Ghosting sucks, and it stings way more when the person already paid you.

This episode comes from a question an HCA student asked me: she closes most people she talks to, but a few ghosted midway through her program.

Is it her, or her systems? I walk through the three things to check, in order, so you stop guessing.

What we cover:

• Why a ghosted client costs more than a ghosted lead: you lose the sale plus the result, the testimonial and the referral
• Why it hits your confidence, and why some ghosting is a normal part of running a program
• Check your program structure first: most of us were never taught curriculum design or client experience
• Milestones: little wins your client can hit predictably, using the mountain hike example
• Why a milestone has to be something you can deliver and prove (like shipping off a lab kit), not an outcome you can't control
• Why the first few weeks matter most: one study found students active in week one finished 78% of the time vs 17% for inactive students (observational data from a course platform)
• How I changed my own protocols: dripping them out step by step instead of dumping everything at once
• What I added inside HCA: business audits and one-on-one calls so people have a custom plan by the end of week one
• Check who you let in: the wrong-fit signs I watch for on a sales call
• Why "I need this to work or else" is a red flag
• What to do when someone says on your application that they can't invest
• Accept what nothing fixes: there is always a portion of clients who pay and never complete
• My own confession: the $2,000 NLP course I paid for and never finished
• A rough benchmark for HCA: around 5% ghosting is normal, 10% or higher means look at your program

Resources mentioned

• Ruzuku study on cohort vs self-paced completion: ruzuku.com
• Apply for Health Coach Accelerator (HCA): https://go.kendraperry.net/apply-hca
• Kendra's website: kendraperry.net
• Kendra on Instagram: @kendraperryinc

"Did I miss the deadline?" I get asked this all the time. If you run live promotions with deadlines, you'll get asked it too. Someone misses your cutoff, reaches out, and wants in. Do you take the money anyway, or do you stick to the deadline?

I've handled this a few different ways over the years. There was a time I was incredibly strict: miss the deadline, you don't get to buy. I've eased up on that, but my answer still depends on what I'm selling. For a live cohort with a real start date, I stay strict, because I need to know numbers and I don't think people should join a live course after it has started. For an evergreen program where the deadline is about a discount or a bonus going away, people can still enroll, but the discount and bonuses are gone.

In this episode I walk through why bending a deadline can feel unfair to the people who bought on time, why a late exception of days or weeks hurts your brand, and why "we're reopening by popular demand" trains your audience to wait for the next chance. I also get into the times I say yes (a 24-hour grace period, and a bank blocking a payment before the deadline), the times I say no, a coach who took a late $3,000 client after a launch with no sales, and a woman I turned down who respected me more for it.

Questions I ask before I make the call:

• How late is it? Within a day, or a week later?
• Was there a real reason (forgot, tech issue, family emergency)?
• Would I be comfortable telling the people who bought on time that I made an exception?
• Was this person already in a sales conversation with me?

Takeaway: a deadline only works if your list believes it. Decide your rule before your next launch (grace period or not, how long, and for what reasons), apply it to everyone, tell people why the deadline exists, and if you hold the line, offer a next-round email or another option instead of slamming the door.

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"Do I need to run a live cohort?" I hear this all the time, and a lot of new HCA students come in thinking the answer is yes. It's not that simple. Live cohort and evergreen are both good options. Which one fits depends on what you want your business to look like.

In this episode I define both, then walk through the pros and cons of each from someone who has run both. I ran HCA as a live 90 day cohort five times before turning it evergreen in September 2021. I talk about why live cohorts are great for testing a new program and create real urgency, why everything riding on one launch is brutal (including the time I emailed 900 people from my toilet at 3 a.m. the night before a webinar), and why evergreen takes the pressure off but still needs live promotions. I also get into why automated funnels convert at half the rate or less, and why the automated webinar funnel that worked for three years in my own business just stopped.

The pros and cons in short:

• Live cohort, pros: a complete container with closure, more engagement and energy, instant feedback on your content, true urgency, and real time off between cohorts.
• Live cohort, cons: everything rides on your launch, a flop means a two to three month wait, and you lose buyers who are ready when nothing is open.
• Evergreen, pros: less stressful launches, you can enroll and make money all the time, and it can be the one core program your business runs on.
• Evergreen, cons: less true urgency, you still need live promotions, you're supporting people all the time, and it can be harder to keep everyone engaged.

Takeaway: There's no right or wrong model, and nothing you choose is set in stone. It's easier to go from live to evergreen than the other way around. If you go live cohort, have baseline income from something else, like 1:1 clients, so a flopped launch doesn't wreck you. If you go evergreen, keep running live promotions.

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