Scaling a Coaching Business From 1:1 to a Community

How the Expert Author Academy became a vibrant, peer-to-peer community experience.

Centering community in a coaching business unlocks a magical new level to your life as a coach and human.

Through BACB, I get to witness coaches and course creators go from completely overwhelmed to joyful and proud leaders in control of their work and life when they choose to build community into their business. It’s the best!

Kelly and Cameron are a great example of this. They are a married couple and together they run the Expert Author Academy. The business is built around Kelly’s expertise as a coach helping authors publish non-fiction books.

I first met Cam and Kelly a little over a year ago when they joined BACB. They were stressed. Kelly’s schedule was so packed with 1:1 coaching sessions that her and I didn’t even get a chance to meet until a few months after she’d joined.

At a recent Office Hours call in BACB, they updated us on what they’ve been able to change in the business in the last year. They’ve built a vibrant community of authors, exceeded their revenue goals in their last launch, and more importantly aren't stressed and overbooked. They’re calmer and more in control of their time and energy.

They’ve been able to build a business that generates value for members whether or not they are in the room.

They’re even currently planning to take a year off to travel the world, while continuing to support authors via the community.

I interviewed Kelly about the transition to a more community-centered business and loved her super thoughtful answers. I hope her reflections bring you lots of inspiration.

The questions were mine, and the answers are Kelly's direct answers. I bolded sentences that I found particularly powerful.

What was the process of moving from offering more 1:1s to centering community in your offer?

As a book coach and editor, my reputation has grown considerably through referrals and recommendations, which on the one hand is absolutely fantastic. But on the other; has its risks. I enjoy being high-touch and involved in all of my authors’ journeys but it’s difficult to scale the 1:1 coaching model in a sustainable and fulfilling way, without burning out or risking the quality of what I provide.

Working out ways to ensure I have the right energy and focus for my clients, colleagues, family and friends is the number one driver in my business. Everything is modeled around how I can be at my best for everyone to help them be at their best, too.

We wanted to bring my skills together with my husband’s (Cameron) extensive online and customer experience know-how to make us a better team and have a shared business we could build together to support our lifestyle.

When we first started, we had the classic course and Facebook group that all the digital course builders and memberships promote. Yet something didn’t feel “quite right” about this. It felt like we were playing an arbitrary numbers game; that it was about chasing “endless growth” to make it work. That didn’t feel good.

A pivotal moment in our business was asking a trusted colleague of ours to interview our clients, originally for testimonials, but it turned into something much bigger and more valuable. While we were expecting people to talk about the value of the structure and accountability, the how to write a book, their feedback told us a completely different story. What came back was things like, “I feel a sense of belonging here”, “this is a safe space”, “I feel connected to everyone”, “there is no judgment”.

This was a catalyst for us to completely redefine our business and business model to work out how to deliver better outcomes for our authors through experiences that help facilitate this because at its heart, writing a book is a very vulnerable space to be in as an author!

What our community is now is a peer-to-peer learning and support experience as much as it is about receiving education and accountability from me on writing a meaningful and purposeful book. The community has become a repository for everything I know and do, and all of the authors I have ever worked with, as well as any trusted connections I have ever had in the publishing industry (which are incredibly hard for authors to get access to).

Our authors share and support each other when it comes to launching their book, for example, Alison Coughlan, Verena Voelter, MD and Sharee Johnson are all healthcare writers and business owners, and teamed up to leverage each other’s networks. They even ended up doing a joint book launch and series of LinkedIn lives that ran for about a year together. Our authors lean on each other’s networks, appear on each other’s podcasts, build each other’s profiles and so much more. This extensive reach beyond “just the book” is something we want to develop and harness further in the group.

Verena, Alison and Sharee teaming up on LinkedIn.

I know that the program was initially centered on content. How does it work? Is it an evergreen linear course? More like a library of resources? How do people tend to go through the content?

The course component or curriculum is a series of on-demand videos and lessons, similar to BACB. To support authors through that curriculum (planning, writing, editing, marketing their book), they come to Open Book Coaching to plug in their learning gaps, ask questions, and work through roadblocks. This is what moves them forward.

Although the program is 12 months initially, this is designed around busy periods. They can dip in and out as they need, they’re not expected to “do everything” or come to every session. There is no shame if you get busy, and fall off the wagon. We want people to feel like they can just pick up where they left off with renewed motivation. No guilt trips.

When you build a community, you’re serving more people than you're able to one-on-one. I always say that this requires the community leaders to de-center themselves and scale community leadership. I think your mentorship program is a great example of this. Can you tell us about it?

Everything we do is an experiment to see how it works and how people respond. So this year we experimented with mentors and member-led sessions, and it’s been a game changer. I have a handful of “graduates” who mostly have published their books (though I also see value in having those who are not quite there “yet”).

So in exchange for staying in the group for free for the year, they welcome in new members, help host group co-writing sessions, spread the good word about us with their network (which is natural, not forced) and come along to our free workshop when we open the next intake, so that potential members can hear direct from them about their experience writing a book and being part of our community.

Mentors helping with launch.

How do members feel about contributing in this way?

I’ve actually got a waitlist for mentors so I guess that’s a good sign! What we have seems to be heading towards a version of decentralized leadership.

I see my role as a facilitator, a connector and as someone who can create an environment for great ideas and people to thrive. Our members genuinely want to help, give back and support because it’s in their best interests to do so. I think they epitomize that we’re successful when we’re successful together. What you put into the community, you will get back tenfold.

Can you talk a bit about what centering community in the business has enabled for you personally? Both you and Cameron seem so much more centered and relaxed!

I have fallen in love with my business on a whole other level. It’s given us energy, and shared purpose and direction between myself and Cameron. The business is no longer built just around me. It is a shared journey that we are on, we are creating, together with others.

We’ve been working towards taking a year off to travel the world with our kids and everything we’re doing in the business is to help set us up for that, while still maintaining our membership, our results, our connection and delivering great outcomes for everyone involved. Talk about exciting!

What has been your experience in BACB? What did you learn and how has it helped?

When we joined BACB we already had a community, but it needed a revamp.

You learn by doing in BACB. We’ve been able to model some of what Tatiana experiments with in her group, in our community (which is exactly what her intention is). For example, we started running Office Hours, which has now morphed into our version called Open Book Coaching.

But the biggest benefit for us has been being able to reach in and search for help on specific issues we are tackling. Just the other day I asked for advice about hiring a community manager. Equally, it’s given us the confidence to “zig when everyone else in the business world is zagging”. (This has become a motto for our business.) These things that often don’t “quite feel right”, like free Facebook groups, they usually feel icky for good reason and we love listening to, and getting to try a different way of being in business that feels more human, more fulfilling and rich for everyone involved.

Thank you to Kelly for being so generous with these reflections!

If you’re a coach or online course creator and community is something you’ve been curious about, I hope the example from the Expert Author Academy sparks ideas and helps you explore all the possibilities community enables.

And if you want some guidance as you explore, we have 2 upcoming Masterclasses to help...

If you’re already a coach, course creator or online business owner and want to explore community businesses…

Advanced Masterclass: Centering Community to Boost Your Online Business (early-bird tickets still available!)

If you’re just getting started building community, this is an updated version of our masterclass for beginner community builders…

Masterclass: Starting a Community Business from Scratch (limited # of free and early-bird tickets still available!)