S5 Episode 46: Making Coaching Accessible with Ashleigh Tennant from More Happi

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Coaching Inn. I'm your host, Claire Pedrick, and today I'm in conversation with Ashleigh Tennant, who I'd heard about long before we met. Ashleigh founded More Happi. uh Just a reminder, if you love this podcast, please share it with one other person that would make us so happy. ah Ashleigh, welcome to The Coaching Inn. Oh, lovely to be here. Thank you. uh And last time we met, we had to talk about a lot of things.

So it's lovely just to use this time as a chat. So tell us a bit about your coaching journey.

Well, I mean, it goes back a long way. My coaching journey began many years ago, I'm going to say over 16 years ago, when I was in a management position at a company. It was my first ever management role. And I'd been at the company for many years. And, you know, everybody went for the role. I got the role. And then I suddenly had to manage my peers. Yeah, yeah, you can imagine what sort of, you know, the juiciness that came out of that.

However, I had this incredible director that I reported to who was Canadian and was a trained coach. And she said, I'm going to get you your own coach. And I had not a clue as I don't even know what coaching is. Okay, tell me more. And I've met this amazing, incredible, and I believe she's master level coach now. and called Yasmin Neldaabi. She was amazing.

And she transformed a situation that I thought actually I'm going to have to leave the company and do this elsewhere because I was just so unhappy with it was just negativity. It was, it was just not for me. I said, yeah, I leave a company that I love because I can't work out how I'm going to get through this. And then a few coaching sessions later, the whole situation was transformed. It was so powerful. I couldn't quite get my head around like what had even happened.

I thought in a different way. I was approaching things in a different way. I was more self-aware. I could see what I was doing, but also what I could do to change the situation around. it was life-changing, genuinely life-changing. So that was it.

Obviously coaching was so expensive that I got my... six sessions or however many sessions I got and then I had to get back to the day job. And, you know, I had that learning, I had that toolkit, but that was it. And I just always assumed that it was something I could never ever get again because of the costs.

for context, the company that I was working for, was a startup when I joined, but over the years it was bought multiple times, you know, had money and I then went off to work in a startup world where every business had no money so that you would never have even said, could I have a coach? Because it would have been the most ridiculous question. And I knew what the answer would be. So I never, had coaching.

And many years later, so I guess this is probably 2018, 2019, I'm trying to think of what the timeline is. Coaching somehow came up again for me and I remembered what had happened and I thought, actually, I'm going to go and train. I think me having those skills in my role would be much more helpful. So I went off and I trained with Animas, who were fantastic. And I had such a wonderful journey, except I could see what was happening to my cohort. They were all dropping off.

They were all struggling to get hours. I ended up... I was the one that put together like a massive Excel spreadsheet of everyone I knew and got them all to do the same. And we were all swapping for practice hours. And it was like a logistical nightmare. But trying to help people get hours was something I sort of took on myself. I don't know why, because I was so frustrated that people couldn't get their hours. And I could see when they weren't getting their hours, they were just dropping out.

And it turned out this was a massive thing in the industry. So the figure. Everyone debates the figure. It's huge. It's upwards of 80 % that people are dropping out after training. And that's just ludicrous. It's such a shame. It's such a loss because these are brilliant coaches, but because they can't get those hours and because they're not practicing often enough, they're losing their confidence. They don't feel like a coach yet.

It's hard to market yourself when you don't feel like you're ready and they just drop out and disappear.

That's it. So that happened. And then what was it? So then COVID hit. So I had always been frustrated that, you know, going back to my original experience of coaching, that coaching wasn't available for everyone. So I could see that what was happening, the coaches that were going through their training, the ones that were successful were going off and charging loads of money. They were maybe brilliant already at marketing and already had an amazing network and able to get their hours super easy.

So they already had that. I but yeah, but what about everyone else? Like it seems so unfair. And I had no idea how to fix that. I just knew it was unfair. And then COVID hit and I put together, I had one incredible, again, life-changing coaching session with somebody I was actually training with, a woman called Jackie Green, who I... will adore for the rest of my life. She was amazing. And she asked me the question, like, when do you feel good? Because we were just going into lockdown.

