You’re right to be skeptical. Bad coaching is vague.
Most founders who have looked into coaching have a version of the same concern: it sounds unaccountable, hard to measure its results and no solutions are given so what’s the point?
The concern is legitimate.
Here’s what actually separates useful coaching from the kind that isn’t.
Which type Coaching Energy do you prefer?
PERFORMANCE MODEL
TONY ROBBINS
High energy, motivational, prescriptive.
The coach has the answers.
The coach knows the path.
The coach’s job is to fire you up, give you the framework, and send you back in.
- Works well for acute motivational gaps
- Can feel hollow when the real problem is structural
- Accountability is external – you’re performing for someone else
- The insight belongs to the coach, not to you
THINKING PARTNER MODEL
TED LASSO
Curious, precise, unhurried. No direct answers.
He asks the question that surfaces the answer you already have.
The insight is yours – he just created the conditions for it to emerge.
- Works well for people who think clearly but are stuck in a loop
- The accountability is internal – you own the conclusion
- Slower to feel like progress, faster to produce lasting change
- Requires a coach who can actually hold the space without filling it
| What is Coaching? | What isn’t Coaching? |
| Working with you, the Client in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires you to maximise your personal and professional potential (Source: International Coaching Federation ICF) | Consulting Mentoring Counseling Therapy Training |
| You have the answers to your questions. | Giving you the answers from experience and teaching Working out the answers from past behavioral patterns and experience. |
| Coaches help bridge the gap between your dissatisfaction and your desired outcome with the wisdom from you. You walk and design your own unique path. | You get advice from an expert, someone who has walked the road before you or a medical professional who will tell you about their path. |
“Coaching is vague and unaccountable – what am I actually paying for?”
It’s a fair question and most coaching pages don’t answer this directly. So here it is…
You’re paying for a structured process of making your thinking visible.
You’re NOT paying for advice.
You’re NOT paying for a framework that someone else built.
You’re NOT paying for an accountability partner.
The specific thing that costs money is having a trained person ask you the questions that cut through the noise – and then hold the space long enough for you to actually answer them, rather than move on to the next thing.
What makes it hard to quantity is that the output isn’t a tangible deliverable.
It’s a shift in how you see a problem, a decision that stops cycling, a conversation that you’ve been avoiding that finally gets had. These things have downstream consequences that are real – they’re just not on an invoice.
The honest caveat: coaching is only worth the money if you’re willing to be in the room properly. If you turn up and perform having-it-together, you’ll get what you pay for – not much.
If you’re genuinely willing to look at what’s actually happening, it tends to be worth considerably more than the price.
YOU GET THREE THINGS
01
A thinking partner with no stake in the outcome
Your co-founder, your team, your investors – everyone around you has a position. A coach has no stake in which decision you make. That’s rarer and more useful than it sounds when you’re trying to think clearly.
02
Questions that go somewhere
It is not ALL “how does that make you feel?” I do ask that but not throughout the session. The real version is: a question that surfaces the assumption you’ve been operating from without examining it. That one question can move more than six months of effort in the wrong direction.
03
The conversation you’ve haven’t had anywhere else
There are things founders can’t say to their team (it undermines authority), can’t say to their board (it invites interference) and, can’t say to their co-founder (it lands wrong). The coaching room is often the only place those things actually get said.
WHY SIYUN?
I have been trained by Martha Beck as a Wayfinder Coach in the Martha Beck Institute and certified by the International Coaching Federation.
Before delving into the world of personal development, I worked in Finance, Tech & founded my own B2C retail companies.
Whilst I can relate to what you’re going through as an entrepreneur, you’re in the driving seat, deciding what you need from the session.
Our coaching sessions will be conducted over Google Meet.
During our time together, no topic is too mundane or taboo. Entrepreneurship is satisfying but comes with a myriad of challenges – shareholder and employee management and growing pains.
If it is an area of low satisfaction for you, we can and will talk about it.
Life is complex and emotions present themselves as signals to us.
Let us decipher them together to illuminate your own understanding of your world.
WHAT CLIENTS HAVE SAID
I spent 4 sessions with Siyun as a coach – these were very impactful sessions that felt way more than just 4 sessions. Why?
Firstly, Siyun is very passionate about people and potential. The energy she brings not just in each session but around each session creates a positive buzz that lasts long after each sessions.
Secondly, she is very thoughtful and proactive in trying to tailor her approach and tools for the individual and each session. She is very well read and agile in using pre work, frameworks & exercises during the session and summaries / after session questions to bring one through a rigorous and multi faceted journey through the topic area / issue we agree to work on.
Lastly, she has very varied experiences and accomplishments, and she brings these in to broaden the discussion and perspective, rather than to rely on mental models that may not transpose easily.
I truly benefited from my time with her and believe she can help anyone achieve their goals with her balance of energy, thoughtfulness and rigour.
— Daniel
THIS WORKS FOR SOME FOUNDERS. NOT ALL.
LIKELY A GOOD FIT IF YOU…
✅ Have a specific problem that’s been circling for more than a few weeks
✅ Are self-aware enough to know the problem might be partly you
✅ Have tried thinking it through alone and the loop keeps returning
✅ Are willing to say what’s actually going on, not the polished version
✅ Wants a change, not just to be understood
✅ Are 2+ years into your business and hitting a new kind of wall
NOT THE RIGHT FIT IF YOU…
❌ Want someone to tell you what to do
❌ Are looking for business advice or mentorship from someone who’s walked your exact path
❌ Are in acute crisis and need a therapist or counsellor first
❌ Want accountability in the sense of someone checking up on you
❌ Aren’t willing to look at the parts of the situation that involve your own behaviour
READY TO TRY IT?
The Founder Script is where this starts.
Two focused sessions on the specific communication problem that’s costing you the most right now – whether that’s in your own head, in a room that keeps not resolving, or in a story you’ve outgrown. $199.
No ongoing commitment required.
Scripting Life 