Why You Need Coaching Genie for Effective Group Coaching

Many coaches struggle with managing their group coaching programs due to the challenge of piecemealing different tools together and the overwhelm of technology. Finding the right tools for effective group coaching can make a big difference in streamlining the process and enhancing the overall experience for both coaches and clients.

In this interview with Marc Mawhinney of Natural Born Coaches, I discuss my journey and experiences with group coaching. We talk about the common hurdles coaches face and how the right tools can help scale group coaching programs smoothly.

 

If you’re looking for insights on making your group coaching programs more efficient, you’ll find the full transcript of our conversation below.

Marc Mawhinney: Alrighty. Hey guys, it’s Mark here. And I have with me a familiar face, Milana Leshinsky. Milana was on my podcast and she’s been on a few times and she’s been in the jungle probably since close to the beginning. I think Milana or it’s been very

Milana Leshinsky: Very early on.. Yes. Yeah.

Marc Mawhinney: The early days. Milana also started a great platform for people when it comes to group coaching and lots of stuff there. It’s called Coaching Genie. Which I definitely want you guys to check out, but we’re going to talk about group coaching. When should you be ready for it? When do you jump in? So thanks for stopping by.

Milana Leshinsky: Thanks for having me, Mark. Always love that. The jungle. It is a jungle, isn’t it?

Marc Mawhinney: It’s a jungle out there for sure. Some days more than others. Some days you’re in the thick of it. Other days, not as bad. Anyone who doesn’t know what Coaching Genie is, can you tell us more about that?

Milana Leshinsky: Yeah, so Coaching Genie is a coaching platform ideal for group coaching, but you could also use it for one-on-one coaching. It’s great for people who love to create resources, content, tools, worksheets, videos, audios, like all of those coaching resources that we usually create for our clients. They have to go somewhere.

And so Coaching Genie is loved by coaches who have built a library of their own coaching resources and can now easily share it with clients. But then it also has all of the features that you need when you run group programs. So when I first started with my coaching programs, I was just piecemealing everything.

There was no platform out there. And so just, you know, about five years ago, Coaching Genie was born out of my own personal need as a coach. And now it’s used by you know, hundreds of coaches who have been searching for something very simple, but also something that gives them the structure to create those coaching programs and group coaching experiences for their clients.

Marc Mawhinney: I love it because how many times have we looked for a solution and we grumble and just try different things out of this isn’t quite right and not many people actually start their own SAAS or their own platform or anything for it. You actually said no, screw it. I’m going to create what I need and you knew that lots of other coaches needed it.

You’ve run over a hundred group coaching programs in the past. So this isn’t something just rolled out of bed and try to figure out.

Milana Leshinsky: Yes. I mean, I already knew what I needed as a group coach and there was not a single platform out there that offered all of those things in one place. And so I ended up Frankenstein, my programs out of all those pieces of software.

And I would often hire a developer from India, from Russia to put something together for me, just for every single program that I used to do. And I asked myself, how does everybody else do? Because I have a computer background. I actually have a computer information systems degree enough to understand how to communicate with developers, but how does everybody, how all the other coaches are doing that and everybody was piecemealing.

So that’s why I thought there’s got to be a better way, you know, like in that commercial.

Marc Mawhinney: I was mentioning it before that a common objection I hear from coaches about starting group programs, why they’re waiting is that they’re just not ready. I think they feel like, well, I need another year under my belt working with one on one.
And they’re probably a little intimidated because instead of one person, there could be six, nine, whatever people that they’re working with. So I know your opinion is probably similar to mine that you shouldn’t wait. But can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Milana Leshinsky: Actually, I’m probably going to have a slightly different opinion just because of my background.

So I was a music teacher in Ukraine. That was my background before all the computer and business and internet stuff. As a music teacher, I was immediately drawn to working with groups because that’s what I was trained in is to work with a group of people, kids or adults. Doesn’t matter. So I actually started with groups before I ever did one on one coaching.

To me, that felt like a more of a natural progression. It is then that clients would say, well, I love the group program. Do you offer one on one coaching? And I realized like that’s a great way to get private clients if I wanted to get long term year long clients from these group programs, because they’re less expensive.

People get to experience you, fall in love with you, trust you. Enjoy whatever you create for them and implement. And as people implement, then they want, then they start experiencing success and they want to continue. And now they see you as their mentor and the person they want to come to and lean into.

So I would say anytime is a great time for group coaching. When you feel drawn to it, both financially, but also emotionally, like I love working with groups. I like facilitating. I like the other pieces that come in addition to coaching, there are other things that happen when you work with a group.

So we can talk more about that as well.

