EP 276 — Tech Tools for Coaches Over 50: How to Build a Coaching Business, Without Overwhelm
What tech tools do you actually need to build a coaching business over 50? In this episode, you’ll learn the exact tech tools for coaches over 50 that will keep your coaching business simple, professional, and profitable - without the overwhelm.
If you’ve ever thought: “I’m not good at tech,” or felt stuck trying to figure out complicated systems, this episode is for you. I’ll show you a simple tech setup for coaching business growth that works for beginners and experienced coaches alike. You don’t need a fancy funnel, a membership platform, or a complicated CRM. What you need is a clear plan, the right tools, and confidence in your ability to use them.
This is an exclusive episode from our Private Podcast for Female Coaches over 50! Get access to the full Private Podcast here: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/private
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The 6 essential tech tools for women coaches over 50 (and why they’re all you need to grow to $100K)
How to set up a simple tech stack for coaching business success without wasting money
The biggest tech myths keeping women coaches over 50 from building profitable businesses
Why you don’t need a complex client management system, funnels, or expensive software when you’re just getting started
How to use Zoom, Calendly, Stripe, Canva, domain-based email, and Flodesk like a pro
A bonus tool that makes editing your videos and trainings effortless
Why a boutique style coaching business lets you focus on clients, not complicated tech
With just a handful of tools and the right coaching business strategy for women over 50, you can look professional, sign clients, and grow a coaching business you love.Let’s simplify your systems so you can spend less time stressing and more time coaching!
Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly episodes on coaching business strategy for women over 50, tech tools for coaches, and simple business growth strategies that really work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz6RS8kQGMLJqJrK9uKdjtg
#DebbieShadid #LifeCoachBusinessBuildingSchool #CoachesOver50 #WomenCoachesOver50
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and forward this to a coach who is building and growing their coaching business. CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A REVIEW
Don’t forget to connect with me on social media: Instagram | Facebook
Transcript
If you have ever said, I am not good at tech. I've tried all kinds of things and nothing works, and it is far too hard, and I've spent hours trying to learn it. This episode is for you My name is Debbie Shadid.
I've helped over 10,000 coaches not only build, but grow successful, profitable coaching businesses. This is part one of our four-part series where I'm helping female coaches really understand how to build a profitable coaching business. I'm gonna actually tackle. Four of the most common questions that coaches over 50 have, and in this episode, it's all about tech.
So let me just tell you, you're not bad at tech. You have been misinformed. If you're watching this YouTube or if you're listening to the podcast. My friend, you are good at tech. You already know enough with technology to be able to make your business work. Now, you're a smart woman who has conquered many things in your life.
You've had many challenges, And tech is not the roadblock that is gonna keep you from actually doing what you deeply desire, and that is being a coach who makes a difference in this world. So let's be clear.
You're not bad at tech. You've just been given misleading information about what it takes to. To run a business, the coaching industry and the online business world, they have a habit of selling big, shiny solutions to people who are just getting started. And you've likely been told you need a full client management system.
And maybe you've actually already subscribed to some of those things and you're making payments on things that you can't even use. You don't need a complicated funnel. You don't need a membership platform, and you don't even need a series of automated emails in a funnel before you ever get your first client.
None of it is necessary. You don't need those bells and whistles to make an amazing business. You are just getting started. let's keep things simple and clean and professional let's get some technology to match where you are in your business, and then you'll be just fine.
Okay? You're in the building phase. I'm gonna talk about the six essential tools or pieces of software that you need. And it's all you need to grow a beautiful coaching business. And I work with coaches. All the way up to a hundred thousand dollars using this exact same technology,
this episode is going to enlighten you. Inspire you. The first piece of tech that you need, you already know how to use, and it's Zoom. You do need the paid version of Zoom because I wanna make sure that you can record your sessions. any trainings, your marketing, those kind of things.
And also you might share a session with a client. Why do you need the paid version? Because the free version stops at 40 minutes. So a timer comes on, which is pretty annoying, and the client is actually watching the timer as well as you, so I want you to get the paid version. I also just wanna make a note and say, as a coach, there are some particular settings that you need to be careful about in your Zoom account, and so go in there and look through all of the different tabs and make sure that you have your Zoom set up properly.
