Prosperous Coach Podcast

This episode is for all the coaches out there struggling to tell people what they do in a way that gets a positive response. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/155

Many coaches design a statement to tell people what they do. It’s a misunderstanding that your benefit statement is about you or coaching. Those tend to be non-benefit statements.

For example: I coach people to live the life of their dreams.

How would most people respond to this message? Their eyes would glaze over and they’d disconnect. People do want to live the life of their dreams. But it doesn’t feel believable. It feels like a pie in the sky.

Unbelievable messages don’t inspire a strong positive response — such as to hire you!

To make messages believable so they inspire a strong positive response, you need SPECIFICITY.

Your Core Message for Your Coaching Business

Your benefit statement is the first and arguably most important message for your business. That’s why I call it a CORE Message. Some people call it a HUB Statement.

The point is that message is at the center of all of your messaging. And every other message you create springs from the central ideas in your Core Message.

The statement” I coach people to live the life of their dreams” won’t grab attention for two main reasons:

1.     It’s missing a critical part of the coach’s niche — the target audience. 

2.     And it’s also missing specific outcomes the target audience knows they want. “Live the life of their dreams” is a vague and abstract concept.

Why do I say “the target audience KNOWS they want”? Because if they don’t know they want it, they won’t be out there seeking solutions.

A beautifully crafted and highly effective benefit statement names your target audience in specific terms then goes on to name specific outcomes the audience knows they want. Not all the outcomes but the top of mind desired outcomes.

Let’s break down the NON-benefit statement into components.

1. First, there’s the lead in phrase: “I coach”. I recommend “I help …” instead. For one thing it doesn’t immediately raise concerns about what coaching is. But also a coach is not something most people know they want.

If you haven’t already, please listen to Episode 7 and then Episode 153, which both explain why coaching is a hard sell so you don’t want to push that language – coach, coaching etc.

Why use “help”? Well, for one thing it’s a single syllable word and easy to connect with the rest of a benefit statement. When I wrote curriculum for Coach Training Alliance I suggested “I work with” but I’ve long since realized that makes sentences awkward.

Also a coach IS a helper – a thinking partner. You’re not going to solve problems for your clients. You’re going to help them solve problems and reach goals.

2. Now let’s look at the word “people”. Uh oh, this is a NON niche — no target audience at all. Someone said: If you try to serve everyone, you’ll serve no one. I agree. Even “people who …”, like “people who want more from life” is arguably not going to be a narrow enough target audience to have a sustainable business.

3. How about the phrase “to live the life of their dreams”? This is the big zero. There’s nothing to hook onto here that inspires the response “I want this!” because it’s trying to cover all the bases.

So let’s say this coach focuses on careers, how could the message change for the better?

To read REAL benefits statements of real coaches go here.

This episode is inspired by a rarely used skill that we all have and that can greatly help you attract more coaching clients that you’ll love. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/154.

I recommend you also listen to a previous episode called Can You Manifest Coaching Business Success with Your Mind?  Find that at prosperouscoach.com/106, that's episode 106 in your favorite podcast app. It talks about different aspects of manifesting.

This episode won’t be repetitive as it’s about one particular part of manifesting, which is attracting ideal clients. 

Back in 2001 when I was writing curriculum for Coach Training Alliance I came up with the term ideal client. I doubt it was a wholly original idea but it was an aha in my mind.

Coaches want to have a financially successful business. I love the idea of prosperity thinking and wanted to include elements of that in the curriculum. But I’ve also used this idea in my own coaching business.

Every coach will have preferences about the best clients for them and every client will have preferences about the person that helps them transform. In an ideal world there would be that excellent fit more often than not.

Fit is critical for excellent coaching to happen. And, fit is critical for you to earn well as a coach. Look, if you’re attracting non-ideal clients a lot you’re not going to be happy and neither are your clients.

If your clients aren’t happy, you have referrals and testimonials. If you’re not happy, you’ll feel drained and burned out.

There’s an art to attracting clients. I call it an art because it takes time to learn who is ideal for you and it takes conscious attraction practices to draw them to you.

