Prosperous Coach Podcast

This episode is part of the Coaching Business Checkup series. Show notes can be found at prosperouscoach.com/65.

If you’re not attracting enough paying clients to sustain your business there could be several reasons why. The episodes in this series are designed to help you isolate what needs attention.

But don’t let these errors move you to give up on your coaching business unless you’re truly done with the dream of being a successful coach and helping loads of people with your unique talents.

To Succeed You Have to Be Willing to Flail and Fail A Bit

I encourage you to be willing to make mistakes and realize they don’t define the possibility of your future success.

Jumping out there without strategy is a time honored mistake. Nearly everyone makes these mistakes if they are willing to risk success.

On the other side of this is the person who does not risk anything and misses out on the chance to learn from their mistakes. And those are the folks who may regret staying in the safety zone.

The Big Thing Holding You Back From Financial Success As A Coach

For this episode, I’m going to dig into the most common problem that holds coaches back from attracting enough clients and earning well:  

There’s not enough people inspired to invest in your services.

You are no doubt talented, capable and truly effective as a coach. But that goes wasted if you can’t attract the attention of your audience and inspire them to invest.

What can you do about that?

Well, so many things! For now I’m focusing on one.

Let’s say you have chosen a target audience and they are SEEKERS — people who do invest out their own pocket to grow personally and professionally.

The next thing you do is to define your niche, right?

And this is the place where you might be inclined to totally wimp out. I did when I started.

It’s partly because fresh out of coaching training there’s still this glow about the value of coaching that can blind you to effective ways to attract paying clients. 

Have you romanticized the notion of coaching that you believe people know they want it?

Most people don’t think about coaching as a solutions. That’s why coaching is a hard sell.

So, at this starry-eyed moment in time instead of niching down, you niche widely or niche weakly.

Niching wide is choosing a broad coaching audience and naming an overarching abstract outcome. 

I help women create a more fulfilling life. OR I help business owners become successful.

Another way to wimp out in your niche is to simply identify your track. 

I’m a career coach. I’m a leadership coach. I’m a life coach.

I’ve seen many coaches list all or several coaching tracks on their websites. The lack of specialty does just the opposite of what the coach hoped — it turns potential clients away because they see a lack of commitment and focus.

And example of niching weakly is focusing on coaching topics as the specialty.

I’m a confidence coach. I’m an empowerment coach. I help you breakthrough limiting beliefs.

I don’t think people wake up in the middle of the night and say to themselves ... you know what I need? I need a coach to help me breakthrough limiting beliefs.

If you want help identifying your audience’s big problem reach out at: https://prosperouscoach.com/strategy

.In my last episode I listed off 10 Ways To Be More Strategic In Your Coaching Business as an overview to my next 10 episodes. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/64.

In this episode I’m focusing on the FIRST way to be strategic in your coaching business. In other words, strategizing this step is what you do before you do anything else — website, offers, social media marketing.

What is this #1 way to be more strategic? Choose a viable coaching niche, of course.

This episode and the other 9 to follow are all part of my Coaching Business Checkup series. I will have a free downloadable Coaching Business Checkup for you at the end of this series, so stay tuned!

One Decision That Rules Them All

MBAs and business experts agree that if you niche your business in a strategic way from the get go you’ll dramatically increase your ability to succeed and sustain success.

And that’s truer than ever in this information age where there are more entrepreneurs and companies flooding the Internet with marketing messages every day.

You can’t attract clients if you can’t attract attention.

And attracting attention is mostly about standing out in some way. Standing out in your niche – what you do for whom is the easiest way to stand out.

If you want your message to get through to people who could become your clients, then you want to speak to a very specific group of people about what they care about most.

Strange isn’t it?

The more specific and focused your message is on a unique target audience and the big acute problem they face, the easier it is to engage people and build relationships of trust. And then enroll them.

You know, coaching niches are my super power.

I decided to strategically focus on this big problem for coaches 17 years ago because all around me I saw that coaches were utterly confused, frustrated, and in many cases, paralyzed by the niche decision. For many it’s what had them give up for good on their business.