I'll tell you, after all these years, I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago on a training and I actually had. A zoom setting set to where somebody accidentally got on our Zoom And so I wanna make sure that you go in and look through every tab and make sure that you've got your zoom secured.
I know you've already used it, through your career, probably on Zoom sessions with your family members. and it works amazing.
Zoom is basically your office. What a phenomenal tool we have, and it's like 15 bucks a month. Alright, the second tool I wanna tell you about is Calendly, and I want you to use the free plan at first. If you decide you're gonna use a paid version, it's about $15.
Calendly is an online scheduler. I know there are many different types of schedulers. Keep in mind that as a woman over 50, I'm keeping the simplest. Technology for you to use, and so sure there might be something else if you're already using it. Do not change if you don't have a calendar. This is what I recommend.
I wanna tell you about a client that I worked with just a couple of days ago on her Calendly account. It's kind of frustrating because a lot of people come to me and probably just like you, they're overwhelmed with technology. They've tried to learn how to use it, and they have. Questions that are still unanswered.
They've watched the trainings And this particular client had watched all the trainings on Calendly and she was still stuck. So I got on a Zoom call with her and I actually set up her Calendly for her. So I went through, and it's beautiful you guys, because you can have your Google Calendar, whatever calendar you use with your personal.
appointments on it linked with your calendar, and that way then you don't have to manage two calendars. Your clients or potential clients can schedule, and as long as you have your calendar synced, it will block off the time appropriately. Also, you can take payments through your Calendly.
One thing I wanna mention is that while you're building your business and you don't have clients, just keep the free version until you need that paid version. And this is exactly what happened with this particular client. She had sold her coaching, she was getting payment and she said, please, I gotta get this set up.
I've watched all the trainings and I can't figure it out. as I mentioned, I got on a call with her. We linked up her Stripe account, which I'll talk about as the third tool that you need in just a moment. We linked up her stripe. We got, something set up so they could make payments or pay in full option, and also they would be able to schedule their own coaching sessions.
Based on her calendar that she set up for clients. So pretty cool deal. It is not fancy. It's easy to use, and again, very affordable, and yet you'll look like a total pro. The third tool I recommend is Stripe. As I just mentioned, we integrated Stripe into Calendly. Now, Stripe can be used on its own.
You can also do invoicing through Stripe. It is a way to take payments. I highly recommend that from this moment on, you do not take another payment on Cash App, on Zelle, on your personal PayPal. You are a professional businesswoman over 50 who wants to look like a professional, who wants to be taken seriously.
This is a big theme for my clients. They don't wanna do things wrong and they want to be taken seriously. When you're collecting money on some of those other platforms, it doesn't really look like you're in business. So Stripe is worldwide. I've taken payments from everywhere, from Nigeria to Jamaica to Canada.
You name it, it actually converts the payments, so you're getting the right dollar amount for the client and for you. It's safe and it's secure. It is easy to use and it's trusted. I wanna let you know there is a fee involved in it, but. Let me tell you my friend, there's a fee involved in taking money anywhere, and some of you might be using Cash App or Zelle or PayPal Personal to avoid the fees, but if you are in business.
There is fees to running your business. There's gonna be expenses, and this is a write off on your taxes, so it's gonna be 2.9% at the time of recording. That's what the fee is. And, 30 cents a transaction, that's just a cost of doing business. And where else could you do business and get a payment from, the Netherlands?
And have it converted and in your bank account in two days, no other way. So this is just an expense that you're gonna have. You can use your PayPal business account if you get that set up.
the fourth tool I wanna tell you about is Canva. Many of you guys have been playing on that. I do recommend the paid version.
There is a learning curve, but this is just like everything else. I just wanna mention, you are in the project stage of your business and you are building a business for a lifetime.
So the things that you are learning. This is setting the foundation for your business for always, so you know that it takes time. Babies don't just walk when they're born, right? It takes time to learn how to do these things, but once you learn how to do it, my friend, you are home free. So use Canva Pro to look like a total professional in your business.
The fifth tool I wanna tell you about is domain based email. This is debbie@debbieshadid.com. That is a domain based email. My domain, my business name is debbie shadow.com. Why can't you use your regular Gmail account or your a OL or your Hotmail or whatever you're using, because they will not get delivered for business.
