If you're building your coaching business for the first time, or you've recently recommitted to filling your practice, you could get stuck at some point.
It’s natural in the process of any long-term project that sometimes you just get bogged down.
Inspiration is great for pulling you forward, but it waxes and wanes. And if you’ve got some fears lurking under it, some days the fear will be stronger than the inspiration. That’s normal enough. Fear erodes our confidence and pulls our energy in the opposite direction. The result is, either you push through the fear, which can be unpleasant and may wear you out over time, or you do nothing at all, which produces disappointing results that you then may use as evidence that you can’t move forward.
Either way, your energy and projects tend to grind to a halt!
That’s what you may be experiencing. And what I know as a coach is that risks can be reduced, confidence can be arranged, and delay can really cost you. So let’s look at a number of ways that you can have access to all the safety and confidence you need and be reminded about your inspiration, so you can stop delaying and reach your goals faster.
Do you know why or how you got stuck?
Examples:
- Fear
- Busy schedule
- Lost inspiration
- Discouraged
- Overwhelmed
- Not sure you’re doing it ‘right’
- Other goals or commitments seem more important, now.
- Not getting clients, yet
- Lack of Support
Suggestions:
- Give a great coaching session and get re-inspired all over again
- Get inspired by your coach
- Get coached out of your fear
- Take a coaching class
- Call your coaching buddy
- Get coached around your ‘problem’
- Get a new client - even if they’re for free!
- Chat with other coaches who are being successful
- Choose to get back into the game, anyway
- Forget about it for a while
Do you have a better idea of what would help you? If not, get coached by a friend or colleague. That's what coaches are for after all, helping people reach their goals. That'll re-inspire you like nothing else!
For more ideas on how to succeed with coaching success, explore Coach 100. That's what it's all about.
Yesterday I wrote about the first five secrets to filling your coaching business with ease.
I recommend reading Part 1 first, but in a nutshell the first five secrets are: 1. Develop crystal clear goals, 2. Simplify everything, 3. Make sure all stake holders are on the same page, 4. Get the money handled, and 5. Tell everybody what you're up to. Let's get on with the last five:
6. Nix the Negative Nancies. Some people don't see the value of coaching. Worse, some people may not see the value in you. If you're surrounded by people who say things like, 'Why would anybody pay you for that?', they could stop you from succeeding. Seek out people who believe in you. Spend time with those who 'get' why coaching is such an amazing service (That's one of the hidden values of a good coaching school, by the way.). If the Negative Nancies in your life start to shift just by being around your inspired energy, or by you fully communicating what you're up to, great. But if they can't, you need to shield yourself from that doubtful energy. It's okay to simplify your life by not spending so much time with them.
7. Stay in motion - focused motion. Just because you trust the process, doesn't mean you aren't actively creating what you want. In fact, that's exactly what trusting the process does mean! Develop a plan for attracting your full practice. I've seen the Coach 100 process work for hundreds of coaches. You literally give away 100 coaching sessions to 100 different people and in the process, learn to fill your coaching practice. It works.
8. Coach a lot of people for free. Whether you call it Coach 100 or something else, you need to get a lot of experience as quickly as you can. Coaching lots of different people works much better than coaching one person 100 times. Be adventurous. Offer to coach that person you chatted with at Starbucks. Ask your friends to refer their friends to you. Share your big goal with people and they will want to help you, just like people help all those reality show contestants that you may watch. Everybody loves to get on board with an exciting big goal. Yours included.
9. Learn to notice when somebody wants to work with you. This is such an important skill! New coaches leave money on the table all the time, because they don't notice when someone is interested in working with them. Most clients need to be invited. You need to notice when someone wants to be invited to be your client.
10. Get your own coach. As a coach, you know tips are helpful, but customized conversations are transformative. What's more, a coach with integrity who doesn't have a coach, is likely to feel like a fraud. A good mentor coach will more than pay you back many times by helping you be more successful faster.
If you're a new coach, what are your challenges in building your business? Is the info in any of the tips above helpful?
If you're a veteran coach (or at least have your first client), please share what worked best for you, in the comments section below.
I'm probably biased, but the Coach 100 Business Success program is a great value and it really works. Check out Coach 100 here.
A major right of passage for any professional coach is getting your very first paid coaching client.
Some coaches feel a little anxious until they get their first client, especially if it doesn't happen quickly. But it doesn't have to be that way. My first client volunteered to work with me. In so doing, he inspired me to attract several new clients in my first year of coaching by following the following simple rules. It can be this easy for you, too. These principles can help you stop chasing and let your clients find you, instead.