She's like, you know, what makes you feel good? So was thinking, oh, God, this is going to be a disaster. I'm going to be homeschooling and I'm going to what's going to happen? And she said, when do you feel good? said, when I'm doing something useful. And she said, well, what could you do now that would be useful? I'm going to get this batch of coaches that can't get ours to start coaching people in need right now.

So we started coaching key workers, we were coaching businesses, you know, could imagine like they're everybody that had a brick and mortar store, like their sales were just doing this and their costs were doing this. So we were coaching those people and supporting them. And what fell out of that was not only were we supporting people that needed the help and helping them out their situation, the coaches were loving it. They were like, this is incredible. Like, can I use these hours?

Are these like, how do I, how do I capture all of these? And, and then, you know, this is again, like me with a spreadsheet trying to like phone people and put people together. And it was, and sort of the business model emerged from that. I was like, actually, maybe I can solve this problem. And yeah, here we are today.

And what a beautiful example of people getting hours and keeping up their confidence, but also demonstrating credibility, getting experience coaching people who are different from them, building up their bio. Yeah. I mean, I think the thing about when you're I think for most of the people I was experiencing and also me, you end up coaching, you know, like your friend's brother or your, you know, your mate. You know, it's not the most we used to call them coaching tourists.

It was like people who were like, oh, you know. But if free coaching, like, someone said that you could help me with this thing, fine. And it wasn't a really rewarding experience.

and I think that that's the hardest coaching there is when the person's doing you a favor and they don't really know why they're there but they really want to help the coach and it's really difficult because neither of you often ever get actually to the heart of the work and then I noticed that at that stage coaches lose confidence because they go I'm not very good and I want to go no that didn't tell you you weren't very good that told you

that that person didn't want, know, was happy to be in the conversation, but they didn't know what conversation they were going to be in. Yeah, yeah, it's so true. It's so true. And when what we're seeing now, so obviously coaches come to us, they're getting their hours, they're getting their practice, their volunteer status. And on the other side, the businesses and the individuals that would never have had access to coaching before get this incredible experience.

And as a result, we're seeing so on average, for example, coach that comes to us will work across around 47 different companies. Wow. And that's huge because we contract with all of those companies that the coaches are able to then use their name. So if you can imagine for a coach that's early stage, or not even early stage, we've got coaches that come in mid-level because they're trying to get to master status. And they can fast track that experience with us, or they can go alone.

But one might take a lifetime, and one will take a few years. So they'll come with us. And what's beautiful about that is that they get evidence, not only confidence, but they get the evidence that they are an incredible coach. To be able to, I love seeing their websites, like after they leave us, that success for us, like when they're ready to go and fly the nest and they've got their experience and they've got their evidence.

And their website, it's just astounding because they've got all these like major brands across their website of who they've had experience with and who have left them incredible testimonials. So you've got employees that have said, know, this coach changed my life and this is incredible. And it's so rewarding. It's just amazing. I've got a question for, I wonder what that does to the market. Mmm, interesting.

But I'm also thinking as you're talking, I'm thinking the big platforms also do something to the market and their coaches get paid very little. And your coaches get a huge amount of community, connection, shareability. What else do they get, Ashleigh? we provide, so I'll tell you just what our process is. So we obviously need to hit like a certain level of quality.

Like we can't have coaches coming in that aren't ready because then that brings the whole thing down. So what we do is we have, they have to have a minimum of 50 hours to join. They, we put them through a really rigorous interview process. have an external ICF accredited coach analyze how they're coaching and give some feedback on what they need to improve on. If it's a no, we want them to come back later. So it's about going away, you know, working on those skills and then coming back.

Gift one. Then we um do whole onboarding and training with them to get them, you know, ready. From there, they get a flood of as many hours as they want. So they choose how much or how little they... want to give, obviously they can wrap it around whatever else they're doing. If they're still doing a full time job, they can, you know, put weekend hours, evening hours, their day off, whatever it is, and they can be different every week. They set the pace.

