THE EXECUTION CRISIS NO ONE WANTS TO NAME
Running a business with a chronic illness means you’re always navigating the gap between what you want to do and what your body will actually let you do. And lately, I keep seeing the same take circling all over social media:
“People aren’t buying coaching like they used to, they’re redirecting that money toward DFY services instead.”
Everyone’s acting like this is some dramatic plot twist, but it’s not. This shift has been brewing for a while.
When your capacity is unstable, another mindset lesson just doesn’t cut it. A pep talk doesn’t clear a to do list, and a coaching call doesn’t magically fix a backend that keeps collapsing in on itself every time you have a crappy health day.
Folks are tired and their capacity is cooked. They want someone who can help them get the damn thing done, not one more insight to store in a Google Doc that dies a slow, painful death in an unnamed folder in your Google Drive.
This is an execution crisis, playing out in real time.
THE OFFER MODEL THAT ISN’T HOLDING UP ANYMORE
There’s a style of coaching that depends on the client doing nearly all the labor.
Coaches give the strategy, the client does the heavy lifting, and everyone pretends it’s empowering. It works as long as the client has endless energy, but most entrepreneurs don’t, chronic illness or not.
Coaches who rely on that model are the ones sweating to high hell right now. If your ability to deliver results depends on a client having perfect executive function, perfect schedules, perfect consistency, and perfect follow through… that offer is going to feel shaky af in 2026.
People want cleaner scopes, fewer calls, and more clear deliverables. They want support that actually sees them as a human instead of a walking invoice headed straight to someone else’s bottom line.
Guidance matters, it always will… but guidance that adds more work to an already fragile capacity is losing its appeal fast.
CAPACITY IS THE REAL REASON FOR THE SHIFT
Chronic illness is a ruthless editor. It cuts through anything that isn’t essential. You can be inspired, motivated, and fully committed to your business, but if your body taps out, everything you learned becomes theoretical.
And here’s the part people keep missing: this isn’t just a chronic illness pattern anymore. Even entrepreneurs with solid health are hitting the wall. The bandwidth to execute big strategies just isn’t there anymore.
Capacity is the real bottleneck. That’s why DFY is having a moment – it’s a huge sigh of relief, and people finally admitting they can’t muscle their way through this shit anymore.
The shift isn’t about choosing one model over another, but about choosing support that actually supports you. Crazy concept, I know.
THIS ISN’T COACHING VS DFY. THIS IS WHAT SUPPORT SHOULD LOOK LIKE NOW.
When I think about the seasons where I had real support, the difference still blows my mind. Not because my business suddenly got more simple, but because I wasn’t carrying it alone.
Someone was taking the tasks that drained me and breaking them down into digestible chunks. Someone was closing loops I never had the energy to close myself. Someone was pointing out the details that kept slipping through the cracks.
People want help they don’t have to fight for or feel like they have to earn.
Help that keeps their business moving even on those shitty, low capacity days.
That’s why DFY is rising. That’s why coaching is shifting. That’s why 2026 is going to look different for everyone.
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE FOR ME AS A LOW CAPACITY COACH
This kind of support only works if the container holds the coach too. I’m a chronically sick coach serving chronically sick and exhausted entrepreneurs. My capacity isn’t theoretical, it’s a daily reality. I build around it instead of ignoring it.
Which is exactly why I only take two coaching clients at a time.
Two clients is the number that allows me to stay present without draining myself.
The structure behind the scenes carries a lot of the load. My frameworks, templates, tools, and ready to go systems take on the repetitive work so my energy isn’t stretched thin. They keep the container sustainable and create financial stability without packing my calendar.
This setup keeps the work grounded and human. It stays within my limits and still gives my clients support that feels steady and reliable. High touch support and low capacity can coexist when the container is intentionally built around the reality of the coach delivering it.
WHERE COACHES GO FROM HERE
And before any coaches start sweating, let me say this clearly. You don’t have to turn your entire business into DFY to stay relevant. You don’t even have to offer implementation yourself. You just need to build offers that don’t rely on your clients having superhero energy to get results.
A done with you hybrid is the sweet spot. Not “I talk and you take notes,” not “here’s your long ass homework,” but actual collaboration.
So what does this look like?
Guided build sessions where you create pieces together in real time
Templates and plug and play assets that cut their labor in half
Screen share workflows where you set things up together
Weekly co working blocks baked into the program
Small implementation checkpoints instead of long ass task lists
A tiny bit of behind the scenes setup that removes friction for them right from the jump
This is what support looks like when it respects how humans work now.
Your client still owns the system, the strategy, the work…but you remove the places their capacity usually falls apart. Coaches who lean into this are going to stay booked, because the demand isn’t for automation or shortcuts. The demand is for support that doesn’t require someone to be the best version of themselves every single week.
THE FUTURE OF SUPPORT IS HUMAN, NOT HUSTLY
We’ve been sold a hyper-optimized version of wealth: stacked calendars, nonstop growth, massive launch cycles. But that image falls apart the moment your health goes to shit, so people are rewriting their own definition of wealth.
Wealth looks like:
Waking up without dread.
A business that doesn’t unravel when you need rest.
An inbox to return to, not dig out of.
Money that comes in without sacrificing your body to earn it.
And that’s on sustainability. It’s reshaping the future of this industry faster than people want to admit.
BUILD A BUSINESS THAT FITS YOUR ENERGY, NOT THE INTERNET’S EXPECTATIONS
If your business feels heavy, the solution isn’t burning it all down. Start with the parts that drain you most or the tasks you avoid. The offer that wipes you out. The support you keep telling yourself you’ll hire later.
Trim something.
Delegate something.
Simplify something.
Watch what opens up.
When you stop forcing yourself to operate like a machine, you get to operate like a human again. And that shift creates space for your business to feel good af. Which is why you started it to begin with, right?!?
If you want help figuring out what to cut, what to refine, and where support would make the biggest difference, grab a Strategy Sesh with me. It’s 90 minutes of calm clarity and capacity building, plus a follow up session a few weeks later to make sure the changes actually stick.
Let’s build a business that fits your real life, not the one you think you’re supposed to perform.
Hugs and spoons,
