Ep. 44 Why I’m Breaking Up With Business Coaching in 2026
Let me start by being very clear about something: I am still, for the most part, pro business coaching.
I think there are seasons in all of our businesses where coaching can be really, really helpful, and I have seen firsthand over and over and over again how powerful, supportive, and truly transformative it can be.
I've had a couple of business coaches on the podcast. I have lots of friends who are business coaches. I've hired a few different business coaches myself. They've all changed my life in different ways.
So I'm not here to tell you to fire your business coach. I'm here to tell you why I am taking a break from coaching and what I'm doing instead.
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My Journey with Business Coaching
Let me take you through my coaching journey so you understand where I'm coming from.
The Beginning: My First Coach
Recently I had my OG business coach, Eryn Morgan, on the podcast. I hired her all the way back in 2016-2017 when I was still in my nine-to-five. I worked with her for several years. She helped me go full-time in my business and reach my first six-figure year.
I highly, highly, highly recommend going back and listening to that episode if you're considering hiring a coach. There are a lot of good nuggets in there for you.
I worked with Eryn for four or five years, and then I reached this point where I just didn't have anything else that I needed from her. I kept coming to our calls and saying, "I'm good. I got this. I'm not really struggling with anything. Things are kind of cruising."
That was my indication that it was time to take a break from working with her. She was super supportive.
A little nugget of wisdom: If your coaches are not supportive when you tell them that you think it might be time to take a break or that you are complete working with them, that's a major red flag. If they ever try to shame you into continuing to work together or make you feel like you can't do it on your own, that is not a good coach.
Bringing in New Support for a New Season
It was probably two or three years that I ran Specht and Co. totally on my own with no coach. I was still in some mastermind-type groups just for the community aspect, but no direct business coaching. But w I found out I was pregnant with my daughter in 2022, I started thinking about maternity leave and how that was going to look. How was I going to continue to support my clients while also taking time off to be with my brand new baby and my family?
I just couldn't see how that was possible.
So I hired somebody that I knew had done that and could help me see how it was possible, build the systems in the business, and hire the support I needed to get through that season of my life. That was the middle of 2022.
That coach, Kelsey of The Aligned Business™ supported me through the end of pregnancy, maternity leave, postpartum, a couple of moves due to the military, and then all the way through my most recent postpartum and maternity leave experience. As of the release of this episode, we will have just finished working together a few months ago.
I am here to tell you that I likely would not have survived those seasons of my life with my mental health and business still intact if not for coaching.
So when I tell you I still believe in it, I really, really still believe in it. Coaching has helped me leave my nine-to-five, grow my business, hire a team, support more clients, change my offers, have babies, move, do all the things, and still somehow keep my head on straight.
The Signs It Was Time for a New Season
From fall 2025 on, I started to notice something. Similarly to when I decided to stop working with my first business coach, every time I would send a Voxer message to my coach or get on a call or send a Slack message with "I'm thinking about doing this" or "What's your thoughts on that?" I kind of always knew what she was going to say.
That was a cue to me that, I'm wasn’t really trying to learn something from this person. I was just really looking to them for reassurance or confirmation.
And that didn't feel super great to me because it started to feel like I was second-guessing myself. Like I knew what the right thing to do was, but I all of a sudden felt like I couldn't take action on something until this other person told me, "Yeah, thumbs up, go ahead."
And that's not why I'm in business for myself. I'm in business because I want to run the show, not because I want to be looking to somebody else to run the show for me.
The Shift After Two Postpartum Experiences
With two postpartum experiences in basically two years there was a lot of re-figuring out who I was, what I valued, and what I wanted to spend my time on.
For a lot of that time, I was second-guessing myself and I did need somebody to tell me I wasn't crazy, this was normal, this is a good idea, or it's not a waste of my time.
But over time, that internal compass got stronger and stronger and stronger. I reached a point where I realized, I needed to look to myself to know what the right answer is in my business and stop looking to somebody else.
That's a big key if you are working with a coach: if you start relying on them for reassurance instead of knowledge, learning, expansion, and mentorship, then it's probably a sign that you need to work on trusting yourself more. Maybe you don't need a coach right now. Maybe you just need to build that trust muscle and show yourself that you actually are smart, you do know what you're doing, and you've got this.