Chances are it will end up in spam. Using a professional domain makes you look like a professional. When I receive an email from somebody who is wanting to do my social media for me, let's say, or edit my YouTube videos, and it's from a Gmail account, I delete it instantly. I only work with, I only wanna work with people who have professional businesses, and that means you have a domain based email.
So again, domain based email. I recommend that you use Google Workspace. This is. About $80 a year, you'll be able to get an email through Google Workspace, not Gmail, but Google Workspace, and you'll be able to get that set up and you'll use your same Gmail platform. But having that domain will actually get your emails more likely in people's inbox.
Again, giving you more credibility, helping you look like a professional and be taken more seriously. Alright, the sixth tool I wanna tell you about is Flodesk. Part of having a business is doing email marketing. Now, some of you guys, you're going, I don't wanna do email marketing. Let me tell you, you can't have a business if you don't send emails.
one of the things that you have to learn is sort of get over is how do I write the emails? I wanna introduce you to Flodesk because I believe it's a super simple tool to use. I can teach it to our coaches in about 20 minutes. Now, all you need is the basic Flodesk
You do not need the checkout page. You don't need any upgrades. One of the beautiful things about Flodesk is it's very simple and it looks great on your mobile phone.
This is so important. Having an email that reads well on your mobile phone is really more important than anything when it comes to email. So make sure that you use a simple. Template. In fact, I actually teach our clients how to start with a template from scratch. So you don't need the checkout page, you don't need any other upgrade.
You can use Flodesk to deliver your freebie, to grow your list. To get opt-ins for your workshop, like signups for your workshop to deliver back the Zoom link or the reminders. And look, I want you to do email marketing. Even if you have 10 people on your email list, whoever it is that gives you your email they are saying, I'm interested and I want you to communicate with them now as a reminder.
If you're already using MailChimp or Mailer light or whatever it is, keep using it. Don't ever start on something new unless you haven't already started. But flow desks is very similar to Canva. It's very much like Calendly. So I try to get tools that are all very similar to use. Alright, as a bonus, I wanna tell you about one other tool.
That at some point in the near future you'll be ready to use as well. And it's called Descript . Descript is an editing software that is just unbelievable. You can put a video in and I will put this YouTube video into Descript and it will come up with a transcription. And everywhere that I have said, that word will be highlighted.
And Descript will tell me you should delete those word, the ums, and whatever words you repeat and all you do, just like editing a Word document or a Google document, any kind of word template, you highlight the word and you hit delete and it cuts that word out and it cuts the video out as well, which is unbelievable.
So you can restart, like on this video, if I said something, it didn't sound very good, I can restart the sentence over. And in Descript, you can just highlight that sentence and hit delete and keep the second sentence in there so it edits the video simply by you highlighting and deleting words. So, pretty phenomenal tool.
But again, let me just say, you don't actually need to pay for this until you're ready. So once you start doing social media, once you start doing workshops and video trainings and those kind of things, then this will become a tool that you might wanna use. All of the tools that I'm talking about. Or like a hundred dollars a month.
If you are paying more than that, you don't actually need those things. So let's talk about what you don't actually need nothing against any of these things, but remember, you are at the first stage of your business, and until you have a business with multiple clients and even up to a hundred thousand dollars, you don't need the things I'm gonna tell you about.
All right. Number one, you don't need a course platform. Yeah, I know you wanna make a course, but I can tell you you can store your content for free securely in Google. I can teach you how to do that. Just go to Chat GPT, or go to Google or watch a YouTube video on how to use Google. Drive to store your course, you'll see you don't need a course platform and it's free.
Okay? Google is free. Then you don't need a membership site until you have, you know, 50 clients in a membership. You don't need a membership site. Even if you had a course, you don't need anything for that either. You don't need a complex client management system. I don't even need a client management system.
I have used some of those client management systems and I love it, like Dubsado I love it. It's a beautiful system that creates contracts with people's names in it and all that kind of stuff, but you only need something like that once you're at that level of business. Paperbell is another example of kind of an all in one platform for coaches.
I've used it, but you don't need it yet. Okay. Everything I've already told you about. With the exception of your website, which I'll talk about in just a moment, is all that you need.
