How Our $4.5K/Month Coaching Business Helps Teams And Organizations Enhance Performance
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hey, I'm Ashley, owner, and operator of Quintessential Performance; the human performance agency. We are on a mission to build peak-performing individuals, teams, and organizations by unlocking potential & maximizing performance.
We have B2B & B2C services and solutions. The services we offer are consulting coaching, learning and development, and events. We work with organizations to deliver bespoke organizational development projects which last between 3-5 years.
From a solutions perspective, we only work in 3 ways with our coaching clients. We have a 2-day immersive empowerment experience where you will spend the entire time at one of our exclusive locations with your dedicated performance coach; leaving you with the focused mindset and action plan you need to achieve your goals.
Our other two programs are the performance Kickstarter; a 3-month intensive 1:1 coaching program with your coach, and the performance transformation; a 12-month engagement where we combine both immersion and intensity to transform your life and create the future you desire.
As a business, we started with a bang! Our first client was an FTSE100 pharmaceutical organization. That set the bar, which we have been pushing ever since. Our growth has been deliberately slow and steady to date; ensuring that we work with clients who align with our values & ethics. Our primary organizational development projects last from 3-5 years so we need to know that the client will stay the course and fully embed the changes that we deliver.
As we grow our client base, which is expanding in April this year to include a sports division that will cater to the number of professional sports teams who are keen to work with us, we are also growing our team of people around us. 2023 has already seen the first addition to our leadership team in the form of a Chief People Officer - Mark Woodhouse.
We are about to announce the appointment of the Chief Operating Officer of our new sporting division in the next few weeks. All in all, a very eventful Q1 so far with exciting times ahead for the remainder of the year.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I was born and raised in a very small town that had very limited prospects. I grew up in a tight-knit community surrounded by some very unsavory characters, to say the least.
At the age of 17, I looked around me and could see the way my life was going to end up, and did not want to hang around. I saw the military as a way out, a way of escaping the potential pitfalls that were facing me if I remained where I was.
Against my parent’s wishes, I joined the armed forces and spent the next 23 years traveling the world, conducting various challenging tasks and operations, meeting amazing people, and observing numerous environments and cultures.
During my military career, I have been immersed in peak performance. It was either performing within elite organizations, developing the future leaders of the Army, or conducting specialist operations globally.
Throughout my career, I noticed a constant theme. I was never the fittest or strongest physically, so why did I succeed where many “better” people failed? I learned that it was my performance psychology that enabled me to achieve goals that others would fail. Once I understood this aspect of performance, I spent many years studying those of us within the elite environment so that I could teach others the tools and techniques they would need to operate at the elite level in their context.
It was with this kernel, along with the desire to be my boss, that I embarked on the journey of discovery that would become Quintessential Performance. I knew the idea would work as there were so many evidence-based practices and case studies to uphold what I was saying, I just needed to productize the service so that I could meet the needs of the people who I wanted to work with in the real world.
To validate my ideas, I spent the first year doing a ton of pro-bono work. This provided me with two great outcomes; validation of my concepts and the development of my community.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
QP was built during a 6-month overseas operational deployment. I was deployed as a leader of a small specialist team which meant I had the luxury of my room. I put a ton of dry wipe boards on every surface that I could and went crazy, my room looked like a scene out of the film “A Beautiful Mind”.
Between operations and studying for my Masters, I would develop the initial ideas, discuss developments with my co-founder Duncan when I could, and slowly formalize exactly what we wanted to offer as a business. Duncan and I had met back in 2008 when we both worked at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the prestigious leadership development academy for Commissioned Officers in the British Army. It was during this time that we attended a performance coaching course together. It was an amazing program and I knew from that moment that he would be an amazing person to work with in the future. His calmness, diligence, and level-headed mind balance out my energy and together we create an unstoppable team.
With over 40 years of experience immersed in peak-performing teams between us, we knew exactly what we didn’t want to deliver, which helped us to design and develop our bespoke services and solutions.
I would highly recommend that you figure out what you really cannot do yourself, and pay someone to do it for you.
So, from the outset, we knew we were very good at developing peak performers, our history was evidence of that. What we needed was the ability to articulate what we can do to our potential clients, we needed our USP.
It took us a while but through hard work, trial & error, and feedback from other people in the industry; we developed our unique services & solutions. Our services are what we can do for our clients, which are;
Consulting - Borrow our brains.
Deep dive into the current state of your business and immerse your team in emerging areas of performance to gain an in-depth understanding of what it takes to drive relevance in today’s landscape.
Performance Coaching - Unlock your potential.
Real performance is going beyond what is expected; it is setting one’s own highest standards, invariably standards that surpass what others demand or expect, without compromising your health.
Learning & Development - Take control of your growth.
