Coach Fatigue: When Integrity Gets Lost in the Coaching Chaos

Helping good coaches reclaim credibility and stand out

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Each time a new paid subscriber enrolls, I personally email them to ask about their top business challenges. This particular response was different—unlike the usual “I’m struggling to get leads” replies I often receive.

When I visited her Substack, I was pleasantly surprised to find a thought-provoking think piece on the current state of the coaching industry—and it deeply resonated with me. I know many of you will also be able to relate.

In today’s post, I’ll share excerpts from my subscriber’s article and reflect on some of the reasons her message hit home for me. Hopefully, this sparks a productive conversation that helps restore integrity within the coaching landscape.

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Stay tuned for part 3 of How to Make $100,000+ Coaching Without Ads—which will be available following Monday, 10/13. That week, you’ll learn my proprietary webinar framework that converts.

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[Excerpt] "Maybe it’s just my algorithm, but I am SICK of seeing ads for coaches coaching coaches- each claiming how they went from zero to £2.5 million in 18 months."

I’m particularly over those ‘coaches who coach coaches,’ too—who distort impressionable minds with smoke, mirrors, and half-truths (and sometimes flat-out lies) about what it really takes to make money online. It makes my job harder.

When these false narratives spread—without context about the behind-the-scenes schemes or tactics that most of us could never access—it warps the truth. Personally, my attitude is: believe none of what you read and only half of what you see.

Is the majority lying? Probably. But on the other hand, there are coaches who’ve experienced genuine success—and sometimes in shorter time frames than usual.

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[Excerpt] "Instagram is thick with programs teaching online coaches how to grow through stories, reels, and posts, evergreen offers, generic PLR products to save time in your coaching program creation, how to make sales feel less sleazy, even coaches offering programs on social media about how to grow your practice without social media (hello, they’re still promoting their products on social media!)."

I hate Instagram 😅 That’s exactly why I built my business on LinkedIn—and now, I’m here on Substack. To me, Instagram became more about the “look” than the real work.

I also believe that two things can be true at once. The truth usually lives somewhere in the middle.

For example, I once had an amazing coach who taught me how to sell in a way that actually felt good. His name is Avery Ford—you’ve probably never heard of him. He’s a low-key beast. He doesn’t have a big online following, but he’s been the visionary behind some of the biggest 7- and 8-figure coaching brands out there.

Fortunately, I hired him before he started working exclusively with the rich 😂—and he still loves working with me.

I share that because I’ve seen both sides firsthand: people who’ve grown using social media, and others who’ve done it completely without it—through referral networks, cold outreach, webinars, masterminds, or other grassroots methods I teach behind the scenes. Much crucial context is left out that claim—building a business without [relying] social media—which has me thinking about how I position this myself.

I particularly like social selling, but it’s not a method I rely on—or recommend others rely on exclusively. Real growth comes from a mix of intentional, proven strategies, not just chasing social media trends. For me, sales and marketing are a unified effort, and while social selling makes up at least 70% of my strategy, that doesn’t mean it as to be this way for you and your business. The key is finding the tactics that feel aligned, get you excited to chase business, and fit your strengths, your audience, and your business goals.

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[Excerpt] "It’s ‘How to get high-ticket clients through low-ticket sales’, complicated funnels, and ‘six-figure coaching blueprints’ by someone who just discovered journaling the week before."

I can’t argue with you there… “by someone who just discovered journaling the week before” — that line took me out 😂.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those strategies. For me, the real issue is exactly what you said: “by someone who just discovered…” — meaning they haven’t lived it long enough to truly teach it.

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[Excerpt] "... emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth, once deeply personal and often slow, is packaged, marketed, and sold as a product. Healing has become a brand, a business model, or a performance, rather than a lived, messy, nonlinear experience."

I hate that healing work has become so productized—that people now feel they have to attach an ROI to every investment in their personal growth, or that marketers feel pressured to do the same. I genuinely hope that healing culture evolves into something that money simply can’t buy.

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[Excerpt] "I don’t want to coach coaches, I want to coach the people who cry in their car, question their worth, and write poems they never show anyone because that is where the transformation is."

And you don’t have to feel pressured. Most coaches who teach other coaches started out in a different niche, found business success, and then began helping others replicate their results—or at least, that’s how it should work.

For example, before coaching coaches, I was a career coach for four years. Coming from a national recruiting firm and understanding recruiter operations, I taught job seekers how to successfully navigate the hiring process. I’ve also built operations and love driving revenue—practical work that directly impacts the bottom line. But eventually, I realized that while I enjoy this kind of work, it’s not my true calling. That’s why coaches like you are needed.

Your coaching solves a unique problem. Believe me, there’s a host of soul-aligned clients who share your sentiments and deeply understand the value of your work—they won’t measure it solely by ROI or performance metrics.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there are coaches—myself included—who still rely on mentors and coaches to stay ahead of the business curve and navigate the mental challenges of entrepreneurship. Every part of this work matters.

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[Excerpt] "Healing as a product shows up with quick-fix promises to “heal your trauma in 30 days”, “unlock your feminine power with this £997 course”. One-size-fits-all frameworks that ignore nuance, timing, and personal context."

LOL… cringe 😬. It even reads cringe, doesn’t it? But I’ve seen it before, and you can spot it a mile away.

This is why you’re different—you see through the BS. You have integrity and real experience. Those other people? They don’t get real results, and eventually, they’ll be exposed.

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[Excerpt] "It doesn’t help that the coaching industry is largely unregulated. Which basically means that anyone can become a coach, which is both liberating and dangerous."

I’m with you—both liberating and dangerous. On one hand, the barriers to entry were low enough that I could enter the field without direct coaching experience, or certication training. Fortunately, I did the right thing and never took advantage of others.

I can’t say the same for many others. For every one genuine coach, there are ten sleazeball coaches. That imbalance has compromised the landscape, allowing unethical coaches to outshine the good ones. It’s a harsh world we live in…where the good guys often finish last.

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[Excerpt] "I hope my coaching work is the antidote. I coach from lived experience, not borrowed scripts. I honour emotional timing and create bespoke frameworks for transformation in alignment with my client’s own rhythms of life."

Love it. That’s what coaching really is—deeply personal and unique to each client’s own story and life. I hope your coaching reflects that, just as mine does. Keep doing the good work and let the results compound over time.

At some point, those other folks will fall off script, and people will see the truth in your work—I genuinely believe that. What concerns me, though, is a climate and society that equates popularity with credibility.

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[Excerpt] What didn’t make sense to me, was that a newly qualified coach who had yet to take on any clients was being recommended by his coach to go into the niche of being a coach’s coach. My immediate thought was that it was a cop-out, an easy path to money rather than service, transformation or lasting change.

Yeah—that’s insane. To me, it was never really about helping others, but about the money. I won’t lie: once people caught wind of the coaching field, with its lack of regulations and a vulnerable world ripe for influence, it attracted a lot of sleazeballs.

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[Excerpt] Healing isn’t a product; it’s a remembering. And I am here for the ones who are ready to remember.   

I look forward to following along on your journey and reading more thought-provoking write-ups.

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