And from there, they get monthly training on top of training they've already had. We do, they get group supervision, which um we've got two different supervisors, one who was former coach director Animas is doing group supervision with them. So really amazing supervision. we, what else we do this community, can join all of the, we put workshops on for the clients as well. So they can join all of those such as further training. What else are we doing for them? Community, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, it's, I mean, it's. would be being paid for, wouldn't they, if they weren't getting them from you. exactly. they also, they're also coaching each other as well. So they can get access to coaching whoever they want. They want to try different coaching styles. They can work with different people and then they get to know each other and it's lovely.

And the feedback that we've had from consistently from the coaches is I don't think I would have made it without this being a piece of the puzzle. Wow. yes, they're doing other things, but just that consistency of keeping their practice up, trying new things. A lot of our coaches use more happy as a of So they're trying new skills.

So rather than them, you know, going out into the world to market themselves, they're thinking, actually, is this a skill that I want to go further with trying new techniques? Yeah, the, the, the one I love is like, now we've, we've had feedback where they've said, Now I feel like a coach. So when they joined as they, you know, they were a coach, but they didn't feel like it. Whereas now they've had all the feedback that's coming in, which they describe as like a constant warm hug for them.

They're like going in the right direction that it's working. They can see repeat bookings. People are coming back to them because they know they're adding value. You get the evidence of the testimonial. Yeah, it's just super lovely. Wow, wow, how amazing. Yeah, it's good. It's good. I mean, there's all sorts of problems as always, you know, but it's a business.

But it's I mean, my favorite thing to do every day is we've got a Slack channel set up where all of our feedback just comes through in real time. And if you're ever having a bad moment, don't think there's one testimonial that I haven't read. If I go through them all and just been like, that coach is amazing. Or they just joined us and look at that testimonial already. It's amazing. feeding that back to them is just lovely. So you've come a long way from the spreadsheet.

come a long way. been it's been it's been a mountain. Many mountains. But you know, it's it's part of the I think what's funny when I reflect back on this journey is, and we started with the sort of could this be true or could this work? And it very much emerged and we were learning that so we, or I had the assumption that coaches would come for their first few hours, like to get that first, you know, or their next 50, shall we say. I kind of had that in my head.

was like, once they get to 100, like that's it. They're off and, you know, we were prepared to be like, okay, so we're going to have a high turnover of coaches and that will have its own challenges. But, you know, that's what it is. That's what it is. And that's not been the case. Like the coaches get so much out of it that like in many cases they just stay. uh I'm going to go for the next level now.

And I get so much from it and the community and the support that they, it's not like a quick thing. They love it going alongside whatever else they're doing and they're building their practice as well at the same time that we give them something different. and they're not coaching coaches much. So you're talking about them coaching people in organisations, people in businesses as well as coaches a bit. Yeah, I mean a little bit of coach.

They coach, as I say, they coach each other, but the majority of what they're, who they're coaching is, yeah, individuals and businesses, but all levels. So we are coaching already in about 43 countries, thereabouts. So they get that experience of also like coaching different cultures. They get the experience of coaching different levels. different types of organizations, different cultures within the organization.

So that's, em yeah, I mean, that is really hard to get that experience elsewhere without, you know, I don't know where you would get that. are getting credentials, having got almost all their hours from coaching other coaches through reciprocal programs, if they're ICF coaches, because ICF allow for that. But coaching a coach versus coaching somebody who's not a coach is just such a different experience, isn't it? It's so different.

one of the things that I remember we were talking with Robert Stevenson, who's our, who's Animas who works with us. I don't think he would mind me saying, but he said almost like the exciting thing about More Happi is that you have people landing in and you have to learn how to deliver value quickly. Because if somebody's never been coached before and they're just dropping in, they're like almost like, What is this thing? I've never experienced it.

How do you get them in the first 45 minutes to have got to a point that they're like, wow, that was interesting or a little, a mini light bulb moment or something that makes them think this could be something I could keep doing. And you have to learn that quite quickly with More Happi. And what a skill to have that on repeat. And I think so the coaches, we've also heard a lot back from the coaches where they say we're happy to help them find their niche.