Marc Mawhinney: It’s a different energy. Cause I’ve run a number of, not a hundred plus, but I’ve run some groups and I enjoy my one on ones and, but I do find that’s a different energy with groups. You know, usually it’s six people or so that I have in mind in there. And what I like is there’s different styles of group coaching if I remember right you’re a little more hands on. You mentioned implementation. Is that right?

Milana Leshinsky: Yeah, I mean, I care like I really want to know that my clients are implementing because otherwise, it just feels like i’m taking money from people and not getting them anywhere.

So I really do want to know, What are you working on? Are you doing the homework? Are you completing the work that we discussed on the call? And where are you getting stuck? What’s in the way? Like, I like to know all these things. And honestly, before Coaching Genie, I didn’t have a way to do that in the group environment because everybody’s working on their own thing.
I didn’t know what they were working on, what challenges they were experiencing. And as a result, I would come to the group coaching call without a very clear idea about what we’re going to do today and what we’re going to talk about and what the call is going to look like. Now I just have to look through the weekly prep forms that everybody completes really quick and I pick out the questions that they are asking and challenges that they’re reporting and I’m ready to go within 15 minutes every week.

Yeah, I’m ready for the call.

Marc Mawhinney: That must be a better feeling going into the call that you’ve got that prep work, but there’s also, I know, a potential journaling component that Coaching Genie has and other stuff as well .

Milana Leshinsky: The journals are super important. Like when we were adding client journals to Coaching Genie, I didn’t know how people were gonna use them.

I assume that it would be just for journaling, but a lot of coaches who use Coaching Genie, they use them for homework. So, and myself included, you know, whenever I have a piece of training and there is a little workbook for people to complete to implement that training. I want to see what they wrote.

I want to see what the result of the implementation. So I asked them to upload the workbook right into their client journal and I can give feedback if I choose to right inside the journal, like all the communication happens through the journal. So a lot of customers have replaced that chaotic email communication like with Gmail or any other email service they use, they took all of their communication now into Coaching Genie through the use of journals.

But you can use it for clients to capture reflections and insights and progress, homework submission, communicating, supporting them, nudging them throughout the week. So that’s a really cool way to really add value to your coaching program. That’s the thing that I love about using Coaching Genie is it adds value to my programs.

It really sets up the experience, the container that I was not able to accomplish in any other way until now.

Marc Mawhinney: You’re doing a training around group coaching, and I’m wondering, can you give us a sneak peek, what you’re going to be teaching on that training?

Milana Leshinsky: Totally. So I, you know, I talk about taking a leap into group coaching and to group programs but this training is going to be great, even if you are already doing group coaching, because I actually share with you the framework that I use that allows me to run , to scale to larger groups, like I have groups with 12 people, but I just completed a group of 42 people.

And it didn’t feel like something that I had to cope with or like keep up with because I’ve got all the tools to be able to scale my groups. I’m basically going to teach how to do group coaching because if you’ve never done a group program, as a coach, I want to share with you that coaching in a group is only different from one on one coaching in the respect of that it’s not just about the coaching. It’s about designing an experience for a group of clients.

Coaching is just 20 to 30 percent of it, but there is also some content that you may be wanting to create or share or resources or some kind of like a tangible tool or a blueprint that brings everybody on the same page because it’s a group and you want them to feel like they’re aligned with each other and with the program.

There’s also the aspect of community. So you facilitate a community and that can be done in many different ways as well. And then the coaching where you focus on the implementation. And I like to say it’s a 30, 30, 30, you know, content coaching community.

But the ratio really depends on your personality. I tend to teach more because I do have a teaching background. If you are doing, well, I’m coaching right now and that’s your primary thing, you’ll probably coach a little bit more and then the community and content will be secondary for you. So it’s definitely easier to do than you think, but you do need to have some knowledge and experience, like, do the first group to feel the energy of the group and how you.

You know, like I watch everybody’s faces in a group. I’ve learned to see what everybody is doing and to kind of like almost I’m here and I’m there and I’m everywhere. I just, I love that idea of being able to facilitate a group conversation.

Marc Mawhinney: Yeah, you could tell if someone gets an aha or if someone’s stuck, you can, and they may not be verbalizing it, but there’s just something there that you’re, you can then go to them.

Milana Leshinsky: I was going to say, what’s really cool about using Coaching Genie with a group program is that some people might be too shy or introverted or uncomfortable speaking up in the group, but they will use their journals and they’ll use their weekly prep forms to let me know. And everybody else in the group can see it as well if they make it public, because there’s a private option, a public option, and everybody else can support them.

So everybody, regardless of the size of the group, feels seen, heard, acknowledged, appreciated, taken care of.

Thanks so much for having me Mark.

Marc Mawhinney: Thanks for watching guys. Any questions pop them down below. Bye. Bye.

 

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