170 - The Tech You Need for Your Coaching Business
Your work as a coach can be easier when you use the right types of tech.
Embracing and learning simple technology can boost your business by making your marketing look and feel more professional. Simple tech can even help you market more consistently. The right technology can also help you create a better experience for your clients.
In this episode, we'll dive into some of my recommended tech tools that you need to grow your coaching business without breaking the bank. Don't let technology overwhelm you – from scheduling seamless coaching sessions to creating captivating graphics – these tools are designed to simplify your processes and elevate your coaching experience.
Tune in for some inspiration and discover how to let your expertise shine while technology takes care of the rest!
👉 Create a profitable business 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: Canva Pro, Calendly, Zoom, Stripe, Flodesk for email marketing, Squarespace or Wix, and Google suite, all the tools that you need for Google suite with your domain based email, all of that together equals $77.98. That is the tech that you need to learn to grow your business. And let's be real. When I just went down that list, it's not hard, you guys. It feels hard. And yes, there's a learning curve. And yes, if you haven't learned technology in a long time, it's hard. But it's not impossible.
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.
Welcome back. I'm so glad you're here. We are in the middle of a six part series. Today, we're going to be talking about pillar five of the business building boutique. Before we get started today, though, I just want to give a quick recap if you have not been listening. And I'm going to go through the first four pillars that I talked about, and these are all part of what makes up the Business Building Boutique. I think these are all pieces that you, as a coach, need to learn and implement and do to be able to create a business that you will love, honestly, one that will attract clients and one that you can enjoy running.
So in pillar one, we talked about getting aligned with your personal brand, really defining a personal brand and a business brand, one that will attract your ideal clients. In pillar two, we talked about creating that marketing message, that first of all, will make your marketing easy. And second of all, will really attract the right client. The goal of all of your marketing is to get somebody intrigued enough that they will take the next step, which for most of you is going to be scheduling a consultation. So we want to make sure we've got that curated collection of client converting copy. How amazing does that sound?
Pillar number three, we talked about crafting your unique coaching offer. I mentioned it before, and I'll say it again. Your offer is not a number of weeks and a price. Your offer is designed to solve the problem that you are selling in your marketing. So if you have not listened to that, you might want to go back and take a listen.
In pillar number four, last week, we talked about just streamlining the processes of your business. So your business can be Simple and profitable. Isn't that what we all are looking for? I know that as a coach, most of you guys have gone into business for yourself because yes, number one, you want to do what you're most passionate about, but ultimately you want to have control over your schedule. That time freedom thing is big. You also want to have control over your income. So those two things together are what you need to create that simple process for having a profitable business. That was last week's episode.
This week, we're going to talk about the tech that you need to grow your coaching business. So I know most of you guys, when we talk about tech, you're like, “Oh my gosh, I'm so bad at tech. I am terrible at tech. I didn't grow up with a phone in my hand. I haven't used that.” Let me just first say, first of all, you probably are better at tech than you're giving yourself credit for because almost all of you have worked in some career where you've used a computer all day long. And I suspect that you are on your iPhone, which is a computer in your hand all day long. So you actually do know how to use technology. That story right there, if you can change it, like I'm terrible at tech or, you know, I don't know how to use tech. If you can change that story, it will actually make learning the technology easier.
So when we talk about the technology that you need for your coaching business, I also want to say, I've added it up. And if you use this technology in your coaching business, and this is everything that you need, it's $77.98 a month. So you do not need to be spending a bunch of money to run a successful, profitable coaching business. All right. Do we get it?
What I want to ask you first is, will you allow your business to be easy? Now I know we've touched on that in the other episodes, but Can you find a way to make your business easy and sustainable? This is so important because as we talk about the technology that you're going to use in your business, and you do need to probably use some, I want to make sure that it's easy. And then you don't put systems in place that are unsustainable. Don't bother doing things that you won't do. If you're not going to consistently take notes in Google, which I'll talk to you about in a minute, then don't even try to learn how to do it. Just do it in your journal. If that's the way you're going to do client notes, just do it in your journal.
