EP 337 - You're Using AI Wrong In Your Coaching Business (+ What To Do Instead)

MarketingCoaching Lifestyle
Written By Debbie Shadid
 

Ready to build your coaching business the right way? Book a free Business Blueprint Call: https://www.debbieshadid.com/schedule

If you’re using AI to build your coaching business, you need to listen this, because in this episode we’re going to show you exactly how it might be hurting your results - and what to do instead.

If you’re new to my channel, my name is Debbie Shadid. I’m a Business Growth and Life Coach and the founder of the Business Building Boutique. For over two decades, I’ve helped women learn how to become coaches, get clients, grow their businesses, and create meaningful income doing work they love.

If you’re relying on AI to pick your niche or write your content, this is the shift you need to make if you want to build a coaching business that actually works.

In this episode, we’ll walk through:

  • Why letting AI choose your niche leads to a business that doesn’t convert

  • How AI-generated content creates a disconnect that clients can feel immediately

  • What happens when your message sounds polished online but doesn’t match who you are on calls

  • Why trust is the most important factor in getting clients—and how AI can quietly erode it

  • The real reason most coaches struggle to get clients, even when they’re “doing everything right”

  • How to identify the niche you should actually be coaching based on your own experience

  • The right way to use AI as a tool without losing your voice, message, or authority

AI is not the problem. The way most coaches are using it is.

When your business sounds like you, aligns with your experience, and connects with real people, everything changes - your message lands, your confidence grows, and clients start to trust you.

Free Canva Workshop — Build Your Coaching Brand: https://www.debbieshadid.com/canva

Debbie's Favorite Recording Setup:

Tools for SEO:

Listen to the Podcast:

Life Coach Business Building School Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/life-coach-business-building-school-with-debbie-shadid/id1502118085

If this video was helpful, share it with a coach who’s using AI to build their business. Subscribe and hit the bell so you don’t miss what’s coming next.

Disclaimer: Some links above may be affiliate links. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

Let’s connect!

