Mary Henderson

The coaching industry has been borrowing from bro marketers when it should be studying tech founders.

The bro marketers borrow the surface of serious business thinking, remove the complexity, and sell it as an instant fix.

When a coach builds from quick-fix advice, they:

- chase hooks.
- buy templates.
- copy louder voices.
- attract low-trust attention.
- still do not have a business system.

In an AI era, the coaches who win long-term will stop copying marketers and start thinking like system builders.

The bro marketers sell a dependency model, so you keep coming back for more.

You are always one step forward and ten steps back.
It's mostly marketing hype disguised as business strategy.

The tech founders don't think like this.
They engineer systems in every part of their business because they want mastery.
Their language has depth and challenges your thinking because they understand the problem beneath the problem.
They sell intelligent systems that solve complex problems.
They align themselves with other founders in other industries and share knowledge.

If you watch podcast interviews, you will see a pattern.

The bros talk about attention, money, and momentum.
Tech founders talk about philosophy, systems, collaborations, IPOs.

If you are a coach or consultant with real expertise, you should not be selling quick fixes.

You should be codifying your lived experience into an intelligent system that solves a complex problem.

If you are tired of building from quick fixes and want to build the system behind your expertise, DM me.

Starting with a niche too early can reduce 20 years of expertise down to one tiny slice of your value.

So many coaches and consultants are following the same playbook: find a niche, build an offer, create content and sell.

Most experts think they have random experience. I see patterns that can become a system.

There is a big flaw with the old playbook, especially if you have 20+ years of domain expertise.

I hear people say they feel trapped in a loop of constantly reinventing themselves. It’s exhausting.

The starting point is not the niche; the starting point is the pattern inside the expert’s experience.

I’m specifically referring to an expert who has 20+ years of experience in their domain - technology, finance, sales, marketing, HR, psychology, etc.

They have a pattern library.

Your pattern library is the collection of problems you have solved, industries you have seen, mistakes you can predict, and instincts you have built over 20+ years.

None of my clients are creating offers each month, because they don’t have to.

They have one system, and that's their core offer.

If you want to sell $20K+ monthly retainers, or $5K (per person) group coaching, this is how to do it.

When your system becomes deeper, more specific, harder to compare, and tied to outcomes, you become a category of one.

And no one can copy you or compare you.

And once you see this, you cannot unsee it.

If niching down has always felt like cutting away too much of what makes you valuable, DM me.

Your business may not be stuck because your offer is bad. It may be stuck because a destructive pattern runs beneath it.

There are so many different patterns that cause pain - there is no one-size-fits-all. It could be a pattern of:

-Waiting
-Overthinking
-Hiding in complexity
-Changing your offer every 2 minutes
-Avoiding direct invitations
-Hoping people "get it" without giving them a clear pathway to buy.

I used to focus solely on building implementation systems for my clients - packaging their expertise into systems and building client acquisition systems, but then I found that 50% of them would repeat old inner patterns all over again.

I could see the destructive patterns, and I knew how to move through them, but I never incorporated that work inside my coaching.

Now, it's not negotiable. In fact, it's the starting point.

I noticed that when people step on the entrepreneurial path, their internal patterns amplify. They get really loud.

Dismissing them, hiding them or ignoring them is not the solution - it's the worst thing.

It took me 20 years to figure out how to iron these patterns out, and it's not a straight line. But, I built a system around it called IdenttiyOS and they are layers, not lessons.

All my clients start here when we start working together because it allows them to breathe again.

Yesterday, one of my clients - a PhD, someone with 30 years of lived experience and a genius at her craft was stuck in a loop and in one session, she was able to see the loop with absolute clarity. The shift in her body was instant. Her creativity was back online.

Seeing patterns is a game-changer, especially if you are starting or scaling your business.

DM me if you want more information about The IncubAItor. The next cohort starts on the 30th of June.

When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I was so excited.