There is always an easier way because not that long ago when I was in business, you know, back in the dark ages, 25 years ago, I didn't have a computer to do all this scheduling. Yes, we had computers, but it wasn't like today. We used a calendar. I took notes in a spiral notebook. It was so basic and your business can be that way too, if you want it to. You want to stop overthinking what you're doing and just execute. You want to stop worrying about breaking the technology because guess what, you're not going to break it. You really can't screw something up so bad that you can't fix it.
I know it feels like “Uh-oh what if I do something really wrong.” Almost all the time you can just use the back arrow and go back to where you were. I want you to stop being worried about what everybody thinks about you. Now, I know that's not directly related to your technology, but in many of the pieces that you're going to be using, like Canva, you put out things into the world using technology, and you're worried about it not being good enough. Remember, B- is good enough because until you start doing these things, you won't get better. I want you to just think about your client first. What do they need from you? And you guys, they don't even have an expectation. Unless they have been working with coaches for a long time, they have no idea what to even expect. So you can keep things super, super simple.
All right, let me run through the technology that you need to run your coaching business. First of all, Canva pro. I mean, I talk about Canva all the time. Can you do your business without Canva pro? Yes, you can. But remember, I'm talking about running your coaching business on $77.98. Y'all need to invest in your business sometimes. Think about it. If you had a business, an office somewhere, a retail space somewhere, my goodness, you would be paying rent and utilities and maintenance and insurance and all kinds of things. I think that's one of the challenges with growing an online business is we're under the impression that it costs nothing to grow it. And that's just not true. You're always going to probably have a coach that you're working with. You're always going to have some expense in the tools that you need, just like the utilities that you would need for your retail space.
So Canva Pro, should you spend the money on it? Yes. Do you have to? No. So Canva Pro is $12.99 a month, and I'm sure if you pay a full year, it's probably cheaper. It is worth it because you'll set up your brand kit there. And when I talk about wanting you to have consistency, I also want it to be less overwhelming and less stressful for you to create the graphics that you need for your business and for you to be able to do a whole bunch at one time.
If you've watched the Canva training, you have heard me talk about repurposing those 30 days of graphics. If you have four or five brand colors, you might as well take 30 times four and you get 120 different graphics. You just continue to change the color variations on them, and now you have an entire collection of graphics. That is so much simpler to do and it's literally a few clicks if you do it in Canva Pro. If you don't use Canva Pro then you've got to go in every time and put in the color hex code the six digit color code, select the font that you want. You have to do a little bit more work, but it's possible if you're getting started and you want to use a free version.
The next tool that you need is a calendar. Now you can use a free calendar for a long time. And many people that I work with use a free calendar. At some point, you're going to want to expand what you're offering and you're going to want to pay for a calendar. I recommend Calendly. It is $8 a month if you use the lowest version, and that's all you need you guys. So what will that get you? That will give you the ability to be able to use more than 1 appointment time. So, maybe you'll have an appointment type that's a consultation and there'll be a certain link for that. Then you'll actually have a private coaching link. And it can be linked up to a payment so somebody can pay you, then they get access to your calendar to schedule their appointment. So that's $8 a month.
You want to use the paid version of Zoom. Please do not try to use a 45 minute Zoom because I have been on the receiving end of those calls. And let me tell you, as the person who's on the receiving end, it's nerve wracking because the timer is going. It's counting down how much time you have left and it's so distracting. It's like, you're “Oh, I have to hurry up and get through this call because the timer is going to go off” or to say to somebody, “We'll just relog back in.” I mean, you can do it and people have done it to me. But look, Zoom is $1599 a month. It is worth the investment. You do not need a Zoom webinar. You don't need anything else, but the basic version, which is $1599.
Now you're all going to use some kind of payment platform. I recommend Stripe. Some of you guys use Square. Some of you guys use PayPal, and there's a bunch of other ones, but Stripe is really international. I've had clients all over the world, and that seems to be the easiest for everyone to use. The cost of that is 30 cents a transaction and 2.9% of the total fee. When I hear clients say to me, “Oh my gosh, it costs me so much to run a payment.” You guys, seriously, 30 cents and 2.9%. Raise your price. Raise your price till you don't have that thought about it costing too much. This is just like going to the bank.
