Ep 261 — Why You’re Not Getting Coaching Clients (And How Talking About Your Business Changes Everything)
Wondering why you’re not getting clients as a coach? It might be because you’re not talking about your business! In this episode, learn how simple conversations can fill your coaching calendar—without social media or complicated marketing.
In this empowering episode, I reveal the overlooked secret to attracting coaching clients: talking about your coaching business every day. Whether you're at the coffee shop, in the DMs, or chatting with neighbors, every conversation is a marketing opportunity. Discover how to confidently talk about your business without sounding salesy, how to sharpen your message through real conversations, and why this is the fastest, easiest way to get coaching clients—even without an email list or social media. If you feel like the “best kept secret,” it’s time to get visible and grow your boutique-style coaching business one authentic conversation at a time.
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Transcript
If you're wondering why you don't have clients, I want you to consider this. Are you actually talking about your business? Not posting, not planning. I mean really talking about your business in conversations, in the DMs, at dinner, at the coffee shop. Are you talking to people in your world about your business?
Because if you're not, that might be the very reason your calendar is empty. Let's dive in how to talk about your business today. It is super easy and very effective, and I don't mean necessarily to sell coaching in your local market. I'm just talking about, talking about your business. It's the best marketing, and it doesn't even start with a funnel. It starts with a conversation. You can learn so much about marketing and about coaching just by talking about your coaching business, plus every conversation can lead to a sale, so stop hiding.
I speak with coaches every day who have no clients. After a few more questions, I find out they are the best-kept secret.
Do you feel like that? They're the ones who are actually keeping this secret. Is this you? I can give you so many reasons to talk about your business, and they give me so many reasons why they're not talking about their business yet, and nearly all of them feel like real things that need to be done. Or so they think, and here's the truth, you don't need to have a business ready to be ready to talk to anyone.
You get ready by talking about your business. Now, every conversation is like a mini focus group. Can you imagine this? Start talking to people not feeling salesy. Just start telling people what you do and allow it to unfold into a conversation where you start to discover what you should be talking about in your marketing.
It's actually a confidence builder. The more you do it, the more you learn about yourself and how to communicate effectively, the more you actually learn about what resonates with people. It's like a messaging workshop on the go. So here are four things you can discover when you start talking about your business everywhere you go.
To anyone who will listen, please do not pre-qualify who you talk to because this is all about practice, about understanding how you feel when you're talking, about understanding what resonates. Okay? So number one, what people wanna hear. You get to discover that, like you get to try things out.
You'll find out what actually meant something to 'em. In real time, you get feedback. I love it because when you're actually talking to somebody in person, you get to read their body language too. So you get to find out what people actually are interested in hearing from you. This is so major. This will help you then in turn, learn how to be on social media and also learn what you need to do in your marketing copy.
Somebody is gonna stop you when you say the very first thing and say, now wait a minute. What do you mean by that? Or they're gonna say, "Well, that sounds interesting, but I don't think that really sounds like me." They're going to give you an opportunity to explain yourself, and in the beginning, you're gonna take 10 minutes to explain yourself, and then you'll get better, and better, and better.
The evolution will get you to where you can say what you do in one short sentence. which then will be very effective. Alright? Number two, you can learn what words to use, and I'm not talking about coach speak. So many new coaches, they try to sound smart, but simplicity wins every single time. Oftentimes, we forget because we're in the self development space that people don't even know what we're talking about. In fact, people don't even know what life coaches are. Most people have never hired a coach of any kind, so they even need that explained as well. So When you talk to people, don't say, "I know you're looking for transformation." They're like, "No, I'm not. I'm just stuck. Or I feel lost."
I remember so often people said to me over and over, I'm just overwhelmed. Can you guys relate to that? Do you remember what it was like when you just said that, when you didn't have a whole list of emotions that you understood and you just said like, "I'm stuck, I'm overwhelmed."
That's literally as simple as it is. "I just dunno what to do anymore." That might be something somebody would say and when you hear their words, you can start using those words in your marketing. For example, for me, when I talk to people about their coaching business and I say, "Well, tell me what it is you want," and they literally say, and you probably would say this too, "I just need to get clients," right?
I used to try to make my marketing message sound so fancy, but all they want to do is get clients. Right? You're a coach already. And you're ready for clients. I just need to get 'em. So you will learn how to create a powerful message and it will feel more personalized and more powerful to the person who's reading it.
Alright, the third thing I want you to know is you will find out what lights you up about coaching. The more you talk about your work, the more connected you will feel to it. It's like you get in a rhythm of talking about your business. In the beginning, it's gonna be terrible. You're gonna stumble over your words again.
Everything you say is gonna be far too many words in one sentence. You're gonna be telling long stories and really boring people, but you will get good at it. You'll notice the stories that you're telling to people and how it affects 'em.
Like did it move 'em? Did they ask a follow-up question? Were they leaning in? Were they leaning back? Were they looking at their phone? You'll also find out what makes your client tear up. People buy coaching when they are emotionally moved. Whether it's to emotionally moved to like, oh my gosh, I realize the pain really is bigger than I thought.
Or I can see what it is that I'm missing out on. So either way, if you move somebody to tears. You've got 'em, right? You're connecting with them. You're gonna also learn what part of the whole process you're most passionate about. And I can promise you, when you confidently show up and you are passionate about what you're talking about, and you clearly can talk about it in a simple way, you will connect so much faster with people.
The clarity that you get from having this conversation becomes marketing gold and your enthusiasm for it is contagious. People will begin to see like, wow, she's super excited about what she's talking about. Alright, the fourth thing I want you to know is you will learn how to be clear and not complicated.
