157 - 2 Years of Coaching Coaches: Sharing ALL the Details!

Reflecting on my 25-year coaching journey is both humbling and exhilarating. From supporting women in various industries to now exclusively coaching coaches online, this ride has been filled with incredible highs, challenging lows, and everything in between.

Today's podcast episode is extra special! Join me as I take a deep dive into the incredible journey my business has embarked on over the past two years. Listen in as I reflect on the pivotal moment when I chose to step away from a business and niche that I passionately devoted 23 years to building. I will also share how I exceeded my goals and established a scalable business that consistently delivers the results I promise to my clients. This journey has been nothing short of extraordinary, and I can't wait to share ALL the details with you. But hold on tight, my friends, because this is just the beginning! I'm on a mission to reach a million, and I want YOU to join me on this journey. 

Building momentum through consistent action is the key to growth.

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Transcript

Preview: I have created a business that is scalable, that delivers clients the results that I sell. And guess what? Next month I'm going to be 59 years old and I never imagined in my whole life that I would actually be working less hours. I've given up the hustle. I've given up the seven days a week work. I've given up work until two o'clock in the morning because nobody cares and it does not get me further in my journey. Today I'm working three days a week. And I'm making more money than I ever imagined, and I only see the possibilities for that continuing to expand. 

Intro: 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.

Today's podcast is all about celebrating. I'm going to share the details of what has happened in my business in the last two years, as I'm celebrating my progress. And I want to inspire you to see what's possible for you and hope that you too will celebrate your success along the way as well. So let me give you the backstory.

As y'all know, I've been coaching women now for almost 25 years. In August, it'll be my 25th anniversary of coaching what we called actually consulting women in business, helping them with all stages of their business, whether it be when I had my wedding magazine, my family magazine, coaching wedding professionals online coaching women in business in line, and now for the last two years, exclusively coaching coaches online.

Back in 2020, I was coaching women in business online, and I had the opportunity to join the life coach school and become certified as a life coach. And I did this not because I wanted to do life coaching, but because I could see that my business clients really needed the mindset support. And I had been part of a life coach school receiving coaching in their scholars' program, what's now called the Get Coached program. I've been receiving coaching there and loved it and could really utilize the mindset tools that they use. One of them is called the model and I was using that for myself and I wanted to be able to use that with my clients. And to do that, I needed to become certified.

My thought about becoming certified as a coach was to help women get over themselves. So if you are building your business and you are saying, I want to do social media, but I'm too worried about what people will think, or I want to have this goal, but you're not taking action. What I was thinking was I'm going to become a life coach and I'm going to help people get past that.

I'm going to help them really dig into what is holding them back. Because for all of us, we all have fear. We all have overwhelm. We all have doubts, but the people who succeed can get past that. So I got certified at the live coach school and let me just take a moment and tell you that was honestly the best thing that I've ever done For myself.

It was one of the most challenging things but for sure the best thing, mostly because of the personal growth that I had. I learned how to coach myself lots of different things and life coaching is more than the power of positive thinking. It's more than affirmations. It is a process where you can really figure out why you're doing what you're doing and you can look and see what you need to change to get to the result that you want. So, with the model at the Life Coach School, we look at your thoughts, how those thoughts make you feel, we look at the action you take, and the result that you're creating, and we map that out so that we can see, well, why do you have what you have right now? And what do you need to change to get the result that you want? 

Now, that's a very simplified way of looking at it, but I'm explaining all that to let you know that this is why I wanted to add this to my business coaching. So I did that graduated and certified in 2021. And then, as I had worked with coaches, I just kept getting this feeling that so many women that were becoming coaches were very passionate about coaching because they'd had tremendous transformation through the life coaching that they had received. And they were getting certified. They were hoping to build successful, profitable businesses, but they really had no idea how to do that. And I'll tell you, if you haven't built a business before, especially an online business, there's so much more to it than what you think. And I know if you're listening to this podcast, you would agree. 

So May 11th, 2021, I decided, you know what? I'm going all in. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And I actually encourage women to really lean into what they know they should do, to lean in and do what they know they were born to do. And so this time I decided to follow my own instinct and the nudge that I had and just do it. So May 11, 2021, I stopped emailing this list of this business that I had spent a lot of money on Facebook ads of women that I had a really good reputation with that.I had lots of client results. I had a business brand built around another business. It was all the same coaching that I do today. In fact, it's the exact same roadmap formula that I have been doing since 2016 in my consulting and coaching business online. So now I was going to be shifting my messaging to say, if you are a coach who is looking for clients and you don't know how to do it, let me be your guide.

I'll take you through the steps of learning how to build your business foundations, learning all that you need to know about marketing, learning to create your million-dollar message, your marketing message, and then helping you find your people, and then even beyond that, helping you sell people. So it's really a full comprehensive program that I decided I was going to start offering to coaches. So on May 11, 2021, that was the first day I made that decision. And the very first step I made is I put up a directory listing that I was a business coach for women.

