How I’ve Helped Dozens of Teachers Go From a Salary to Charging $100 or More a Session as an Executive Function Coach
- Sean G. McCormick
- May 5
- 8 min read
Are you undercharging for your executive function coaching services before you even get started?
In this post, I’ll show why teachers often undervalue their work, how that limits their income, and the 3 steps to start charging what EF coaching is actually worth.
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If you’re a teacher thinking about becoming an executive function coach, pricing might be the part that makes you want to quietly close the laptop and reorganize your junk drawer instead.
You know how to help students.
You know families need support.
But when it comes time to say, “My rate is $150 per session,” suddenly your nervous system acts like you just announced you’re buying a yacht with PTA funds.
In this article, I’m walking you through 3 specific shifts that turn experienced educators into confident, well-paid EF coaches so you can stop letting a district determine your worth and start building real income around expertise you’ve already spent years developing.👇
Why Becoming an Executive Function Coach Matters for Burnt Out, Underpaid Teachers
One of the teachers I spoke with recently was working 7am to 5pm, commuting on top of that, then homeschooling her own kids until 11pm.
When she raised her workload concerns with her administrator, the response was: “spend less time with families.”
She told me:
“You can change your job, but you can’t change your calling.”
She already knew what she was good at.
She knew who she wanted to serve.
What she was missing was a way to do it on her own terms, and the confidence to charge what the work was actually worth.
When those two things fall into place, everything changes:
You work fewer hours than you do now
You choose your clients instead of inheriting them
You can realistically build to $5,000–$8,000 a month working part-time hours
You stop being told what you’re worth by someone who has never done your job
If you're ready to make this your reality, apply for the certification program and get a free mini coaching session with me to map out your steps forward.
Take it from EFCA graduate, Carly, who transitioned from teaching and now runs a thriving coaching practice👇
Why New Executive Function Coaches Undercharge
The primary reason teachers undercharge as EF coaches is that they’ve spent their entire careers being paid by a system, not by the people they serve.
Nobody in education negotiates their hourly rate.
The district sets the number and you accept it.
That conditioning doesn’t disappear when you go independent.
Here are 4 more reasons educators get stuck specifically on pricing:
Reason 1: They anchor to tutoring rates instead of coaching outcomes
One teacher I spoke with lived in a rural area where families pushed back on $60/hour tutoring.
So before she had tested the offer, explained the difference between tutoring and EF coaching, or talked to families who were actively looking for this kind of support, she had already talked herself out of charging $100/session.
That’s how fast pricing fear can shrink your business.
A colleague of mine in rural Idaho charges over $100/session with a full roster, which is a helpful reminder that geography matters, but it is not the whole story.
Reason 2: They feel guilty charging families who are already stretched
Most teachers got into this work to help people, not profit from struggle.
So when a parent says they are overwhelmed, maxed out, or already paying for tutoring, therapy, testing, and every other acronym-adjacent service under the sun, it can feel uncomfortable to name a real price.
Charging feels like a contradiction until undercharging leads to burnout, resentment, and ultimately fewer families helped.
Reason 3: They can’t articulate their process
One coach I worked with described herself as “winging it every session”.
She was checking the planner, watching homework, and had no real structure guiding the work.
When you can’t explain your process, you can’t defend your price.
Reason 4: They haven’t encountered real demand yet
A special ed teacher in Colorado had a parent approach her on a weekend and say she’d “pay whatever it takes” for EF coaching for her son.
A therapist friend confirmed there wasn’t another EF coach in their entire town.
The demand was already there, she just hadn’t looked for it.
The good news is that none of these are permanent.
The 3 steps below address each one directly, and I’ve watched teachers in my certification program work through all of them and build thriving practices on the other side.
A 3-Step Guide to Charging $100 or More as an EF Coach
Step 1: Stop Selling Sessions and Start Selling an Outcome
Write down the three most specific, painful experiences your future clients are living right now.
Not the skills you teach, not your credentials, but the moments that make their daily lives hard.
That’s what you’re actually solving, and that’s what you need to lead with.