One powerful part of attraction is the words you use on your website, your social posts, your freebie, your content such as blogs, podcast episode and also the words you use to describe your Signature Program.

If you’re blessed as I am, you’ll have that word fit reflected back to you. Here’s a review I received for Prosperous Coach Podcast to illustrate what I mean:

I absolutely love how open, sincere and generous Rhonda is with her time-tested wisdom in what it takes to build a successful coaching business from scratch. As a newbie coach still enrolled in a certification program, my mind-wheels are constantly spinning about how to build my new business. Rhonda’s value-filled words and energy help ground and ignite me at the same time. She takes me out of the fog and into clarity, out of stumbling into jogging steadily forward.

Wow! Thank you for that amazing review, Lena.

How did I help ground and ignite something inside Lena — someone I didn’t know before? How did I help her come out of the fog and into clarity? Two main ways:

1.     By studying what words would land best with my ideal client within my chosen target audience.

2.     By thinking of my ideal client while I create messaging to attract clients.

What Are the Right Words to Attract Your Ideal Coaching Client?

That’s a discovery process that takes place BEFORE you do anything to attract clients. Before you build your website, before you put out content and social posts, before you design your Signature Program ...

To read the full transcript and see the 24 Powerful Questions to Identify Your Ideal Coaching Clients go here.

This episode is inspired by all of my wonderful clients … coaches who are so smart. They have so many skills and advantages. And … they still have to attract a steady stream of clients and that can feel hard. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/153.

I remember a couple of years into starting my coaching business having a regular walk with another relatively new coach friend of mine. We often commiserated about how most of our clients only stuck around for 3 months of coaching. That meant we were in a constant state of chasing clients.

We felt truly clueless about how to find more clients. All the low hanging fruit had been picked — you know, the colleagues, friends, and friends of friends — people we already knew.

I’d had a sample coaching session with them all and few invested in a package. Those who did seemed to be constantly questioning whether they wanted to continue the investment. They said they valued our conversations. But they just didn’t get the long-term value.

My coach friend and I kept exclaiming with frustration … where are the clients who get coaching enough to invest in it?

That’s the same question I hear new coaches ask two decades later. The problem is, it’s the wrong question.

So there are layers to this problem of constantly chasing clients and I want to tease them apart for you.

1.     It’s what you’re selling.

2.     It’s how you’re selling.

3.     It’s how you think about what you’re selling.

Chances are, if you don’t have a steady stream of clients finding you, then at least one but possibly all 3 of these need a permanent adjustment. And you’ll be so glad you did. 

Coach, You’re Selling the Wrong Thing

Long since that agonized time of trying to find clients, things are very different for me. My ideal clients find me! And I don't sell coaching anymore. “Finding clients who get coaching enough to invest in it” isn’t something I bother with anymore.

Why? Because with a shock, way back when, I realized that there just aren’t many people out there who understand the value of coaching. So trying to convince people to buy it is … well, misguided.

That’s why I recommend designing a Signature Program for your audience based on what you learn from them in market research. Will you coach your clients in that program? Yes. But you won’t sell coaching anymore.

Have you ever been on Facebook or Instagram and seen a gadget for sale and you think — I want one of those! Well, some smart person figured out a gap in the marketplace and filled it with that gadget. They knew it would be wanted.

Selling products is very different from selling services but what’s similar the way a human being responds when something unexpected solves a problem for them or something they want lands in front of them.

Coaching just isn’t that thing very often.

It’s so much easier to sell something to people that they KNOW they want!

For the 3 ways  to stop chasing coaching clients and have them find YOU instead, go here.

Recently, a client asked me to share the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my 20 years of running my coaching business. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/152

I have a feeling you’re going to be surprised by my answer … the best lesson boils down to less is more.

It took me a long time to learn this lesson. Now that I have integrated it fully into my business and coaching mindset and habits I see the real power of this lesson. It applies to so much, not only in business but other aspects of life. 

And I’m so grateful to the experienced coaches and business owners who shared this wisdom with me long ago. 

So coaches often struggle to reach simplicity in their business in a number of ways. Of course, the first way is about who they serve. You hear me say this often enough so I’ll just reinforce this quickly.