I had a big vision (I still do), and I felt unstoppable.

I knew it would be hard work and a huge commitment, but I was all in. Hard work was my norm, so I knew I was the right person for this path.

But no one told me that it would also be the road less travelled.

Every emotion buried deep inside suddenly came alive and was amplified. Fear, guilt, shame, and self-doubt were the loudest voices in my head.

At first, I thought, "This is the entrepreneur's path because I had heard so many people talk about it."

But each day the voice got louder and louder, and I replaced that with working harder and harder. I did that for 7 years. I was chasing success and money and, deep down, unconsciously seeking validation (from my parents).

In 2012, I had a major burnout, my company was acquired, and I was forced to sit with myself; for the first time, I stopped chasing money.

It was liberating and scary at the same time.

This email is not about money. It's about how we have been sold an idea of what money is and how we spend our lives worshipping the wrong currency.

As I stepped into an inner journey, I began to discover a lot about myself and the world I live in, and I became curious about why money has been such a huge driver for me.

So instead of blaming my childhood, I started with what money is. I went down a rabbit hole, but what shifted my understanding was understanding HOW the Reserve Bank of Australia defines money.

In my own words, Australian money is not backed by gold or another physical commodity. Its value comes from legal recognition, public trust, and the fact that people accept it in exchange for goods, services, debts, and taxes.

So, the next question I asked myself was - what is real currency?
Real currency is gold, silver, oil, and natural resources.

And, guess what?

You and I - we are also natural resources in the form of our gifts, talents, experiences, traits, skills - our life! That is currency, and we are not told that.

We are told to worship money because that is currency. It's not.

If you don't believe me, just spend 15 minutes on Instagram, and almost every post is about money.

This realisation was the beginning of The IncubAItor. I knew that my experience could create a world-class solution. It took me three years to figure out the why, what and how because I didn't want to build a course; I wanted to build a system.

I had a mission.

It has gone through many iterations, but the foundation has always been the same - it's about codifying human intelligence into currency. That is my passion, and it's my purpose.

What I want you to know is this.

You are it.
You are who you've been seeking this entire time.
You are the millionaire, billionaire, and everything in between.

But you've been too busy, distracted by everything but you.

It's time.

We have to question the status quo, have the courage to step off the hamster wheel, and truly understand the world we live in.

The only way to do that is to become self-aware and back yourself.

Because there is only YOU.

That is why I am so passionate about the work I do and why I continue to help hundreds of people with lived experience and wisdom turn their lived experience into their purpose and mission.

If this speaks to you, maybe The IncubAItor is what you have been seeking.

The next cohort starts June 30th.

Comment ZOOM to schedule a call with me. I will DM you the link.

Does selling feel harder than it used to?

You are posting more, using AI more, and still not building a pipeline.

That is not because there is something wrong with you; there isn't.

Selling feels hard when your message sounds interchangeable. That usually happens when you are trying to mimic what your competition is doing.

You are not your competition, and that is what makes you unique.

But, if you are selling what your competition is selling and sounding like them, how does a prospect differentiate between you and them?

You cannot create category-of-one messaging from a copy-and-paste coaching model.

So, the first shift is not your content. It’s your business model.

For this conversation, there are two models that matter: information and implementation.

If your current model is not building pipeline, premium buyers, or trust, it may need to change.

The good news is that an implementation model is harder for AI to compete with because it's tied to judgment, lived experience and outcomes.

An information model competes with AI.

The coaches who are commanding premium prices are not just selling information; they have an implementation model.

An implementation model makes your value clearer, and your messaging more confident and deliberate.

This is the shift that needs to happen today.

I have always had an implementation model, and now I teach my clients how to create one too because outcomes are what premium clients want.

Your future client expects that now.

If you are reading this and thinking, “I’ll prompt AI to create an implementation system for me”, just keep in mind that AI cannot build the thinking that makes your implementation model distinct.

