EP 340 - What Happens When You Just Tell People What You Do As A Coach
What if growing your coaching business had nothing to do with the algorithm, paid ads, or a perfect funnel? What if it has everything to do with something you already know how to do?
In this episode, I'm sharing one of the simplest, most underused strategies for growing your coaching business: talking to people. Not selling. Not pitching. Just having real conversations and letting your business grow naturally from there.
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 build boutique style coaching businesses they love, without burning out or becoming someone they don't recognize.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why talking to people (not selling to them) is the fastest path to consistent clients
How one coach landed a corporate speaking gig just by telling her neighbor she was a health coach
The simple mindset shift that makes conversations feel easy and natural
Two ways to start a conversation about your business without sounding scripted
How to find people to talk to, even if you think you don't know anyone
Why 5 conversations a week for 52 weeks makes your success virtually inevitable
This is the strategy I use, our clients use, and it works every single time if you actually do it.
Ready to stop being the best kept secret in your niche?
The challenge is simple: talk to 5 people this week about what you do. Not sell. Not pitch. Just tell them. Your neighbour, someone at the grocery store, an old friend you haven't caught up with yet. It counts.
Grab the free guide I mentioned. It has all the conversation examples and more: https://debbie-shadid-shop.fourthwall.com/en-cad/products/youtube-guide
What's the conversation you've been avoiding? Drop it in the comments. I read every single one.
And if you want hands on support, let's talk: https://debbieshadid.com/apply
Podcast: Life Coach Business Building School https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/life-coach-business-building-school-with-debbie-shadid/id1502118085
Subscribe for weekly episodes on building your coaching business, finding clients, and creating a business you love: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz6RS8kQGMLJqJrK9uKdjtg
Let’s connect!
Website: https://www.debbieshadid.com
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Transcript
What if growing your coaching business was actually easier than you thought? What if it has nothing to do with the social media algorithm? Paid ads are a perfect funnel. I had a conversation this week and something came up for me that I really wanna share with you. I think it's gonna change everything for you. I'm Debbie Shadid, I help women build boutique style coaching businesses, and today I'm gonna talk about how to reach people in such an easy way, you guys are gonna love it. Please make sure you subscribe every single week. I bring you really practical steps and strategies that will actually work in your coaching business. And let me say, these are actual strategies that I use and that our clients successfully use. We're gonna talk about talking to people. Now. I know before you go away, you're like, oh, brother Debbie, I don't wanna talk to people. Here's the thing, I am not talking about selling people. I'm talking about talking to people. Please hear me on that. Talking is a human skill. You already know how to do it. You should be doing it every day, and chances are you are doing it at some capacity, you're just not doing it about your business. This is where we need to have the shift. And I'm gonna say it one more time. I am not talking about selling. I am talking about having a conversation, so I wanna give you a challenge to really hear what I'm saying and it would be so amazing if you would walk away from this episode. And decide to start talking to people, because here's what I think. If you talk to people, even if they're the wrong people every single week, eventually that's gonna compound and there's gonna be so many people that see you as the expert. Here's what I know, so many of you guys are like the best kept secret. You're still getting ready to have this conversation. I also wanna tell you, let's throw that out the window too, because when you are too ready and too rehearsed, it doesn't sound good. I'm gonna bet that you're not telling people about what you do because you're not sure what to say. I'm also gonna tell you that if you're not telling people about what you do, nobody's gonna refer you. This is why your business is not thriving. I want you to stop thinking that the person that you could talk to is not your client 'cause that's another big red flag. I hear this on consultation calls and people are like, I have nobody to talk to. None of these people are my clients. I say, well, did you go here? Do you go there? And yeah, I do that stuff, but none of them would buy from me. This is a big, big mistake that is costing you clients. They might not need your offer, but they know people. The only way that you will ever become well-known is buy telling people what you do. I had a client recently who told me that her neighbor out in the hallway. Said to her, now, what is it that you do anyway? And she said, I heard