1:1 BUSINESS COACHING CASE STUDY
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“Working with Kay helped me get my confidence back. It gave me a newfound belief in what I could achieve because it was something me and Kay worked on together. Ultimately, coaching got my business running again and I have had a flurry of new clients since.”
Tell us who you are and what you do?
I am Jack Christian. I work with small service businesses to win more customers through improved website design and visibility through SEO.
Why did you start your own business?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I had parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunties who all ran their own businesses. Growing up in that environment, I knew I wanted to run my own business too.
Post-COVID, I sensed it was time to gamble on myself. I’d started getting a few freelancing gigs during the lockdowns and as the world opened up again, I decided to go all in. In early 2022, I had enough freelance clients to quit my job and have been self-employed ever since.
What was the hardest thing about starting your own business?
The hardest thing for me was seeing beyond my skills and truly understanding and believing in the value I bring to my clients. All the vital parts of running a business stem from that. You can’t honestly market and sell your services without truly believing in them. There can be a bit of fake ‘til you make it, but long term you need to believe what you’re selling.
What inspired you to seek out Business Coaching?
I was always a sucker for a business podcast. I heard loads of people talk about the value of their business coach. That’s probably where the seed was planted.
About 18 months after moving to Australia, I hadn’t got my business where I wanted it to be. I was still living off income from my UK clients and feeling burnt out by working across time zones. I was struggling to position myself in a new market without much of a network. At that point, it became clear to me that I needed outside help.
What do you think makes a good business coach/mentor?
Broadly speaking a good coach is someone with the experience and knowledge to help people and the wisdom and emotional intelligence to know how to apply that knowledge to each client/mentee’s situation.
How did coaching help you in your business?
Primarily, having a coach behind me gave me a lot more confidence. Before coaching, I was floundering and constantly looking for new schemes to get my business moving and when none of them worked I was left with very little belief in myself.
Working with Kay helped me get my confidence back. It gave me a newfound belief in what I could achieve because it was something me and Kay worked on together. Ultimately, coaching got my business running again and I have had a flurry of new clients since.
What did coaching help you with what you didn’t know you needed?
I always thought of myself as someone who didn’t lack focus. Faced with a task, I could sit down and smash it out. Coaching showed me that whilst I absolutely do have that acute focus, when it comes to setting myself tasks, I noticeably lacked it. I would constantly get distracted by my latest hairbrained scheme to get my business going without seeing it through.
Coaching helped me filter out the noise and focus on the most important and effective tasks. It focused my mind on only the obvious tasks that could improve my business and give me the best chance of success.
When do you recommend people to get a business coach?
I would recommend a business coach to anyone facing a major crossroads in their business. I don’t think it matters if you are 10 years or 10 minutes into your business journey, having an outside voice is a truly valuable asset. That impartial, external viewpoint provides a valuable level of objectivity and clarity to whatever issues you might be facing.
What are you most proud of about your business/progress so far?
One crucial moment for me happened about six months ago. It was the first time I “fired” a client. For a long time, I lived in survival mode, taking any work I could get and putting burnout and poor mental health down to an occupational hazard.
Refunding their deposit and telling them we weren’t a good fit, was a turning point for me. It changed how I saw myself and was the moment I decided to run my business on my terms. Since then, I am far more intentional about who I work with and the value I place on my time and work.
Have you had to adapt your business with the rise of AI, if so how?
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am an AI-sceptic, but I am happy to sit in the middle of the AI adoption bell curve. I have a few friends working on AI-powered software who feed me information about the latest and greatest tools. I try to test out everything that gets recommended to me, but I am very protective of my process, so only a few tools end up being added to my workflow.
In terms of the work I do, the greatest change has been on the SEO side of things. Search engine results are becoming decreasingly important with AI Search on the rise, so I have had to learn more about AEO and adapt my services for that.
What’s your number one tip for someone looking to start their own business?
I’m going to cheat and say two.
First, is to keep excellent books. Know how much you’re earning. Know how much you’re spending. Always know where your money is. Personally, I love a spreadsheet, so this is super easy for me. For those less nerdy than myself, there are platforms out there that make this much easier. Finances are one of the greatest stressors as a business owner and the best way to ease that stress is visibility.
My second tip took me far too long to learn. Always keep things as simple as possible. You are far more likely to find joy and success in doing one thing really well, than ten things poorly. I can be a bit of a magpie and chase every shiny thing that catches my eye. Learning to stay focused on what I am doing and doing it well has brought far more rewards than chasing every new idea ever did.
How can people work with you and where can they find you?
I always direct people to my website (https://jackchristian.com.au) to find out more about me, what I do, and how to work with me.
I am also on Instagram but my presence on there comes in waves depending on how much client work I have and right now my socials have taken a back seat.
