Cognitive Load Isn’t Just for Students: What It Teaches Us About Marketing & Biz-Building
It’s my favorite thing — when the learning science we teach students collides with the marketing science I teach business builders.
Let me back up for a second. Inside the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we have a secret little corner called Rock Your Biz, where educators support each other in building efficient, effective, and (eventually!) lucrative coaching businesses that truly serve students.
One crucial step in business building? Designing exactly what you’re selling — the packages families will see when they inquire about your services — and how much it all costs.
Now, I’m a big believer in packages, not hourly rates. And for the record, a “package” isn’t just a bundle of sessions. It’s a carefully designed experience — a mix of sessions, resources, and supports (like office hours, for example) — that together create the most transformative results for the students you serve.
When coaches bring me their draft packages for review, I always ask one key follow-up question:
“Who is going to see these packages, and at what stage of the onboarding process?”
Will you post them publicly on your website?
Share them after a discovery session?
Send them in a welcome email before the first call?
These decisions really matter — because showing too much too soon can overwhelm families right when they’re deciding whether to work with you. It turns out that good marketing is really about managing your client’s cognitive load.
And the more I study how we help students manage their cognitive load — deciding what to take in, when to pause, and what to focus on — the more I realize the same principles apply to business building.
Recently, one coach in our accountability group shared her beautifully thought-out packages. They were clear, thorough, and intentional — but also a lot to take in.
As I scrolled through, I could feel my brain working hard:
First to understand each offer,
Then to compare them, and
Finally, to decide which might fit.
So I asked her my favorite question again: “When are you planning to hand this out?”
She replied that it would be a downloadable document available to anyone who landed on her website.
Hmmmm. Cue my concern.
Now, to be clear — there are lots of ways to run a successful business. My way isn’t the only good one!
But after watching hundreds of educators grow thriving practices, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: what works best depends on which stage of business you’re in.
So in today’s post, we’re going to take a deeper look at those two stages — and explore why timing your package reveal can make all the difference.
TL;DR
If you’re short on time, here are the main points we’ll be unpacking:
In Stage 1 of business — getting your first clients — keep your packages descriptions light, and don’t include rates on your website. Give enough to intrigue, not overwhelm. The goal is conversation, not conversion.
In Stage 2 — attracting your best clients — transparency becomes a tool for efficiency. Clear packages and prices help filter in the clients who are ready and aligned.
In both stages, remember: good marketing is managing your potential client’s cognitive load so that the timing and layout of your materials keeps them interested, not overloaded.
This post will resonate most with:
Academic coaches and tutors building their first client rosters and wondering what to put on their websites.
Educators starting an academic coaching business who want to design offers that feel authentic, clear, and aligned.
Executive function coaches for students and other educators exploring business coaching for educators to grow their private practices sustainably.
If that’s you, you’re in the right place. Let’s explore those two phases of getting your coaching practice up and running:
🌱 Stage 1: Getting Your First Clients
When you’re building your first 1–15 client relationships, your main goal is connection, not conversion.
At this stage, potential clients (aka families who are looking for a solution to their student’s struggles) often don’t yet understand what executive function coaching or academic coaching for neurodiverse learners looks like — so if you post long, detailed package descriptions (especially with multiple options), you risk overwhelming them before they ever meet you.
Alternatively, they know what coaching might look like, and they’re actually shopping around for the right coach for them — and so they’re already comparing a lot information. If you provide too much info on your website that they have to understand, and then compare to the other coaches they’re finding, they’re also at risk for information overload.
That’s why I recommend that new coaches keep your website light and conversational:
Share who you help and what challenges you support.
Give a taste of what coaching looks like.
Mention that you offer several packages, and what their purposes are, but save the full details for after your discovery call.
If you want to mention rates, you can do so gently. For example:
“My coaching packages typically range from $495–$3,495. Let’s chat first to see which one fits your needs best.”
This wording gives a ballpark but invites a conversation. You’re helping your future client stay curious — and that’s exactly where you want them to be.
It’s fun to say, the fastest path to cash is the fastest path to chatting.
And when it comes to referral marketing for academic coaches, that first conversation is where relationships — and businesses — truly start.
🌟 Stage 2: Getting Your Best Clients
Once you’ve established a referral system and have steady inquiries coming in, your focus shifts.
Now, you don’t want everyone to book a discovery session. You want people who’ve already done some homework — who’ve read about your philosophy, seen your packages, and are still excited to talk.
At this point, transparency becomes your filter. Posting your rates and package details helps prospective clients self-select before you ever meet.