Moving from Building to Executing
I also spent a lot of 2025 (and a little bit of 2024) rebuilding some of the frameworks in my business. I shifted to more of a strategy-first model. My processes and the way I worked with clients changed a lot. My offers got tweaked and refined. I was doing a lot of tinkering, building, and executing new ideas.
And now I'm in a season where I'm done with that. I have all the things and now it's time to just go and do.
I don't really need a coach to help me go and do. I needed a coach to help me figure out how to position the Standout Brand Strategy System, how to launch my podcast, and how to do all those things. But I don't have anything else like that on the horizon. Now it's time for me to put my head down and execute on what I've been building over the last couple of years.
What I'm Doing with Those Funds Instead
You're probably thinking, "Well, I bet you're gonna save a bunch of money by not paying for a business coach in 2026, Morgan."
And yes, I am. That is an added benefit, I suppose. But it's not the biggest reason. It honestly wasn't even a huge driving factor.
However, now that I have those funds freed up, I'm trying to spend them very strategically.
2026 is going to be a bit of an experiment year. I'm taking most of the money that I would have normally spent on coaching over the last few years and instead investing it into done-for-you services that I hope are going to more directly move the needle in my business.
My 2026 Investments
The first two investments I've made are in:
SEO
A couple of brand photo shoots (happening later in the year)
As the year progresses and things ramp up and we see how those have panned out for me, I would love to also bring on either a podcast manager, a social media manager, or some other execution-based support.
The Capacity vs. Knowledge Shift
I think that as a busy mom, business owner, and somebody who has very few hours in the week to work, sometimes we get in this trap where we think, "We need more coaching, we need mindset, we need somebody to teach us."
But ultimately it comes down to: there are only so many hours in the day.
At some point, it makes more sense to spend those dollars on people to do things for you than to teach you things.
I don't have time to buy a course on social media, go through it, and do it all myself. What I need to do is just pass it off to somebody else and let them do it for me so that it frees up my time to focus on serving my clients, marketing my business, and doing all the things that have to be done by me.
There are different seasons in business, right? Sometimes you're in seasons where you're gathering all the knowledge and learning and growing. And then there are seasons of doing.
I am shifting into a season of doing. And part of that doing includes paying other people to do some of the doing for me.
Why This Makes Sense Now
This makes sense for me now because:
My offers are finalized
My positioning is super clear
My new system and model for how I work with people is fully fleshed out, built, and tested
The bottleneck isn't clarity anymore. It's not "I'm not sure how I want this to look or how I want it to work or how I want to talk about it."
It's capacity for implementation. How many clients can I take on? How much marketing content can I create?
Fortunately for me, I can use money to expand my capacity.
A Broader Trend
Side note: I'm not the only person saying this. If you get on Threads, you'll see a post once in a while that talks about the shift from coaching and courses to done-for-you services.
I don't think coaching is going anywhere by any means. I've said that before and I'll say it again: there is always a time and a place for coaching when it's the right coach for the right reason in the right season of your business.
But I think collectively we are moving away from "tell me what to do and I'll do it myself" to "just help me actually do it."
I think for service providers going into 2026, it's going to be really interesting to see how that all shakes out.
Creating Community Without Paying for It
Another thing I've learned about myself over the last eight or so years in business: online business gets lonely.
Yeah, we're on the internet and we're on Instagram Stories and whatever, but ultimately we're sitting on our couches alone working.
While I am a loud and proud introvert, I don't always want to be doing it alone. And while I am an unapologetic introvert, I still need community.
The Trap I Fell Into
I have unfortunately fallen into the trap of investing in group programs that were probably not really what I needed because I was just craving that community. I didn't realize at the time that that's what I was doing, but in hindsight, it's crystal clear to me.
So I started to think about, okay, coaching is not for me in this season of my life and my business, but I still want to have my people. I want to have somebody I can go to and bounce ideas off of or be like, "Hey, I'm really struggling. Do you have any ideas for this?" And just feel like I have friends in the online space, really.
