134 - The Gift of a Successful Coaching Business

Building a coaching business takes skill. Most coaches work on the skill of coaching, and they’ve been led to believe that it will be “easy” to grow a coaching business. 

It is possible to grow a successful coaching business but it takes more than you expect.  Listen to learn about the gift you can give yourself and your business.

In this episode of the Life Coach Business Building Podcast, I will be laying out what you need to know and the actions that you need to take in order to build your business while genuinely enjoying it.

I understand that you may have felt frustrated as you’ve tried to figure it out, especially when you see other coaches thrive. But here’s the thing, even the coaches with the “quick success stories” had to put in more work and time than you realize. 

So if you are ready to focus on what it takes to “realistically” grow your coaching business, then join me in this conversation, and let’s unwrap this beautiful gift together! 

Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/IVI6-NKiDQ8

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

Save your seat for the Design, Live, & Thrive Summit on January 2023 here: www.designlivethrive.com

Transcript

Give yourself the gift of time. That's the gift you can give yourself this holiday season. I'm gonna give myself the time and grace in 2023. It takes time, it takes effort. Put in the extra hours. Manage your mind. Do not change Your niche. Do not change your offers. Do not change the ideas of what it is you're saying to people. Just keep going anyway no matter what happens, no matter what comes up. This is how you become a successful coach. This is how you become a profitable coach. This is how you become a well known, respected coach.

Hello, I'm Debbie Shadid, the host of the Life Coach Business Building podcast. If you are ready to have more clients in your life coach business, then you're in the right spot. Each week I'm gonna teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads. If that sounds interesting. Stick around and let's get started.

Welcome to the Life Coach Business Building Podcast. I'm excited to have you here. I wanna give you a gift today. I wanna give you the gift of knowing what it takes to build a successful coaching business. We're gonna be talking about how much time it takes. And trust me when I say this, you will appreciate your business.

You will enjoy your work. You will have much better experience in 2023 if you listen to what I have to say today. So maybe you are like many of the people that I meet and talk to on consultation calls or that I meet at advance. They feel very frustrated over the response to their coaching business, and I should say the lack of response to their coaching business.

They feel like they have been misled about how easy it was going to be once they became certified, how quickly they would make all kinds of money. Everybody that I talk to just wants to have clients, and they all thought that it was going to be easier to be in business than what it really is. So if that is you, I hear you.

I understand. You are not alone. You're in good company. Practically everybody feels the same way. And I want to make sure that I really lay out the facts of what you need to know so that you can again, go into 2023 really with a clear picture of what it's gonna take. And I believe that that is going to help you have easier success.

So today I'm gonna share some ideas of what you can expect so that you will give yourself the time you need to set up, to build, and to grow your business. It just doesn't happen. It's set up, build, and grow. Building a business takes skill. It takes skills that you do not currently have. How do I know this? Because if you had already had a coaching business, you would have the skills of building a coaching business.

I don't know anyone who already has a coaching business that's telling me that it's not working. It's the people who've never had one. Even if they've had other businesses, having a coaching business is different. So you're gonna build something that you've never done before and you don't even know what to do.

Right? Even again, if you have another online business, and I do work with coaches who've done that. The coaching business is unique. So my goal today is to lay out what you will need to know and then understand. And what actions you need to take to grow your business. And when this podcast is over you guys, I believe that number one, you're gonna give yourself a break for not knowing what to do, because how could you know what it would take?

Number two, you're gonna give yourself permission to invest more time and more money to learn the skill of business. And I don't just mean buying coaching. But it takes money to do the things that you want to do to build a business. If you were in any other kind of business, you would b e expected to be investing substantial amounts of money and time, like up to three years to make a profitable business.

It would be expected that you would be doing that. So I don't know why an online business or a coaching business should be any different. And then the third thing that I want you to be able to do when we end this podcast is to be able to approach your business and the growth of your business, the development of your business from a real discovery mode. You're gonna spend that time discovering what works, discovering how to do things. It's gonna be the shift that you need to be able to stop beating yourself up and to be able to really enjoy your business.

So when you became a coach, you were focused on the skill of coaching which obviously is super important, but today we're gonna talk about that skill of business. So what skills do you need to learn to be in a coaching business? Gosh, probably the first thing that's the hardest is how to talk about coaching.