Choose one viable target audience and develop one specific niche for that audience. Less is more. You’ll market less and earn more.

And now, I want to share 4 more ways that less is more in your coaching business. Take the time to review these areas in your business to see how you can recalibrate to doing less and saying less.

Consider putting a sign up in your office that says LESS IS MORE to remind you about this.

Put Less on Your Coaching Website

It’s so tempting to use your website as a clearing house for too many satellite concepts, favorite quotes, recommendations. Getting carried away like this can mean failure because you don’t show your prospects the real path to you.

So keep it simple. Provide the essentials. Inspire reading, exploring and invite only a strategic few calls to action.

If you try to cover every possibility, cram in all the things you want to say, the message that could spark them will be lost.

Adding more tabs is not a good idea, drop down menus under tab — don't ever do that! Too many words, too many paragraphs, too many buttons and distractions everywhere, that means your website will be a dud.

See distraction creates a confused mind. And a confused mind never buys.

In this overfull life, every potential coaching client wants a calm, logical experience. You want to inspire them to read more by having less copy. Rather than pushing and prodding them towards action, let them have their own pace.

Every web visitor views a site differently. Your job is to help them see themselves in what you say so they want to explore.

There’s one exception to less is more on a website. If you post a regular blog or podcast there’s no need to limit those posts but you can limit the length to a 5 – 7 minute experience per post. Which brings me to …

Write Less and Say More

One of the things I passionately teach my VIP clients is how to write in a punchy way. Punchy in copywriting speak means streamlined, powerful and compelling all at the same time.

Long highly descriptive sentences and paragraphs won’t get read. Go for a skimmable experience. People will read short sentences, short paragraphs and less total copy.

When you finish writing an article or blog post, go through every sentence and streamline it. Take out most adjectives and reduce prepositional phrases. Also shorten paragraphs by breaking one up into two or more.

Because people read on their phones ...

To read 3 more ways less is more for your coaching business and 3 powerful questions to ask yourself now go here.

This episode is about allowing yourself to fully evolve into your coaching business. The full transcript can be found at prosperouscoach.com/151.

Take a journey back in time with me and imagine …

Who were you and what was your life like before the idea of becoming a coach inspired you and made you leap?

Maybe you had a job and a comfortable routine. Maybe you were used to your paycheck and working certain hours. Your family knew what to expect of your time and attention. You knew what to expect of yourself and your day-to-day life.

And that was part of the problem — part of the growing discontent that causes all people to seek.

Maybe your colleagues were a daily respite from the mundanity of work or maybe you felt drained by all of it.

A dream began to form. It was just a little spark.

Something awakened in you and made you think. 

Maybe you could break away and breakthrough to a life where you could be your own boss and do more meaningful work. One where you had more flexibility in your lifestyle and you could serve your own vision.

When you first heard about coaching something in you thrummed with new life.

You took coach training and your excitement built along with a healthy dose of doubt. Learning how to coach transformed you — the way you think, the way you communicate. It was no less than revolutionary for you.

And, it wasn’t all easy because it broke you out of your mold. You saw yourself differently. You saw your relationship to others differently.

And coaching gave you hope. It gave form to something you’ve longed for and did not know existed.

Then the moment came when you needed to start making decisions about your business.

Imposter syndrome rose up. Some days you could just brush it away. And some days it hung over you like a dark cloud.

Yet every time you coached, even if it was for free or for way too little, you still loved it and so you moved forward bravely.

You were asked to choose a niche, to work on messaging. Things that required you to put a stake in the ground. Gulp! “What’s the right niche for me? Do I have to pick just one?”

All these things were not what inspired you to become a coach. Some resentment for all this hard stuff kicked in. But you moved forward bravely despite thoughts like:

“Can I really do this?”

“Will anyone really pay for this?”

“Won’t marketing mean I have to sell out?”

You realized that learning coaching was the vocational side of things. There’s another more serious side to this  called being a business owner. All the realities started to materialize as territory you’ve never been to.

“I have to attract clients, charge fees that will replace my old paycheck, navigate the mine field of social media and summit all sorts of learning curves.”