So for coaches the agonizing question — WHAT IS MY NICHE? — is the most acute big problem they have. And it’s related to attracting enough clients who will invest. That’s the other acute problem coaches face. 

And I know that once that niche piece is settled it opens up ease in all the steps that follow – messaging, offers, marketing – it all becomes a more graceful and intuitive process once you know your niche.

It was a smart strategy then for me to focus in on coaches — my target audience — and on the topic that’s most painful for them. I could pull in my background knowledge in marketing and my experience writing coach training curriculum and training new coaches. It’s a good fit.

I wanted to tell you how I came to my niche to illustrate the strategy behind it. It’s not rocket science but it was a thoughtful process. And that’s what strategy is.

If you’re stuck and struggling with your coaching niche, let me help you over this wall.

Let’s have a Strategy Session. It will focus you in and give you direction for everything else you create in your coaching business. It will help you stand out the crowd and build your brand & reputation.

I’ll send you some exercises to start then we’ll spend 90 minutes brainstorming on the call. I’d love to work with you. Sign up for your Strategy Session at prosperouscoach.com/strategy.

In the last episode I talked about high payoff actions you can take in your business. High payoff actions are the ones that get you the results you want.

Those actions are always strategic – based on a strategy that you’ve thought through.

In this episode, which is the 2nd in the series called Coaching Business Checkup, I’m going to talk about the top ways for new coaches to be strategic in their business.

Show notes for this episode can be found at prosperouscoach.com/63.

No Strategy is a Slow Strategy

I was thinking about this recently … when did I begin to be more strategic in my coaching business?

It began when I targeted a viable audience and figured out what they want so much they’d invest in my help to reach that goal.

That was my first point of strategy. That’s #1 because if you don’t target a viable audience no other strategy after that will work.

Embarrassingly, it was only after my 2nd coaching website and after my 3rd year in business for myself that I began to think more strategically.

And wow how it paid off. And how I wished I’d been more strategic from the beginning, but I didn’t know how.

Before that I just flew by the seat of my pants, which is a strange saying but we all know what it means.

Looking back I have to laugh at myself a bit, thinking that I could have a successful coaching business without strategy. But I’ve always been someone to jumps in headfirst. Now when I jump in head first, I’m actually using my head by being strategic. But it’s not fair to compare what I know now to what I knew then.

I was blessed in so many ways — still am — by serendipity.

So many angels and surprises came my way in the form of opportunities and wonderful human beings that gave me a helping hand.

I would never have leaped to the idea of helping coaches, first with their coaching niches, had I not been tapped to be a trainer in a coach training company.

And after a year, I was asked to rewrite the curriculum of that organization called Coach Training Alliance. They’ve been using that curriculum for 2 decades. It’s a wonderful coach training school.

Because the owner gave me an opportunity, I learned that I was good at taking complex concepts and tasks and breaking them into step-by-step processes.

My teach archetype was born then. And coaches started hiring me.

Having no strategy is a kind of a strategy. If you have time to burn or if going about things totally organically is a value of yours, no strategy can work in the long run.

Smart Strategy Means Faster Results In Your Coaching Business

But when it comes to attracting enough clients who pay well, stay longer and refer more ideal clients, having a strategy now, when it’s early days in your coaching business, is the way to get there faster.

For most of us, getting there faster is critical. Most of my clients need to earn and earn well. Their coaching business is in lieu of getting another J.O.B.

So strategy is the way to go.

If you’ve not learned to be strategic yet, that’s okay. And today is the day to start.

10 Critical Strategies For New-ish Coaches 

Learn the 10 critical strategies for new coaches here.

This episode is the first of a new series called Coaching Business Checkup which is about the top reasons why coaches struggle to earn well and how to shift it.

At the end of this series I’ll give you access to a free downloadable checklist so you can give your business a checkup from time to time.

I’m starting off with something that covers a lot of ground. Strategy.

Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/62.

Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels and going nowhere despite staying busy in your coaching business? 

That doesn’t feel good. You’re left scratching your head wondering what you’re doing wrong.

Well, first let me say I get it. I’ve been there. And you’re in good company if you feel this way.

Here’s the big question … are you doing the right things every day? I’m talking about efforts that will pay you back with clients and income?

There is so much out there to distract you. The bright shiny object syndrome is alive and well in the coaching community!

You see what another coach is doing and that sends you into a flurry of activity to implement something that may not work for you. It may not work for your target audience or fit with what you’ve already created. 

All the puzzle pieces on the big board of business success don’t necessarily fit together.

You get bombarded with marketing for programs that promise 6 and 7 figures if you just try this simple tactic. It’s so tempting to leap for it thinking …

“Maybe this will give me traction.”

Yeah, maybe.

Or maybe it will be just another money and time taker with little results to show.

I’m embarrassed when I look back at how much money I spent on masterminds and online training programs that didn’t ultimately help me mainly because I didn’t have the foundation I needed to plug those tactics into for good results.

And most of those programs don’t have individualized support. Which is what we all need.

I have inside knowledge about what most coaches are spending their time on day to day. It looks something like this …

• Researching and brushing up on coaching skills. 
• Looking at other coach’s websites.
• Downloading every freebie that crosses their attention.
• Writing blog posts and social posts without any real strategy.

Will those tasks pay off even in the long run?

I remember something I learned a long time ago that I take for granted because it’s so ingrained in my habits now. I want you to know about this so you can take the right actions and get results ...

Learn more about focusing on the right things as a coach.

This episode is an add on to the Money Mastery series because, while I’ve been getting a lot of praise for these episodes, I hear and can feel the fear out there holding you back from putting these things into action. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/61.

A listener, Jil, said: 

“I would have never considered odd number pricing. Great tips! You continue to challenge my mind’s instinct to want to charge lowers prices than I should. It does freak me out though.”

And that’s why I’m doing this episode today because Jil isn’t the only one feeling freaked out about pricing enough to earn well.

Find show notes for today’s episode at prosperouscoach.com/61

You took a huge leap not long ago … deciding to invest significant money and time into learning how to coach.

Your dream of having your own coaching business doing something you love has driven you forward so far.

But now, it’s time to prove to yourself that you can make a real business out of this. You can earn well, replace the income of the job you so want to leave.

Get Out of the Low Zone

You’re reading a lot, listening to this podcast. Doing a lot of brave things behind the scenes.

And when potential clients present themselves to you, you do enroll them … at some low price you’ve pulled out of nowhere.

No matter how you justify it, some part of you knows just then that you’ve let yourself down a bit. You know that the real reason for charging those low fees is that you don’t yet believe in your value as a coach.

Oh I’ve been there! It’s an icky feeling. 

And that icky feeling can negatively affect your relationship with your client. In fact, there’s some part of you feeling resentful when you work with that person even though it’s buried in shadow.

But it feels so much safer to stay in the LOW ZONE.

You’ve convinced yourself (at a high cost) that it’s best to own your newness to this role of coach and business owner instead of owning all that brought you to this moment.

And there is so much life and work experience, wisdom, training that has brought you to this moment.

Own Your Value Now

You know when other types of new companies open their doors they too invest heavily in their start up with faith in their dream. But they didn't start by pricing themselves so low that they couldn't recoup their start up costs rapidly. They know they can’t because they must recoup the startup costs rapidly.

I guarantee you that there are coaches out there starting with pricing in the HIGH ZONE of pricing. 

They take ownership of all they brought to the table and believe in themselves. That energy flows out to their potential clients so that YES is a foregone conclusion.

And within a few months those coaches have paid themselves back for the start up costs of their business. They are now moving into the PROFIT ZONE.

It’s time to value your background experience, your passion and sweat equity, the significant investment of time and money you’ve put into this and … 

Pay Yourself Back

Do you want to take 5 years to do that? Of course not.

