Prosperous Coach Podcast

Interview with Nancy Fournier Ph.D. who has a powerful coaching niche serving women Executive Directors of nonprofits. Find the full transcript here.

Nancy shares her wisdom, challenges and joys one month after coaching business launch of  Relish Your Role for women executive directors of nonprofits — an excellent niche! Also, Nancy has a podcast of the same name Relish Your Role for women Executive Directors of nonprofits. So share that out!

She also shares how she found me, why she hired me and what specifically she got of value from my 5-month VIP Coaching Business Breakthrough program. I'd love to work with YOU!

It's worth the listen!

Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources for coaches at prosperouscoach.com/244.

Also mentioned:
Episode 243 about how to prevent refund requests 
Fill out the application to work with me in my VIP mentoring program for coaches.

In my first year of helping coaches to build their coaching business, one of my clients asked for a full refund after I spent 6 months of private work with her. I was floored and had not seen this coming!

I found out later that she had asked for a full refund from her coaching training school as well and I knew that this was really about her needing money.

I had a phone conversation with her and told her that I couldn’t in good conscience refund her because I had already given her my time and her post program results were her responsibility — something I could not control. 

But she threatened to complain to Visa, Better Business Bureau and PayPal, so I gave her a full refund to remove those threats. 

I thought it was just as well that she wouldn’t be a coach. And, I felt compassion that her financial straits were such that she was searching for money.

I will never again give a full refund for time that I already spent one on one with a client unless my integrity is clear that I should.

Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources for coaches, including ways to work privately with me, at prosperouscoach.com/243.

Episodes mentioned in this episode about different angles for getting better results with Discovery Calls enrolling coaching clients:
162
198
217
241
242

A coach emailed me asking for an episode about refunds and money-back guarantees for coaching. The person didn’t share their name. A shout out to you!

I love requests for episode topics. Contact me through my website anytime. And before you do … search for topics there from my 8 years of blogging and 5 years of podcasting to find tips and insights quickly. There are few things I haven’t already covered before. Refunds is one of them.

Refunds are not a fun thing about running a coaching business but they don’t have to be painful either.

I’ll cover in this episode a set of things you can do right now, in advance of any request for a refund including all the ways to stop requests from ever happening. 

And I’ll cover in Episode 244 — the next one — when you need a refund policy or guarantee, how you can respond to a request for a refund in different circumstances and what to say.

Get your free download of the step-by-step enrollment approach at prosperouscoach.com/242.

I used to suck at enrolling coaching clients. I felt I had to perform. Well, that was not a great approach, was it?

Is there a way to enroll coaching clients that doesn't require you to push, convince or perform? 

Yes, and it is a lot easier and more effective than giving a sample coaching session! Is anyone still doing that? Unless you’re just practicing coaching skills, I recommend that you stop giving sample coaching sessions.

Instead, seamlessly move through a set of powerful questions to inspire your prospect to hire you.

When I shifted to this approach, it dramatically improved my enrollment success rate. More importantly, I can be myself and attract clients who are the best fit for me. 

I've taught this approach to every coach in my VIP mentoring program. It takes practice and a few other critical pieces plugged into it. 

Find the full transcript and other resources for coaches at prosperouscoach.com/241.

I never worry about the enrollment moment in Discovery Calls. I've been having Discovery Calls nearly every week for the last 17 years. Experience does count.

Another reason I don't worry is that I've learned to detach from outcome. It's a critical mindset for anyone who is selling something — especially when you are selling YOU! 

And the amazing thing is that taking the expectation and desperation for a 'yes' out of the enrollment moment actually relieves pressure for both you and your prospect.

They sense your ease and THAT is attractive in and of itself.

If enrollment calls are scary and uncomfortable for you, that's understandable. Do the things you need to do to have as many Discovery Calls as you can. You will get better at it and naturally enroll more coaching clients.

Let’s talk about other ways that you can simply show up that will inspire your ideal clients to hire you. 

Here is the full transcript for this episode and other resources for coaches.
Other episodes mentioned include:
Episode 41 - 5 Questions to Test Your Coaching Business Integrity
Episode 102 - No One Can Succeed in Their Coaching Business Without This
Episode 215 - 4 Ways to Stop Feeling Lonely in Your Coaching Business
24 episodes about money mastery

Early in coaching, I longed for someone who could step me through exactly how to succeed in my coaching business. It’s fun to geek-out on coaching skills, but that didn’t help me where the rubber meets the road.

