The coaching industry has lost the plot
(This post was originally an email to my email community on March 17th 2026)
Lately I’ve found myself thinking a lot about how tired I am of being squeezed for money by this industry we’re part of.
By that I mean the coaching industry (professionally certified coaches) and the wider ecosystem of experts that claim to have ‘the answer’ when it comes to growing our businesses. Sometimes I wonder if it's mainly a massive pyramid scheme.
When I trained to be a coach, I was not expecting to be preyed upon every day.
Yes. Every day, without fail, some expert or other slides into my DMs claiming to hold the answer.
I would rather jab pins in my one good eye than hear another pitch about achieving multiple six-figure success. The DMs multiply when I share my ideas on LinkedIn. It seems a woman with something to say is code for: ‘She must be desperate. She must need help. Sell to her. Now.'
Over the years I’ve spent thousands of pounds on my own growth as a business owner.
What I feel like I should say is that I don’t regret a penny. But that would be a lie. Some of it was good spend, and some of it I deeply regret.
I regret being sucked in by dazzlingly good marketing that played on all my insecurities, only to discover the ‘expert’ who claimed to have all the answers, did in fact, NOT.
What they did have was glorified, regurgitated content I could have found anywhere on LinkedIn had I looked hard enough.
I refuse to perpetuate the extractive cycle that dominates this industry.
I want to offer spaces that make us feel more expansive and alive, so we can bring our most beautiful work forward.
That reflection led to me creating something new:
The Joy-Led Business Creation Collective.
This collective is an ongoing container – sustainably priced – that honours the spaciousness many of us crave, as we keep evolving and creating in service of the missions we’re on as business owners.
A space that offers structure within community, rather than another ‘programme.’
You can read all the details here.
I would LOVE your feedback. Whether it's a yes, no, maybe or perhaps another time.
This community will begin small, and then slowly expand until it finds it natural size. There's no rush, no pressure to sign up NOW. There's no countdown timer.
Only an invitation to step in if it feels like it would deeply support you and the work you're here to do.
If you weren't at the workshop in January where I shared my philosophy on Joy-led Business Creation, please reply and I will send you so clips.
Your response will mean I actually have to dig out that recording, dust it off and send it to you!
What a powerful structure.
Your responses to this email (this post was originally an email), and to the offering within it, genuinely matter.
We cannot create in a vacuum.
We cannot create the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible, in our heads.
We need the magic of one another's presence to rise together and weave what doesn't yet exist into form.
With love, and in creative power
Claire
P.S. If you'd rather offer your reflections in a real-time conversation, you can book a time in my diary here.
Or simply reply and we can schedule the old-fashioned way (claire@clairemackinnon.com). I have more availability that is showing via the calendar link.