Your 1st steps are really about setting the foundation for your coaching success. It's almost impossible to show up as a great coach if doubt, fear and anxiety are causing you to feel a little desperate. Here are several things you can do to make the whole process easy as silk and still maintain your enthusiasm.
1. Develop crystal clear goals. Both short term and long term goals need to be clarified. And you might be interested to know that according to the Wall Street Journal, the single variable that is most likely to predict how profitable a business will be is how big the original goal was. Just be sure you have a plan and can see how you will fulfill your really big goals. In the meantime, have smaller, doable goals, so you know you're on track. My 1st year goal for my coaching business was to break even each month, so that my coaching income at least equaled what I was paying for coach training and for my mentor coach. I achieved it. My 2nd year goal was to pay myself back for everything I had invested upfront in my coaching business, so I could make a genuine profit. I achieved that too. By the beginning of my 3rd year, I had a full coaching practice and what I was earning was virtually all profit. Sane goals like these will keep you on track while you're creating the business of your dreams.
2. Simplify everything, including your life and your business. Relationships, jobs, family, volunteer work, etc. can all derail your business plans, if you're not careful. Beware the 'Super Coach' mentality that says you just have to do it all. Nobody can do it all. Since in the beginning, filling your coaching business takes more energy than merely keeping it full, and since early on is when your coach marketing skills are likely at their weakest, plan on putting in lots of hours and energy into your business at least for the first year or two until it's full, with a waiting list, and you have a reliable marketing engine. That may mean learning to say, 'No', a lot more often. Resign from demanding volunteer positions. Explain to the kids that you may miss a soccer game or two. Delegate at work. If coaching is your calling, you owe it to yourself and the world to clear the decks to get your business set up successfully.
3. Make sure all stake holders are on the same page. Speaking of family, friends, etc. Guilt can make building your coaching business more challenging. But your loved ones can also assist you and make it easier. Rather than feel bad that you're not doing as much for everyone else, use your coaching skills to fully communicate what you're really up to. When you share your inspiration and how much this means to you with them, the people who care most about you will whole-heartedly join your team and they may even help you find clients. This is different than trying to convince someone of the value of coaching, by the way. See #6 in tomorrow's post.
4. Get the money handled. When you know you have enough money coming in already, you can afford to trust the process of attracting clients. Starting a business is not like starting a new job. You won't get a paycheck in two weeks. But your time investment will payoff handsomely, if you go the distance. This is a good time to simplify your financial life, along with everything else. Reduce debts by negotiating for lower interest rates. Stop paying for things you aren't using. If you're not confident you have enough money coming in already, consider getting a part-time job. Some of the most successful coaches I've known took service jobs before they became successful. That way, they could focus on what they wanted to create instead of worrying about the money.
5. Tell everybody what you're up to. This is technically known as marketing, a.k.a. telling people how you can help. In your first year of coaching, even if your coaching skills aren't fully honed, yet, share your excitement and inspiration about coaching with pretty much everybody. Don't be attached to getting them to understand coaching the way you do. They probably won't. Do share your energy. That's naturally attractive and even contagious. My first client volunteered to work with me (and paid me) because I shared my excitement with him about what coaching can do. That's all it took! And he continued coaching with me for 7 years. You don't need to convince people that you can help them. Convincing never works. See below.
Come back tomorrow for the last five secrets of finding your first coaching clients.
Are the first five secrets helpful to you? Do you have secrets of your own to share with other coaches? Please post them in the comments section.
Download the free Coach 100 eBook for more ideas on how to find your first coaching clients.
One of the many hurdles that a new coach might struggle with is getting up that first website.
Honestly, most coaches make this harder than it has to be. And if you're waiting to fill your business with clients until after the website is up, you're giving yourself an unnecessary delay. Why?
- Unless you're an marketing genius, most of your clients won't find you through your site, anyway. At least not at first.
- In fact, most of your clients don't care if you even have a website.
- There are so many other ways to to be found on the web besides a traditional website (social networking, directories, blogs, portals, etc.) that are probably juicier ways to attract clients, anyway.
But a site's a good thing to have, so if you're struggling with it, here's a great way to get a site up in less than an hour. Buy a URL (web address) and point it to your 'personal web portal' (Bribe your 13 year old nephew to handle the web address, or pay a webmaster, if you must. GoDaddy and HostGator are 2 sites where you can get the address for a few bucks.)
Where do you get a 'personal web portal'? Here are 3 possibilities: flavors.me, chi.mp, and unhub. Watch the demo below to see how flavors works. Easy enough that even you can do it (Let's face it, your nephew's taste in graphics just won't work for your coaching site, anyway.)