Now, the very first client I got on the very first day was a woman who was 76 years old. And she was a coach who was feeling challenged by technology, feeling challenged by getting her business built. She has the same passion that you probably do about building a business and knowing that it's her life's work. She's taken all the courses and all the classes were certified in many things. In fact, she was an ordained pastor, but she was like the business building part online. I don't know how to do that. I'm overwhelmed. I've taken all these courses. I bought all these things and none of it works. I need personalized attention. I just need somebody to tell me what to do. That's what I'm offering. And so she was my first client on the very first day I listed my services. She had never met me before. She happened to be on the life coach school website just browsing, looking for a coach and my listing came up, she read my marketing message and she said, Debbie is the one that I need to talk to. Within an hour I sold private coaching to her. 

So that was the beginning. I will tell you, there was a lot that I had to do. I had an email list at the time that was over 5000 people. And again, as I mentioned, I was already a well-known expert. I already had a great reputation. I had done summits and speaking and was sought after by women in another niche, and I gave that all up on March 11, and I decided to use the same process that I actually coached my clients through. That is my 12-step proven roadmap. It's really the foundation for a successful coaching business. I decided to reprove what I had been coaching on for so long and take myself back through the process of building a brand-new business.

So I started working on growing an email list, literally one email address at a time. So if you think that I don't understand what it's like to not have anyone on your email list, I do my friend. I had zero people. My first email went out in June of 2021. I had like 11 people on my email list. By the end of that first year, 2021, I was up to a hundred.

Now, how did I get to a hundred email leads without paid ads? I did it because I found people to talk to. I offered them free coaching, not consultations, but I gave him free coaching. I said, come meet with me and I'll tell you what to do next in your business because that's my specialty. So I did that for months.

I did free training during that same time from, you know, mid-2021 till the end of the year, I redid my website. I redid all my marketing copy. I again followed each of the steps that I teach women through my Business Building Boutique, either in the VIP version or my now brand-new fast track. I went through each of those steps and I rebuilt my business and I did all the marketing that I teach and guess what you guys, it worked.

Now you have to be willing to work. that's a gift that I have is I have a good work ethic. I worked. I worked when I didn't believe that there were results coming, I worked when there wasn't evidence that it was working, but I kept going. Anyway, when I had the thought that, wow, there are a lot of business coaches out there. Maybe this isn't such a great idea. I said I'm doing it anyway. I did the mindset work that I learned at the life coach school by using the model, by looking at my own thoughts to say, what do I actually want to choose to think about building my business? And how do I need to be thinking? And, you know, I love that word possible. Thank you, Brooke Castillo, for that. Because she introduced that word to me. Like it's possible that I'm on my way right now. It's possible that it's all working. It's possible that I could actually get a paying client tomorrow. So I kept working. I kept doing what I needed to do. I did the self-coaching. I invested in a lot of coaching myself.

I worked with multiple coaches. I hired a strategic coach, and a business coach to tell me what to do. Just like the coaching that I do for you guys, I hired a coach that helped me get my business built beyond the way that I teach you guys. She helped me get to the next level, right? I created a webinar funnel, which is not the thing that you guys are working on, but it was a way for me to reach more coaches and build my business even faster.

So it was all pretty crazy. Many times I thought you must be nuts. You are leaving a career and a niche that you have spent 23 years building. You know these people and you know the business so well, and you're giving it all up, going back to zero in revenue to follow this hunch that you have that coaching coaches is where you need to be.

And guess what, you guys, it has worked. What has happened is I have reproved that the process that I use as my coaches today works. I have gone through and done all of the uncomfortable things that you guys need to do as you build your business. So, as I coach women today, and they're talking about being concerned about doing a workshop or sending an email or doing on social media or doing a reel, guess what you guys all of that was new for me to this new niche in the last 2 years. I didn't know anyone. Nobody knew me. I had to build up that like, know and trust factor and that takes work. 

So I want to encourage you to keep going even when you feel like it is not working. I valued hard work for so many years and I worked really hard. I've had this work ethic and this belief that you need to work a lot of hours and a lot of days a week to be successful. And I can tell you for the first 23 years of my business, I never took time off ever. I had my computer with me all the time. I worked all the time. And you know, the only person that valued that work was me. Nobody else cared that I worked that many hours. I used to think people should be proud of me or celebrate me that I could say that I stayed up till two or three o'clock in the morning working.

And guess what? That is not what people value. What people value is freedom. So today I worked on that. I'm now at a place in my business two years in where I'm working three days a week. And yeah, there are three long days a week, but I'm working three days a week. And I have built a structure in my business that is now very scalable.

I've built and worked on maintaining a reputation that has me well-known in my niche. People know that I'm the go-to person that's going to tell you what to do and then show you how to do it. So I am so, so grateful that I took the leap of faith and I want to encourage you to do that as well. Let me tell you what the results actually are so that you've got some numbers in front of you.