Seemingly. Endless. Learning curves.

For some this is the point of departure. For some it’s a dare to keep going, keep building and manifesting the new life.

Now let’s pause for a moment in the present …

To read the full transcript and learn more about building your coaching business with Rhonda's help go here.

This episode is about a mindset shift that could free up mental blocks you might have about choosing or sticking with a specific niche. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/150

The two concerns I hear most from coaches about choosing a narrow audience and developing a unique niche to serve them are:

1.     “But I don't want to exclude anyone.”

2.     "But if I limit myself to a particular track — such as career coaching, business coaching or relationship coaching — I won’t get to do life coaching."

I’ll talk in another podcast soon about the exclusion worry. Let’s tackle this life coaching concern.

Coaching is Coaching

First, repeat after me … coaching is coaching. The skills of coaching are the same no matter what topic you coach around or target audience you serve.

Listening on many levels, asking powerful questions, mirroring what your client said back to them — all those excellent skills and more are the same no matter who you’re coaching or what you’re coaching about.

But also, it’s really critical to realize that all coaching IS life coaching.

Whether you are a business coach, relationship coach, health coach, career coach or some other fill-in-the-blank coach, you are essentially a life coach.

If you’ve chosen a track it’s to help you focus and create a sustainable business. And you might have expertise or experience to apply to that particular territory of life — business, career, relationships or health.

All Coaches Should Specialize

But calling yourself a life coach or specializing in life coaching might not serve you well because it’s non-specific. Life includes everything. 

Helping everyone about everything might seem wonderful or a relief to you but if you don’t specialize you might seem like a hobbyist rather than a business owner. You might lose credibility.

Also, it can affect your income. A few years ago statistics showed that coaches who specialize earn at least 40% more than those that do not.

I always encourage coaches towards specificity in everything. The more specific you are in your target audience, niche, messaging and offers the better it will be for you. When you specify everything you’ll find it easier to attract and enroll a client.

Why?

Because broad language that tries to be all encompassing doesn’t grab attention. Let me illustrate the value of specificity.

Which of these messages attracts you more?

I help people succeed and be happy.

or

I help coaches earn more and market less by choosing a highly profitable niche they’ll love.

I don’t know any coach who would respond more positively to the first message over the second. That’s because, as a coach, you want certain things, you have certain challenges. And when I speak of those certain things it piques your interest.

You want to earn more and market less. And choosing a niche might be the biggest challenge you face at the beginning of your business.

The same is true with all messaging and whenever marketing a service like coaching.

To read why Life Coaching is the least distinctive and lucrative niche read more here.

If I’ve learned anything from life it’s that simple is better. Less is more. And that’s true when it comes to staying organized in your coaching business. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/149

I happen to be one of the most organized people I know. But I wasn’t always like that.

I also used to be a lousy money manager.

I also used to be hopeless at writing.

I also used to suck at managing people.

So, no matter what you think you’re hopeless at now, you can change that. You can grow into whoever you want to be and however you want to live your life.

What changed those things for me? First, I stopped telling myself what I’m no good at.

The harsh way you talk to yourself is the main habit to stop. You’ll be so glad you did. It’s a life skill. If I can do it, you can do it.

Now try this … every time you think you’re not good at something get curious.

Curiosity is a powerful game changer. It quiets the amygdala – the part of your brain associated with fear. And then, attention and creativity take over.

When you explore something with curiosity, dopamine — the reward chemical — floods your body and you feel good. And then you can easily get past the “way it used to be”.

So, get organized coaches. It feels good. And it will mean you can serve clients better while you earn more.

Template Everything You Can in Your Coaching Business

This is my secret weapon against the limits of time. Everything that can be templated in my business is templated.

For example, I have a template for my Session Recap for clients. Of course, it’s customized where it needs to be within the template so it’s valuable for both of us.

I have a template for typical responses to prospects’ questions. But that’s doesn’t mean they don’t come across as personalized. They do.

I template processes. I have a 15-page Word document with 15 different processes I take my clients through in my Signature Program so I can cut and paste them into emails as we go along. My clients always say – I love how fast you respond. Part of it is about the templates.