Once your portal is up, add links to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MCX, Flickr & YouTube accounts. Then remember to add a link TO your portal from all the social sites and directories that you belong to, so people can find you on the web. You can add your new web address to your business card and Voila! your website problem is solved.
Flavors.me from Jack Zerby on Vimeo.
You could say that all coaches are in the business of success.
Our clients hire us to help them succeed at big goals, life dreams and personal growth. Good coaches know they transform their client's lives, so it's only natural that every coach wants to feel successful with their own goals and dreams.
Just like our clients, we coaches have our own personal definitions of success.
My definition of success is that I get to be my best self, doing work that I love, that is changing the world for the better. Oh yeah, and I get paid for that! I know I'm succeeding when I'm lit up daily and having fun most of the time.
To reach this level of success, I had to learn and relearn my vision of myself and how the world works. I then had to practice thousands of hours to master this new way of seeing, being, and doing. Along the way, I had to craft a business that would support me while I spread this thing called 'coaching' that seems to change everything.
How do you define coaching success for yourself?
If you could use some help with your definition, I've put together our top 3 most popular ebooks into one free 'Coaching Success Kit':
- It starts with 'Become a Coach!', an ebook designed to help the new coach get started in this booming industry and it includes 8 hours of recorded coach training, plus a side-by-side comparison of some of the top coach training schools.
- Next, there's the Coach 100 Business Success ebook, with tools to get you started with one of the most effective processes for filling a coaching practice EVER (while becoming a masterful coach, at the same time).
- Finally, there's the Seven Secrets of Mastery Certification ebook, with tools and tips on how to inspire yourself and achieve an elite coach certification. It includes a quiz that will help you determine, once and for all, whether you even need to get certified.
If you know how to coach masterfully and you know how to fill your practice with clients, then you have what you need to achieve coaching success, however you define it.
Coach Michael Jay Sullivan left this unsolicited comment about the Coaching Success Kit on Facebook last week:
"It's amazing how transformative for me Julia's free Coaching Stuff in a box has been. Better than some of the paid training I've gotten."
I love unsolicited testimonials; they are usually the most honest!
By the way, please tell us how YOU define coaching success, in the 'comments' section, below.
I've written a lot lately about how to build a successful coaching business without complex marketing systems or pricing structures.
What works best for coaches is to build business relationships one conversation at a time. You need to build business relationships the same way you build personal ones: with sincerity and no 'hidden' agendas.
The most important conversation for the coach and client then, is the one that cements their professional relationship.
I call it the complimentary coaching session. If you're going to have a rockin' business built on coaching instead other activities, you need to master the complimentary coaching session. That's why we devote an entire 4-week module to successful complimentary coaching sessions in our
Coach 100 Program.
Here are a few high points on how to give successful complimentary coaching sessions:
- Focus on the client, not on yourself. Your nerves and even your desire to do a good job are all about you. Coaching is all about them.
- Focus on expanding the client's possibilities instead of solving the client's problems. Every great coach knows that problem solving is the least of your gifts.
- Focus on the relationship and the potential relationship. Help the client see what's possible with your coaching.
- Give the client an experience. Of themselves, the value of the coaching relationship and the potential outcomes of working with you.
- Notice all the information that your client and your intuition are sending you. This is how you recognize a good client fit.
- If you and the client are a great fit, invite them to work with you.
Focus. Give. Notice. Invite.
Those are the basic elements of successful complimentary coaching sessions. Of course there are many more details and practice is the key to mastering this process.
And master it, you must. Without the ability to cement client relationships, you can't be a professional coach-preneur. With this ability mastered, you're helping others, co-creating a whole new world and making a great living doing what you love.
Have you mastered complimentary coaching sessions, yet?
The 4-week module on how to give successful complimentary coaching sessions that end with paying clients starts in one week. As a reader of this blog, we're giving you a coupon code today worth 45% off the usual tuition for this module, just to say, 'thanks for reading'. There are a few seats left.
Hear the demos. Ask questions until it's really clear. Get lots of practice until you've mastered this key skill and start getting paying clients with less time and effort. That's what Coach 100 is all about.
Use this coupon code when you register: SUCCESS10
This is the most insidious reason that some coaches don't have clients.
- If you think the economy is in the way
- If you're not sure you're giving enough value
- If you've tried every program and nothing works
- If you think of investing in your business as an 'expense'
- If you think you should be doing better
- If you're focused on you, instead of your clients
- If your coach is frustrated with you
- If Sales & Marketing feel more like S&M...
All of the above are symptoms of the Coaching Shadow.
The shadow is impossible to deal with, unless you know how. When you know how, it's incredibly easy, but most coaches don't have these tools, yet.