Think about it. Do the math. At the prices you’re charging how long would it take you to pay yourself back?

So far in the Money Mastery series I’ve walked you through the mindsets and practical actions you can take right now to earn well as a coach. It’s worth listening to them all consecutively.

Find more about how to earn more as a coach right now!

This episode is part of my Money Mastery series. It’s the follow on episode to How to Develop Your Signature Coaching Program.

The full transcript for this episode are at prosperouscoach.com/60

Common Pricing Strategies and What Works Best for Coaching

I can think of 3 common pricing strategies for pricing:

1.     Cost plus pricing – where you calculate your costs then mark up the program so it pays you well.

2.     Competitive pricing – where you set your price based on your competition.

3.     Value based pricing – where you set your price based on the value of your offer to the client.

I do encourage you to the do the math of what it will cost you to deliver your program. Most coaches miss this piece. And it’s quite eye opening to realize the cost of the time you spend getting a single client in addition to specific costs of marketing and inclusions in the program.

That said, to ultimately determine the cost of your program I prefer VALUE based pricing.

Here’s the reality, if you narrow to serve a viable audience and create a unique program based on market research, then your program probably doesn’t exist out there so competitive pricing or so called “market value” isn’t a useful guideline.

Also, few if any of your prospects are ever going to do cost comparisons, especially if you don’t sell coaching but rather offer a unique program.

Purchasing a program such as I suggest you create is an emotional decision.

They will hear or see your message. Their trust in you builds because you’ve struck a resonant chord with all that you’re doing.

Then, they go to your website, which is hopefully already designed as a client winning coaching website not an online brochure. On that website are beautifully streamlined words and conversion processes that gently encourage visitors to have a Discovery Session with you.

All of this is thoughtfully coordinated and strategized but in a non-salesy way to build trust with potential clients rather than trying to convince them about the value of coaching.

They hire you because they like you and trust you. You’ve been in front of them with valuable content and your website reinforces that. Then, in the Discovery Session you lovingly assess if they are a good fit for your program and enroll them.

You don’t want to sell people – to have to convince them to hire you. It’s unsavory. It makes you feel skeevy.

But if you have a signature program that you have thoughtfully crafted to fit their circumstances, their pain and desires then no hard sell is necessary. You do need to ask them to enroll though. ; )

Read more about pricing your Signature Program here.

This episode is part of my Money Mastery series. The series has been getting great response from listeners.  See the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/59.

About the last episode —planning for profit in your coaching business — Roger said he had several takeaways.

·      Having a real understanding of the stages of business.

·      The idea to set an expense budget.

·      “The big one is that I realize I was relying on my part time paid employment to support my coaching business as more of a hobby. So I have a shift now into thinking of it as more of a business and your great tip of taking a salary from my coaching business to pay bills will be fantastic.”

Thanks for sharing that, Roger!

Today’s episode is about a better way to package a coaching program and earn more than by the session or group of sessions. You can read the show notes at prosperouscoach.com/59.

First, let’s talk about schools of thought. If you’re still in coach training some trainers may insist that coaching should not be programmed. In other words, you shouldn’t create an offer other than coaching sessions because it means that you take away the coach’s agenda.

If you’ve been listening to me for a while you know I believe that you can both serve a client’s agenda AND offer a specific program for a specific audience that solves their biggest problem and gets them where they want to go.

After 22 years of experience in my own coaching business and helping hundreds of coaches reach financial success in their businesses in my private VIP program, I know that selling coaching by the session only may keep you at poverty income levels.

So what is a better way that helps you earn well as a coach? I’ve been leading to this in the previous episodes so I hope you’ll listen to those too.

Create a Customized VIP Program

This is what I help all my clients create. It helps the coach feel confident they have something of value to offer. They learn to articulate what they do in meaningful terms and without the agony of trying to convince people to buy coaching.

Of course, like all successful aspects of a coaching business, creating this program has critical steps that go before. 

1.     It begins by targeting a viable audience – one that’s full of seekers – people who do invest in their professional and personal growth.