That seems so easy. People don't just buy life coaching. They buy solutions to the problems that you are clearly pointing out to them. You have to be able to articulate it to them. So that skill of being able to talk about coaching is super important.

You have to be able to write about your business in a way that is different than all of the other business writing that you have ever done. You have to know how to market your business, and we know that there are layers and layers and layers of things, and I'm talking about free marketing. There's all the social media platforms, the email marketing, all of those places.

You also have to learn where you're going to market your business. I mentioned a couple of those things, but there are many, many places. I know that you've got questions about how often to post, where to do it, when to do it, what do you say, should you include that? Should you include this? All of those are skills that you have to learn for a coaching business.

You're also gonna have to learn how to sell. You've got questions about collecting payments. You have all this technology piece. These are skills you have to learn to be in a coaching business. You have to learn how to do email marketing, how to build your website or update your website. Even if you hire somebody else to do this stuff, they are going to ask you, what do you want on your website?

You have to know what the answers to those things are. You have to learn how to create your online calendar, set up your appointments. Share the links to that, right? You have to know how to do a workshop. I'm an advocate of workshops, you know. like The list goes on and on. You have to learn how to create your email opt-in to build your email list.

You guys know there is just a lot of skills to be learned, so let's talk about the time that it takes to learn those skills. Now, this is different for everybody. Some of the people that I work with, bye golly, in two weeks time, they have gone through everything they have done, done, done, done, done. Checked off all the lists, done it all.

They have, you know, their website up, their copy written. They have all of the things done, but they still need time, you guys to understand the processes that they've put in place. Most people though, I will tell you, are not like the overachievers that come in and do everything in a couple weeks.

Most people are gonna take three to four months to get all of those things put into place. They have to learn the tech, they have to learn how to set things up. Here's the thing, your bratty brain is what is going to slow you down. That is probably the number one skill that I didn't mention that you have to be able to do is manage your brain because it throws up lots of questions.

It keeps you in doubt that you're doing the right thing. You hire a coach, the coach tells you what to do, and then you're like, I don't know. Is that the right thing? Maybe my niche isn't right. You get your website all done and you're ready to hit publish, and you're like, I think this needs to be changed before I hit publish.

That is probably the number one skill that you have to learn, which is to be able to manage your thinking that slows you down. It's all a bunch of nonsense. Honestly, you guys, you don't know if the things that you've created are gonna be right until you put it out there consistently.

So in general, let me recap this for you. You're gonna have to spend three to four months, maybe longer, maybe shorter, but you have to do all the tech, the systems, the setup. You have to figure out what to say, how to say it, how to write emails, how to market, and then where to find your people. All right, so let's talk about where to find your people.

This also is a process that takes a lot of time. It's not hard work, but it will be the most uncomfortable work that you do. I do not believe that you should run paid ads until you reach a hundred thousand dollars. I want you to find one person at a time. That sounds ridiculous. I know, but why do I want you to find one person at a time?

Because you will learn so much faster if you're saying the right thing. How to connect with the right people. We don't wanna just connect with people. A volume number of people is not the right answer. You wanna have a few of the right people. You want to find out if what you're saying is the right thing.

You want to find out if how you're currently selling is the right way. You wanna deliver your offer. You wanna be able to create client satisfaction. All of those things matter, and I want you to do it basically one person at a time. And trust me, you guys, you're not gonna wanna do it with more than one person at a time in the beginning.

If you started your business and you had 30 clients, It would be a whole nother story. You would be so stressed out. There's a high chance it would not work. So we're gonna build it one person at a time, and you will gain momentum. It will happen faster than you think if you'll just take it one step at a time.

So we want you to become a trusted coach. When you run those paid ads, you don't have that no like and trust factor as a new coach, and I want to do that for you. And I want you to do that for yourself. I want you to create those individual clients. And build that no like and trust factor. And let me just tell you also how you become a trusted coach if you do lots of free coaching.

You have lots of consultations, you have lots of conversations with people. You meet people, you talk to 'em, you sell to 'em, you coach to 'em. That process will change you. And when you are changed from that process, you put out this energy of a much more trusted coach. That no like and trust factor grows as you grow.