Where was the guide who could take me step-by-step on the business side — help me zone in on what works? Online tactics training wasn’t personalized and was missing foundations of business success.

Nine years in, I launched Prosperous Coach because I was then surrounded by new coaches who had no business roadmap either. Step-by-step guidance is one of my zones of genius so I filled that hole with VIP mentoring.

There is a clear difference between the mindsets and actions that help you succeed in your coaching business and those that could end with you quitting and losing all your equity in this career. This episode is about 7 specific tipping points to land on the positive side. 

Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/239.
Also mentioned episode 229 Why is it Hard to Sell Coaching?

Ten years into my coaching business it dawned on me that selling coaching sessions was keeping me from earning well.

At the time, I was continually frustrated with:

1.     How I was chasing every client and every dollar.

2.     How I was working too hard for my income.

3.     That my clients were not ideal clients for me.

4.     How most clients would not stay with coaching long enough.

5.     How difficult it was to plan my time because I never knew how many clients I’d be serving.

Can you relate to those frustrations?

I worked on a solution that solved them all using strategic thinking. Honestly, I hadn’t done that much before then. Like many solopreneurs I was just scrambling day to day to scrape together a good income.

I want to share the solution I came up with that forever erased those 5 business problems. This will be eye opening! 

Find the full transcript for this episode here.

Other episodes related to and mentioned in this episode:
187 to create your Avatar
225 for 5 ways to limit yourself for success

Coaches spend a lot of money, time and hard work developing their coaching skills, niche, offers and more. Then, over the next 18 months after launch, one of three things usually happens:

1.     Some stay true to their niche, leverage everything they’ve created and earn well.

2.     Some get distracted by opportunities that don’t align and lose momentum.

3.     And some give up because they don’t have the focus or drive to stay the course.

I feel compassion for all coaches. Focus and drive requires a lot from a human being and it is not easy. But it can be learned.

You’ve probably heard that only 1 in 5 entrepreneurs make it to year two. Well, I’m serious about improving the ratio of successes to failures among coaches and do everything I can to set my clients up for success.

How can YOU be sure that you are still in business 1, 2, 5 … 10 years from now? Let’s talk about how to stick and stay true.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for coaches at prosperouscoach.com/237 .

Have you ever gone through something truly arduous and come out stronger and wiser than you were before? I have — so many times.

It could have been a health crisis or relationship crisis. It could be a tragic loss of someone or something — some part of yourself that you’ll never get back.

I hear poignant stories from many coaches that hire me for a Nail Your Niche session. They share how they overcame something – by facing the truth, studying and learning to care for themselves.

So often those stories are a clue to the coaching niche they’ve been seeking. In many ways their personal transformation makes them far more credible than a pile of credentials.

Let’s talk about the coach archetype that emerges from personal healing journeys. You may have this archetype and it may shape your coaching business with meaning.

Other Episodes mentioned:
17
73

Coach's Companies mentioned:
Sofia von Celsing
Synergistic Stepparenting
Thriving Moms of Autistics
Live a Life After Loss
Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute

Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources for coaches at prosperouscoach.com/236

Also mentioned in this episode:
Episode 42 - What Exactly Makes a Coaching Website Client-Winning?
Episode 59 - How to Develop Your Signature Program
Episode 65 - Are You Solving a Big Enough Problem in Your Coaching Business?

Have you ever asked your new clients …

How did you find me?

What specifically attracted you to working with me?

When I ask those questions, I get a clear confirmation that I’m doing the right things to attract clients who are ideal for me. My customer journey is working! 

Early in my business I did not ask those questions and I didn’t have any kind of a customer journey. I wasn’t thinking strategically. I did anything I could to enroll any type of client at any price. And that’s where I was developmentally in my business. I’ve learned a lot since then.

Future clients become your current clients, so it’s important to think through what you can do today and every day to keep a pipeline of future clients flowing to you.

Develop a customer journey that nurtures people in your audience and gets the most ideal for you among all of them 100% ready to hire you.