Episode Transcription:

Hey everyone! Welcome back to The Book Your Dream Clients podcast. Today I want to help diagnose your coaching business issues. So sit back, relax and enjoy.

Coaches are amazing problem solvers. And sometimes we're so busy helping other people, we forget that we can help ourselves too. Sometimes we don't even take our own advice. We're really good at dishing it out, but sometimes we're not even listening to ourselves. We could be our own best coaches if we would just listen, right?

So that's what I'm here for. If you're feeling like your coaching business is... something's not right...let's figure things out together. And I'm going to add a little bit of tough love here. So I'm going to name off some challenges that you might be experiencing, what you're feeling, and then my suggestions on how you can fix it. And of course, if you have any questions, you can simply send me an Instagram DM. I'd be happy to chat about these with you.

Okay, challenge number one: your calendar is basically empty. Okay? So what you're feeling -  you're feeling desperate with a huge dash of what am I doing wrong? You feel let down every single time you open up your inbox to see not one person has applied to work with you. And this happens daily. Is your email broken? You check your spam folder? Nothing.

So how do you fix this? How do you fix the empty calendar syndrome? First, are you utilizing multiple strategies to get potential clients interested in the first place? Or are you simply relying on social media and your site to do it for you? There is a particular blend of strategies I've put in place, which has also led me to be triple booked since the fall of 2020.

Here are some examples of how I get clients and knocking on my virtual door. Number one: evergreen webinars with a call to action to apply to work with me. Number two: creating consistent content on my podcast and social media. I'll always show up for you. If I don't, something's wrong. I have an amazing sales page with a fabulous discovery call process and a 99% conversion rate. I've created a ton of free content that is currently circulating the interwebs and doing amazing on Pinterest. Pinterest is huge for coaches, and if you're not doing anything there, put it on your high priority list. Okay?

Challenge number two, you're feeling uninspired and stuck. Here's what you're feeling: defeated, bored, and did somebody say unmotivated? You have a ton of tabs open on your computer and you hop from one tab to another about every minute or so, and you have no idea what to focus on. You can waste a day like nobody's business. Chalk it up to another day of getting absolutely nothing done.

How can you fix it? First, start honoring your time. This is literally the only thing we can’t buy. And this time we start using it wisely. Then come back to your why. Why are you doing this in the first place? Walk away from the computer, grab a notebook and start jotting things down. Why are you doing this? Who are you doing this for? Be sure to keep this handy for future reference, you can always look back. I can almost guarantee you're feeling uninspired and stuck because you don't really know what to do every day, right?

Here's what you can do to remedy that. Grab a piece of paper, some colorful highlighters and pens if you like. And write down every little thing that needs to be done in your business. And I mean everything. Get out your highlighters because now you're going to start color coordinating each task. Example: any task that falls under social media -  color it pink. Any task that involves client work -  color it blue. Etc., Etc.

I'm guessing you're going to have five to seven different big categories. Which is great because now you can assign each category to a day of the week. Bonus points if you plug everything into a project management system and set them up as projects and recurring tasks - Asana.

Challenge number three: you're still not bringing in enough or any income. What you're feeling? How about broke and in debt. You're tempted to join every single webinar you see online. And you're desperate for something to work because you're tired of being in the red every single month. Right?

How can you fix this? Price yourself appropriately for one. You can't honestly think that your $100 coaching package is going to buy you a house in one year if you have a small list, audience, etc. Which is okay by the way. I see way too many coaches who have these six figure income dreams, and they're literally pricing their packages at $50 bucks. You simply have to just do the math. You want a $100,000 a year? Great. You'll need to book 2,000 clients in the next 12 months. Sounds silly, but some coaches just simply don't do the math. So get some packages on your one-on-one sales page. Don't go less than a thousand for your smallest package, and trust the process. Will it feel scary? Yeah, but that's a good sign. Trust me. Just try it. 

Challenge number four: discovery calls rarely convert into clients. What you're feeling -  like you're not good enough, or smart enough. And if you do happen to get on a discovery call, you're terrified to tell them how much you charge because you don't want to sound salesy. And after about five minutes of small talk, it starts to feel super awkward. You dread walking out of your office because if your family asks you how it went, you might cry.

How you can fix this? Get clear with who your dream client is. Your calls are not converting because they're not sure what you can do for them. So they're not trying to sell themselves to you. That's right. I said that correctly. I said, sell themselves to you. My clients know I can help them. And they want me to help them. So they're going to make sure that they let me know what their troubles are so I will say, ‘I can help you.’ How empowering is that?

Challenge number five: no one ever seems to interact with anything you post on social media. Here's what you're feeling -  like a basic dud. You have high hopes when you open up Instagram, but they don't last long. Once again, that post you put your heart into, nothing. It's hard for you to come up with content because you feel like there's literally no point.

How you can fix it? Stop looking at numbers. And stop over-analyzing who followed you. Unfollowed you. Blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter. You know that you can't control what other people do, right? Here's one thing you can control; how you can react and feel about yourself. I don't know about you, but if people unsubscribe, unfollow, I think that's a good thing. They were never going to buy from me anyways.

Create content for the silent followers. The people who never comment on anything. The people who rely on you to post every day, because it makes them feel inspired, happy, and entertained. Do it for them. It's not about you.

So how are you feeling? We definitely covered a lot. If you have questions at all, I would love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram and let me know which challenge you resonated the most with. And seriously, try making a change. You're here for a reason. And I'm here to help.

Before you go, I want to invite you to join my free Facebook group for coaches. Simply type ‘DreamClientCommunity.com’ in your browser and request access, and we will happily let you in. We have amazing coaches that are just like you who are starting and scaling their business and we would love to see you there.