“It’s almost like they’re giving an honest recommendation to you about what I do, rather than me trying to sell.”
Meet Kevin
Kevin Batchelor is the owner of Kevin Batchelor & Associates and an international communication coach, working with business professionals to build confidence in English communication. Kevin commissioned 5 Star Stories to capture a video case study with one of his coaching clients, Elena, and turn that interview into assets he could use across his website and social media.
The Challenge
Kevin had no shortage of happy clients. What he lacked was a way to capture their experience that felt honest – and that didn’t put them in the awkward position of saying what they thought he wanted to hear.
“I coach a lot of people and we get great results. The reason I wanted [the case study] is because they tell me that their experience is great, but I kind of wanted it from a different perspective… without me, so that they could share an authentic perspective of their experience.”
There was also the question of sales. Kevin had been trained in conventional methods – contact lists, objection handling, justifying price – and found them deeply uncomfortable. “It always feels a bit icky, bit mechanical, manipulative, inauthentic… Whereas this doesn’t feel like that whatsoever.”
And then there was a more personal hesitation: asking Elena to give up her time. Kevin worried it might feel like an imposition – “like a bit of an intruder or an invader of her time and space… thinking, what’s she going to get out of it?”
A Simple, Stress-Free Process
Kevin handed the process to 5 Star Stories entirely. Elena was scheduled, prepared, and interviewed independently – so Kevin could focus on his other clients. As he put it: “Simple. Easy, no stress.”
His concern about asking Elena proved unfounded. Far from feeling inconvenienced, she found the interview a genuine opportunity to reflect on how much she’d gained from the coaching – and how she’d been applying it in her life. Kevin noted she came away considering further coaching as a result. The process added real value for her, not just for him.
Key Insights
Watching Elena speak freely gave Kevin a perspective on his own work he couldn’t access from inside the coaching relationship. What she said on camera reaffirmed that the deepest value of his work came from identity-level shifts – helping clients revise how they saw themselves. Hearing her articulate that in her own words gave him clarity he hadn’t expected.
That fed directly into a bigger shift: how Kevin now sees marketing itself. Where it had previously felt like something to endure, the case study process offered a completely different model. “I see marketing as having conversations that inspire people” – and sales as “people choosing freely because they have seen that what other people have got would also work for them.”
The Impact
Kevin arrived with some scepticism – “there’s so many on the internet” – but found the benefit went well beyond the assets. “It had a huge benefit for me in clarifying my own messaging and my own resistances and opening up new possibilities for me.”
The video will be used to let prospective clients see themselves in Elena’s story. “I’d love them to get that they’re just like Elena – and that if they can identify with what she said in her past experience and then working together and the result, that’s what I’d like them to get.”
Kevin’s Verdict
“It’s not trying to convince anybody of anything. It’s trying to get people to relate to other people who’ve overcome barriers and now experience a sense of freedom, power and fun.”