More Training is Not the Answer.
You can master the skills of coaching. And master the skills of Sales and Marketing and they will not work for you. You can work harder than everyone else. Zip.
Handle the Shadow and the tools you have will 'magically' begin to work. Handle the Shadow and you'll start having fun. Handle the Shadow and clients will come to you, instead of you chasing after them. Handle the shadow and your coaching income will sustain you.
Everyone has a Shadow. Some coaches have a Coaching Shadow.
Work with a Shadow Coach to handle your shadow once and for all. If you think you may have a Coaching Shadow, you have a few more days to join a mentor group designed to handle your Shadow and help you fill your business, once and for all.
If you wonder why this would work when nothing else has, that's your Shadow talking.
All I can tell you is that it will work. The coaches who've joined will prove it for me.
Is It Really So Hard to Get Coaching Clients?
A few weeks ago, a colleague said something to me about 'coaches who can't get clients' and a nerve broke for me. I'm fed up with the image of the coach who's always chasing clients, but never catches them. Chasing doesn't work. But getting clients is simple.
I've heard this whine for years. And it usually comes from people who, themselves, are having a tough time of it. And often they are hanging out with people who are also struggling. Therefore, they reason, it must be hard for everyone.
Well I'm here to debunk this myth: Coaches DO get clients. Plenty of them.
How do I know that coaches get plenty of clients? Because I mentor them and teach them. It's just as common to for me to hear from coaches who have too many clients and want to redesign their businesses as it is to hear from coaches who don't have enough clients.
Even in 2009, the worst year for the economy that most of us have ever seen, my students were building their businesses with new paying clients. Some of them were supporting their entire families with their new coaching businesses and commanding fees that impressed even me. And veteran coaches reported that they were doing fine. Some were doing better then ever.
Does that mean that coaches didn't notice the recession? Sure we did, but less than you'd think. I noticed a decline in the number of new coaching students, for instance, but the number of coaching clients that I have has stayed steady.
In every business, some people don't succeed. But if it's a growing business like coaching, you can bet more people are succeeding than failing.
There are 8 reasons why some coaches don't have enough coaching clients:
- They're new and they haven't given it enough time, yet.
- They still need training.
- They haven't defined what 'enough' is.
- Their environment isn't supporting them.
- They aren't doing enough to succeed.
- They're doing the wrong stuff.
- They've got shadow issues holding them back.
- They're in the wrong business.
All of these eight 'problems' are simple to solve: Get more experience. Get the training you need. Set realistic goals on how many clients (and how much money) you want. Redesign your environment so it supports your business. Work harder and more consistently. Get a better strategy. Work with a coach to get over your garbage. Face the music, if necessary, and change careers.
Getting enough coaching clients is simple, but not always easy. But if you really love your work, you'll overcome every challenge, because it's so darn fun.
Several years ago, I hit a dry spell in my own coaching business. I had changed my business model and clients weren't coming to me as easily as they had previously. To make matters worse, I was shopping for a home, so it was no time for a reduction in income! Then I remembered my own business-building program, Coach 100, and I decided to take my own medicine.
Did I get plenty of clients? Yes. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Was it worth it? Well I love to coach, so yes absolutely! I bought that home, too. And this was before I started the school, so my only income was from my coaching clients.
This year, I've had it (Had it!!) with the old lament that coaches have trouble getting clients. That's garbage! So I've launched a new Coach 100 Mentor Program to prove it. It's for coaches who are ready (Really Ready) to get out of the garbage that's been holding them back and step into their true Greatness, thriving business and all.
Don't join us unless you're willing to abandone ALL your old excuses and are willing to do what works in your own unique way and fill your coaching practice once and for all.
There are some sweet deals for the coaches who join the Coach 100 Mentor Group early. If you're tired of making excuses, check it out.
Do you agree or disagree that getting coaching clients is simple? Please share your thoughts in the comments section, below.
It's popular to use coaching as an upsell product with an upscale name like, platinum, diamond, gold, or elite.
This is usually based on a business model that starts with a big 'reach' (tens of thousands of email subscribers and followers on social networks), then moves to thousands of leads (people who signed up for something for free), then hundreds of customers (people who bought something in the $20 - $500 range) and finally moves to the small end of the marketing funnel with a few small-group or one-on-one coaching clients who pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars per month for your attention and time, a.k.a Coaching. This is called a marketing funnel, because it starts with a huge number of contacts and funnels down to a small number of clients who each pays you handsomely.
There are huge problems with using a marketing funnel when you're first building your coaching business.