Like I said, no coach speak. You will learn how to talk and because you talk a lot, it will get you clear. Basically talking forces clarity. If someone is confused, you're gonna learn how to tighten up your message. You're gonna learn how to really light 'em up. You're gonna also know when you're hitting a nerve, this is good and bad, right?
You sometimes wanna hit a nerve to propel 'em into action, and sometimes you might hit a nerve and annoying because you went too far. So you'll naturally start to speak in what I call talking points. I have coined phrases that I use, and you're gonna find out what those are.
What are the things that you say most often and what are the things that people are like, "oh yeah, I get that." I mean, I have a whole list of things that I say regularly in my business. Those kind of things will stop the scroll. Those kind of lines, those kind of statements will get emails to open because they'll be in subject lines.
They will help you fill up your consultation calendar. This only happens when you really understand if you're saying something that connects with your ideal client, it is a confidence builder. I can tell you that for sure. You have an opportunity to really remember how powerful coaching really is. All of us who are coaches, like we love coaching and we get it so much, and you desperately, I'm sure if you're like me, wanna help people understand.
Stand how magical coaching is. That's only gonna happen when you learn how to talk about it and when you see that you've lit up somebody else and like their mind is turning of like, "Wow, okay, I get this." It really inspires you then to take the marketing action beyond that, then to begin to write emails, to be on social media more often, maybe even host a workshop.
So when you say what you do out loud and you remember how valuable it is. All of this talking begins to work. The confidence that you build will show up then in your marketing, in a post, in an email, and you'll begin to make more offers. Here's the bottom line, and I'm gonna recap this for you.
Talking about your business is marketing. It sharpens your marketing message. When you get better at talking about what you do, you will get more clients.
It'll build your belief in yourself and in coaching. It will help you attract clients who already feel connected to you and to what you do because they will understand what you do. And look, I like to tell you that when you're networking, which is talking to people, it is the cheapest, fastest way to grow your business. If you are struggling to get clients, let me tell you what, start having conversations with people around you, and it is so much easier to convert clients than it would ever be to start email marketing at this point in your business. It's the fastest, easiest, most affordable way to get clients talking about your business. So if you're ready to start, here's what I want you to do.
Say this out loud. Tell me if we were together, who you help, what they are struggling with, and how coaching is gonna help 'em. This is what you need to practice. I can tell you that when I first started coaching and I had my I help statement kind of figured out, I walked all over my neighborhood and I was saying it out loud because you have to learn how to sit without stumbling over your own words.
So you perfect your own little "I help" statement by saying it a lot. So practice the message until it becomes second nature, practice it until it sounds so convincing and just so natural. So when you are talking about your coaching, if you don't wanna sound weird, if you don't wanna sound like scripted, here's what you can do.
Now you can do an I help statement and like, here's an example of one. I help women lose weight without going on a diet. Now I don't help women lose weight, but that's a super short, simple, I help statement. I help women lose weight without going on a diet. That would actually potentially to the right person, make him lean in and go, really?
Tell me more. Okay. You could also be more conversational and say, look, I'm having so much fun helping women who struggled with their weight finally lose it without feeling deprived. It's like, oh, okay. You could also tell the story like, I helped somebody this last week who didn't wanna give up her snacks and she's still losing weight.
All of this is conversational. You practice how to say this. One of the things that we forget to do is to talk about our business and talk about our business well. So many of us are in our offices and we're depending on the online space to grow our business. You should be talking to people everywhere you are, and again, particularly in person, there are literally clients in your market, in your town, no matter how small it is that want to pay you for coaching.
So let your energy do the talking. People will say to me when they see me, oh, you're so fired up. You're so excited. I'm like, yeah, I am, right? They can see it. They can feel it. They can sense it. Sometimes you don't even have to explain all of what happens. It just shows up in you because your confidence and the energy that you talk about your business with, it speaks. Okay.
It speaks volume, so you can also be ready for questions and you can practice answering questions, right? If somebody isn't getting it. And somebody says, well, can you tell me more about this? This is an opportunity for again, you to explore deeper what marketing is working. How do I answer a question in an effective way?
You'll even learn how to make offers. For so long, I shared so many details about my offer that you could see like people's expression, their eyes would glaze over, like, "okay, what?" You don't need to share all those details, but you're gonna only learn what details you should share once you start doing it.
So just trust yourself. The only way that you ever grow your business, the only way you ever get good at any of this marketing stuff is by doing it. So just start today. That's my challenge for you today. Start today. Just go to the gym and instead of being in your own world with your earbuds in, start talking to people, make conversations, talk to your neighbor, talk to somebody you know at the grocery store. Wherever you are at the doctor's office, talk to people. Okay? Just say the best thing that you can say today. Practice will provide clarity for you, and clarity will build your confidence, and confidence creates clients.
It really is that simple. When you gain confidence and clarity and create more connection, that connection again will lead to clients. You sharpen your message, you reignite your passion, and you will make it easy for someone to say, "I need what she has to offer. I need to find out what she's up to. I've gotta have a conversation about coaching with her."
So here's the final thing I wanna say. Don't be clever, just be you. Okay? If you find yourself overwhelming people, then take a step back. If you find that they're leaning in and they're saying, "huh, or can you repeat that again?" Then you know that you're either talking too soft, too fast, not clear enough, right?
You'll learn how to market your business through everyday conversations. So talk, smile, have positive energy, let a conversation unfold, because the more you talk about your business, the more it will grow. And this will happen one conversation at a time. Alright, you guys have an amazing day. Go talk to somebody right now about your coaching business.
Send me a DM over on Instagram, @Debbie Shadid. Let me know what's happening for you. Love to connect with you, and just be able to support you. I'll even send you guys a message if you have any questions. All right, have a beautiful day. Bye-bye.