Building a Coaching Business with Purpose, Balance and Growth
Kofi Kyei, founder of Chay Executive Coaching, is dedicated to helping leaders grow into the best version of themselves by unlocking their full potential.
Through thoughtful, reflective conversations, he creates a space where clients can explore more deeply, reconnect with their purpose, and gain meaningful insights.
Key Insights
Working on the business is just as important as working in it.
Takeaway for new coaches: Block out time each week for business development—treat it like a client appointment. Strategic consistency is what grows your coaching practice.Lead with relationships, not transactions.
Takeaway for new coaches: Build genuine connections. Coaching is a people-first business, and long-term growth comes from trust, not sales scripts.Balance and self-care are non-negotiable.
Takeaway for new coaches: Your presence is your product. Protect your time, energy, and headspace so you can consistently show up for others.
The Interview
Tell me a bit about you. How did you become a coach?
For the last over 20 years or so, my role was primarily in talent acquisition space, hiring people either from a consultancy or search firm perspective, and then later moving in-house and working primarily with financial services companies. The call to coaching started to creep in about 10 years or so ago where, having built some experience etc., people were coming to me more from an advisory perspective as to how to navigate their careers. And probably about two years ago, I thought why don’t I build my talent acquisition role out further and support people who wanted to progress within the organisation I was working for.
Which led me to do a coaching executive coaching certification with a view to doing the diploma sponsored by the company. Things changed and I decided to leave my role just before the summer last year and take some time just to really reassess where I wanted to go next, what I wanted to do. That led to doing the executive coaching diploma where I met a global cohort. It was virtual and when we introduced ourselves and shared our stories. The cohort were just like, “What are you waiting for?” I was like, “Well, I kind of wanted to get another job and I’ll do it on the side.” And they were like, “No, you’re a rare breed and there aren’t many that have the breadth of experience of different roles across different organisations that you have and the passion that you come with.” They said, “Just do it.”
Four weeks later, I started CH Executive Coaching.
And how’s it going?
I love it. I absolutely love it.
I never like to say I regret anything ‘cause I think you are where you are because of what you’ve experienced and you know more about yourself and what you like, what you don’t like, and your purpose in life. It’s such a beautiful thing to see and work with people when you know they are looking for direction or looking to improve themselves.
You know, sometimes it’s no existential crisis. It’s just, look, I know I’m performing, but I think there’s more. And I just want to work with someone who gives me the space and asks me the questions to help me turbocharge this distance or this journey between the day I’m born and the day I die. I just find it so uplifting to see people go on that journey and make the changes that lead to happiness for themselves, their colleagues, their families, and the wider communities they serve.
What surprised you the most about running your own coaching business?
I think I was prepared for being a solopreneur initially and the different hats that you have to wear.
The biggest surprise has been realising that it’s important to spend time working on the business and not in the business. Because I am the product and the service and everything else and I love what I do, as I’ve just said, and I could spend all of the hours—within reason, to maintain the right balance and productivity—doing the delivery of that thing that I love.
But actually, I think a few months down the line, I realised that there were so many ideas that were spinning in my mind around strategic direction, other things that I could build, programs that I could construct, ways that I could support people, but then also how to position and market myself. That if I just went through each day on a kind of “ah, wake up and see how I feel” basis, I probably wouldn’t make the incremental progress I needed to reach those big dreams and goals.
So I think that was the biggest surprise: that actually, doing what you do is not enough.
You need to take that step back and ring in some time where you’re like, right, this is my deep work focus time to think about where am I going with the business and how can I take the steps—small at first but consistent in general—to get me to that place.
How do you find balance when wearing all the hats?
I recognised that how you do anything can be how you do everything.
I thrive on frameworks where it is not a constant battle of willpower like “do I feel like it?” or “don’t I feel like it?” I like routines and I like habits. So what I do—I played with just letting it flow—but what I’ve landed on is structuring my weeks. Starting each week by looking at the plan from last week, where am I up to, and what I need to do this week to make it impactful and move forward.
And so having that built in takes away the willpower and like, “I don’t fancy it today,” because it’s in my diary. I can’t do anything else. And if I choose to, then that’s me saying I don’t really mean it.
What’s been one of the biggest challenges running your coaching business?
Running your own business is a journey steeped in self-care, self-love, prioritisation—that manifests itself in the work that we do.
Paying attention comes at a cost. Paying real attention through active listening can take energy and concentration away from you.
And I think one of the challenges that I’ve found is wanting to be a container for that conversation to happen and at the same time, your own life is going on around you. There is no pause. Something that I’ve been working through is just how to balance and centre myself ahead of every conversation and quiet any external noise or distraction.
The other challenge is around building the business. You don’t have a salary where you can simply try your best and at the end of the month voila, there’s money in my bank account.
There’s the element of, I sow seeds—some will grow, some won’t. It’s balancing the uncertainty and sitting with the discomfort and not panicking because… well, where’s this cash coming from? How are we paying for life?