Where are you right now - still trying to build pipeline, or ready to build the system behind your expertise?

P.S. The IncubAItor is an end-to-end implementation 6-week cohort where you turn your expertise into your own implementation system.

The next cohort starts June 30th.
DM me to schedule a call with me.

Why Do Coaches Follow the Herd?

I challenged the herd mentality 12 years ago, after investing in 3 high profile coaches, to supposedly help me accelerate my coaching business.

They all shared the same narrative. It went something like this “Find a niche, build an online business, sell high ticket, you don’t have to be an expert to create a 7-figure business."

Easy. Right???

The starting point was always lead generation, and Facebook Ads were the way to reach the 7-figure mark.

There is a problem with this narrative based on the hundreds of prospects I have spoken to:

1. 99% cannot articulate what they do
2. 99% have no idea how to build a solution that delivers outcomes and results.
3. 99% are technophobic
4. 99% have no idea of how to connect all the moving parts
5. 99% have an identity issue

Here is why I’m posting this.

When I challenged the guru coaching model, I realised there was another way to creating a sutainable coaching business.

And the best part was that my corporate background and my lived experience ended up becoming my secret weapon, I was able to create a business model I knew would work and can deliver outcomes.

And…IT DOES.

The point is this.

Don’t ever follow the herd.
Always challenge the status quo.

Everything you need is in you, and if you don't know how to do something, find someone who does.

That's it.

Never forget that.

Premium buyers do not pay more because you are more experienced. They pay more because your system solves a bigger problem.

I transitioned from traditional coaching to an implementation system because I realised the market did not stop buying, it just stopped paying a premium for information without implementation.

That allowed me to speak to buyers with urgent, expensive problems.

Urgent buyers are powerful, but the bigger unlock is market expansion.

Today, I had a meeting with a tech company.

B2B represents 10% of my client base. 90% is B2C.

But because I have a codified system, I can sell the thinking layer of my system to a completely different buyer.

They did not need another dashboard. They needed better inputs, better questions, and better thinking behind the data.

The CEO said one thing to me: "We need to ask the right questions to get the right answers." That opened the door for me because I had a solution to exactly what he needed.

I was able to show the system, connect it to his business problem, and the value became obvious.

The CEO didn't bat an eye when I told him the retainer was $20K. The fee was his normal.

When you transition from traditional coaching or consulting to implementation, you are seen as a category of one because you can deliver the outcome the client needs right now.

Yet, so many coaches and consultants are still stuck in a limited model.

Stop focusing on whether AI is taking clients. Start looking at whether your model solves an expensive enough problem.

Instead, focus on how you can convert your expertise into a codified system that can deliver multiple outcomes.

It's exactly what I do inside my system called The IncubAItor. It helps coaches and consultants turn their expertise into systems, validate the market gap, and sell the solution to the right buyers.

I can take different parts of my system and sell them as standalone solutions - at a premium price, even though 90% of my audience is B2C.

There is so much potential in the marketplace, but so many coaches and consultants have blinkers on.

If you know your expertise is strong but your model is not built for premium yet, DM me and I’ll point you to the gap.

A coach told me her expertise is starting to feel less valuable because AI can give it away for free.

I showed her a visual (the one attached to this post) because I wanted her to see where she sits right now. She immediately pointed to Expert Coach/Consultant.

What I wanted to show her was that there was nothing wrong with her or her expertise, she was just selling an old model.

The image shows anything below the line is an indication that AI starts to compete with you.

It answered why she was feeling less valuable.

I told her that if she had an implementation offer, she would stop selling time for money and competing with AI.

An implementation offer is a system.

A system requires your logic, judgment, pattern recognition, and all of your disciplines merged into what I call an intelligent system.

Think of an intelligent system like this: “If this happens, then do this.”

That system can be deployed anywhere, in any industry, because the problem you solve never changes; the client changes.

Think of the premium clients you could serve if you codified your mind into a system, and every moving part was able to deliver a result.

