167 - Building a Personal Coaching Brand That Gets You Noticed
Calling all coaches! When it comes to achieving success, always remember: there's enough room for everyone to shine. But the question remains: how do you stand out and connect with your ideal clients? It all lies in your brand. When you genuinely understand your clients and showcase your true self, your brand will naturally attract the right people. YOU hold the key to creating that magnetic connection!
This week, we're kicking off an exciting six-part series on building your boutique business, and we're starting with the essential topic of personal branding. In this episode, we'll delve into the basics of designing an authentic and compelling brand that resonates with your niche.
Tune in and learn why being YOU is the key to attracting the right audience and growing your coaching business effortlessly. Say farewell to cookie-cutter approaches, and get ready to craft a unique story that makes you the coach your clients can't resist!
👉 Create a profitable business that that looks good and sets you up to be respected through the Fast Track Business Building Boutique Program
👉 Check out my FREE Canva Workshop and learn how to create stunning graphics for your coaching business!
Transcript
Preview: The goal is to be identified for something, and I want to be identified as somebody who over delivers who over gives, who really goes out of the way to go above and beyond. I want my clients to buy coaching from me and then be delighted because they got more than what they bought. I want them to be so relieved when they work with me because I'm doing what nobody else is doing. So what do you want to be known for? When you think about whatever your niche is, what would you want somebody to say about you? What would you want them to remember about you?
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.
Hi there, welcome to today's podcast. I'm going to be talking to you about a boutique business. If you've been around for a while, you know that my program is called the Business Building Boutique. What I want to do in the next few weeks is take you through the six pillars that I believe make up a really effective business. And for me, it is the process that I take my clients through in the business building boutique. So let me first start by defining what I believe a boutique business is. The boutique business is a business that is built on your terms To attract the clients that you want to work with to have the pricing at a level that supports the lifestyle that you want and that reflects you personally.So that's a boutique business in a nutshell. And that is what I do inside of the business building boutique. I help you create your own boutique business.
All right, let's talk about the pillars. And today I'm going to dive into the first pillar. The six pillars include pillar number one, which is building a brand and a business that really, first of all, reflects you. And second is something that will help you attract your ideal client. Pillar number two is creating this curated collection of really compelling copy. That's the marketing message that you will be known for. And if it's compelling enough, that will help generate business for you. The third pillar is about crafting a unique offer that is unique to you. So my offer is the business building boutique. I have a VIP version of it, and I have a fast track. That is my offer. And the offer that I have delivers the results that I am talking about in my core marketing message. The fourth pillar is about streamlining your processes in your business so that you can have a simple and profitable business. Now, who doesn't want that? All right, pillar number five is about setting up easy tech to be able to manage your business. And the last pillar pillar number 6 is about designing a business to support your lifestyle.
So, for the next 6 weeks, I'm going to take a deep dive into each 1 of those pillars because, as I mentioned, I believe that is everything that you need to create a business that you will really love and that you will be able to grow in a more effortless way.
Today, we're going to talk about pillar number 1, and that is about you having this boutique personal brand and a business identity that speaks to your niche client. Let's talk about personal branding. First of all, what is that? That is you. You're the brand of the business. And unless you are a large company and unless you're working for somebody, you are what somebody buys. They buy you because they connect with you. One of the things that I tell people when I work with them, it's like, there is enough business for everybody. And even if I only worked with weight loss coaches, let's say my whole entire business was weight loss coaches. Every single one of you would be bringing something different. And people hire you because they connect with you. People hire me as their business coach because they connect and they feel like they know me. So I am representing myself to you in a way that attracts you as my ideal client. So what do you want people to say about you? If you think about your reputation, this is your opportunity when we think about personal branding for you to establish your reputation in advance.
In the life coach school, we talk about your future self. So let's talk about your future successful self. Let's think about how you would identify who you are in the future. What would your reputation be? What would people be saying about you? How would you look? What would you be known for? This is important. What would your presence be? And I want you to operate your business from that place. What would your posture be? You know, when somebody says they know who you are and they see you across the room, what is it that they see, right? They read the body language. And I don't mean posture like shoulders back, but what is it that they read about your presence?
Business branding is another part of this first pillar. So we've got personal branding and business branding, and really for coaches, they're really one in the same. For most of you, when you think about a business brand, you're thinking about a logo and that is a business brand, but that's just one element. So a business brand is made up of a collection of colors. It's made up of fonts. It's the aesthetics that people will identify you, your brand with. It's the aesthetics, colors, designs that will represent your company that will become, what you're known for, what people will expect from you. For me, I am sitting in what my brand looks like.
So I have red. That's a very small touch of my brand color. I have colors around me that represent my brand. So that's the brand that I'm sitting in. If you go look at my website, if you look at my Instagram page, if you look at this podcast page, it all has a cohesive look that represents a brand that I believe looks like a professional brand that you can trust. And that is the feedback that I get from people. People tell me, wow, you seem so sincere, genuinely sincere. They say, we can feel how committed you are to gosh, to potential clients, to your clients, we see your heart in all that you do. That's how I want to have people perceive me. And that is how people perceive me.
