar, they’ll probably need a liver detox. So there’s these things that you can do with them as a group to get them started to kind of get them foundationally. Ready. And then if they need more after that, then they can apply to work with you one on one, or maybe you have a more advanced program after that. But there is that foundational program that you want to take everyone through. And if you are, or have worked with people one on one, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Because you get to a point where you’re doing the same things. And you’re saying the same things with every client, because there’s that foundational stuff that everyone needs. So you start there, and what better way to make it so that you don’t have to say the same things over and over again. But you can really get people the help they need in a much faster approach than with a group program that is that foundational piece, super, super helpful and really important, a really good way to get that work done with people.
Number seven, if you want to create a community, so you are ready for a group program, if you want to have a community, I mentioned this before, we’re going to talk about it again, your groups are going to become a community of like minded people, and they will all become friends, they will all become each other’s support system, it goes way beyond your program, especially if you have that private community aspect, like in a Facebook group, or a Slack channel, or whatever it is. It is so powerful, it is so fun and cool to see as the creator bringing these people together that can all become friends and support each other like it is so cool. So honestly, if you need a reason to create a group program, this will do it. This is all you really need. Just this powerful community of people that you will gather together that are like minded, they’re going through something similar.
That alone is the reason to create a group program in my mind. And then last sign that you are ready for a group program is if you want the aspect of creating content, and attracting people to your work to be easier, we talked about this before too. But let’s go over it. Again. Having a group program helps you build an audience, it helps you create content. And it is the thing that will build up your business 100% of the time. Because you now have this thing you have something super specific to talk about that is unique to you and your work, you’ve created something that will help your dream clients specifically. And when you have this as kind of like your anchor, or your guiding force, you’ll be able to create content around that that specifically relates to that program to what you do in that program, and who you help and how you help them specifically. And it just becomes way, way easier to create that content, whatever it is, be it on social media or on a podcast or on your website, whatever it is. And then the right people will be attracted to that content. And if they’re attracted to that content, that means that they are the right fit for your program. And as I He said, It’s a snowball effect. It keeps growing and growing and growing, as you stay true to your program to who you help specifically with that program to what you do specifically in that program, and you keep focusing in on that with your content, then it all just grows and builds naturally. And it all is so, so, so much easier.
So if you’re struggling with any of that in your business, well, then it’s time to look and think about why that is, what do you have as your anchor, and if you need something, then a group program could be the thing that will do that for you. So that does it for my list today. As you can see, I think the real message here is that pretty much everyone in a service-based type business that wants to help more people, without it taking more of your time and energy than a group program is really something for you to consider. As you can see, as you already know, I’m super passionate about it, it changed my life. So, so much. And I’ve seen it change so many other’s lives now to in so many ways, like the amount of people that you can help and attract and work with and change their lives. That is super cool. And of course the amount of money that you can make without it taking any more of your own time, the amount of time that you actually get back the amount of freedom and flexibility that you can have in your business. All because of this one change that is beneficial not just for you, but also for the people that you want to help they want this to they do. It is so valuable for them and you’ll be able to help more of them because it becomes more accessible to everyone. I will leave it at that before I get any further on my soapbox, I will get off and I will just give you one last quick reminder about the free masterclass burnout proof your business with your own group program that is going on now head over to shawnmynar.com/burnoutproof. I will link this up in the show notes and just spend an hour with me learning more about how to actually make this business model a reality in your business. You will get steps that you can take and apply into your business today to get started on your own group program. Alright, I will see you there and until next time, take care
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