You unleash your full potential, and where you transform into the best version of yourself. It's not just about acquiring new knowledge and skills, it's about tapping into your inner fire and using that drive to propel you toward your goals. The world is constantly evolving, and the only way to stay ahead of the game is to continuously invest in yourself and your development.
Experiential events - Excitement meets opportunity.
At our exclusive events we connect you with like-minded individuals, where you hear from experts in your field, and where gain new insights and perspectives. They're not just about having a good time, they're about learning, growing, and advancing your personal and professional life. They're an invitation to step out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself, and come back stronger.
Keynote speaking - Interactive, educational & entertaining.
If you are looking to develop a sustainable peak-performing team or embed values-based leadership into your organization, then one of our keynotes will be just the ticket for you.
Our products are the bespoke tailored packages that we offer, which include;
Performance Coaching:
- Immersive Empowerment
- Performance Kickstarter
- Performance Transformation
Learning & Development:
- Leadership & Management
- Coaching & Mentoring
Designing and developing our solutions & services was easier said than done, especially when you are so passionate about the subject. We tended to over-engineer our initial products, to the point that when we asked for feedback, people didn’t understand what value we were delivering.
This is the point that we realized that we were not the customer and that we needed to design and develop specifically to meet their needs, and then add more of our unique value that we know they need.
Now, we are really happy with all of our unique services & solutions. Due to the nature of our design & development, all of our services can be tailored to suit the specific needs of our clients, regardless of the industry they are in. We have worked in many different contexts such as big pharma, engineering, biotech, cyber, insurance, and higher education.
Describe the process of launching the business.
As soon as I returned from my deployment, I registered the business and set about building what I thought we needed.
Like many aspiring entrepreneurs, I fell into the trap of designing and developing all of the things I thought we needed, rather than the most important thing we needed; clients.
Being a bit of a geek, I have designed and developed all of our online profiles from websites to social platforms. We wanted to bootstrap the business, which we did. It is a difficult process but it doesn’t cost much to get started.
I would recommend researching before you commit your hard-earned dollars to any service or tool you think you need. You may find you can get away without all of the jazz until you are in a financially viable place to spend on them.
In the beginning, all of the services that we used were separate and a bit clunky. They did what was needed but all of the work was time-consuming. A year ago, I was introduced to Kajabi which I loved immediately and moved over to in a heartbeat. Kajabi allows us to host many of our online requirements in one space. We run our website, email marketing, online products, a weekly blog, CRM, and private membership groups all in one place which makes it far more efficient than dislocated services.
I would highly recommend that you figure out what you really cannot do yourself, and pay someone to do it for you. For me, this was an accountant and accounting software. I did not like the idea of getting a large fine from the tax department so I did my due diligence and interviewed a few local accountants until I found the right fit. We are still with the same accountant and their advice has been great thus far!
Other main costs for our company are:
- Website
- Software (Zoom, Google Workspace, Loomly, LinkedIn)
- Business Insurance
- Marketing
Be diligent as you begin, there are great free tools out there to utilize until you find the one that saves you time, which is then worth investing in.
With the brand in mind, we wanted to be seen as the new kids in town. Disrupting the current trends around leadership and team development. You cannot learn true leadership, or develop a peak-performing team by sitting in a room and listening to someone talk through a PowerPoint presentation. We all learn from taking ACTION. Anyone who becomes one of our clients signs up to do a lot of work. No external consultant or coach is going to do the work for you.
We all know the importance of social media in today’s climate so we try to ensure that we post frequently across all of the current platforms. We have profiles across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Our posts try to bring value to our community daily. Having never worked in marketing, the journey of posting items onto the interweb has been a learning evolution.
Like many I’m sure, we went about things in the wrong manner initially, probably too sales-focused without raising awareness of the brand. I have been following Gary Vaynerchuk since 2016 and have learned so much about the right way to develop a brand long-term, his guidance has been very influential in how we now communicate with our community over social. We hope to bring an abundance of value to everything that we put out into the World.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Initially, I made all of the rookie mistakes. Too much time was spent trying to do what I thought should be done, ads, etc.
Now, to attract and retain customers we have two strategies. One, the most important, is long-term brand development with our marketing strategy. I’m not gonna pretend to be an expert marketer, I found those people online and copied what was working for them. Google will teach you everything you need to know. I pay attention to what Gary Vaynerchuk is doing, as I see him as one of the best in the current climate.
Sales on the other hand are the ones I have struggled with the most. I don’t think I’m a natural salesperson. I used to sell sweets and crap as a kid trying to make a few extra bucks to spend but never really studied the art. Sales are one of the areas that I am constantly learning, adapting, and ensuring that I remain conscious of the fact that if I don’t sell, then there is no company. The first big hire we will probably make will be a sales team.
