WTF Metrics
The Numbers That Actually Matter in Your Coaching Business
Forget everything you think you know about measuring coaching success. While everyone else is obsessing over follower counts and revenue targets, the coaches who are actually changing lives and building sustainable businesses are tracking completely different numbers. These “WTF Metrics” – the weird, unexpected, and unconventional data points – reveal more about your coaching impact than any vanity metric ever will.
The “Fuck This” Frequency
What it measures: How many times clients say “fuck this” or similar before making a breakthrough.
This might sound counterintuitive, but the best coaches track their clients’ resistance patterns. Every transformation requires breaking through old patterns, and resistance shows up as frustration, anger or the classic “fuck this” moment.
Smart coaches know that three to five major resistance episodes typically precede significant breakthroughs.
Track this by noting when clients express strong negative emotions about the process, complain about homework or want to quit. The coaches who understand this pattern don’t panic when clients get pissed off – they celebrate it as a sign that real change is happening.
Why it matters: Traditional metrics miss the messy middle of transformation. This metric helps you normalize the process for clients and predict when breakthroughs are coming.
Silence Duration Index
What it measures: How long clients can sit in uncomfortable silence during sessions.
Most coaches think talking equals progress. Wrong. The magic happens in the spaces between words, when clients are processing, integrating, or finally facing something they’ve been avoiding. Track how long your clients can tolerate silence without jumping in to fill the space.
New clients might only handle 5-10 seconds. Clients who are doing deep work can sit in silence for 60+ seconds while they excavate truth. The longer the silence tolerance, the deeper the work is going.
Why it matters: This metric reveals emotional maturity, self-awareness and willingness to go deep – all predictors of lasting change.
The Ugly Cry Coefficient
What it measures: Frequency and intensity of emotional releases during sessions.
Track when clients have emotional breakthroughs, not just tears, but the full-body, makeup-destroying, snot-fest ugly cries that happen when someone finally feels safe enough to fall apart. These moments are gold.
Rate them on a scale:
Watery eyes (1)
Single tears (2)
Crying (3)
Sobbing (4)
Ugly cry breakthrough (5)
Clients who hit level 4-5 emotional releases consistently show faster and more lasting transformations.
Why it matters: Emotional release is often the gateway to breakthrough. Coaches who create space for ugly crying create space for healing.
Excuse Velocity Decline
What it measures: How quickly clients stop making excuses for their circumstances.
At the beginning, clients arrive with a full arsenal of reasons why they can’t change. Track how long it takes for excuse-making to decrease by 50%. Is it three sessions? Six? Twelve?
Create an “excuse inventory” early on. Catalog their greatest hits. Then track how these shift from, “I can’t because…” to “I could if…” to “I will by…”
This progression reveals readiness for change.
Why it matters: Excuse velocity directly correlates with results velocity. When excuses slow down, transformation speeds up.
The Uncomfortable Truth Ratio
What it measures: Percentage of session time spent discussing things clients don’t want to talk about.
Most coaching stays surface-level because coaches are afraid to make clients uncomfortable. Track what percentage of each session is spent on topics that make your client squirm. The sweet spot is 30-40% discomfort.
Too little discomfort means you’re enabling. Too much means you’re traumatizing. But that 30-40% zone is where growth lives.
Why it matters: Comfort is the enemy of growth. This metric ensures you’re pushing boundaries without breaking people.
Energy Archaeology Score
What it measures: How much energy clients reclaim from addressing old wounds, limiting beliefs or toxic patterns.
Before starting work, have clients rate their energy levels on a scale of 1-10. Then track monthly. But here’s the twist: also track “energy archaeology.” How much energy they recover by cleaning up their past.
Clients dealing with unresolved trauma, toxic relationships or limiting beliefs are leaking energy constantly. As they address these issues, they don’t just gain energy, they reclaim it.
The energy archaeology score measures this reclamation.
Why it matters: Energy is the foundation of everything else. A client who goes from 3/10 to 8/10 energy will automatically see improvements in every life area.
Boundary Establishment Velocity
What it measures: Speed at which clients start saying no to things that don’t serve them.
Track the first “no” – when clients first set a boundary they wouldn’t have set before coaching. Then measure how quickly they establish additional boundaries. This progression typically accelerates exponentially.
Month 1: Maybe one small boundary
Month 3: Setting boundaries weekly
Month 6: Boundaries become automatic
Why it matters: Boundary-setting ability predicts every other area of success. Clients who master boundaries master their lives.
The Authenticity Emergence Rate
What it measures: How quickly clients start showing up as themselves instead of who they think they should be.
This is subtle but powerful. Track moments when clients share authentic thoughts, make choices aligned with their values (not others’ expectations) or simply stop performing.
Look for phrases like “I actually think…”, “What I really want is…”, or “I don’t care what people think anymore.” These authentic moments usually cluster together once they start appearing.
Why it matters: Authenticity is the foundation of fulfillment. Clients who find their authentic voice create lives that actually fit them.
Implementation Despite Imperfection Index
What it measures: How often clients take action before they feel ready.
Perfectionist clients will plan forever without acting. Track how quickly clients move from “I need to figure this out first” to “I’ll figure it out as I go.”
Measure the time between getting an assignment and taking the first imperfect action.
High-performing clients take messy action quickly. Struggling clients research, plan and prepare indefinitely.
Why it matters: Done is better than perfect, and action creates clarity faster than thinking ever will.
The Real Talk Frequency
What it measures: How often clients bring up topics they’re genuinely struggling with versus topics they think they should be working on.
Many clients perform in coaching. They discuss what they think they should focus on, rather than what’s actually keeping them up at night. Track when conversations shift from “should” problems to “actual” problems.
Real talk sounds like: “Can I tell you what’s really going on?” or “I didn’t want to mention this but…” These moments indicate growing trust and self-awareness.
Why it matters: You can’t solve problems that aren’t being honestly discussed. Real talk frequency predicts breakthrough potential.
These WTF Metrics might seem unconventional, but they reveal the human truth behind transformation. While everyone else counts likes and dollars, you’ll be tracking the metrics that actually matter: the ones that show when someone is getting ready to completely change their life.
Start tracking just two or three of these in your next client sessions. You’ll be amazed at what the numbers reveal about the real work of coaching.
