There will inevitably be a moment in coaching where a client comes to you disappointed.
Maybe… They launched and didn’t hit the number they wanted.
… Or perhaps they’ve been doing the work, but things aren’t moving as quickly as they expected.
Or maybe they followed the strategy you gave them and the result just… wasn’t there.
And as the coach, it can be REALLY tempting to immediately try to make them feel better.
“But look how much you’ve grown!”
“You still made $10,000!”
“This is all part of the process!”
And yes, perhaps all of those things are true.
But it doesn’t help the client solve the underlying disappointment they’re experiencing…
As a coach, our first job isn’t to convince someone that they shouldn’t be disappointed.
Because if they wanted 50 people in their program and 8 joined…
They’re allowed to be disappointed.
If they worked really hard for something and didn’t get the result they wanted, I don’t need to rush them out of that feeling just because it’s uncomfortable for ME to sit in it.
I can acknowledge what’s actually there.
“Yeah. I know you wanted more from this.”
“I know this isn’t the result you were hoping for.”
And then, once we’ve actually acknowledged the disappointment, we can start getting curious about what happened.
Because disappointment and data can exist in the same conversation.
What worked?
What didn’t?
Where did people drop off?
What did we learn about the offer, the messaging, the sales process, or the audience?
What would we do differently knowing what we know now?
That’s where I want to take someone.
Not from disappointment straight into positivity…
…but from disappointment into possibility.
Because one disappointing result doesn’t need to become a conclusion about the entire business.
And your client might have an underlying thought of “Nobody wants my offer.” or “I’m terrible at selling”
But it is our job as coaches to go “This launch didn’t produce the result we wanted. Let’s figure out why.”
One is an interpretation.
The other gives us something we can actually work with.
And I think this is where our own leadership as coaches becomes really important.
If my client is disappointed and I immediately start panicking WITH them, questioning the entire strategy, changing everything and trying to fix the feeling…
I’m probably not creating much safety in that conversation.
I have to be able to hold both things.
This wasn’t the result we wanted.
AND…
There is still a next move available to us.
Sometimes the most valuable thing I can do for someone in that moment is help them separate what happened from what they’re making it mean.
Because results are information.
They can tell us where something broke down, where an assumption was wrong, or where we need to make an adjustment.
But they don’t automatically get to tell us what’s possible next.
So when a client is disappointed in their results, I don’t try to talk them out of being disappointed.
I acknowledge it.
I let them feel what they feel.
And then, when they’re ready, we look at what the result is here to teach us.
Because coaching isn’t about making sure your clients never experience disappointment.
It’s helping them know what to DO with it when they do.