The first problem is that it takes an incredible amount of time, effort and often expense to build a marketing funnel and during all that time, you're making little or no money. (Try supporting yourself with sales of a $19.95 ebook when you only have a 500-person mailing list. Even if you're marketing is extremely effective and you sell to 4% of your list, that's $399.)
The second and more insidious problem with using a marketing funnel to build your coaching business is that you're not spending your time coaching. You must coach a lot more than you may think to become masterful enough to succeed at coaching people in high-end programs. And if coaching is your true calling, then you need to do a lot of coaching just to be happy and fulfilled. Sadder still, is that coaching pays really well, but you're not coaching and probably not making the money you deserve to make.
Don't believe anyone who tells you that you can't fill your coaching business with one-to-one coaching clients from the very beginning.
People who say you can't make a living with one-to-one coaching fall into two groups:
- Coaches who couldn't fill their own coaching businesses with one-to-one clients and therefore think you can't either. That's an assumption that can derail your coaching business. Don't fall for it.
- People who aren't really coaches, but are either internet marketers, authors or speakers who use coaching as an upsell product and want to teach you their 'method'. Don't fall for that either; not if you're serious about spending your time helping people by coaching them one-to-one or in small groups.
Still other marketers will tell you one-to-one coaching is the 'old way' and they have a newer, faster, better way to be a coach. Good luck with that.
The reason I'm so sure these people are wrong is that I teach and mentor coaches everyday who are proving it wrong. It's not unusual for coaches to come to me complaining that they have too many clients. Too many! And they don't have marketing funnels!
If all of your clients are one-to-one coaching clients, you won't need nearly as many to make a good living. Coaching fees average $300-500 per month. If each of your coaching clients pays you that much you could make a great living ($72,000 - $120,000 per year) with 20 clients, not 20,000. You could make a decent living with only 10 clients per month. Month after month. Year after year.
Once your basic expenses are covered by your first 10 clients, you can relax. That's when you become much more attractive to clients, opportunities and yes, money. Then you may (or may not) want to dabble with ebooks, teleseminars, workshops or whatever sparks your creativity. Then you can afford to develop your unique brilliance at your leisure.
Fill your coaching practice first, then if you want, build a marketing funnel to create additional streams of income.
If you're serious about making your living as a COACH, but aren't sure how to fill your coaching business, you may want to join me for an exclusive mentor group. I'm actually guaranteeing this group. To read about it or listen to a 3-minute audio, click the link below. We have some time-limited specials for those who act now.
At the start of 2009, I joined the Compass Coaching Team as an "Affiliate Partner".
Compass had an unique business model, at least for coaching. It's a multi-level marketing company (Think: Mary Kay for Life Coaching). When I first learned about it, I thought multi-level marketing was a terrible idea for coaching. But a lot of good coaches were involved and at least one, who is a client of mine, was having a ball building her business with Compass, so I became intrigued that Compass might serve as a 'missing link', if you will, that some coaches may need in order to learn about business, marketing and sales. It also gives clients who may not be ready for a one-on-one coaching commitment a chance to dabble with coaching and experience what a life changer it can be - and then trade up to the 'real thing' when they're ready.
In short, I decided to get involved and because I have a large 'reach' (data base + social media), I joined for free.
Compass Coaching was pitched to me as a 'super affiliate' opportunity, which said to me, 'leverage your reach and integrate with your current marketing (mostly online)', but otherwise make Compass Coaching a low impact, relatively passive source of income.
Win-win-win, right? Share it with coaches who can benefit by building their businesses, change more clients' lives, and increase my own income.
Well, I have to admit, I'm a bit disappointed.
But, if you're waiting for me to drop a bomb or share a big scandal about Compass Coaching, there really isn't one. Over time, I found that Compass just didn't inspire me. Worse yet, my monthly checks hadn't grown in an entire year, even though I helped bring in quite a few new clients, coaches and reps. It wasn't worth my time and I have other projects that are much more fun and interesting.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that life coaches shouldn't join Compass. It's a reputable company and I'm not sorry I experimented with it. If you don't experiment, you don't learn. If you're interested in group coaching and learning how to build your business via seminars and live networking, Compass Coaching may be a fit for you.
However, I believe most people go into life coaching in order to do one-to-one coaching, which isn't what Compass is about. The Coach 100 approach is actually much more effective, simpler and less time consuming than Compass and it's easier to make more money faster with it - and do it on your own terms. Coaching businesses need solid income to survive and thrive and most coaches want to start making money sooner, rather then later.
So call me biased, but Coach 100 is still the best way for most life and business coaches to building a full coaching practice, usually in under a year. Learn more about Coach 100 by downloading the free ebook, below.