By the time someone reaches your discovery session, they’re not just curious — they’re invested. They’ve absorbed the information at their own pace (managing their cognitive load!) and are ready to explore fit, not just pricing.
This saves time, energy, and emotional labor. You get to spend your calls with people who are much more likely to say yes — people who already align with your Anti-Boring approach to coaching and marketing.
To get a reality check about my advice, I posted a question in our All About Biz chat lounge and tagged a few of our long-time members who might have something interesting to say. Here was the first story that came in:
I’m chugging away…about to complete year 8 of coaching! I started out following Gretchen’s suggestions, get the family on a call and let them hear how great I was, then the price wouldn’t matter and they’d realize they couldn’t let me go!
Then, as I got busier, when families would ask about my pricing in the initial email, I just sent them my package price. I never heard from some again, but many just wanted to know up front and we continued to explore coaching. The price can turn some away, but I was at a place where I wasn’t desperate for clients, so it worked for me.
I’ve continued to follow this model ever since. I am not as busy as I was in 2020, partially by design and I don’t rely on my income to support my family, so I can be a little more flexible with “the universe will send clients my way when it wants to” attitude.
My current website does not have pricing on it. I even took off my packages. Just listed things that I help with! That seems to be working so far.
Of course, this story underscores the advice I give, so I love it!! It beautifully shows how our relationship to pricing evolves with our confidence, capacity, and client flow — and that the “right” strategy can shift depending on your business stage.
But if you’re reading this and you’ve had a different experience about when to post packages and prices, I’d love to hear it!
Anti-Boring Certified Coaches are also reporting that families are shopping around more now than they did “back in the day.” I’m curious — does that trend change this advice, or actually underscore it? Do more visible prices help or hurt your ability to connect with your ideal clients?
Share your take in the comments below — the more stories we collect, the wiser our community becomes.
Want to Learn the Anti-Boring Way to Build Your Business?
If this way of thinking — grounded in brain science and compassion — feels refreshing, and if you’re drawn to a community that supports you long-term (the coach quoted above has been part of the Lab for eight years — wowser!), I’d love to invite you to explore what we offer inside the Anti-Boring Learning Lab.
Start by signing up for the Free Library, where you’ll get:
A video tour of the Lab, including our Rock Your Biz add-on for educators building or scaling their academic coaching businesses.
Details about upcoming Q&A Office Hours, where you can ask your questions about how to start an academic coaching business the Anti-Boring way.
Access to a free, easy-to-digest course outlining my core principles for business building for educators:
Packages, not hourly rates.
Referral marketing first, not social media or ads (especially for new coaches in Stage 1).
Community support, not isolation.
You’ll also be the first to hear about my Pop-Up, very-low-cost workshop in December 2025, where I’ll go deeper into ideas like referral marketing, cognitive load, and how to weave study skills that stick into your business model.
(It’ll only be announced through the newsletter — not on the website — so sign up to stay in the loop!)
If you’re ready to build your coaching practice the Anti-Boring, brain-friendly way, we’d love to welcome you into our community.
All of this—marketing decisions, website strategy, client relationships—comes back to one thing we educators know best: how the brain learns best and likes to make choices.
So let’s end with a quick look at the science that ties it all together.
🔍 Research Spotlight: In Case You Haven’t Been Following My Cognitive Load Conversations…
If you’ve been hanging around the Anti-Boring community for a while, you know a couple things:
I’m obsessed with the science behind why everything works, and
I can’t stop talking about Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988).
So it stands to reason that I wouldn’t want to leave this blog post before having an opportunity to share the research behind why cognitive load theory is relevant to marketing.
In case you haven’t been keeping up, here’s the short version — and why it totally matters for marketing. Cognitive Load Theory basically says our brains have a limited working memory. When too much information comes at us all at once, our ability to process and make decisions drops.
And guess what? That doesn’t just apply to students doing algebra — it applies to potential clients, too.
Marketing research backs this up:
When people are given too much information, decision quality decreases (Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2021).
Online shoppers show reduced attention and satisfaction when faced with overly dense or complex pages (Springer, 2023).
And marketing experts applying CLT have summed it up perfectly: “Too much information equals decision paralysis… the brain has finite processing capacity.” (Winsome Marketing).
So yes — when you simplify your website, your packages, and your discovery process, you’re not “dumbing it down.” You’re respecting how the human brain works.
That’s what ethical, effective, learning-informed marketing looks like.
If this kind of brain-meets-biz conversation makes you grin and think, “Yes! More of this, please,” you’ll fit right in at the Anti-Boring Learning Lab’s Rock Your Biz program. We love helping coaches find the clients who make their work feel meaningful and fun.