You are not the customer, as much as you want your opinion to matter, the opinions of your target market are far more important.
Some of the strategies we use to develop our reputation are to be consistent with the messages we want to share with our community, across all of the platforms we have access to. We share our knowledge, through stories and experiences in our weekly newsletter. We post content daily across our main socials.
The lesson we have learned is to remain consistent, add value to the community, and become the brand that people will look to for human performance development needs. Currently, we are working with several prestigious Universities within the UK, a global engineering company, and a luxury hospitality brand. All of our clients have come to us from recommendations and referrals. This means that we must be doing something right, and the people who are referred to us are already seeking external counsel.
“Referrals are the coinage of our realm.” - Alan Weiss
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We have been profitable since day 1. Now I’m not saying sitting in a private jet sipping mojitos is profitable but we have remained in the black, which is something we are proud of. I think the fact that we did bootstrap the business has made us very conscious about every penny we spend.
We are a service-based agency, so our costs are relatively low at the moment, which means our profit margins are good. This allows us to re-invest in innovating our services and solutions, more marketing, and more money spent on client acquisition.
2023 is a year of growth for us. The previous years have been testing the water, proving we were worth someone spending their hard-earned money on. We have done that now, tightened up our operations, and have already begun to grow our team.
We have brought in Mark as our Chief People Officer, who will be the lead for our internal and external people development programs as well as product design and development.
Our initial years were spent on developing our corporate clientele, we are now also expanding operations into professional sports and youth development.
We are a UK company but have always had global aspirations. 2023 will see us expand our reach into the United States and the Middle East regions.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Ahh mistakes, my best friend. I have always had the attitude of feedback over failure. What I mean by that is, we never lose, we either win or we learn. This is good because I have made so many mistakes along the way!
One of the biggest mistakes of 2022 was a lack of due diligence with a potential partnership which led to an entire year of time and energy wasted. We are a massive believer in collaboration over competition, and we partner with some of the leaders in the industry.
One of the best partnerships we have made is with a data analytics company; which enables us to use data to make performance-related decisions with our clients. The other great partnership is with an exclusive hospitality company that provides us with the most amazing venues to run our immersive programs.
Covid-19 was something totally out of our hands, but fundamentally critical to our success. We made a conscious decision not to market or sell any of our services at this time. Instead, we became a part of a community that offered safe spaces (online) for leaders, C-suite execs, and practitioners to share their issues and concerns, whilst offering guidance where we could.
I firmly believe that this act was not only the ethical thing to do but subsequently resulted in getting two very big contracts a few years down the line.
Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Our favorite platforms are:
- Google Workspace - our business runs on Google
- Kajabi - expensive but a one-stop place for your website, marketing, sales, CRM, blog, online courses, community spaces, etc. You can use this link to get an extended 30-day free trial
- Zoom - still the best for online facilitation in my mind
- Signal - secure messaging
- QuickBooks - Accounting
- Calendly - good but we might shift to organic Google tools soon
- Loomly - social media scheduling tool
- Social media - LinkedIn, FB, Insta, and Twitter work well for us
- Canva - design tool
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I’m a bookworm so there are many to choose from, if I had to pick the three that have been the most influential to me then they would be;
- Who moved my cheese? - Dr. Spencer Johnson. I first read it in 2009 when I was in the midst of a challenging work environment. This book changed my entire perspective on life.
- The E-Myth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber. A must for any aspiring business owner or entrepreneur before you start to plan.
- The score takes care of itself - Bill Walsh. The leadership and management standard.
I also utilize podcasts for when I’m on the road or traveling, making the most of my N.E.T. (no extra time) time. My favorites for the past few years have been;
- Ask Gary Vee - Gary Vaynerchuck. Everything you need to know about marketing, brand development, and sales.
- The School of Greatness - Lewis Howes. Fantastic interviews packed full of value.
- The Ed Mylett Show - Ed Mylett. A source of value from amazing interviews.
- The Tony Robbins Podcast - Tony Robbins. The Godfather of human development.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Simple, just take ACTION.
Quit wondering, procrastinating, and trying to perfect what you have to offer; just do something. Once you begin, you will get feedback, either from yourself, those around you, or your customers. Listen to the feedback, validate it, iterate, and take more action.
The most common mistake I used to make, sometimes still make, and that I see others making is trying to perfect the product or service in your head rather than pushing out your minimum viable product.
You are not the customer, as much as you want your opinion to matter, the opinions of your target market are far more important. Get something out and see what the market says.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are always on the lookout for amazing people to either collaborate with or join our team. We are firm believers in collaboration over competition.
We partner with market leaders within specific contexts and add our unique human performance solutions to offer a truly bespoke experience where people can get both contextual development and the tools to understand the psychology of performance.
Anyone wanting to join our team can reach us here.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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