EP 356 - Why Coaches Have an Offer But Still No Paying Clients (2026)

MarketingCoaching Lifestyle
Written By Debbie Shadid
 

If you've got a coaching idea or even an offer but no paying clients yet, this one's for you. There's a gap between having an offer and sitting across from a client who's actually paid you, and that's the gap I'm walking you across today.

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.

When you get the foundation right, getting paid stops feeling like a mystery and starts feeling like a clear next step you can actually take this week.

In this episode, we'll walk through:

  • Why getting specific on your niche makes everything after it easier

  • How to build a simple coaching offer around one real problem you know how to solve

  • What to do about pricing when you're just getting your first paid clients

  • How to keep your marketing simple by talking to people about what you do

  • Why objections are normal and don't mean you're doing anything wrong

  • How to use single coaching sessions to get paid and build experience fast

Imagine going from talking about being a coach to actually being a coach who's paid for coaching. That shift changes how you see yourself and how you run your business, and it's closer than you think. The world needs what you've got to offer, so let's get you that first paid client.

Ready to map out your offer and your path to paid clients? Book your free Business Blueprint Call with me here: https://debbieshadid.com/schedule

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Transcript

I have an idea, but no clients. If that is you right now, you are exactly the person I wanna be talking to today. You know you wanna be a coach. You might even have an idea for an offer, but there is a gap between the idea and actually sitting across from a paying client. That gap is where most coaches get stuck, sometimes for months, and Today I'm gonna walk you across that gap. I'm Debbie Shadid. I've helped thousands of women actually go from having offers to coaching clients, and I wanna do the same for you today. Now, you might think this video is gonna be all about the offer, and I am gonna get to the offer, but where we need to actually start is at step one, because your offer only works if the foundation under it is solid. So here's the path to getting an offer that's right. It's by starting with a niche. Then we'll work on the offer, the price, the marketing, the selling it, and then you get the coaching, and then it all comes together. Let's start, though, at the beginning of the foundation, which is your niche. So before we can talk about that, I need to know, who are you talking to? What is their problem? How specific can you be with what is actually going on? I do not want you to help everyone. I want you to be really clear on who you're gonna help, and I can tell you, the more clear you are, the easier it's gonna be. We wanna find somebody that has a real challenge. Who is that person? How do you describe her? What is the problem in her own words? What does she desire? What has she already tried that did not work? And why are you the perfect person to solve it? When you can answer those questions and you're not guessing anymore, you have the perfect niche, and we know what you're going to build. I wanna tell you, this is the place where most coaches are getting it wrong. You've got to get super specific. If you wanna stand out in this marketplace, you have to be getting clear on who you're talking to. That's why I don't talk to all coaches. I talk to women who are over 50 about very specific problems, and I want the same for you. So once you know what her desires are, what her problems are, all of those things, then we can think about the offer. So I'm gonna ask you, how do you solve that particular problem? When we know exactly what the problem is, how are you gonna solve it? What is gonna be the path to getting to that problem? I don't want you to overcomplicate it. I don't want you to go too deep right now. I want you to think about, how do I get somebody from where they are right now to where it is that they want to be? How do I take my life experience, my combined education, knowledge, books, all the training that you've had? How do you take all those things, put it together in a package, in a system, in a framework that becomes the way that you solve that niche client's problem? I realize it sounds like I am complicating it, but I'm really not. Just take out a piece of paper and jot it down. What do they need to be coached on first? What do they need to understand second? And so on until you get to the part where they're gonna have the outcome. So you don't need to figure out an entire course or a year-long program. I'm just talking about picking one real problem, One problem that you know how to solve, and then you just build a simple private coaching offer that solves it. You solve that one thing and you solve it well. This is how you get incredible results. This is how you get people talking about you, And you will get clients who want to renew because you solved their first problem, and then you can solve as many other problems as you feel like you're qualified to solve for that particular client and for everyone else. Honestly, you start with that one core problem, then you get to coach them on all the other things that you're interested in or with whatever comes up in the coaching conversation. Okay, we gotta talk about price for just one moment, and I don't want you to overthink it. What I want you to do is to just pick a price. Don't look around to see what anyone else is pricing at. Right now, we're at the beginning stages of your business. The goal is to get our first paying clients to go from having offers to being actually coaching paying clients, so we're just gonna pick a price. And I can tell you, even this week, I have a client who just sold her first offer, and it was such a smaller price than what she is planning on selling. And do you know what? She's over the moon because she went from talking about being a coach who is now paid for coaching. So she sold it at a price that feels really good to her. Now she can get that experience as being a coach who's been paid and getting a client result. So just pick a price. Pick the price that feels right to you. We know the price that you're going towards, right? that number that you're shooting for, but let's work our way up the ladder when it comes to pricing. Start at a price that's reasonable. The next few people you sell, step up the ladder and up the ladder till you get to the top of where you want, okay? So there you have your offer and you have your price. Do not ask other people about your pricing, your offer. Really, honestly, those are decisions for you to make because I can tell you for sure that we are gonna talk about selling here in a moment, and you want to be in integrity with your offer and your price. Okay, moving along. The next thing I need to talk about is marketing. Yes, you have to talk to people. If you're going to be a coach who's actually paid for coaching, then you have to have conversations with people about what you do. And not one conversation or two conversations, but lots of conversations. This is another skill that you learn. You learn how to talk about your coaching, and you learn that by doing it, by talking to lots of people. Just tell people what you're passionate about. Yes, there are many fancy ways to talk about your coaching. There are prompts that you can use to get the perfect AI output of what you should say, but I think you should speak from the heart. I think you should talk about understanding, an empathetic understanding of what's going on, that you know where they've been, and that you have a way out of it and what it looks like on the other side. Do that in your marketing. Get on social media. Get in your local market and talk to people. This is the fastest way to sell your coaching. Get on Facebook and connect with old friends. Tell them what you're doing. Make sure that everybody really clearly understands what it is you do so they can refer you. And by the way, ask for referrals. Don't just assume. When you post on social media, make sure the posts are shareable. Make sure that somebody else can promote you and ask people to share it. All of that is marketing that is simple and so much easier. We're working on getting your first coaching client, so keep your marketing simple as well. Now let's talk about selling So you have to have comfortable conversations. You do have to sell. Selling means you're telling somebody what you do, you're telling about the price, you're talking about what the problem is, what it is they want, and how you are the perfect person to help them overcome it, and then you are overcoming objections. You should expect objections. It doesn't matter how good your offer is or how amazing the price is, there are going to be objections. I have to say the human brain is doing its job when it gives an objection, and if you think about it that way, you don't feel bad about it. You don't stress over it. You're just like, "Of course people are gonna say, 'I don't know if I have the money,' or, 'I have the time.'" Even if the price is so irresistible, they might say, "Huh, I have to think about that," or, "I'm gonna have to talk to my partner about that." Don't stress over that, Selling is about having a comfortable conversation, showing the value, and helping them make a good decision to be able to create that change that they want, to be able to make a difference in their life, and dare I say, in the lives of all the other people around them, because that's how powerful I think coaching is. And then you know what happens after that? You sell the offer, you get to coach. This is also an interesting step because while you've been helping people your whole life, You've been the go-to person that everybody says, "Oh, go talk to Debbie because she'll help you with this one thing." Even though you've been doing that, and even though you've had coach training, once you actually get paid for your coaching, my friend, it turns into an entirely different coaching experience. You now really feel like you have a business, and you will treat this coaching experience in a different way. You will prepare for it. You'll think through it. You will assess it, and if you're not, those are all things that you want to do as well. You need to give the client what it is that you told them you were gonna get them, and I would say you need to over-deliver. That means give more than what they expect. I love this idea of surprising and delighting people because you want them to be your very best referrals. I always say your clients are actually your salespeople. And people wonder, what do you mean the client is the salesperson? Well, the client is the salesperson because when they have a good experience, they will tell everybody else about what you do. Okay, before we wrap up, I wanna give you one more idea about an offer that I think could really work good for you for where you are in your business today, and that is to sell one session, one session at a time. Now, I know you're gonna have your package, you're gonna have your full program. I know that. But today we're just talking about getting you paid clients. So pick a price for one coaching session and go out and tell people that they get to try coaching. They get to experience coaching, and that you are giving single sessions. And I even had a client who said,"I'm gonna do that, and I'm going to guarantee it." They get their money back if they're not happy. I was like, "Now, that's a great idea." Now, why not? When you're starting out in the beginning of your business, you wanna coach as many people as possible, and if you get paid for all those single coaching sessions, that is phenomenal. That is that many more clients that you get to talk about. When you do your marketing and when you do your sales, you want to talk about your coaching experience. You wanna talk about how you helped so-and-so with this and this person with this. That can happen if you are able to offer single sessions. So there you have it. You can either create the offer that's going to solve the specific problem, that's gonna get them their dream outcome. It might take a period of time. Go ahead and offer that, or you can sell that one session. But just make sure, we gotta get clear on the niche. The offer's gotta solve the problem that that niche client has. Then we need to pick a price with integrity, one that is easy to sell. We've gotta do our marketing, which, keep it simple and just talk to people about what you do, And then sell your coaching, and then you become a coach who is actually coaching paid clients. That's it, Don't overcomplicate it. Don't try to do the whole big thing. Don't try to do high ticket right now. Just sell your coaching. Have a beautiful day. make sure you subscribe for more. In the comments, I'm gonna leave the Profitable Niche Blueprint. It is an e-book that will help you get clear on your niche and get you started so you can go from being a coach with an offer to a coach with a paid client. We'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

Debbie Shadid https://www.DebbieShadid.com
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