I also have pre-made guides for my clients to save us time in session.

So ask yourself …

What can be templated now to save me time later?

And then be sure you create a place where it’s easy to find and use the templates. Me? I have a folder in my email for Templates.

Prep for Tomorrow and Next Week

This may seem basic but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t do this.

Prep tomorrow today. Prep for next week at the end of this week.

I have a master to-do list with 2 categories – Personal and Business. And it has tasks that need to be done soon and later. I pull from the master to-do list to partially create my plan for tomorrow and for next week.

But here’s the secret – my daily to-do list is super short. No more than 3 things. If I have extra time after completing the 3 things, I’ll pick from the Master list tasks that will fit the time I have open.

Ask yourself … 

What must be done tomorrow?

What must be done next week?

What will help me get ahead next week?

To read the last of 3 organizational secrets find the full transcript here.

This episode is inspired by an excellent question posted by two coaches in my Facebook group called Prosperous Coach Club. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/148

Before we dig into this, let’s get on the same page …

What is a Smart Coaching Niche?

To me, a smart coaching niche has 3 clear components:

1.     One unique viable target audience full of seekers – people who want to grow personally and professionally and are actively seeking solutions. Without this, it’s hard to have a successful niche.

2.     A strategic coaching business model built around what that audience urgently wants and the BIG problem that’s in their way. If you don’t know what will motivate investment for your audience you don't have a robust enough niche to earn well.

3.     Your skills and talents applied to those other two things. This is more than just coaching skills. This is bringing forward all the skills and maybe even expertise that will make you credible to your audience – something that help you relate to them and them relate to you.

A coaching niche is weak if one of more of those things is missing or not solid enough so it’s worth it to take the time to develop a niche fully.

And let me just stop the worries here … everyone has skills to bring to the table. I’ve never worked professionally with a coach that didn't have options for their niche based on the sum total of who they are.

It’s good to remember that coaching is a business and you need to operate in the marketplace.

What do I mean by that? Your business needs to be more than selling coaching services. 

Unless you don’t need to earn, you need to frequently grab the attention of and enroll clients who pay you well. That’s not a casual thing for the long run. It’s totally doable and some strategy is needed.

One Coaching Business for One Well-Formed Niche

I encourage my clients to develop one business built for the long term around one well-formed niche. 

Why limit it? Well, because two niches may very well feel like having two businesses, which is like having two full time jobs. No one really wants that.

It comes down to what you can handle effectively. You may be able to do many things at once but is that the best life to live? Why not build a business that’s sustainable for the long run?

You might start out with two niches but somewhere along the way one will get more attention and the other will suffer unless there is some way to leverage the two. So let’s talk about those possibilities.

Two Different Audiences for Your Coaching

Targeting two distinctly different audiences is not a good idea unless the two audiences are related in some easy way.

To read the full transcript including 4 circumstances where two niches could work for you, go here.

Today’s episode is inspired by a sticky question. Do you really need to be certified in order to say that you're a professional coach? Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/147

It's a sticky question because there are two camps — the yeas and nays — and both have strong opinions.

I say … whether you certify or not is your decision. 

2 Types of Coach Certification

1.    Certifying through a coach training organization. You enroll, complete training and certify through a review process when training is complete.

2.    Independent certification such as through the International Coach Federation (ICF). You work towards it by completing requirements and paying an application fee. You'll need a certain number of hours of paid coaching, completed training with an accredited organization, and being mentored by people who are certified at the master level.

To maintain or advance ICF certification you have to re-up every few years and also take continuing education courses. It's a significant ongoing investment in time and money.

By the way, the ICF and other certifying bodies often change requirements for the various levels of certification. So, if you're on route to certify, stay in touch with the requirements so you're not blindsided by changes.

Independent certification helps to mature emerging fields and garner acceptance in the marketplace. ICF launched in 1995, when life coaching was a new concept, and now has a presence in 140 countries and over 30,000 members.

There is a segment of the coaching industry that will firmly say YES, that you must be certified to be considered a professional coach. I've softened on this over the years, which I’ll cover more later. 