2.     Next you uncover their biggest known problems and the ultimate outcome they want to achieve. That becomes your coaching niche.

3.     Then, you put together a signature program tailor made to that audience. Your program has a clear set of milestones that you’ll help your clients achieve on the way to that ultimate desired outcome. 

4.     Then, you learn how to articulate that to prospects in a way that’s benefit rich, supplying them with assurance of both tangible or concrete and intangible or emotional things they’d like to achieve with your help. That there is a structure in your program helps them to trust you and feel inspired to invest.

5.     Lastly, you need a strategy to attract clients, build trust and rapport, then gently send them through a conversion process, sometimes called a funnel, so they are motivated to have a Discovery Session with you, where you’ll enroll them.

Getting all of this done isn’t easy by yourself. It helps to have a guide like me help you with all the steps no matter how big or small.

This episode is part of my Money Mastery series. To see the show notes for this episode go to https://prosperouscoach.com/58

I’m about to suggest a new mindset and practice that will help you take a big leap in the amount of money you earn from your coaching business — even if you’re a brand new coach.

It’s all about taking yourself seriously as a business owner and graduating from that hobby-like coaching business to what’s called a going concern – a sustainable business that reliably provides for you and your family.

There are two parts to this episode. In the first I’ll explain the 3 phases of coaching business development. You’ll see why soon. 

The second part is about planning. Are you wincing at that? Planning to earn could actually mean that you do earn and earn well.

I’m purposefully keeping this part very basic so if you’ve been a CFO in a corporation or a CPA or this is your 2nd entrepreneurial experience, you may not need this episode.

But if you’re a new coach longing to earn well in your first business then what I’m sharing may shift something inside you that needs shifting.

So first …

3 Phases of Coaching Business Development

The Startup Phase

This is what I help new coaches to do right from the get go. In the phase you create your business foundation:

·       Decide on the big problem you solve for a viable audience 

·      Develop your niche, brand, messaging, website and signature program

·      Learn how to effectively enroll higher paying clients 

·      Choose a set of marketing strategies to attract your audience

·      Fully take on the role of business owner

·      Plan all aspects of your business including earnings

·      Begin to transition into full time coaching

I’m taking a stab at a metaphor to hopefully will help you understand the importance of each of these phases. let’s pretend your desire to have a coaching business is an apple tree seed. For good measure, you put several of these vision seeds into healthy soil, give them water, warmth and light. Soon, little sprouts come up.

You leave the strongest seedlings to grow and sacrifice the rest. That’s when you nail down your niche and audience. The goal is to have one little tree to focus you love and attention.

The Establish Phase

This is where your business begins to feel real. You will:

·      Consistently put out good content targeted to your audience

·      Develop your reputation

·      Build your leads list and followers on social media

·      Master enrolling clients

·      Earn enough to quit your job

·      Grow your website SEO

·      Find spheres of influence or colleagues who can help your star rise

·      Establish the ideal rhythm and flow of your business

·      Fine tune your business to maximize profits and work smarter

Back to the metaphor … your little tree has set down strong roots and delivers its first harvest.

Read about the Maintain or Scale phase here.

This episode is the 5th in the series called Money Mastery.  Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/57.

The last episode called Are You Turning Away Coaching Clients with Your Pricing explained a more strategic approach to pricing than charging by the session or a package of sessions. I highly recommend that you listen to that.

In this episode, I’ll focus in on the mindset and simple mechanics of how to give yourself a raise, no matter what approach you’re using to charge right now.

Shift Your Money Mindset

If you’re a new coach chances are you’re not thrilled with your income yet. And there may be conflicting ideas in your head about taking money for coaching.

First there’s the idea “Well, I’m a new coach so I shouldn’t charge much.”

But totally at odds with that is the desire “I want to be financially successful at this.”

And then, there’s this other idea that can come with the helping professions “Money isn’t that important to me.”

It’s like mental whiplash.