Let’s say you are a sales expert for the tech industry, and your client is a SaaS company struggling with sales.

You confidently walk in equipped with 20 years of SaaS sales experience – you’ve seen every possible scenario play out, you understand the patterns, and you know how to deliver the result they want.

What do you think the solution is worth to that potential client if you said, “I can implement my system directly into your business so you can increase sales by 20% within 30 days.”

It’s no longer $250 per hour. It’s now a $20K investment.

Do you see the difference?

Today, get a clean piece of paper out and write all of the things that you can do.

DON’T get AI to do it for you.

This exercise will help you unpack what’s inside your head, and you will start to see your brilliance as currency. Here is a start:

What outcomes can you 100% deliver?
What does your core experience look like?
What patterns can you recognise in 5 minutes?
What are your cross-disciplinary skills?
What does your process look like as a visual?

If you know you need to build a bespoke implementation system around your expertise and lived experience, but you don’t know how to do it, this is what we do inside The IncubAItor.

This might be useful to you - I built a GPT that will show you where you are in the hierarchy and what you need to do to move to the next band.

Just DM me if you want it. It’s a free tool.

After 11 years of building coaching and consulting businesses, there are only two types that will survive in the AI era.

The coaching and consulting industry is actually thriving, despite AI.

In fact, people are actively seeking solutions, but the playing field is changing, and it's exciting.

But most coaches/consultants are stuck below the line and don't even realise it.

Like everything in life, we need to be evolving - the same applies to your business.

The traditional coaching model was mostly a PUSH model - sell information, build a personal brand and sell courses.

AI can do that for free.

The PULL model is different, and in an AI era, it's non-negotiable.

This is an implementation. Implementation is where premium lives, and people today are buying that.

But it's more than that - it's how you build category of one businesses, and when you do that, you are uncopyable because it's a different playbook and requires a completely different way of building this type of business.

AI can assist, but it cannot do the thinking, and that is the difference.

I noticed a shift in my own coaching business. The people I worked with 5 years ago are coming back wanting to build implementation businesses, not traditional coaching businesses.

And, it's exciting because the opportunity is huge.

This is why I have completely moved away from "coaching" and 100% an implementation business. I built an entire platform so my clients can build out an end-to-end category-of-one implementation business in 6 weeks.

The window of opportunity is now, not in 12 months.

What are your thoughts?

As a coach/consultant, the most important thing is not building your personal brand on LinkedIn, it's being a category of one.

I spent my entire career understanding the fundamentals of a personal brand and built an entire coaching business around it.

A personal brand is what you want to be known for - it what people say about you when you aren't in the room.

But, the problem with personal branding is that most people building their brand have no product or solution. They are creating content and selling themselves..

After a while that gets boring.

If you look back circa 2020, the personal brands on LinkedIn with massive followings have quietly disappeared.

And...many of those influencers reached out to me, back then, for help but none of them were able to solve a complex problem - they wanted fame.

I was not in the business of fame.

Today, the playing field has changed - personal branding is nice but has no depth.

This is why I shifted my focus into helping coaches and consultants build category of one brands wrapped around solutions and be known for that.

Thats called monetisation.
Most "personal brands" make very little to no money.

A category of one requires inventory. Thats your leverage.
When you have inventory, you are able to understand what you bring to the table.
From there, you create a implementation plan that delivers outcomes, results and transformation.

That is where premium pricing lives.

AI, can't do that for you because it hasnt lived your embodied experience.
But what AI can do for you is organise it.

The problem is, most people are outsourcing their mind to AI and that will not deliver a category of one solution. It can't.

I have built coaching programs and membership systems for 20 years and even though we are in an AI era, you still need your brain. In fact, more now than ever.

So, the point is this.

Build a category of one brand - YOU and sell your implementation system that delivers outcomes, results and transformation.

The best part - nobody can copy you. Isn't that what you want?

Everything else is just noise.