5 Main Reasons Proponents Give to Independently Certify

Reason #1    Coaches who certify are more likely to earn more and not drop out of the profession.

Reason #2    Certification distinguishes you from all the people who co-opt the term 'coach' but who have not been rigorously trained.

Reason #3    Maintaining certification requires you to stay in tune with best practices.

I'll chime in here. Independent certification does not necessarily mean you'll earn more.

Your income as a coach largely depends on your chosen target audience, how you charge for your offers and your ability to market and enroll.

Reason #4    The public will perceive you as being a more skilled coach if you're certified.

Reason #5    Your clients will require it.

Credibility largely depends on how you conduct yourself. And most clients do not require or even know about certification.

In my 20 years in the industry, none of my potential or actual clients has ever asked me if I was certified.

And, I've checked recently with experienced coaches. We agree that for most niches the client does not require or even ask about certification.

The Bottom Line About Certifying As a Coach

If you go into the executive or leadership coaching track where you'll provide services to people within corporations, coaches that are ICF certified or with another independent body are much more likely have a competitive edge. Organizations know to ask about it.

For many other tracks, niches and audiences, being certified is a non-issue.

So here's what I tell my clients ... why not work towards certification?

To read my advice for coaches and see the rest of the transcipt, go here.

This episode is inspired by YOU. You’ve helped me surpass 100,000 listens of Prosperous Coach Podcast. I’m so grateful to you for binge listening and sharing my podcast with other coaches.

Now, maybe I can help you start your own podcast.

I’ll tell you what podcasting has meant for me and I’ll share some details about what it takes, what it costs plus a few powerful questions to ask yourself about whether podcasting is right for you. Find the full transcript of this episode at prosperouscoach.com/146

My podcast has revolutionized my business and also given me great joy.

I posted a blog for over 8 years and it was hugely instrumental in attracting ideal clients to my services. But it was never as impactful as my podcast has been. 

I think it’s because listeners hear my voice weekly so there’s more of a sense of intimacy. People feel like they get to know me in ways that can’t come across only in words on a page. 

And because my episodes are short and I’m consistent about putting out a weekly episode I have a lot of binge listeners. Isn’t that fun!

When I have a Discovery Call with a coach who wants to enroll in my 5 month VIP program, they often say: “You sound just like you do on your podcast!” That’s reassuring to them.

Some of the joy factor is in putting my voice out there. I say what I think and feel.

Your voice is more than just sounds and words —it's an integral part of who you are. When you speak up and speak out you’re stepping fully into your personal power. It’s almost impossible to be anything but authentic when you show up weekly with your voice on air.

I didn’t expect the satisfaction of putting my voice out there. I can stumble over words, just be myself and my audience is forgiving. I can tell you personal things about myself and know that I’m relating not burdening. It’s connective not self-deprecating.

And I get so much positive feedback. It’s nourishing to know that my philosophy, guidance and truth telling resonates with so many coaches. A few coaching training organizations suggest my podcast to their students. 

I know I’m helping people who will never hire me. And that’s gratifying. But I also know that people I’m meant to work with will hire me and we’re likely to start our journey with a deeper understanding between us.

And when people reach out and fill out the application on my Work with Rhonda page of my website, they are 99% ready to enroll. Wow! No other form of messaging or marketing has brought me that kind of ease.

And then there’s the accessibility piece. People in over 100 countries hear my podcast and that’s growing.

So what is a podcast?

You might have listened but not really known what a podcast is. It’s similar to a radio show but it's delivered online in episodes that can be experienced on demand rather than by tuning into a specific station at a specific time. 

Listeners can subscribe to a podcast through apps they download onto their phone like Apple Podcast, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and other directories who, at this point, all offer free listening accounts and downloadable apps. My listeners can also hear my episodes on my website.

When you subscribe to a podcast, the app brings new episodes up first. You can also click SEE ALL and explore the back catalog of a show. There are limited show notes or transcripts that listeners can see on their apps. I put links to other episodes and resources in my transcripts.

To read about what podcasting costs and questions to decide if it's right for you read the