the cole collective
A community of business friends, learning and growing together.
being a business owner can be challenging:
It can be hard to find someone to talk things through with (friends and family rarely understand what you do).
All the responsibility rests on your shoulders – you need to make all the decisions alone.
It’s difficult to keep your eye on the big picture of what you need to do, while you’re ploughing through all the daily tasks.
You’d like to grow and evolve your business but, before you know it, another month has slipped by and you haven’t found the time.
Would you like a friendly, relaxed space to talk things through?
In the Cole Collective we meet up (on zoom) to:
have real conversations with people who understand
learn from each other’s experiences
support each other through the challenges that business inevitably throws up
celebrate our triumphs (big and small) – sharing the good stuff with people who really know what it means for us
keep evolving our businesses to work better for us
What we are
A real community – who value getting to know each other and offering support, as well as getting help ourselves.
Genuinely interested in hearing about each other’s challenges and triumphs, and willing to offer any ideas that we may have.
A positive place to be – focused on making progress and evolving our businesses to better suit us.
There for you when you need us.
What we aren’t
A networking group / a place to pitch
Somewhere to come and be told what to do. We believe that everyone is unique, and so is their business. We offer each other the wisdom of our experience, but it’s up to you what you do with that.
Somewhere to come for a whinge. We support each other to move forwards and take action.
A traditional ‘guest expert once a month, post on Facebook for support’ kind of a group. We value turning up and getting to know each other.
investment: £20/month
No commitment – just pay monthly to remain in the Collective
What do members of the Cole Collective say?
Hi, I’m Mike…
We all have different strengths, and mine is that I’m great at helping small business owners (like you) to see and explore opportunities to evolve their unique businesses.
Together, in the Cole Collective, we’re encouraging each other to make consistent, sustainable progress towards our own ideal businesses. There are no pre-conceived ideas about what you ‘should’ do or ‘six-figure models’ to shoehorn your business into.
I bring my coaching skills to help create a calm, supportive space so that we can learn from each other, and then make the right decisions for ourselves.
I’m an ICF-accredited coach, which means I’ve had a lot of training and experience at helping people explore their unique situation, gain new insight and take positive action. You can read more about me here.
What happens inside the Collective?
We meet each Monday morning (10.30-11.30), live on Zoom.
Each session has a different focus, but always includes time to discuss our businesses. Sometimes this is as one group, and other times we split into groups of 2 or 3.
What happens in the main room of the learning sessions is recorded, so that you can catch up on the weeks that you can’t make it.
The sessions we run include:
Group coaching
Bring an issue along and we’ll help you get unstuck. Mike will coach you through your problem, and the rest of us will pitch in our ideas.
It’s surprising how often you can learn something from thinking about other people’s challenges.
Bite-sized learning
A member of the Collective who has been to an event / read a book / listened to a podcast, spends 5-10 minutes sharing their key takeaways.
We then jump into break out rooms and discuss how we could apply that learning to our businesses.
Monthly Planning Calls
We look at how last month went & what we want to achieve this month.
The session is led by Mike, and includes plenty of time brainstorming our issues 1:1 with other members of the Collective.
Facebook Group (optional)
We have a lively Facebook group that additional support outside of the weekly calls. We share what we’re working on for the week on a Monday, and look at how well it went on a Friday. We also celebrate our wins, and share interesting ideas, events etc that we’ve come across. But if Facebook isn’t your thing, that’s not a problem.
FAQs
What if I can’t make one of the sessions?
Firstly, we encourage you to only come to the sessions that are useful to you. So don’t feel that you have to come to everything. We’re all about making the best use of your time.
All sessions, except for the group coaching call, are recorded and you can catch up at your leisure. We only record what happens in the main session (not the discussion in the breakout rooms), so the recordings will be much shorter than the actual sessions, and easy to catch up with.
When are the live sessions held?
We meet every Monday morning (except Bank Holidays) 10.30-11.30am (UK time).
What is the commitment?
There is no commitment. When you join you will pay for your first month. Then, on the same day each month, we will take payment until you cancel.
You can cancel your membership at any point, and your access to the membership will continue until the last day of the month that you have paid for.
What is the time commitment for the membership?
As much, or little as you want it to be. We’re really focused on making the most of your time, so we’d encourage you to pick the things that are useful for you and ignore the rest.
If you want to attend everything live, then that is an hour a week. If you catch up with some sessions, then the time will be considerably less as the recording doesn’t include the time we spend in the breakout rooms (eg a bite-sized training catchup will probably be less than 15mins).
Will the price of the Collective rise?
Probably. But not for you, while you stay as a member. As long as you remain part of the Collective, you will continue to pay whatever the rate is when you join. If you leave and want to re-join, then you’ll pay whatever the price is at that point.