The cohort seat setup checklist, start to month twelve

Before you quote a seat price

• Count the facilitation hours you will actually deliverAdd up group calls, hot seat prep, check in reading and the private conversations that keep members in the room. A twelve month cohort usually carries far more hours outside the call than inside it, and the seat price has to cover both.
• Set the room size before the price, not afterDecide on eight, ten or twelve seats and hold it. Room size drives the hot seat rotation, the intimacy the price is buying, and how much of your month the cohort consumes.
• Build the price from the bottomStart with your hours, add refund and failed payment exposure, add the cost of the seat that goes empty, then check the result against what a private client pays you for the same hour.
• Decide the payment plan and what it costs youA monthly plan raises the total you collect but adds failed cards and mid term exits. Price the plan slightly above the paid in full option so the risk you are carrying is covered.
• Write the refund and exit terms before the first saleState clearly what happens if a member leaves in month five, and make the terms visible before payment rather than buried after checkout. Clauses disclosed after the fact rarely survive a dispute.
• Write the screening standard you will actually applyName the two or three things that make someone a fit for this room, including stage of business and willingness to be coached in front of peers. Write it down so you do not talk yourself into a marginal seat when the room is half full.

While you fill the seats

• Build the invitation list before you build the sales pageList every past client, warm referral and workshop attendee by name. A small paid room usually fills from thirty warm conversations, not from an audience you do not have yet.
• Run a real screening call for every seatTwenty minutes, same questions each time, and a genuine willingness to say no. One wrong member changes what the whole room is willing to say out loud.
• Make the seat offer with a date on itGive a specific deadline and say what happens after it, including whether the seat goes to the next person on your list. Open ended offers stall and cost you the kickoff date.
• Take a deposit that holds the chairA deposit converts interest into commitment and sharply reduces the number of people who go quiet a week before kickoff. Say plainly whether it is applied to the first installment.
• Send the calendar before the first call, not afterAll session dates for the full term, in one message, with the hot seat rotation policy stated. Members schedule their year around it and attendance in month four improves because of it.

The first ninety minutes

• Time the introductions and hold the clockGive each member the same number of minutes and keep them. The first person to run long sets the norm for everyone after her, and the last member to speak learns that her time is negotiable.
• State confidentiality out loud, in specific wordsSay what stays in the room, what may be shared, and what happens if it is broken. Vague assurances do not survive the first genuinely risky disclosure in month three.
• Publish the hot seat rotation for the whole termShow every member when her turns are expected to fall. Certainty about a future turn is what keeps a member engaged during the calls that are not about her.
• Demonstrate the check in rather than describing itRun one live in the kickoff so people see the format and the length. A check in that is only explained becomes a formality nobody reads by week six.
• Name the attendance expectation and the consequenceSay how many calls a member can miss and what you will do when she misses more. The consequence should be a direct conversation from you, not a penalty, and it should actually happen.

Month two through the end of the term

• Review the attendance record every monthLook for anyone who has missed two consecutive calls and message her personally within the week. Month four is when the drift usually starts and the recovery window is short.
• Check the rotation against the calendar you promisedConfirm that every member is on track for the number of turns you sold. If the arithmetic has slipped, fix it by shortening seats or adding a session before anyone complains.
• Close the loop on last month commitmentsOpen each hot seat by asking the previous member what happened with her stated commitment. A rotation without follow up produces advice instead of decisions.
• Chase failed payments within three daysA card that failed in week one becomes an awkward conversation by week four and a write off by week eight. Handle it as routine admin, quickly and without apology.
• Open the renewal conversation two months before the endTalk to each member individually about what the next term would give her, using her own attendance and commitments as evidence. Group announcements at the final call convert badly.