your voice in my head saying, tell your neighbor what you do, because this is what I say all the time to our clients. She said, well, I'm a health coach. As she shared what she was doing. Here's the crazy part. This lady was an HR professional who said, well, look, I need to get with you about you coming in and talking to our employees, which did happen. Yeah. She got a job out of her just mentioning to her neighbor, I'm a health coach, and it went even further than that because this HR professional was part of a group of HR professionals and she got even more jobs. This is the exact process that is so simple. All she said was, I'm a health coach. That's it. And it started a conversation. Now, will it happen like this every time? Of course it won't. But the thing is, if you don't do it, you will never know. So what you might be saying is, yeah, yeah, yeah, Debbie, but look, you don't know my situation and I'm gonna tell you, I don't care what your situation is. If you would have a business you've got to talk to people. We have to find people to talk to. I just ran some errands and I was at a department store. There was three or four women that I talked to in the store just casually about what I was up to today, what I was doing today.'cause it's a Saturday and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go home, and record some things for my YouTube channel. They're like a YouTube channel. What do you do? Well, guess what? I told 'em what I did. This is how it works. None of those women will be my clients, but all of those women learn something about me that they might not forget. So those people that I talk to, they might know people and I will never know if that's true unless I tell people what it is that I do. Another incredible benefit to this is that the more you talk about your business, the better you're gonna get. The more that you just have regular conversations. Again, leaving the I help statement, leave the I help statement out of the mix, like the thing that you've practiced, the thing that I teach. Leave that out of the mix. Don't worry about that because so many of you guys are getting so stressed out about saying it right. That it actually hurts you. It does make it so that you sound like you're saying it wrong. So just show up as if you're just having a conversation. One quick shift that will change everything for you is imagine that your coaching business is your job. Now, if we think about the time when we've had a job, and maybe you still do have a career or a job, whatever you wanna call it. Our whole life. We've been talking to people about our work. It's a common conversation that you have with friends. We had friends over last night. Everybody's asking, Hey, what have you been up to debbie? I talk about my job as a coach, just like they talk about their job in the medical field or whatever they do. This is no different. Can you imagine if you would just start thinking about this as your job and then there's no weird conversation to have. You don't have this idea of, oh, I'm selling them something. I didn't think that once last night when I was talking to our friends over dinner. not once was I thinking, oh, I have to sell them something. No, I just told 'em what I was up to. This is what will happen when you have conversations, so you're gonna get better at talking about it and you know what else is gonna happen. Eventually somebody's gonna say, wow, I wanna learn more about that because I really understand where you're at. This also provides social media content for you. Because when you talk to people, you get follow up questions. So I had questions last night about my business, about how I work with people. That all becomes content for social media. So imagine, again, if you had a job and if you happen to have a job and work in an office, this is exactly how it goes down. You go to get a cup of coffee and somebody's standing in that little kitchen with you and they're like, Hey, what's happening? You're like, oh my gosh, I've had such a crazy week. I've been working with clients. Let me just also pause for a moment and say, if you are talking to people, even if it's free coaching, those people are clients free. Coaching clients are clients. So you could say, I've been working on my coaching, or I've been coaching people this week, or I've been building out my website for my coaching business. I've been so busy. That's what you say when you're grabbing your cup of coffee when you go to grab that cup of coffee, the way I'm explaining it is you're leading the conversation. You're like, Hey, what you been up to? And they're like, oh, not much. And then you don't wait for them to say, what have you been up to? You say, I've been working on the finishing touches on my coaching program. This is how it goes. And then at some point you're gonna get lucky and somebody's gonna say, oh my goodness, really? Tell me more about that. That is how easy it can be. So many people freeze up. This is where your business never gets built. Instead of just owning it. Like, I have a company and of course I'm gonna tell people about it. And by the way, when you work for a job, you're actually promoting. Your company that you work for, you're actually promoting