You don't need anything that will create a big funnel for you that might be like Kajabi or Kartra, or go high level. When you're beginning your business, those things are not necessary. You're not gonna have trip wires, you're not gonna have any of those things. In fact. Any workflow, which is just a series of emails that you want to create or a freebie you want to deliver, you can do it in Flodesk
Again, I am trying to make this as simple as possible because I know. I have experience with women over 50 who are overwhelmed by technology, so I have made it super simple. You can track all of your expenses, anything you need to on an Excel Spreadsheet or on a Google Spreadsheet You can even send emails manually, which I do.
You can customize those emails just as you grow. I'm really about helping women build a boutique style coaching business. This is a really high level, beautiful business, so I'm not trying to cut corners here. I'm trying to help you stay out of overwhelm so you don't stall out. The goal is to get your business built with clients, and what I wanna tell you is that when you need more technology.
You'll be in a financial position to hire some help, and then that person can help you with the technology. So let me reframe how you're feeling about technology. You are not left behind and you're not gonna be left behind and you're not even behind. As I mentioned in the beginning, if you know how to use an iPhone, you literally know how to use a computer.
Maybe you've used a computer at your office, and so it had a particular program on it, so you're not familiar how to use Google Documents. It's no big deal. You're a smart woman who has made it to this point in your life navigating all Kinds of things.
You can learn how to do this. These are just the projects, short term projects. Of learning how to use these things and being set up for life a lifetime of earning once you learn these things, so you've not failed at technology, you don't have to struggle forever. When you have simple systems, it will work.
You have been sold on the idea That these systems and these pieces of software will get you business. They don't. The only thing that gets you business is you telling people about your business Any software that you have is not gonna be the reason why you have a client,
Even the ones that I told you today, you don't even need any of that to have clients. You can just go talk to somebody at a coffee shop without any clients, without Zoom, any software. They can pay you cash or write you a check, and you can have a coaching client. So let's try to keep things simple. I want your business to be easy.
In this season of building your business, this is just like setting up your foundation. I've talked about this boutique style coaching business. Imagine that you lay the cornerstone of your business. This is it. Learning how to use this tech, getting your website set up, doing those things. It doesn't have to be complicated, so you can learn how to do this, what you build will be a lifetime of business.
Let's talk briefly about your website. You do need a website. I recommend Squarespace or Wix. The most challenging part about your website, I'll just tell you, is gonna be writing the words on it. We actually help our clients do that word for word,
I just wanna encourage you to just get your website done. It is part of what I call your business curb appeal. Now it should be,worded in the right way and it should have the right message on it because what you say from a marketing point of view is very important. If you're out there already marketing your business, you're already on social media, you're putting stuff out there and you're not getting any results, I can just almost guarantee you it's what you're saying.
It's because you also haven't learned this. Skill of marketing yet. if you need to build your website and recommend Squarespace or Wix, all of the tools, including your website that I'm talking about, about a hundred dollars a month to have your entire business set up.
I have listed those six tools, and I'll run through 'em really quickly again with you. Okay. First is paid Zoom, Calendly, the free plan. You can start with Stripe for payments, Canva. So you can do all the beautiful graphics for social media, domain based email and Flodesk for email marketing. Then I also talked to you about Descript script, and of course you need your website, Squarespace or Wix, all of that together.
We're talking about like a hundred dollars. Now, when you add on Descript , you might be up to 125 a month, but wow, what an incredible, powerful set of tools to grow your business and earn a hundred thousand dollars a year with just that technology. Okay, so what not to do. Don't go getting any other software.
Stop watching all the trainings about the software. It is just getting you confused. Just look at that list. So Stop stressing over technology. Decide on one thing that you're gonna learn one thing only. And then give yourself some credit. You already know how to use Zoom.
You already know that you could run your coaching business with your regular email if you needed to. You, are good at your phone. You've already typed things in your notes app, so you really have some basic things already under your belt that you're not giving yourself credit for. take one small step for your business.
This tech stack is simpler than you think. You don't need anymore. You just needed the next right step, and I've just given it to you. Do not quit. As a reminder, the women who make it in this business are the ones that do not quit. That woman, my friend, is you.
It is my desire to make sure that you know how to grow your coaching business because you have some incredible work to do, and once you get to the other side of learning these things, the life that you have with the freedom, both financial and time is so amazing.
Alright, my dear one, I appreciate you. Have a beautiful week. Bye-bye.