Now that's naturally, hopefully how I am. So it's an extension of me. The goal is to be identified for something, and I want to be identified as somebody who overdelivers, who overgives, who really goes out of the way to go above and beyond. I want my clients to buy coaching from me and then be delighted because they got more than what they bought.
I want them to be so relieved when they work with me because I'm doing what nobody else is doing. So what do you want to be known for? When you think about whatever your niche is, what would you want somebody to say about you? What would you want them to remember about you? When you come on zoom and they're meeting you for a consultation call, will they connect with the you that they see on zoom compared to the you that they have seen on social media? And I hope that that's true. Oftentimes people are like, wow, you do look exactly like your pictures. I'm like, yes, I do. Because this is exactly the way I look. I'm not wearing lipstick and makeup and hair just because I do this every day. So what is a look for you that you want to be identified with?
I had a client that I was working with this week, to help her complete her website and her branding. And she had photos taken for her website. And she was wearing a jacket like a blazer, which I wear often. That's one of the things I'm kind of known for. And she said, you know, the problem with this website is I'm putting this together and this doesn't really look like me because I never wear blazers. She said, actually, I wear yoga clothes. I said, all right, when you get your pictures retaken, then you need to intentionally be dressing in the way that you would naturally dress. So that is the same for you. You need to represent you, your future self, the one that you're working to become today in a picture.
And then when you go to work, you show up that way. One of the things that happens with the personal branding process that we do inside of the business building boutique is we work on creating a brand image for you. And part of that has to do with the way that you dress. And I would recommend that you figure out a way to dress where you feel empowered, where you can show up on a consultation and you feel great. You're looking at yourself on zoom and you're like, I look good. I look like a pro, whatever that is. And that doesn't have to be dressy, but whatever that is, you want to decide how you want to be seen.
Then you want to begin to craft a story of your successful coaching business. You want to decide what that looks like. So many of you have a lifestyle associated with your business and maybe it's traveling. Maybe it's flexibility. Maybe it's time with your kids. You want to decide what that's going to look like. And you want to build your business around that. And then you want people to know, y'all know about my little Lucy, my first granddaughter, my business structure has changed because I have a new addition in my life and I want to spend time with her.
So Wednesdays is my Lucy day and everybody knows that. What do you want to be known for? You want to figure out what your identity is as a business person. Now, do you want to be known as somebody who can approach your business as if you have a company? I'm pretty sure you do. So you want to put on more than one hat. You don't just want to wear your coaching hat. You want to be an owner of a coaching company. How would you approach your business If you were the owner of a coaching company? So you want to act as if you're already successful.
So if you are successful, what would you be doing with your time? You would be planning it. This is all again, The personal and business brand of you. How do you show up and operate your business? Well, I hope you manage your time well. I hope that you plan your time well. I hope that you self coach yourself to keep yourself on track. I hope that you assess. I am always assessing, and I am always experimenting.
In the month of July, I did all kinds of experimental marketing things that I had never done before. It was a way to see what would interest you enough to have a consultation with me to talk about my coaching business. So I experimented, I did four or five brand new things that I've never done before. You want to be constantly experimenting in your business. Constantly thinking, how can I connect with one more person and what is it that they would need to know? You want to treat your business like it is a business. You're the boss, but you're also the employee. So there are times when you are not going to feel good. There are times when you're not going to want to do the work and you do it anyway, because the boss is watching you. You also want to think about your energy. What is the way that people perceive you in your business? Energetic, happy, maybe it's calm, right? Maybe you're coaching around anxiety and you want to have a real calm presence. And you want people to see that maybe if that's the case, the lighting in your room would be softer. I want vibrancy as part of my brand and I want people to feel the energy of that. So I have a very bright light space.
Now let's talk about your boutique niche client that is also part of your business and personal brand. Now, I'm going to be talking about a lot of these pieces in several of the other pillars over the next few weeks. But when we talk about your personal and business brand, we want to make sure that it attracts your ideal client. And I suspect if you are aligned with your ideal client, you are going to automatically attract that person into your business.
Now, there's a little trial and error that goes with this because you might find that you're not attracting the right person. And so maybe there's some shifting that needs to happen. Sometimes when you pick out your favorite colors for a business brand, if we're working together, I might tell you, you know what, I think we need a little bit more sophisticated palette and less playful depends on your coaching, but you see it's small shifts like that in your personal brand that will speak to your boutique client. You want to narrow your niche down so that your brand really does get your ideal client to say, Hey, this lady is talking to me. That's the goal of a brand.
We're gonna also be talking next week about that client converting copy, the marketing message that you write that will also speak to your ideal client. Now, I want you to find three key thoughts that they will think in their words, and I want you to start thinking about that and see how you could incorporate that into the fabric of your brand, into the flavor of your brand.
Your brand will attract the right person when you have thought about them and when you've clearly defined yourself and when you're representing yourself that way. All right, that is an overview of pillar number 1 inside of the business building budget. This is what will help you separate yourself from other coaches.
This is what will help you be seen as a unique, memorable coach. So get to work designing that beautiful personal brand and business identity that will speak to your niche client. All right, guys, join me next week we will be talking about client converting copy. Have an amazing week guys until next time. Bye bye.
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.