I think it comes under the umbrella of balance—long story short—and of maintaining that so I can bring that peace to people that are paying me to have a forum for their self-discovery and on the journey.
When it comes to running your business, what is something that comes very naturally for you?
There is a real gratitude and pride for working with the people that I want to. So I have a view that I want to spend the majority of the rest of my life with the people, the places, and doing the pursuits that uplift me and make me feel good. Being able to discern between aligned energy and not aligned energy and actually what feels right for me to do because I think I have now, more than ever, greater alignment with myself and my authentic mission, purpose and what have you.
When it comes to marketing, people say, “Oh, your marketing is this or that,” and I’m like, “Yeah, I just write what comes from the heart.” The trials and tribulations of the journey of life that I’ve had allows me to empathise with others. When I write and people write back and are like, “Oh my god, thank you,” I’m like, this is why I have no regrets—because if I hadn’t gone through XYZ, I wouldn’t be able to speak about it. I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have, as you’re experiencing, the gift of chatting but also writing my thoughts in a way that conveys the sentiment I want to share.
Meeting people on my good days—I like being in spaces where the energy flows and I can connect with people. I don’t struggle with that at all because I fully accept I’m not going to be everyone’s cup of coffee. But if there is a connection, then I really do feel that energy doesn’t lie. I’m here to help. It might not be that you pay me to be your coach. It might just be, “Can you give me some advice?” or “Do you know anyone?” If there’s reciprocation in the energy and I feel like I can be of service, then I’m down for that sort of stuff as well.
What are some mistakes new coaches often make—or you may have made yourself?
One that comes to mind is from a business generation or relationship development point of view. There’s an approach where you go to someone and say, “Hey, I can do XYZ. Look at me, come to me.” That is a sort of egocentric approach where you assume someone requires your help.
The approach I try to leverage is really trying to understand if there is common ground and whether there is a way I can add value to someone’s journey. Especially if you focus on leadership coaching—I take the view that potential minus interference equals performance.
If you’re a leader, you are performing. What we’re talking about is higher performance. Do you have the time, the willingness, the capacity for that or not? And I think it needs to be a relationship-based approach rather than a transactional-based one. So that would be my nutshell: lead with relationship, which will take whatever time it takes to build rapport and trust—not “Here is a service, give me money.”
What’s one business task that really drains you?
Definitely the accounting side of things. I will procrastinate on it. But again, I’ve got a routine that works for me now. I know that when I put tasks off, it just gets worse. Then you’re paying twice: you have more to do and you’ve been stressing about it along the way. So I do it monthly and I love little processes, it can be quite fun. When I’m in it, I love it. It’s just the inertia I have to break through.
What task energises you, besides coaching?
I like writing. I really like writing. When it comes to me and I feel there’s something right, I feel like I’m channeling life and sharing that in a way that speaks to me.
I also really like seeing the progression that those I work with are making—even outside of the coaching sessions. If they don’t share updates between sessions, then when we catch up and they tell me, it’s like, “Wow.” It’s not just what they agreed to do—it’s infecting them in a positive way: reclaiming power, taking responsibility, being more aware. When they tell me how they’ve navigated situations that I know would’ve been an earthquake before—that gives me joy and energy.
If you could optimise one part of your business, what would it be?
I would probably say sales, as it relates to covering the ground to explore whether there is that desire to build a relationship—be it today, tomorrow, whenever.
I’ve started some conversations and then business has come through. Then referrals have been made. Then someone else finds me. There’s a real push and pull between proactive and reactive work.
In my mind, having worked in sales roles before, you’re always looking at your work-in-progress and your pipeline. From time to time, there’s that bit of, “You really could do more in that regard.”
If I could optimise my initial outreach—in a personalised, not mass-spam way—that would be really helpful.
What’s in your tech stack? What tools or systems do you use?
I use a CRM called HubSpot, which I found super intuitive and easy, and it syncs with my diary so people can book time. I try to reduce time on administrative things so I can do more of the things that make a difference or add value.
I also use a note taker which has been a game changer. I do meet clients in person, but some are international. For the virtual sessions, it’s a way to capture the key points and takeaways. It also gives them a video at the end. Not everyone watches it, but some do, and they realize they learn more from reflecting on the experience than from just being in the moment.
Those are the key things, really.
If you could start your business over again today, would you do anything differently?
I’d have to say—hell no. No, I wouldn’t. I think everything that I’ve done, every misstep I’ve taken, has given me data and experience for where I’m going next.
I took some time off at the start of the year. Took time off for Christmas with intention. Did that help or hinder the business? Probably didn’t help—momentum was lost. Do I regret it? No. Because if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t know. And now, if I do take time off, I keep my hand in—maybe just one hour in the morning. That would’ve offset the trepidation I felt coming back.
There’s a balance to be had, but this is my first go-around on this merry-go-round thing. I’m all for the learning. We grow through the things that we go through. So, no—I wouldn’t.