#DebbieShadid #LifeCoachBusinessBuildingSchool

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

AI is ruining your coaching business before you ever even start and you don't even know what's happening. You think you're being smart, you think you're using the tools that you should be using, but what's actually happening is you're building a business that sounds nothing like you, serves people that you don't actually care about and will fall apart. The second someone gets on a call with you and stay till the end because that's where I'm gonna share something that is the most shocking thing about AI that is happening, and it is going to be a real eyeopener for you. Let me start by showing you exactly what is happening with AI. I'm Debbie Shadid I've coached thousands of women in the last 25 years, and I'm watching AI just destroy coaching businesses more than any other single thing, not because AI is bad, but because you are not using it correctly. And here's what's happening. You go to Chat GPT and you say, what should I coach people on? and AI spits out something that sounds really good. Be a leadership coach for women And you think, oh, perfect. That sounds so professional. That sounds so marketable. And it might even be close to what you should be coaching on. But here's what it just did. It picked a niche based on what sounds good in the language model that was trained by generic business articles. Yes. You might've put in a few facts about yourself. You might've said what you were interested in, but then you asked Chat GPT to go search and find out what the best niche was for you. So you know who actually picked your niche? Wikipedia. Yeah. Wikipedia is where Chat GPT gets lots of information. So if you're trying to build a successful coaching business, you might be selling something that people don't actually care about. I see this happen consistently. A coach comes to me, they've been working on their business, they have no clients. I ask them, tell me about your niche. They start to tell me, and immediately they're like, well, I talked to Chat GPT, and I'm like, oh no. They're saying, well, Chat GPT told me it was growing, And I'm like, okay, great, but do you even know anything about that? Or they go on and they share so many details about it, and it is so generic. Here's the thing that I want you to hear. Letting AI decide on your niche and write your content, it is the exact same thing as a coach who gets all dressed up. It gets professional photos taken, beautifully edited. They even smooth out wrinkles and lines. they don't even look like themselves. And you know what happens when they get on a call with a client? The client is like, oh my word. They might not say it out loud, but they're shocked at how you look. immediately, trust is eroded. This is exactly the same thing that happens with AI. I had a recent consultation and I got some feedback after the consultation. The person said I could not actually believe when I got on the call. That it was actually Debbie on the call, like the Debbie, who looked like Debbie. I'm like, I don't even understand what is happening. AI is generating photos. You're using AI to edit photos. Stop it. Do you know what that's doing? It is killing your business. Do you know what me showing up as me got for me a paid in full premium client? trust is created. When they know who you are, when you sound like who you are and when they meet you, and there's no disconnection. But if you let AI decide your niche, your content, and your voice, you're creating this filtered, polished, disconnected version of yourself. And when the prospect gets on the consultation with you, guess what? They're gonna feel that disconnection immediately. And here's the problem. that disconnection, it immediately ruins things for you. Honestly, you can't get that back. You can't recover from somebody feeling like they just got tricked by you. Now, while they might not say that, that's what their brain is saying, like, danger, don't trust this person. And it even gets worse than that because if AI picked your niche and it wrote the content, you know what actually happens? You actually can't coach 'em. You cannot deliver what you told them they were going to get in the marketing message. The coaching that comes outta your mouth, it's not actually gonna match what somebody read You're gonna sound like you're reading a script that's somebody else wrote because you are worse yet. You won't align with the actual skillset. AI decided for you what you should be coaching on and when you are supposed to coach, you're improvising for someone else's expertise instead of showcasing the expertise that you actually have. You know what it sounds like to a client. You don't even look like you know what you're doing. You look like you're not qualified. they might even think that they made a mistake by hiring you because the message that they fell in love with, the one that attracted them, isn't you. It was AI and now they're sitting here across from you on Zoom. They're thinking, what is the deal here? Like, I don't know about this. They have this bad feeling. This is how coaching is getting a bad reputation from AI. Here's another thing, Chat GPT will never tell you, Hey, Debbie, what you're talking about it doesn't make sense. It's not gonna call you out It's not gonna challenge you. You need to know how to talk to people. Real human connection. That is what you need. That only comes when you are talking to somebody specifically about your niche. When your offers are not confusing, when the message lands clearly and somebody says, oh, I understand what you're saying, human to human, that is how you wanna speak. When your message sounds like somebody else's, then AI just won. Yep. AI will tell you you're amazing. Six months later, guess what? No clients, and you have no idea what just happened. I believe in the next few months we're gonna see a whole bunch of coaches actually fail before they ever start. Because what they are doing is allowing AI to create everything for 'em. They're like, this is so cool.'cause AI can generate content, And it won't even sound like them. So here's what I tell every single coach that comes to me with AI generated content. First of all, stop. What I know for sure is that when it's AI generated, it's not harsh enough. Now, I know you don't wanna hear about real marketing, but real marketing that reveals problems, that speaks the way somebody is thinking. That is that thought that they are hearing in the middle of the night when they wake up, like, oh my goodness, right? That thought that runs through their head. That's actually what real marketing should do, and AI is not doing that for you. So what problem did you solve in your own life? That you are skilled to do for somebody else, that should be what you should be talking about. What do people already come to you for without you even marketing yourself? that is your niche. That's the thing that you can sell because that is actually what people believe in from you. And what you already know. Now, can AI help you? Absolutely. Once you know who you're coaching, AI is an incredible tool to refine your message, to check for typos, to support your content, to help you flush it out, to build your systems. But AI cannot tell you what you should be doing with your life. Only you can do that. Yes. Only you can do that and your business is your life. The niche that you pick will become your life. It's gonna become the money in your bank or the $0 in your bank. What do you want it to be? Now, here's the most shocking thing that coaches cannot figure out about themselves, and they are coaches. You're asking AI to pick your niche. You are asking AI because you don't even trust yourself to make a good decision. How can you coach somebody else when you are coping out on your own decisions for your own business? Think about that. You're gonna charge somebody else real money to have you help them make better decisions, to get clarity, to trust themselves. and you can't even pick your own niche without asking Chat GPT. You think there's a right answer, but what you're missing out on is what you already know in your gut. That is the only answer. The only answer for you is that niche that lights you up, the niche that you can actually serve people with the problem that you actually want to solve. I have been doing this for over 25 years. I have never once seen a coach build a successful coaching business on something they picked just because it sounded good. every single successful coach I know they are doing something that they have had transformation in. they are speaking from their own life experience. They are doing what they lived, what they got through, and they know how to talk about it. Those coaches are the successful coaches. So have you picked a niche that you really care about? Have you picked a niche that you can coach on? Have you picked a niche that you have lived and lived through and come out the other side because that is actually the niche that you need, and Chat GPT cannot pick that for you. You need to trust yourself on what your intuition, what your gut is telling you, because that is the niche for you. AI is an incredible tool. It is, but it cannot build your business for you. You pick the niche that you're aligned with, the one that you are most passionate about, the one that you can market, and you will have a money making business. Stop outsourcing your gut, your intuition to Chat GPT. Trust yourself. Pick the thing that matters most to you, and then AI can help you build it faster. If I have got your attention, I want you to subscribe because I'm telling you what The next few weeks I'm gonna load you up with all kinds of incredible trainings on how to get your coaching business built. I am passionate about you winning as a coach, and it starts with you deciding what your niche is. It starts with you using AI in a way that works. I hope I ruffled your feathers because I actually want you to make a decision that is best for you because I know that that is how you will have success. if you wanna find out about picking the best niche for you In the comments is a link to the Profitable Niche Blueprint. This is a great place to get you started to ask you some questions that will help you to start thinking about what your niche should be, what the ideal niche is based on your skillset, your life experience, and based on the coaching that people will actually pay to have you help them with. alright, make sure you subscribe. I will see you next week. Tell me in the comments what your key takeaway is. Have a beautiful day. We'll talk to you very soon. Bye-bye.

Debbie Shadid https://www.DebbieShadid.com
Next

EP 336 - YouTube for Coaches: How to Get More Views with Titles, Thumbnails & SEO in 2026 (Part 5 of 5)