their company just like you could be promoting your own company. So this is how you can show up and let it feel easy. Let me share with you two ways that you can start a conversation besides the one that I just shared with you, and think about the one that feels easiest to you. So the first option is you can ask a question. So if somebody says, Hey, Debbie, what do you do? You could say. Hey, do you know anyone who struggles with their weight? Like They've been struggling with their weight and they cannot seem to get the result that they want. And then you just wait. Okay? Silence is okay. You just wait. You've asked 'em a question, which creates engagement. They're like, not really, or, yes. Whichever way it goes. Now you have started a conversation and you're like, well, yeah, that's who I help. This is what I do. Yeah. I'm passionate about this. Go into any part of your business that you want to share, something that could be really useful. Share what Your angle is on it or why you do what you do. The next way that you could approach this is you can lead with that. I help statement. So they say, tell me what you do. You are like, well, I help women who've been struggling with their weight their whole life finally get real lasting results. Do you know anyone like that? Do you see Both times I actually ask a question, and in that example earlier I ask a question too. While we were having coffee at work, I presented you with the option of asking a question. This is the way that you create real conversation. This is not pitching. I really want you to keep selling out of your mind. You're not selling anybody anything.'cause this is when you get weird, right? I know you, because I know what it was like with me every time I walked into a room, to network or to meet people, and I thought, oh my gosh, my clients are in here. Then I got weird. Instead of just going in and saying, Hey, what's going on? Even if you go to a networking event, you walk around the room, you're like, what's going on with you? How's your week been? Tell me what you do. You don't even have to lead with what you do. This is how you make genuine real connections. So the common problems are people get stuck because they think that they do not know what to say, and now I've just told you what to say. They worry that somebody's gonna judge 'em. And let me tell you what my dear one. This is a big, big issue. If you are not telling people about your coaching business, I really want you to stop right now and ask yourself, is there a little bit of embarrassment going on here? Am I feeling a little bit ashamed or a little weird about the fact that I'm a coach? If this is the case, first of all, you're not alone because a lot of people feel this way. But second of all, this is something we seriously need to work out. You need to ask yourself, what is it about being a coach that I'm embarrassed about? What is my why? That's going to get me over the hump of being embarrassed anyway and talking to people. If you don't really believe that your coaching is powerful, and that coaching period is powerful, you're never gonna get this business grown. So you've got to figure out, am I embarrassed? Is that what it is? And then spend some time journaling on that. Get some mindset support and get that worked through. Or here's the other way to do it. Just do it. Just tell people anyway. and we're uncomfortable while we do it. And either you let that stall you out or let that stop you, or you just decide, I'm gonna put discomfort in my purse and I'm gonna bring it with me.'cause that's what I do. If y'all think that I'm a hundred percent comfortable after two decades, you're wrong because there's always, what is it they say? New level, new devil, right? There's always that next thing that you're working on. I'm gonna give you a challenge. I really want you to put this into practice. I would like for you this week to do your very best to just. Strike up a conversation. I did not say sell. Get their email address. Don't worry about any of that. Just strike up a conversation with five people. That's the big challenge. Five people. It could be your neighbors, it could be somebody at church. The three people at the department store that helped me today. All three of those people, I would've had three done in about 45 minutes of my five for the week. You can go to a networking event. You can talk to a friend that you've not talked to in a long time. You could actually send emails. Now, I know this isn't direct conversation, but this is telling people, so I'm gonna give you another way to connect with people. You can go through your personal contacts and now we're gonna find out if you're embarrassed about your business. Because if you go through your personal contacts and you're like, oh, I'm not gonna tell her and I'm not gonna tell him, but I. I will tell that person, then my friend, you got a problem we want to tell everybody because the more people we tell, the more likely it is that they're gonna know somebody who needs what it is that you do. If they give you a bad time about being a coach, they're not your person anyway. Don't waste time worrying about it, just get on with it. But you can get your personal email contact. And you can send out an email to them saying what you've been up to. Hey, this is what I've been up to. I'm growing a coaching business. I'd love for you to Refer me to somebody else I said you send your friend the email and ask them to refer you to someone else because if they are your ideal client, they know to reply back to you and say, I don't know what you're up to, but looks like things are going good for you, and I wanna have a conversation with you. You don't have to tell people they know what to do. You can also go on Facebook, and I know you guys are gonna love this one too, but go on Facebook and find all those high school friends, the college friends, find those people that you are friends with but you're not really connected with, and send 'em a message. Hey, I just wanted to bring you up to date and tell you what I'm up to. Maybe you've seen some of my posts on my Facebook page. Maybe you haven't. I would love it if you would spread the word or maybe you know, someone that you can connect me with. Yeah. This is easy, you guys. It's just uncomfortable. It's not hard. In fact, all of the things I'm talking about require zero technology. You just go talk to somebody. I wanna tell you that I do have a free guide. Everything I'm talking to you about, I'm gonna give you a couple more examples before I wrap up. I have that linked in the comments, It'll give you the examples that I've just shared and more about how to have these conversations with people. So make sure you grab it there. I really wanna impress upon you, what a difference this could make in your business If you started this week telling five people, it can be five random people, but you told 'em enough that they really understood what you do. Okay. Don't, just like in passing like I'm a life coach. That's not good enough. Like I'm a life coach. This is who I help. We should connect via social media. Let me follow you on your Facebook page so you can stay engaged with what I'm doing in case there's anyone you want to refer me to or refer them to me, one or the other. So imagine 52 weeks of doing this, you talk to five people a week. You guys, that's over 250 people that you meet. This basically makes your success inevitable. No kidding. It makes your success inevitable. I wanna tell you about Emily. She's another client She was talking about going to a networking event and she's brand new in our program. Brand new, barely knows what to say to anyone, and she identifies as an introvert, just like you, just like me. She went to the networking event. And she was terrified. She said, I sat in my car for a few minutes. I'm like, I understand. I've sat in my car for an hour before I've gotten the courage to go in. And she goes, I walked in. There was this woman there, I was like, oh, geez, I gotta say what I do. But she said, then I realized this is just two people having a conversation, which is so true. So she told the lady what she did. That lady took her over and introduced her to two or three other people, and before you knew it. She was having conversations She left that night, not with clients, but with people she could collaborate with. Do you see how different this is? It's not selling, it's connecting. It's collaborating, it's asking for referrals. It's asking for connections. It's not asking for consultation calls. That is the one thing that it's not. Emily went into the room, she did her networking. She went home. She was so proud of herself. She followed up with those people. She spent to two more networking events, tried a different one, and said it was a dud. But she's putting herself out there talking to people. another brand new client that's been listening to our content for a long time, said, Debbie, I have done everything that you have said on your YouTube videos that I could possibly do. I've talked to people, I've interviewed people, I've done all of it, but at some point I realized I need some help. So please put this stuff into action. This is what we do with our clients. Is this resonating with you? I would love for you to answer me in the comments. I wanna share more stories about real situations where clients are putting into action what it is we're teaching. So hopefully you can see yourself now. We just talked about the coffee shop. We just talked about meeting your neighbor. We just talked about going to a networking event, and I shared lots of ways that you can have those conversations. make sure you grab the guide. It's right below this video. And also, I want you guys to look through. All of the new things that I have that I'm offering that are small ways to get you started, I have like the profitable Niche blueprint. It's a guide to walk you through getting your niche nailed down so you can get your business going. I have something all about workshops, how to set up your workshops. My goodness. It's a kit that includes emails and social media, graphics and presentation slides, everything you need to know about doing a workshop, and there's several other things. So let's stay connected. You guys. Be sure to tell me. What resonated with you, and I will see you very soon. Have an amazing week. Go tell people, five people. That's the challenge. All right, talk soon. Bye-bye.