This step matters because the gap between $40/hour and $150/session is a language problem.
When you describe your service as “working with students on executive function skills,” families hear a service and compare it to tutoring.
When you describe what you solve:
the nightly homework battles
the missed assignments
the student who clearly has ability but can’t seem to use it
families hear a solution to something they’re already desperate to fix.
Families already spend $150/session on therapy.
They pay $200–$300/hour for neuropsychological assessments.
They hire advocates to navigate IEPs.
The parent who told a teacher she’d “pay whatever it takes” wasn’t asking about the hourly rate.
She was asking whether it would work.
Position yourself as the answer to that question, not as an hourly service.
Step 2: Anchor Your Price to the Right Comparison
Start at $150/session.
If affordability is a genuine concern for a specific family, offer a limited number of sliding-scale spots but don’t build your entire pricing model around the exception.
The most common mistake at this stage is Googling “how much do EF coaches charge,” finding low numbers, and pricing there to avoid seeming greedy.
The problem is the comparison.
Tutoring and EF coaching are not the same service.
A tutor re-teaches content a student missed. An EF coach builds the internal operating system that determines whether a student can use any content at all.
One teacher I spoke with had an advanced degree and multiple certifications and was charging $30 per session.
Not because her market couldn’t support more, but because she hadn’t updated her mental model of what she was offering.
You can always offer a scholarship.
You can never undo the credibility cost of undercharging from day one, because families read low prices as low confidence.
Step 3: Build a Framework You Can Explain in Two Minutes
Write out your coaching process from first contact to final session.
Even rough. Five steps is enough.
Then practice saying it out loud until it’s automatic.
A school psychologist I worked with had spent her entire career as a salaried employee who never set her own rate, never pitched a client.
Her fear wasn’t really about money.
It was that she couldn’t answer the question a parent would inevitably ask:
“What exactly do you do in your sessions?”
That uncertainty was the ceiling on her pricing.
Another coach put it plainly: she was “winging every session” and she knew it.
Strong instincts, strong student relationships, but no repeatable framework.
Because she couldn’t explain her process, she couldn’t charge for it with conviction.
The moment you can tell a parent:
“Here’s exactly what happens in session one, here’s how I establish a baseline, here’s what a family check-in looks like at week six”
you stop hoping clients won’t ask about your method and start wanting them to.
That’s the version of you that charges $100, $150, or more per session.
Not because you finally feel ready, but because you have something real to stand behind.
If you don't feel like you have a solid structure for your sessions, apply for the certification program where I teach a repeatable framework you can use with clients so you can feel more confident explaining what you do and charging your worth.
And if you want to get a taste of what having a framework for sessions could look like, watch my recent webinar on how to run an effective coaching session.👇
The Bottom Line
Every teacher who has ever undercharged as an EF coach wasn’t doing it because the market demanded it.
They were doing it because they were still operating inside the belief system of an institution that set their value for them.
The calling was already there. The skills were already there.
The families willing to pay for results were already there too.
Three shifts make the difference:
Step 1: Stop describing what you do and start describing what you solve
Step 2: Anchor your price to coaching outcomes, not tutoring comparisons
Step 3: Build a repeatable process you can explain clearly and stand behind completely
That’s the path from a teacher’s salary to a coaching practice that pays you what your expertise has always been worth.
Hope this helps!
FAQs
What should I charge as a new executive function coach?
A strong starting point is $100 to $150 per session, especially if you can clearly explain the outcome you help families achieve. If affordability is a real concern, you can offer a limited number of sliding scale spots without making undercharging your entire business model.
How do I explain why EF coaching costs more than tutoring?
Tutoring helps students with specific academic content, while executive function coaching helps students build the systems they need to manage assignments, time, planning, follow-through, and overwhelm. When parents understand that difference, they are less likely to compare your rate to a homework helper.
What if I do not feel confident charging higher rates yet?
Confidence usually comes from having a clear process you can explain. Start by creating a simple session framework so you can tell families exactly what happens in coaching and why your work is worth the investment.
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About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and expanding my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.