You can't just start with that. So how long will it take to find your people? That also depends on you. You have to be able to be uncomfortable with this. I can tell you what to do and I tell people what to do every single time I coach them.

And guess what they say, I need to have a session with you to find my people. It's like, I've already told you that. I need to have a session to find out how to market. That's what our entire coaching is about, it's finding people where to market.

So it's just interesting. If you have that same thing coming up, like somebody just needs to tell me, I would ask yourself, have you already been told? And you're not actually taking the action of doing what you've been told. So how long does it take? Honestly, you guys, you might go along finding your people, talking to people, making offers, doing free coaching, having conversations, having consultations, going to networking events, doing workshops, all of the things, I could go on and on and you would get zero results for months. Would you still do that?

Because that's probably what the reality is, but let me tell you what the difference is between a successful coach and the one who changes their mind and starts back over. The successful coach just keeps going and it starts to happen. So you go from like, I'm doing all the stuff, I'm doing all the workshops, I'm doing all the emails, I'm meeting the people. Nobody's booking consultations. My whole business is failing.

None of it's working. You go from that, consistently like that. You keep going. You do not stop. And then you know what happens? People say to me, oh my gosh, consultations appeared out of nowhere. Guess what? I sold some coaching. Guess what? People started coming to my workshops. There's no surprise to me about that because it is that consistent you've put yourself out there, you've put yourself out there, you've done it, done it, done it, done it, done it. And then it compounds you guys. That is how you build momentum.

So the gift that I want you to give yourself is to just decide that you are willing, willing to do it over and over, and over, and over and over with zero results, with zero signed clients, with zero income, and you just trust that you keep doing it.

It will work out. It happens every time. You will find your people. Now, how long could this take? What if I told you it was gonna take a year? What would you do? Would you give yourself the gift of a year to learn how to do all of the skills that I talked to you about? To do all of the tasks of putting that in place to figure out where to find your people, talk to your people, make offers to people.

Would you spend a year doing that? Would you give yourself the gift of spending 2023? Just imagine that you're starting fresh January 1st. Would you give yourself the whole year of doing that? Because if you did, you guys, I could just almost guarantee that it would work for you. I mean, if you were really showing up consistently, if you were emailing every week, if you were meeting new people every week, if you were going to networking events every month, you were posting on social media, if you were offering free coaching, yeah, it's a lot of stuff.

But you know what happens for the people who do that? Their business works. So will you work your butt off for an entire year in 2023? I hope so, because if you do, you'll be successful. You will eventually then be able to have a waiting list of clients. You'll eventually then be able to have higher prices for your services.

So will you put in the time to get to that place where a few years down the road you can look back and be like, this one year that I worked on my business and I worked my butt off, it was so worth it. It was so worth it. So let's talk about how this all works out, you guys. When you do all the things that I'm talking about, you are actively growing your business.

It is working. This is how you grow a business, even if you don't see the results. You're building your brand, you're building your mindset, you're building your knowledge, you're building your business skill, and you're gaining clients and you're making money, but it takes time.

When you know the reality of what it takes, you can manage your expectations so much better. Why is it necessary to manage your expectations? Because when you approach your business feeling like a failure, feeling disappointed every day, you guys, we know what happens.

You're not getting the result you want. That is not the way to successfully approach your business. That's why I said the word you are currently building a business. It's not, I'm trying to build a business. You're currently building business, so if you wanna think that it's not working, you're gonna spend your time looking for different approaches, different ways, different coaches, different freebies, different downloads, all the things instead of doing what you already know you need to do again and again, and again, and again, and again.

All right, so here is the number one point I want you to hear me on. It takes time no matter what. Every success story that you hear about, even the ones that you think had quick success, I guarantee you they put in time.

Now, they might have put a lot of hours in a shorter period of time. Are you willing to do that? You could do that. That's another way that you could build your business faster. Let me tell you what you guys, I worked seven days a week, 10 to 14 hours a day up until just recently in my business. And now I'm working four to five days, 10, 12, or 14 hours a day.

So I have cut down my days, but I'm still working 10, 12, 14 hours a day. Are you doing that? I'm not just watching videos and reading all this stuff. I'm actually doing work. So are you doing that? Just check on yourself. I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying that to let you know what it really takes. You know, I had an advantage.

