How to Build a Coaching Business using Kajabi

10 min readOct 21, 2021

After working for myself as a Certified Life Coach for the last 2 years, there are several things I would have done differently (or never done at all).

This article contains affiliate links that compensate me if you choose to purchase or try anything recommended. If you do, thank you! You’re supporting a single, Black mompreneur and their community of BIPOC entrepreneurs and Allies. That’s pretty cool of you and you’re appreciated.

Article Contents:

An Acknowledgement about the Coaching Industry
Who is this “How-To” best For?
Let’s Set Things Up
Additional Resources
Conclusion

An Acknowledgement about the Coaching Industry

Before we dive into the “how-to” portion of this article, I want to make sure I address something;

The Coaching Industry has exploded over the last few years for several reasons: a global pandemic forced folks out of their jobs and they pivoted into new careers, remote work became a standard, and frankly: social platforms like Instagram glamorized an already privilege-ridden, unregulated industry rooted in systemic oppression and implicit & explicit bias. This recent article The Guardian published showcases an example of how much harm can truly be caused when taking advantage of people’s pain points.

I’m a Coach, so yes, I am absolutely calling myself out.

When I first started out in the online space, I did what I thought were the “best practices” as a “Coach” before I even knew what “Coaching” was. I am a Business Coach specifically, and I noticed that I was going to need some assistance supporting my clients and mentees in a way that guided them vs. projecting on to them.

After I got trained and certified through Inner Glow Circle, I realized very quickly that lines can blur between Coaching, Therapy, Counseling, Consulting in an instant.

A lot of Business Coaches — and folks who identify to be Coaches — are not actually Coaching, they are consulting or giving therapy-like services without training. That’s scary, fam.

I also realized that there is a ridiculous amount of financial gatekeeping to keep certain people out of the industry both intentionally or unintentionally, i.e. People of Color, financially insecure folks, etc.

As a business owner, I made the decision to ensure my business and coaching methodology was community-driven, acknowledges the intersectionality of my community members, and was here to co-create solutions with my community vs. projecting what I felt needed to be “fixed” in someone. This is something that I continue to work on daily in my business and in my personal life. I also now educate other entrepreneurs to do the same in my 12-week mentorship program, The Inclusive Entrepreneur.

This article was created in hopes that readers who are wanting to have a Coaching or Service-Based Business Owner make the decision to commit to creating inclusivity and equity within their business at the start, seek out training and education to prevent harming their clients, and save some cash around what systems to use when getting started.

I also don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did. Starting out I made all kinds of mistakes that make my brain hurt to this day. I could have saved so much time and energy if I would have kept things simple my first year of business vs. trying to keep up with folks who were years ahead of me.

Recommendations get thrown around when starting a business and I want you to know that choosing simple systems, inclusive practices, and leading a human-first business will benefit you in the long run. Believe me.

With all that being said, let’s jump into how using a platform like Kajabi can set your Coaching Business up for success.

Who is this “How-To” best for?

The new “Coaching” feature on Kajabi isn’t just for folks who identify as a Coach, but this can also be great for:

Consultants
Mentors
Educators (especially if you’re combining your eCourses or educational content)
Service Providers (Online + In-Person)

You could be a Chef giving cooking lessons, a Choreographer offering private lessons, or a Coffee Shop wanting to offer an Apprenticeship program to aspiring Baristas.

The possibilities are literally endless. Offering a form of 1:1 support is a great way to build trust and support for your community members while adding an additional income stream.

Let’s Set Things Up

First off, what is Kajabi?

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that hosts Website, eCommerce, Course, Marketing, Affiliate, Payment Processing, Automations, and Lead Tracking services. It is a beast of software and has a stunning interface internally and externally.

My #bizbesties made fun of me when I first got on the Kajabi train back in 2020, but as their businesses scaled and they also realized having everything scattered was also driving them crazy, they asked me for my affiliate code.

In all seriousness, Kajabi changed the way my business has operated and I haven’t looked back since. It’s a pretty price per month — plans start at $149/month — but I’ve got a 30-day trial link, resources, and some tips for you to help build your business revenue up to cover the expense (fun fact: you can write the expense off come tax time next year too).

Kajabi’s New Coaching Feature & Accelerator Program

Kajabi released a Coaching feature today that has been in Beta-testing for the last few weeks. It’s pretty simple to use and adds the ability to add Coaching sessions to any of your offers without having to create a separate workflow outside of Kajabi.

The feature integrates with Calendly (a Black-Owned Scheduling System) for clients to easily book sessions with you. You can also track your client's progress, take notes, easily send email reminders and communications, and automate your entire onboarding and offboarding process inside of Kajabi.

Additionally, Kajabi’s 30-Day Coaching Accelerator is paying for several of the software and systems you’d need to operate your Coaching Business up to a year and offer Coaching sessions for its participants to guide them through the process of setting things up over the course of the month.

