Before you pay anyone
How To Choose An Agency Coach
Almost every coach sounds convincing on the first call. The ones worth paying can also be checked: what they run today, what they charge, whose names are on their proof, and what they refuse to promise. Here are the questions, the proof to ask for and the red flags, with our own answers beside each one.
- Coaches who run agencies now
- Prices on the page
- Twenty agencies at most
Three things to check
- The questions to askWhat they run, what it costs, and what you can read first
- The proof to demandReal names, original posts, and their own members
- The red flagsPromised income, numbers nobody measured, scarcity that is not true
Written byHamid MahmoodFounder, serial digital entrepreneur- Staff the lead coaches run across New York and Lahore
- 75+Staff the lead coaches run across New York and Lahore
- North American agencies Hamid has partnered with
- 100+North American agencies Hamid has partnered with
- Projects delivered by Hamid’s companies
- 2K+Projects delivered by Hamid’s companies
- Agency owners in the community Hamid built
- 14KAgency owners in the community Hamid built
Sounding right is not the test
Overview
Choosing an agency coach is hard for a reason that has nothing to do with you. On a first call nearly everybody sounds the same, and plenty of owners have already paid for a course or a coach that sounded right and changed nothing. The difference only shows later, when the fee is already spent.
So the useful test is not how a coach sounds. It is what you can check before you pay: what they run today, what they charge, whether you can read the programme first, whose names are on their proof, and what they refuse to promise. Those checks take minutes, and they sort the field quickly.
We would rather be judged that way than any other. The people teaching here run agencies now: Hamid Mahmood’s five companies have more than seventy five staff across New York and Lahore, and Umair Amjad built the staff augmentation practice he teaches. The price is on the page, the roadmap is public before you join, and every review is in the member’s own words under their own name.
There is one thing we will not do, which is put a revenue figure or a date on your result. It depends on what you implement between sessions, and a coach who promises otherwise is telling you how they sell. The checks below work on anyone, including us.
What they tell you
- The questionsAsk
- The proofVerify
- The red flagsWalk away
What you can check
Three kinds of check
What Is Inside
From what a coach tells you to what you can check yourself. Choose a view, and each kind of check answers.
Ask
The questions
See for yourself about The questionsThe check: What do you run today, what does it cost, and can I read the programme before I pay?
What it protects you from: Coaching from someone who stopped operating years ago, and a price that only appears at the end of a long call
How we answer it: The founders’ profiles name the companies they run today. The price and the full roadmap are published.
Verify
The proof
See for yourself about The proofThe check: Reviews under real names, the original post wherever it exists, and results from their own members
What it protects you from: Testimonials nobody can trace, and famous names presented as if they were clients
How we answer it: Every review is published in full under the member’s own name, and the public figures we study in sessions are taught as examples, never presented as members.
Walk away
The red flags
See for yourself about The red flagsThe check: Promised income, before and after figures nobody measured, countdown timers and scarcity that is not true
What it protects you from: Paying for a promise instead of a programme
How we answer it: No revenue figure and no date on your result. The only limit we state is a real one: twenty agencies at most.
Those are the three kinds. These are the checks themselves.
Take these to any first call
How To Use It
Pick a check to see what a good answer sounds like, and how we answer it ourselves.
A question to ask
What to listen for
Ask what they run today, not what they once ran.
- A good answer
- Named companies, current teams, and work you can look up for yourself
- How we answer
- Five companies run now, more than seventy five staff across New York and Lahore
A question to ask
What to listen for
A published price is the easiest check of all.
- A good answer
- A number on the page, and a plain list of what it includes
- How we answer
- $750 a month or $7,999 a year, bootcamp tiers from $125
A question to ask
What to listen for
If the year is planned, you should be able to read it.
- A good answer
- What each quarter of the year covers, published before you commit
- How we answer
- The roadmap, quarter by quarter, public
Proof to demand
What to listen for
A review you cannot trace is decoration.
- A good answer
- Real names, the original post wherever there is one, and nothing edited
- How we answer
- Every review in full, under the member’s own name
A red flag
What to listen for
A promised result tells you how they sell, not how you will do.
- A good answer
- A clear account of what depends on you, and no income figure or date
- How we answer
- No revenue figure and no date: the result depends on what you implement
A red flag
What to listen for
A countdown timer is a sales device, not a seat count.
- A good answer
- A limit that is literally true, with the reason for it
- How we answer
- Twenty agencies at most, because the room is the product
Check us
Related Resources
Everything the checks above ask for, in one place.
- The coachesWho teaches, what each of them runs, and which sessions and topics they take.
- Reviews and testimonialsEvery review in full, in the member’s own words, with the original post wherever we have it.
- Member resultsWhat members report, and what you can hold us to from the first month.
- The 52 week curriculumWhat each quarter of the mastermind year covers, readable before you join.
- Mastermind vs bootcampWhich of the two programmes fits your agency now, row by row.
Ask us all of it
Get Access
Bring every one of these questions to us. Tell us your stage, and we will answer them and tell you plainly whether the mastermind fits.
Capped at twenty agencies.