I already knew how to be in business. I had already had an online business for 20 plus years. I already knew how to market. But when it came to marketing to coaches, I was new. I wasn't new to marketing. I wasn't new to marketing to women in business, but coaches was different, which meant that when I decided to change my niche 18 months ago to only serve coaches.

So I had been helping some coaches, some women in all kinds of businesses, but when I said, no, I'm gonna only help coaches, that's only been 18 months ago, you guys. So seven days a week, 10 to 14 hours a day, up until recently. So we're talking about 13 months I did that and now I'm working four to five days.

But guess what you guys, I've created all kinds of business. I started with one person on my email list 18 months ago. Now I've got 2000 plus people on my email list. I started with one person at a different price. Now I have a, I think, very successful program, the business building boutique, and I signed a client every day this week.

So this happened, not by chance it happened because for all these months I've been working on it. So are you willing to do that? Are you willing to be able to do one step at a time and keep going no matter what? I wanna tell you, I'm excited to share that in 18 months, I just did the math last night, I've generated over 300,000 in 18 months.

Now, that means that you have to be willing to work that many hours. You have to be willing to show up and do workshops when nobody comes. You have to be willing to hear no over and over. You have to be willing to not let yourself change your mind. I have not changed my offer. Now I have fine-tuned my program inside of it, but the business building boutique has been the same offer that I've had since I've started.

I've shifted the benefits that the coaches inside of the business building boutique get. In fact, they're getting more coaching time than they ever were. But the approach that I have, the offer that I have, the problems that I solve, the client that I'm helping, none of that's changed. So it's all been the same thing.

The way that I have found people, none of that's changed. I still do free workshops, I still do emails, I still do social media. I give free coaching still to people, and that is the way that I have built my business. So will you do that in 2023? Will you give yourself this gift?

Give yourself the entire year of consistently working, working your butt off until you get where you want to be. Give yourself time without calling yourself a failure, without telling yourself you don't know how to do it. So here's the one takeaway that I want you to have today. Let's do this for a year, you guys. Do it when there are no results and do it anyway.

Make offers when there's nobody listening. Do the workshops when nobody is attending. Grow your list one person at a time. Keep going. Allow this to compound. Allow this to multiply. Allow yourself to build the momentum. Stay focused on growing your business just one way. Stop listening to what everybody else says.

And when your brain tells you it's not working, you tell it to be quiet and you keep doing what you're doing anyway. Keep going. And guess what you guys, the results might show up sooner. Typically three to six months after everybody's got all the stuff in place, it starts working. And I mean, I could go over every client that I've worked with in the last 18 months and it's the same for everybody, three to six months.

Like all of a sudden there's that, oh wow, I got a consultation. I don't know how, but I got a consultation. So are you willing to do that? Give yourself the gift of time. That's the gift you can give yourself this holiday season is I'm gonna give myself the time and grace in 2023.

It takes time, it takes effort. Put in the extra hours. Manage your mind. Do not change Your niche. Do not change your offers. Do not change the ideas of what it is you're saying to people. Just keep going anyway no matter what happens, no matter what comes up. This is how you become a successful coach.

This is how you become a profitable coach. This is how you become a well known, respected coach. This is how you will do what so many of the others will never accomplish. All right, so are you in it with me? Give yourself that gift. Before I wrap up, I wanna talk to you about, one last thing I wanna ask you,

to go sign up for my free Summit For Women. It is the Design Live Thrive Summit. I will leave the link in the show notes. You can head over to my website also debbieshadid.com and find it. It's a free workshop where the clients that work with me are going to be doing training and teaching to women on how to create their best life in 2023.

All right, so sign up and be there. See what it's all about. I am helping each one of those women create their signature talk. We're doing the canvas slides, we're doing all the email marketing. They're creating freebies that go with it. They're building their email list, their email marketing, they're doing social media posts.

All of that is part of the project that we're doing to create this summit, and it's just to create momentum in their business. All right, so sign up. Come join us. We would love to have you there, designlivethrive.com. I cannot wait to see you. 

You guys have an amazing holiday season. Give yourself this gift, all right? The gift of time so that you too can have an incredible coaching business that you are so proud of. All right, 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.