So they've landed with a sort of idea of what type of coaching they want to do. But actually through coaching so many different varieties of people, different contacts, different topics, they've actually realized, I was only doing that because that's what my previous thing that I did was. It's not actually.

In my new life as a coach, I actually want to focus on maybe relationships more, or maybe working with people that have just been recently divorced, or they discover their niche through experience, and often realize that what they thought was their niche is actually not. They want to do something else, which is lovely. And build credibility within that, exactly. So yeah, it's quite a special experience.

It's funny, think for me, cause I've come from a tech background before I did my coach training, it's completely normal that you would have, we would call it in the tech world, an accelerator program. So if you're like a new starting out and you've never run a business before, getting on an accelerator program is like the, like literally will make or break you. because it will teach you everything you need to know in a really fast way, but it's experiential. And so it's completely normal.

Like companies pay a fortune to be part of them and often give away huge amounts of equity in their business to be part of them because it is the difference. And so in my world, it's like, well, that's just how you get good at stuff. yeah, I guess applying different. different industries and the way that different industries work to the coaching industry. Yeah. So how many coaches have been through More Happi? Oh, that's a good question.

We've got a few hundred now, I think have been through as a total. We've delivered, getting on probably for about 13,000 sessions now. We work with 360 businesses, more coming on all the time. And yeah, we're scaling up now, I guess. We've been through quite a journey. This is year five for us. So, you know, like any business trying to like, you know, get it to a point where it's sustainable has been challenged, but we got there.

And yeah, now it's just how do we how do we bring this to more people? How do we explore new new avenues? And we're obviously bringing one of the things we're really excited about is obviously the work that we're going to do with you, Claire. so bringing mentoring to our coaches as well, which will be an addition. to everything that I've just described. um But I think that's going to be great for them as well. So to get other parts of their accreditation, not just the hours with us.

And we'll be fabulous. Yeah, and what you're doing is you're actually, if you monetize the value that they're getting, they're getting a lot. Yeah, yeah, they do. I think it's, it's funny, like, it's no small feat to get these companies, not only on board, setting, I mean, this, this changes how these businesses work, if you think of that way. So they're like suddenly wrapping coaching around everything they do.

So we have to convince them that that's a good idea in the first place, support them to do it. Constantly holding their hand through that process. getting everyone within their organization who probably hasn't heard of coaching or if they do, they've got a misunderstanding of it or, you know, they've never had it before, many of them. So like getting them all, getting them all booking regularly, like that's the work that we do.

And the result for the coach is that they get the notification in their calendar, new booking, new booking, new booking. So yeah, that's kind of our piece. And then the coaches. Get the practice. And they're in a tribe that's full of coaches who are getting work. which is different from a tribe that's full of coaches who are struggling to get work. Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. think it's a really, just a really positive space.

And eventually if, know, at the point that they're ready, so we're always sort of checking in with them, like, you know, where are you at now? Are you, you still want to keep going, which you can do, or you can, you know, if you're ready, you know, then it's time for you to go and we cheer you, you all the way. Like we're not about like trying to keep them for longer when they're ready. then they should go off and do their next thing.

some of them, yeah, some of them stay longer than others, but it's completely up to them. And the cost to the business, I think I got the sense that the cost to the business is affordable. Yeah. So the way we work is it's a subscription model. So they're effectively paying for seats to gain access to the platform. And then those seats can use it as much as they want. So some people might use it once a month, some people might use it 10 times a month. It's up to the person. And the price varies.

So the more seats they add, the cheaper it gets. So a company coming in with like a few seats, they might be paying 39 pounds 99 per person per month. And a big company that's saying, know, I've got hundreds of employees, they would be paying as little as 12 pounds per seat per month. But obviously the idea is that we want to incentivize good behavior on behalf of the business to give it to everyone, including the intern or the newbie. or the early stage people, not just those at the top.

So that's why we have created pricing in that way to encourage good behaviour on the businesses part. democratisation of coaching.