Co-Creating Peer-Led Masterminds
That has led me to co-create two different peer-led masterminds. These are not paid coaching containers. They are spaces for:
Bouncing ideas off of each other
Gaining additional perspective
Accountability
Feeling less alone
Having a community
The reason I want to bring this up is because I think a lot of us get sucked into this "you need to pay to be part of a community". And then exactly like happened to me in the past, you end up in these multiple-hundred to thousand-dollar-a-month group programs that you don't really need just because you're lonely.
You Can Create Community for Free
A lot of people end up paying for coaching, masterminds, or group programs not because they need the strategy or the thing being taught in the program, but because they're lonely and they're craving connection and they want to find their people.
I think 2026 is the year that I say no thank you to that.
You don't need to pay someone thousands of dollars to feel connected and supported. You can create your own community for free.
How It Happened for Me
In my case, this came about because I literally posted about it on Threads.
My now friend Amy (I was not friends with her before I made this post; we had kind of worked on a project together but never communicated directly) said, "Hey, I'm doing the same thing. Do you want to start a peer mastermind?"
And I said, "Yeah."
And then I posted about it and like 20 people said, "Oh my gosh, I want to join too." It got to the point that I was like, "Guys, we can't have a mastermind of 20 people." So I ended up breaking it into two groups.
If you ask your community, "Hey, does anyone want to get together once a month or once a week or whatever to support each other?" people will say yes.
I'm going to say it again: You can create community for free.
You don't need a coach leading you. You don't need to be spending several hundred dollars a month. If you want community, it is out there, but you have to go ask for it.
It took me making that post and then Amy saying, "Hey, what about this crazy idea?" And me being like, "Hey, you know what? Yeah, let's try it."
Now we have a group of five of us that are going to meet once a week. We have a Slack channel. We're cheering each other on, sharing each other's offers, giving feedback and support. It's so great and we're not paying a dime for it.
This Season Is About Self-Trust
This season for me really is about self-trust. I've talked about this previously on the podcast: one of the most important skills in online business is being able to trust yourself.
That takes time and work to build. But being able to make decisions without outsourcing your confidence and relying on somebody else to tell you whether or not something's a good idea?
If you think really hard deep down inside, you know.
Trusting yourself is the best thing you can do for your business.
The Discomfort of Growth
I think it's also okay to acknowledge that it's a little uncomfortable sometimes. It's going to be uncomfortable for me to not have somebody I can turn to and be like, "No, I really messed this up, help" or "I don't have any clients, help" or whatever. Somebody to run to and save me.
But that discomfort is part of the growth.
I know about myself from the past that I need to go it alone for a little while so that I can find my footing, trust myself, and really step into that next-level role that I feel so ready for.
I'm excited to see what happens when I stop looking to somebody else for permission and start just doing what I know works again. I hope that's going to look like more momentum and more follow-through.
My Gratitude for Coaching
I am eternally grateful for coaching. I would not be where I am without it.
I could not be more appreciative of the coaches who have supported me when I needed it. And I'm equally grateful that they have taught me to recognize when it's time to evolve, when it's time to go my own way, when it's time to stop using a coach as a crutch.
You're Allowed to Reassess
I would love to encourage you that you're allowed to reassess how you invest.
Just because you've been working with a coach for five years doesn't mean you have to keep working with them next year. It is your money, it's your time, it's your emotional energy, and it is really important to be constantly evaluating where those things are going.
Growth does not look like constantly adding more support. Sometimes it looks like choosing different support. Sometimes it looks like letting go of support and doing things on your own.
Let's Connect
I'm really excited and frankly a little bit nervous about this. I will be talking lots more about it on social media. Maybe I'll come back in a few months and do an update on the podcast.
But if you are in a similar season where you're considering shifting the support you have in your business, maybe you feel like you're outgrowing a business coach and entering more of that execution season in your business yourself, I would love, love, love to connect with you.
My Instagram DMs are always open.
🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned In The Episode:
➡️ Follow me on Instagram @spechtand.co
➡️ Start Your Stand Out Brand™ Audit
➡️ Grab The Stand Out Brand Foundations Workbook
➡️ Book Your Stand Out Brand Strategy Session (use code SFBPOD for $100 off)
➡️ Book A Brand Chat
🎧 Listen to episode 44 of The Six Figure Brand Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube
