129 - Growing a Coaching Business is Hard Work

Building and growing a coaching business is harder than you might think, but it can also be the most satisfying and most rewarding thing that you can ever do as a career. 

Business Success + Life Coach Debbie Shadid is sharing more business-building truths. She wants you to know what it takes to build a business and then be successful in it. Building a business can be lonely, and it’s definitely not easy. There are no guarantees for success, and there is no one-size-fits-all formula that you can follow. 

In this episode, she gives a preview of the obstacles you can expect as you build your life coaching business.  You will face challenges, but each will help you grow. You’ll develop the knowledge to keep growing and going.

There is a silver lining. It does get easier. When you start doing more of what you enjoy most (coaching clients you love), it fuels you to keep going. And when you give yourself the time and space to grow and learn, you will build momentum.

So if you are looking for someone to share all of the details about how to build your coaching business, then join me as I share more about what you can expect on your journey to coaching business success.

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Listen wherever you get podcasts or head over to: https://debbieshadid.com/podcast

Transcript

You create success by continuing on the path that you've already been on. You look at what's worked and what hasn't worked, and you look to see what you're going to do differently. You refine it, and you put it back out there, and you start over. It does get better, you guys. It does get easier when you start getting clients and doing more of what you love that will inspire you.

You'll feel that sense of like accomplishment, that you are really contributing to the world, that you're making a difference, and that will help you go back into that next step of marketing. Again, the marketing engine never stops.

Welcome to the Life Coach Business Building Podcast. I'm so excited to have you guys here today. I have another client, Jen Laffin, here with us today. We are gonna talk about her business, about what brought her to coaching. We're also gonna talk about her work inside the Business Building Boutique.

Well, hello, how are you guys? I wanna talk to you about growing a coaching business, and maybe you don't like the title of this episode, but here it is. Growing a coaching business is hard work. That's what I wanna talk to you about today. I feel like I'm always starting out these episodes and saying to you that I wanna tell you the truth again today, but I do really, from the bottom of my heart, want to make sure that you understand really what it takes to grow a business, because as I've said before, I think when you know the truth, It's easier to approach your business with a little bit of lightness, with a little bit of, appreciation for the work that you're doing, and I actually think you can build momentum.

So let's get down to it. Building and growing a business is the hardest and most discouraging. And, hold on, don't stop; it’s the most inspiring thing that you will ever do. Building a business requires two things. Building the brain power to keep going to override all of the nonsense that comes up as you are working towards getting to your goal.

We'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. It also requires the actual building of the business. For some of you, that's the foundations, the website, the marketing, the product is gonna be the process, but it's also the delivery of what you are selling. It's the doing. And by the way, it is also the keeping up with continuing to do. And you don't just build it once. It is like building a business every day over and over. You know, from the outside, it looks so simple. I know that many of you have, you know, maybe partners or family or friends who are wondering, what in the world are you doing in your office all day long? Right? Like, what in the world? Why can't she succeed faster than this? What is so hard about building a coaching business or any online business? Well, let me tell you. I know that you've tried to explain to them what's happening, and the truth is you really don't even know what's wrong when you work for someone else or you work in a career. Really, the path is laid out. Even if you are an entrepreneur, like, say, a self-employed attorney or a physician, there's a path to what you're doing. As a solopreneur, you're making your own path, right? There are teachers and coaches just like me who will tell you what to do. You know, I show my clients what to do, and I give them things to follow, but ultimately the path is up to you.

You're the one that's plowing your way through. Whatever it is that's ahead of you,, and you are running up against rocks all along the way. I know I'm encouraging, guys. Right? , I want you to know really what is ahead of you, because it is so incredible when you get there. And then there are bumpy roads again, and then you get there again and over and over again.

But many people are not willing to tell you that that's exactly what it's like. I work so many hours, you guys. I really do. As I sit here today, I don't see that I'm going to be working less hours. It doesn't really matter what your coaching format is. Yes, private coaching is easier, and it requires less work. And it depends on the kind of coaching that you're doing. It depends on the niche. Maybe you don't need to prepare as much for the work that I do. I prepare for everything that's gonna be up to the way that you show up and coach. If you're a general life coach and you just turn on your Zoom, and you start coaching, then congratulations. That would be the simplest thing to do. It's also probably the hardest thing to sell because people don't understand what they would come to you for. As a solopreneur, your business is all you. Even when you have a team. I have three beautiful women that work for me, one who is gonna edit this podcast, and I'm telling you what, it is hard to keep up with the team because it requires so much of me, and I want you guys to know that there are no sick days.

It doesn't matter if you feel bad or not. Your business goes according to what you do, you just can't take off. Yes, there's this idea of batching and getting ahead. And I do that. I go through periods of time where I'm like, so on it, and I'm so ahead of schedule, and I've, I've batched podcasts, and I, I have things done.

But then you go through a stage like I'm in right now where my business is rapidly growing, and so you're creating along the way. You know, you're just trying to get done what is due for tomorrow. Done today. I know that you're creative, and that is the most fun part. We love to sit down and, and think about all the new fun ideas that we can do something and we've learned something new, and we wanna make sure we implement that into what we're currently doing and oh, and we need to add this and wouldn't that be awesome? And we get inspired by things. You also are gonna love being the delivery person. The person actually gets to do the coaching. I love that so much. I love to work with my clients. I love to have them go, Oh my gosh, you're right. That's exactly what I should do. Or when we get something accomplished or when they do, you know, get their first paying clients, or they launch a group program, and it successfully launches, that is so, so much fun.

But you guys, the fun shuts down at some point because. We have to go on and do the next thing, right? It doesn't matter if you have accomplished something once. You have to start back over and do it again. There's no home run. Even the coaches that you see that have made the most amount of money, they have to keep at it at a higher pace to sustain what they're doing.

So you have to summons up the courage to figure out how to keep going. As you build your coaching business, you are also building a brand. Even if you're private coaching, group coaching, membership, whatever it is, you're building a brand. You have to decide what you're going to be known for. And that is not easy.

You know, building a notable and understandable coaching brand requires us to do something that our brain, something that we haven't done before. So many of the women I work with are professionals. I mean, first-class professionals, highly educated. Yet when we start trying to write marketing copy, it is, gosh, it's dumb down. So basic. We wanna be able to take the thought that the person is thinking, your potential client, and just put it in their words. And that is hard to do. We kind of wanna make things sound more fluffy. We wanna make things sound prettier. It's hard to just learn how to write marketing copy, and that's only one piece of what you have to do.

So it requires us to continually craft new marketing ideas and marketing messages to entice people to engage with us. And y'all know what happens after they engage with us. Then we have to take it to the next step. We have consultation calls, and we have to be prepared to sell ourselves to confidently share what it is we do.

So my friend, let me ask you this. Do you have the willingness to try, try and try again until you get it right? Are you willing to accept that there is no perfect formula? I have a roadmap for my clients to follow, but that's not perfect either. And let me tell you why it's not is because each person that I work with brings their own thinking with them. Which is not a problem, by the way. I love that everybody has their own ideas, but each person delivers their message in their unique way, according to their own experience. And then we have to figure out if the message that they're delivering according to my roadmap, according to somebody else's formula, works.

You know, I had someone tell me recently that she'd followed this exact step-by-step. Of a program that she had purchased. And actually, it was two different programs to design a course and basically sell, kind of like passively, like just design the course, put it up and sell it. And I said, Well, it doesn't work like that there. There really is nothing passive. And I'm not saying this to discourage you, I'm telling you. So that you know what you need to do, right? There's nothing passive. You still have to be marketing your business. Yes, the content, the modules might be recorded and you, don't have to show up live and do it every time, but you still have to get somebody to purchase it.

So she said, Well, no, I'm following the exact formula. It's gonna work. I mean, they said If I follow this formula, it will work. But again, She has her own thoughts that she has to be able to put into words. She has to write the marketing copy. She has to write the modules,and  she has to deliver the message. So you could follow like step one is to outline this, and step two is to record your modules, and step three is to make a sales page and step.

You could do that, but still, each one of us brings our own content. Our own niche, our own ideas, all of that together, and that has to be worked out. So let me tell you, there are no guarantees. I had somebody ask me that the other day, Do you guarantee your services? I said, No, I can't. I mean, I can't do the work for you. I can have you come, and I promise you. I am there, right with you. I'm giving you individualized feedback. Coaches tell me all the time when they work with me, oh my gosh, I should have hired you sooner because I didn't really realize that you were really going to review my stuff and tell me what to do.

But even with that, I wish I had like the magic fairy dust to put on everything and guarantee it works. But I don't. What we do is we try. We put something out there, we gather up the words, We look for ideas. We take whatever inspires us most. We look to see what other people are doing and decide how we can do it based on what works for us first, what we think will work for the client, and then we trust that we're getting it right.

Then we put it out there. Consistently in many places for a long period of time, and we watch to see what happens. And I'm telling you, it can work that way and it will work that way. And then, you know what happens? We get a new idea after it's worked, after we've put all this time into building something that works.

We get an idea that maybe we should change something just slightly. Maybe we'll do it just a little different way. It's so interesting when I talk about building a brain, building the mindset that will keep you moving in your business. It is overriding you changing your mind. So when you do something and you launch a program, or you create a niche and you offer it, and you start getting clients, I want you to be onto yourself that you're gonna have another idea that's better than the last one.

And that is not how you create success in your business. You create success by continuing on the path that you've already been on. You look at what's worked, what hasn't worked, and you look to see what you're going to do differently. You refine it and you put it back out there and you start over. It does get better, you guys. It does get easier when you start getting clients and doing more of what you love. That will inspire you. You'll feel that sense of like accomplishment, that you are really contributing to the world, that you're making a difference, and that will help you go back into that next step of marketing again. The marketing engine never stops. So you're always on that journey of taking what you have, refining it to make it better. Putting it back out there, refining it to make it better.

That is actually how you move forward so much faster. And yes, sometimes you should expect yourself to fail and it hurts. It really does. Sometimes you have all of your hopes. It seems so obvious. You have talked to so many people and told 'em what you wanna do, and they're like, That's the best idea ever. Best idea ever. But I always say, unless that person is opening up their checkbook, the one who's telling you it's the best idea, you should do that unless they're paying you. I wouldn't take their word for it, right? What you do is you put yourself out there beyond the people that you know. Your idea is validated when people pay you.

So I want you to adjust your expectations. Oftentimes we're looking at people who are making millions, and we determine our path based on what we see them do. And that is not the way to go you guys. That's taken them years. It really has. We know many of the coaches that probably you follow and that I follow, they've been at this 15 years or something. So it's been a journey to get there. So give yourself the time. Give yourself a year to build a great business. Will you give yourself that much time? And when I say give yourself a year, maybe we do it in six months. Maybe you do it in six months, but that only happens when you don't change your niche your offer your pricing over and over and over again. When you allow yourself to grow based on what you've done and then you refine it, you will build momentum. But my dear one, I want you to remember that you're gonna have a better idea. That seems like the most obvious idea. You're gonna have a different idea, something that seems more fun.

You're gonna look around to see what everybody else is doing, and you're gonna tell yourself. I don't think I'm gonna do private coaching anymore. I'm gonna do memberships cuz everybody's doing it. Whatever it is for you, you have to silence the ideas that keep coming up and say, Nope, I'm committed to staying on the path that I'm on. I've already been plowing my way towards success. All of this thinking and changing kills your business growth. What I want for you today is to acknowledge that growing a business takes time. Consistency. It takes mind management. And I don't mean that, you know, mind management. I'm just saying getting control of yourself and writing down the ideas for later and saying to yourself right now, I'm on the journey for this.

I'm not gonna change my mind. I'm determined to do the things that will get. Going in that one direction and keep me there. So it's not always glamorous, but let me tell you, hear this, it is the most amazing, satisfying thing that you will ever do as a career, honestly. But it's also the most challenging.

So please know this. I am cheering you on harder than anyone. Honestly. I hold space for people and believe when you don't believe it's possible for you, you come to me. You start with any coaching, anybody that you work with, you start your business and you are so inspired and so on fire, and I know what's gonna happen. There's gonna be discouragement and I can hold the space for you. While you're discouraged and while you want to change your mind and remind you, come on, keep after it. I want you to stay on track. I don't want you to change your mind. I want you to have the willingness to sit in the discomfort of growing a business, to manage yourself, to not chase after it is the squirrel that we hear about.

I want you to have the willingness to keep going because the world needs what you have.. All right, so take a look at what your goals are. Take a look at the timeframe that you have set up for growing your business. Forgive yourself for the coaching and the, the things that you've bought on Instagram and all of the things that you've already invest in your business that didn't work.

Just forgive yourself. It's not a big deal. It takes time, effort, learning, understanding to build a business. And just accept it, and let's keep going, you guys. All right. This was not meant to discourage you. It was meant to encourage you. I want you to keep going. This is gonna be the most incredible thing that you will ever do for yourself, and you will feel so, so proud when you get there, because you will make a difference in the world.

All right, Have an amazing day. Until next time. Bye.

Okay ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbieshadid.com. I have this incredible Canva training, specifically designed for life coaches where I'm gonna teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching. All right. Have an amazing week. I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.