Yeah. Yeah. Because if a cut, know, anyone who's in a company who's paying for coaching is listening to this is going to go. That's not what we're paying, but it's a different Europe. You're offering a different thing, aren't you? From the person who's from the company who's giving transition coaching to somebody entering a new leadership role, which needs to look and feel and be different. Exactly. So those companies, a lot of those companies are still doing that. So it's not about replacing.

First of all, there's a lot of companies that still couldn't even afford that if they wanted to. So any support is better than none. But the companies that can afford it and would be in a position are still very much working with, and actually a lot of them then go on and hire our coaches to do that, which is interesting. we hear from the, like, you know, we absolutely are not pitching. or getting the coaches to pitch to them. That's not what this is about.

That's not a, that wouldn't feel right. However, a lot of our coaches are working with senior leaders in these organizations. And, you know, over time they develop a relationship and these, you know, they will start talking about, actually I do do team coaching as well. Or, you know, would you like me to come in and like one of our m classes, like one of our best companies in terms of like activity and they're bringing in coach that I also work with to do lots of team coaching.

And it's amazing like what that coach is then going on today. work sort of emerges out of it. It's not what we're, we're very much like, we're not here to get you paid work. Like that will be on you to develop that. But through building a network and relationships and you know, what happens is the coach you start recommending them to other people. That naturally happens, but it's not what we say we do. It's up to them to build that.

But as you're talking, it feels like what you're offering is different from a more from what the coach would be offering if they were commissioned to do a different kind of piece of work. So it's I'm getting a sense that there isn't competition. Yeah, it doesn't feel that way. mean, of course, think we're doing something very different that an individual coach couldn't deliver. So we even have individual coaches saying I'm working with this company.

They need lots more coaching than I can provide. I can't be available to them every hour of every day. You can. Let's work together. it's it's not what we're doing. We're not trying to em We're adding value to the industry. We're not trying to detract from it.

And what I think is also really beautiful is we've seen quite a few examples where individuals who have never had coaching before have had coaching through more happy, you know, over a period of time and then gone on to train to become coaches and are now coming to us to volunteer. that's lovely! Which is amazing that I'm like, my God, this is full circle. This is so lovely. that almost like it's developing the industry.

And I think also what's interesting about that is that you're to get more diversity. So more people of all different levels are experiencing coaching. Like whoever said, I want to be a coach. If you've never experienced coaching, you're never going to think I'm going to be a coach. You have to have experienced it, but then if only those people at the top are experiencing it, you're only going to get a certain type of person, right? And that doesn't feel right either.

So what about getting people at, you know, different demographics, different profiles coming through? And I feel like that is only a positive for the coaching industry.

Wow. I can hear our listeners going, I want to do that. Some of you lovely listeners. I've got two questions. One is how do people get in touch with you? And the other one is who can't you support? um Good question. how do you get in touch? There's on our website, morehappyhapi.com. Go to the footer, there's a become a coach link. And if you click on that, there's a form to fill in.

At that point, you come through to our team, they assess your application, and we'll get in touch with either next steps depending on where you're at. So that's super easy. can connect with me directly on LinkedIn, course, as well. Who we can't support. So at the moment, we're only working with coaches in the UK. That is at the moment. If you are still interested, register your interest and then we can put you on our wait list for when we're ready in other locations.

But for now, it's UK only, sadly. And we got a lot of applications from around the world. But yeah, at the moment we're focusing on the UK. Great. and Ireland, just UK. to see. Okay, perfect. So, Ash is giving you all her contact details. And if you're interested, do make contact. There's another company in the UK called... My Coaching Place that does a similar thing and that's for people who have been leaders before and can do leadership coaching. eh So check them out as well.

But thank you, Ashleigh, for coming to The Coaching Inn. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Claire. It's been great. eh and I'm looking forward to meeting your people. Yeah, I know getting started very soon, which I'm really keen to get it going. They're going to love it. We'll be back next week with another episode. Thanks again, Ashleigh. Bye bye. Bye.