3 Things We're Learning While Interviewing 18 Coaches (And Why They're All Saying the Same Thing)

You're doing everything right... the client work is transformational, your methodology is solid, you're showing up consistently. But behind the scenes? You're drowning in tabs, tools, and tasks that have nothing to do with actual coaching. And it's not just busy... it's the kind of overwhelm that makes you question whether you can keep doing this at all.

Over the past few months, we've been sitting down with coaches... career coaches, wellness coaches, leadership coaches, grief coaches... coaches navigating every kind of life transition you can imagine. We're asking them about their businesses, their tools, their daily operations, and what keeps them up at night.

Here's what we're finding: they're all saying the same thing. The specifics are different, but the struggle is universal. And if you're reading this, chances are you're living it too.

So let's talk about what we're hearing... and what relief looks like.

Every single coach we're speaking with... every single one... is duct-taping together somewhere between 6 and 15 different tools just to run their business.

Here's what that actually looks like:

And that's just the beginning.

One coach tells us flat out: "I absolutely hate it. I don't want to play around in Canva." And she's not alone. The frustration isn't really about one tool... it's about all the tools. It's about trying to make canned stock images feel authentic to your brand when you know they don't. It's about spending precious creative energy wrestling with design software when what you really want to be doing is crafting the message that will actually connect with your people.

Another coach describes it perfectly: "Too many tools... I don't even know what they all are anymore."

Here's what we're learning: The real cost isn't just the monthly subscriptions (though those add up fast). It's the mental load. It's logging in and out of platforms. It's remembering which tool does what. It's the learning curve... one coach says it took her 2 to 3 years to feel comfortable in Kajabi. Two to three years.

And here's the part that breaks our hearts: these tools aren't just inconvenient. They're actively keeping coaches from doing the work they're called to do.

The tension they don't say out loud: "I built this business to do transformational work... so why am I spending more time managing my tech stack than preparing for sessions?"

This is exactly why we're building Sidkik. Not as another platform to add to the pile... but as the one that replaces the pile.

Everything in one place. Your coaching dashboard. Client portals. Secure messaging (with PRE encryption built from the ground up, so those sensitive conversations stay truly private). Document libraries with versioning. Goal tracking. Session notes. Landing pages. Email sequences. Community spaces.

No more tool management. Just coaching.

Eighty percent of the coaches we're interviewing say the same thing: lead generation is their biggest struggle.

One career coach shares a story that stops us in our tracks. She's been using LinkedIn's platform to send proposals to potential clients... at one point, with automation, she was getting 700 proposals out per month. Then LinkedIn shut down her automation. She tried hiring a VA to do it manually... LinkedIn flagged that too and completely disabled her account.

She got it back (by grace, she says), but now? She's back to doing everything manually. And with only 30 hours a week to work (school drop-off to pick-up), those 700 monthly proposals have become a handful.

This is where most coaching business advice kicks in with: "You need to post more. You need better funnels. You need to optimize your reach."

But here's what we know: Lead generation isn't a numbers game. It's a presence game.

And here's the belief coaches are carrying that's quietly breaking them: "I need to post more, reach more people, automate my outreach... if I could just get the numbers right, clients would come."

Let's reframe this.

When you're spending 20 hours a week managing software subscriptions and wrestling with broken integrations, there's no space left for the kind of showing up that actually converts. The overwhelm swallows the bandwidth you need to write that newsletter that makes someone say "this person gets me." There's no room to create that landing page that speaks directly to the transformation your ideal client is craving. The mental load leaves you too depleted to be truly present in the conversations that actually build trust.

The coaches who build real followings aren't posting the most... they're connecting the most. They're speaking so specifically to their people that future clients feel seen before they ever book a call.

This isn't about volume. It's about having the spaciousness to show up authentically. To write copy that actually sounds like you. To craft touchpoints that feel like a conversation, not a sales funnel.

This is what spaciousness makes possible:

When your systems are simple, you have the bandwidth to:

We're building tools that create touchpoints for authentic connection. Landing pages. Email marketing. A website you're proud to share. Not to capture more leads... but to connect with the right ones.

When the chaos calms down, lead generation stops feeling like a hamster wheel and starts feeling like what it should be: you, showing up as yourself, speaking to the people who need exactly what you offer.

Here's a pattern we're seeing in every single interview: coaches are spending as much time (or more) on administration as they are on actual coaching.

One coach tells us: "I spend as much time on projects outside of our calls as on the calls themselves." She's writing resumes, updating LinkedIn profiles, creating custom documents... all in addition to the coaching sessions.

Another coach, a mother working between school hours, has exactly 30 hours a week. She's trying to fit in client sessions, marketing, admin, and business development into that window. And like most coaches, marketing is what gets dropped when time runs short. Which means the thing that should be bringing in new clients... the thing that should be building her business... is the first thing to go.

Here's what one leadership coach shares: "The only thing I dread is just the time it takes to execute once someone's ready to work together. I keep tweaking my offerings and my wording, so I end up recreating contracts and invoices each time instead of having it flow smoothly."

Let's sit with that for a second.

These are coaches who have built practices around helping people through major life transitions. Career shifts. Grief and loss. Leadership challenges. Midlife reinvention. Divorce. Retirement. The kind of work that requires deep presence, emotional availability, and genuine care.

The painful truth we keep hearing: You became a coach to transform lives. Instead, you're managing software subscriptions and troubleshooting broken integrations.

And the cost isn't just professional... it's personal.

One coach shares that she used to work every weekend. Her daughter stopped asking about weekend plans because she knew the answer would be "we're working." The breaking point came when she realized her daughter had learned to entertain herself... to stop expecting family adventures.

Another coach, navigating her own business transition, says: "I'm at capacity. I work 10 to 15 hours a week in my tech job, and I just don't even think I could possibly do more." And she's not just talking about those 10-15 hours... she's running her entire coaching business on top of that. Client sessions. Sales conversations. Marketing content. Course creation. All of it squeezed into whatever hours are left.

This is the weight we're trying to lift.

Sidkik isn't about adding more features or more functionality. It's about giving you back your time. Your energy. Your presence... both in your business and in your life.

Here's what we're building specifically for life transition coaches:

No technical headaches. No more "which tab was that in?" No more paying for 10 subscriptions.

Just coaching. And growing your coaching business.

As we continue along on our 18 interviews, the message is clear: coaches don't need another platform promising to "do it all."

They need a platform that actually understands the work.

Life transition coaching isn't about selling courses. It's not about funnels and automated webinars. It's about holding space for people during the most vulnerable moments of their lives. It's about trust, presence, and transformation.

And that kind of work deserves infrastructure built specifically for it.

That's why we're not just building Sidkik for coaches... we're building it with them. Our Builder's Circle is a community of coaches who are shaping every feature, every workflow, every piece of this platform as we create it.

Because here's what we know: the coaches doing this deep, transformational work aren't looking for hacks. They're looking for systems that actually support the way they work. Tools that calm the chaos instead of adding to it. A platform that frees them to do what they do best... coach.

If that resonates with you... if you're tired of duct-taping your business together... if you want to be part of building something that actually gets it...

We'd love to have you in the conversation.

👉 Join the Builder's Circle

Because the future of coaching isn't more complexity.

It's more you.

P.S. We're offering forever-free access for up to 5 clients. Not a trial. Not a teaser. Just a real commitment to making sure coaches have what they need to build sustainable practices. When you're ready to grow beyond that, we'll be here... but we wanted you to know: we're not building this to lock you into another expensive subscription. We're building this because this work matters.