So first … compassion. I feel ya, because as a new coach I was thinking those same things. One of the coaches in my Facebook group said it so clearly:

“As someone new to the field you desire to earn a good wage but setting fees is like the taboo topic. It is uncomfortable. You feel your skill set and knowledge is worth it but fear your lack of experience being newly in the field doesn’t warrant it.”

Exactly. Thank you for that Jenny.

Most new coaches charge fees that will keep them earning below the poverty level. The strange thing is that if you applied for a job you’d never say ‘yes’ to the rates you’re paying yourself!

You deserve to earn more. Period. And deciding to own your worth is all you need to do. 

Rather than thinking that you should charge as a newbie, own your life and work experience. Charge to sustain yourself.

Be a good boss and pay yourself well. Everyone wins. You, your family, your clients – everyone!

Let’s take a more pragmatic and dispassionate look at this.

Do the Math

Think from the get go like a business owner and do the math.

What I mean by doing the math is to actually figure out what you want to earn and then play with the number of clients and fees per client you’ll need to earn that much.

Now to demonstrate this I’m going to keep things simple. In the last episode I suggested there’s a much better way to price than by the session or a package of sessions.  And I stand by that. But to make doing the math easier to understand I’m going to talk about pricing by the single session.

Let’s say you want to earn $100,000 annually and you’re charging $100 per one-hour session. 

To earn $100K, you’ll need to have 1000 paid client hours each year.

Read the rest of how to do the math here.

This episode is the 4th in my Money Mastery series. I’ll have the link to the whole series so far on the show notes, which you can find at prosperouscoach.com/56. 

In this episode you’ll learn a powerful shift in the approach to your coaching business that will dramatically boost your earning power. 

Are You Charging Fees for Coaching Sessions?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever priced your coaching by the session or by the hour. 

You’re not alone in that. It’s the typical pricing strategy for new coaches. I raised my hand too.

I used to charge by the month for a certain amount of sessions. Now, that’s slightly more strategic than charging by the hour, but as pricing strategies go, it’s on the low side of effective.

Today, the only time that I charge by the session is for my Strategy Session. You’ve heard me mention this from time to time. It’s a one-off 90-minute session where you can get my expertise to help you choose a smart target audience and coaching niche.

Those are small but crucial steps for your success. Once you have your audience and niche figured out it’s like being let out of mental prison after a long stay. Sunshine. Fresh air. Freedom.

Consider giving yourself a special Christmas or end of the year present that will be a turning point for you in your coaching business. Grab a Strategy Session with me. There are two weeks left this year to invest in a Strategy Session before the price goes up in 2020.

Jil Hunsberger wrote this beautiful testimonial for her session:

I am so thankful I invested in a Strategy Session with Rhonda. I was at a standstill trying to define a viable target market and had spent way too much time and money trying to figure it out on my own with nothing to show for it. In one amazing session with Rhonda, we were able to define a unique target market that I am truly excited about. Rhonda is very good at what she does and I am excited to continue working with her to grow my business in the coming months!

Thank you, Jil. We had a lot of fun in that session!

So why is my Strategy Session the only time I charge by the session now? 

Because when I used to ask for fees for a certain amount of coaching sessions each month it kept me from earning well as a coach. 

That by-the-session pricing approach is what I call The Practitioner Approach. 

If you think of yourself as a practitioner of coaching then you are selling coaching and your only strategy to earn is to try to convince people to buy coaching from you. 

Sound familiar?

That Practitioner Approach is the same thing that therapists do, that body workers do.

There’s a HUGE limitation to selling your services by the session or even a package of sessions.

Because you are putting a price to your time, every prospect and client is mentally calculating the value of each session against the cost.

They keep asking themselves … do I really need any more of these sessions?

And that’s the problem with selling coaching. More about this in a minute.

Most likely you learned to price your coaching this way from your coach training school. It makes perfect sense when you’re first learning how to coach, you need to fulfill a number of hours of coaching to pass or certify. 

Read about shifting from being a coach practitioner to being a business owner.