The best part? This sh*t is free and that’s a really big deal. Why? Let me explain:

As I mentioned earlier, Kajabi starts at $149/month. Inside of their 30-Day Accelerator, the company is giving:

30 Days Free of Kajabi and Coaching from their team, saving you $149/month and no need to pay for additional assistance.
6 Months free of your Scheduling System, which if this is Calendly ($15/month) saves you $90.
6 Months free of your Video Conferencing System, which if this is Zoom (the paid plan is $15.99/month) that saves you $95.94
A custom domain for 1 Year (which is anywhere from $6-$12)

In total, you’re looking at roughly $347 you can keep in your pocket for the first 6 months of your business, and Kajabi is doing this for EVERY. SINGLE. ACCELERATOR. PARTICIPANT.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from folks in my community who have been sitting on starting an online, service-based business is often around startup finances. Understandably so, just to file for an LLC here in Texas, you’re out $300 AND you still have to cover your monthly business expenses, additional startup cost, and give Uncle Sam more taxes statistically than Jeff Bezos pays per year.

Especially for aspiring BIPOC entrepreneurs who have already been historically oppressed financially — and we’re still out here playing catch up — it’s a lot harder to take a risk on yourself when you’re just trying to stay afloat.

By covering the expenses folks may worry about on a monthly basis, Kajabi is creating an opportunity for anyone to start a business within the month with support and systems covered, leaving you less to worry about and more of an opportunity to land your first client or clients!

Okay, I’ve talked a little too much about my love for Kajabi, so let’s actually get you set up:

In the past, the only way you could set up a Coaching offer in Kajabi was using the digital products option or setting up an offer and automation. This was confusing because it made it seem like “Coaching” was a digital product when it is not. It is a service.

Now, the only thing you have to do is set up your Coaching offer by clicking the Coaching section in the sidebar menu.

Once you’re inside, all you have to do is:

select if you’re creating a single session or package,
name your program,
select how many sessions the program is if its a package,
and write the program description.

That’s it.

Now, when you build your offers out in Kajabi, you can add your program automatically, add any additional digital products that may come with the program, and layout any onboarding or offboarding workflow automations. Add a tag to the client to keep track of them, schedule out emails to send after certain actions are taken. All at one time.

After you create your offer, you can then jump into the “edit checkout” function to design what the checkout process will look like for your clients. Don’t worry about your web design skills on this, Kajabi’s drop-and-go functionality makes this process very easy. If you plan on sending anything to your clients, be sure to turn on the Address settings as well.

You can then pop up into Kajabi’s “Pages” feature to create a functional sales page for your Coaching offer. I personally don’t use many of the website features — when I signed up for Kajabi last year, their website functionality wasn’t nearly as powerful as it is now — but the drag-and-drop lead pages functionality and templates can make setting up your first sales page fairly easy.

You don’t have to have perfect branding to get started, I REPEAT, you don’t need perfect branding to get started!

Additional Resources + Tips

If you’re loving all of this but internally screaming because you don’t even know how you would figure your offer out, I got you.

Getting Trained to Coach

As I mentioned, I got certified through Inner Glow Circle (IGC) which is accredited through the International Coaching Federation, but I started my business three months before starting my certification process.

I built up my clientele first in order to cover my certification payment plan — because most programs cost the amount of an AA degree — and made sure I could cover my bills on a month-to-month basis in addition to working my 9–5. I also got a scholarship that covered a portion of my program which also helped significantly.

Here is a list of free resources from IGC that is helpful in figuring out who you want to serve, how to serve them, and how to market yourself:

Tools for Creative Entrepreneurship + Inclusive Business

Running a Business is hard ‘af. You gotta be organized, create your own schedule, market your business, create content, show up on multiple platforms, and still manage your life. Yikes.

I’ve been in business for myself for the last two years and have some additional free resources and tools that can hopefully make that process a tad bit easier:

IG Guide on Creative Entrepreneurship, if you’re having issues picking what you even want to do as a creative business owner, these are for you.
IG Guide on Inclusive Business Strategies & Tips, if you’re wanting to ensure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism is a pillar in your business at all times, these are for you.
Do service-based work but don’t offer digital products? Bet. You don’t need Kajabi, but you probably need Honeybook. This link gets you half off for your first year (plans start at $9/month) and automates your invoicing, contracts, workflows, lead tracking, income, and expenses processes.
Want beautiful graphics but can’t afford a graphic designer? Don’t worry, Canva can help you with that, and you can get 30-days free here. You can create just about anything on Canva, including websites, business cards, gifs, workbooks, and more. I use Canva every. single. day.
I have an article here on Medium that lists every single tool I’ve ever used in my Coaching Business. Wanna save some time on researching systems? You can read the article here.

Conclusion

Alright, this was longer than I was expecting, but I hope this was a clear breakdown of how to start your Coaching Business or Offer using Kajabi.

It is super easy to get caught up and overwhelmed when trying to get started, but please remember that starting and scaling simple will save you so many brain cells while saving you some coins.

Kajabi has drastically changed the way my business operates, and their 30-Day Coaching Accelerator may be exactly what you need to take the leap and start your business.

If you loved this article, I’d love for you to hit me up on Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn to let me know! Go ahead and give me a follow too.

If you want to learn from me further, you can join grab my workbook “Inclusive Strategies for your Coaching Business” for 50% off using the code “MEDIUM” at checkout. It’s typically $97, and the proceeds go directly to my company’s Support Fund for BIWOC entrepreneurs.