Do only business coaches make money? Nope. Welcome to a brand-new season of the Coach Pony Get Paid to Coach podcast! This season, we're going deep on five wildly different coaching niches (that AREN’T business coaching) to prove you can get paid to coach — and design the life you want — in almost any niche, from 7 figures to part-time.
In episode 2, Coach Pony founder Christie Mims talks with Tre Balchowsky, a public speaking and storytelling coach in the heart of the Bay Area tech world. Tre helps founders and executives turn complex tech ideas into stories that move people to act. Her clients have closed funding rounds, built loyal audiences, and hired the talent they needed to grow, often by learning what a story actually is and how to tell one with confidence.
Here's the twist: Tre charges $13,000 for a TED-style talk engagement, has landed a $50,000 corporate contract, and gets 99.9% of her clients by referral. She's barely on social media, and her clients often don't want anyone to know they hired her. She shares exactly how she structures her offers, what she charges companies vs. individuals, and the three circles of networking that keep her calendar full.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
–How Tre found her niche in tech, and why founders and executives pay well for help with high-stakes talks
–Her business model: corporate and conference work (40–50% of revenue) plus 1:1 coaching (50–60%)
–Her pricing: $13,000 for a TED-style talk engagement, and why she never goes below $1,000 per person or $7,000 for a new corporate client
–Why selling to companies is different: the person who pays isn't the person you coach, so you speak to two sets of pain points
–Her three circles of networking: referrers, community owners, and the people who'll actually hire her
–Why many of the most successful coaches are invisible online, and why your algorithm hides them from you
–Her biggest early mistakes: bold assumptions without market research, and "death-gripping" her first niche when tech layoffs hit
–How she used the coaching loss leader (CLL) from Build a REAL Business to land her first clients
–"No advice without permission": how she gets clients by giving three pieces of feedback at conferences
–What she did after a hard first half of the year, including a course she built and launched in two weeks
To learn more about Tre Balchowsky:
Tre's website
Permission to Experiment, Tre's newsletter (watch for Tre’s November course on developing a talk)
Tre on LinkedIn
To learn more about Christie Mims:
Coach Pony
Check out Coach Pony's FREE 14-Day Client Blueprint
Learn about Build a REAL Business and the amazing 10-year anniversary deal in October
Subscribe to theCoach Pony YouTube channel so you’ll see all the latest from Christie as she discusses the latest ideas and topics from the coaching industry!