So again, in May 2021 I was at 0 in revenue in a brand new niche, 0 people on my email list today, exactly 2 years later. I have cash in a $366,000 and I have about $20,000 in outstanding payments. And I'm nearly at $400,000 in my first two years in business. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, well, Debbie's a business coach, and that makes a difference. Maybe it does, but you know what I think makes a difference? That I have the gift of working hard, that I was willing to take action, and that I was willing to do the mindset coaching that I needed to do to keep myself on track. I was willing to go step by step through my own process. I was willing to shut out all of the other ideas that I had and say, Nope, I'm going to follow the one path that I created for my clients. And I'm going to stay in my, in the path of success that I know that works.

I got coaching from lots of people. I hired coaches. I got support within my business. I focused on all kinds of organic marketing. I did tons of free coaching. I introduced myself to coaches. And if you don't think that's hard, you guys, it's hard. I know what networking is. I know what it's like to go to events and walk in and not know anyone and have to put on your big girl panties and act like you're a rock star. I know what that's like, you guys. It's not easy. It's uncomfortable, but there's nothing that will kill you. We know that from life coaching, there's no emotion that will kill you, so you just have to be willing to walk through it. 

Last year in 2022, I hosted 22 free workshops. I need to do an account this year. I'm doing 'em regularly, at least two a month right now as well. all of the free marketing that I did was beginning to build momentum. As I talked to you guys about the compounding effect, the work that I was doing was compounding. People were talking about me. And by the way, I was asking for referrals. I would meet somebody and if they weren't the right person for me, I would say, Hey, who can you refer me to? Or invite a friend to one of my workshops where I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to know. That's one of the strategies that I teach my clients to like, give your best stuff away. And I know you hear this all the time, but I can tell you because I've just done it. It really is what works.

So I'm thrilled to say you guys that I have exceeded my goals. Honestly, I've built a business now that is very scalable. I have created assets for my business both last year and this year that have up-leveled everything that I offer to my clients. In the last couple of months, I've redone my entire video library, all of the collateral pieces, all of the Google documents that you can copy with emails, and all of the Canva graphics that I teach you about, I have created an entire book, a guidebook, a 167-page guidebook that supports my clients. I've also created a new program that's called the fast track where you can work with me for just 90 minutes a week, where I come in and answer your questions. It's really strategic coaching where I tell you exactly what to do, give you your next steps and you follow the same proven guidebook and this process, the 12-step process that I already had created and followed again myself. This is the same method that my clients follow as well. 

So I just want to say thank you so much to Brooke Castillo first of all, for having the courage to just keep going for being gutsy enough to talk about making 50 million dollars or a hundred million dollars for helping me see that a million dollar goal is within my reach and it's inevitable. I'm on my way to that, for helping me learn how to self-coach myself, to experience any kind of awful feeling along the way, and know that I could get to the other side. So today celebrate with me. I have created a business that is scalable, that delivers clients the results that I sell.

And guess what? Next month I'm going to be 59 years old and I never imagined in my whole life that I would actually be working less hours. I've given up the hustle. I've given up the seven days a week work. I've given up work until two o'clock in the morning because nobody cares and it does not get me further in my journey. Today I'm working three days a week. And I'm making more money than I ever imagined, and I only see the possibilities for that continuing to expand. 

So I want to invite you to join me in the fast track, my newest program inside the business building boutique. Or if you are somebody who wants all the handholding and all of the direction, I want to have you talk to me about your business and I'll extend an invitation, if you're the right person, to my VIP experience inside of the business building boutique.

I want to take a moment. I have so many people to thank for helping me. My virtual assistant team has been amazing. I've had a virtual assistant, Angela, for years because I've had an online business since 2002. So I've always had a virtual assistant. Angela was with me for many years. So incredibly grateful. She's actually the one who helped me make this transition into coaching coaches.

I now have an amazing team, Christine, Tish, and Catherine, who all support me in my business. And if you're a client, you guys have all heard about them as well. I also have had some incredible coaches work in my program. Jennifer Ritchie, you are amazing. You coached me so much. You have helped my business so much. So incredibly grateful for you. Thais Glenn is now our mindset coach inside of the business building boutique. She is helping people break through those mindset barriers that I knew clients needed. That's why I went to the life coach school in the beginning because I knew people needed business mindset coaching.

So today I'm doing what I do best, which is telling you what to do, showing you how to do it and really leaning on my own 25 years of business experience. And I have a mindset coach that takes care of your business mindset so that I can focus on what I do best. 

I also want to thank my new coach, Christine, who is so fantastic. Amanda, who helped me with all the strategies behind the business that I have now. Thank you, guys, so very much. I'm so incredibly grateful. My heart it's busting for joy. I feel so blessed, so grateful that you're listening to this podcast, that you're in my world, and that you who have been my clients have allowed me the gift of having the opportunity to help you grow your business. All I got to say is look out, world. I'm just getting started. I'm on my way to a million and I want you to come with me. All right. Have an amazing day. Talk to you very soon.

Outro: 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.