By using Stripe, we're connected to people around the entire world. They do the conversion, the dollar conversions for you. It is a no brainer, honestly. You do not want to use Venmo. You do not want to use the Cash app. I know some of you guys are doing that, but really, if you want to be seen as a professional, then get on Stripe, use a card processing company. And yes, you can use PayPal too. You can use Square. I'm just telling you, the one that I recommend that you use is Stripe.
All right, Flodesk. Flodesk is the email service provider that I recommend. I will leave a link. It is an affiliate link, which means I make $19 off of it, but you guys get it for $19 a month for the entire first year. So it's 50% off. It's normally $38, but you'll get it for $19. It's an email marketing tool, and you're going to need to use something. Now, I know that MailerLite is free. And if you want to use that, go ahead. That's fine too. I just know that it doesn't have the same options as Flodesk does. And it's not quite as easy to use. So I recommend that if you don't want to be overwhelmed and stressed out that you use something that's easier, which is Flodesk. Again, $19 a month.
Your website. I recommend Squarespace or Wix. If you're going to build your own website, I definitely don't recommend WordPress. Now I know many of you guys have that, but for most of you, you're going to need some outside support if you use a WordPress website. So I had a WordPress website just to be clear, I'm not against WordPress. I had a WordPress website for 22 years, so a long time. I have a Squarespace website now, but WordPress often requires some coding. And so you're going to have to get in there and really hire somebody who knows how to do coding to do your website. And what happens when you have to hire somebody else to do your website is you're a little bit held hostage by somebody else coming in to fix something. I want to make sure that you know how to use every tool in your business. So if you start with Squarespace or Wix, you'll be able to probably do it all on your own. $16 a month, and that includes your domain.
All right. The final tool that you will be using again, you do not have to, but is Google suite. That is how you will get your domain based email. So my domain based email is debbie@debbieshadid.com. My domain name is debbieshadid.com. So if you want to have an email like that, a professional email, and I recommend that you do, I always see an email address that's just like a regular Gmail address. And I think, “Oh, well, I mean, they may not be real serious about their business.” If they were real serious, I think they would be sending an email from their domain name.
Now, you're starting out, I know you don't even have a website, so you're going to be using your Gmail address. I will say for sure, let's not use AOL or Hotmail. And I'll have to out myself and say, I am still using an M.E., Mac email address on my personal email, and I rarely, rarely use that. It's basically set up with, you know, physicians and doctors and, like online ordering and stuff, but all of those are out of date email address providers. And they really tell a story about us. So I'm adding myself again that we’re behind. So you want to have something like Gmail if you're going to use it for your business. Gmail is the most widely respected and the most current. So if you're not going to have domain based email, then pick your name first and last name, nothing crazy or creative, debbieshadid@gmail.com. It would be something as simple as that.
All right. Those tools again, I will run through this. Canva Pro, Calendly, Zoom, Stripe, Flodesk for email marketing, Squarespace or Wix, and Google suite, all the tools that you need for Google suite with your domain based email, all of that together equals $77.98. That is the tech that you need to learn to grow your business. And let's be real. When I just went down that list, it's not hard, you guys. It feels hard. And yes, there's a learning curve. And yes, if you haven't learned technology in a long time, it's hard. But it's not impossible. It just requires you to sit down and just do it and stick to it.
I will tell you inside of the Business Building Boutique, I teach all of this stuff. So that when you are stuck on something, you're like, “I'm about to pull my hair out and watch the videos and I still can't get past this step”, which, you know, that happens. Then you just come to coaching, you share your screen and I say, “Alright, move your mouse here, or here's what the problem is.” That is the kind of coaching that I always wanted that I did not have, which is why I provide it today. So if you are terrible at technology and you want your hand held on it, then come work with me.
All right, I want to talk to you about Google. Google has got the best tools that are all available to you and I would use them whether you're using them with your Gmail email address, or whether you're using it with your domain based, you know, your website, debbie@debbieshadid.com. If you're using it like that, you will have access to Google tools that will be everything you need to run your business.
The first tool that I highly recommend that you use is Google Voice. That is a free phone number. Do not give out your regular cell phone number. Just don't. I mean, I'm not afraid now to give my regular cell phone number obviously to clients, but I provide my cell number to all of you guys, like you could call me right now 405 633 2064. I am not afraid to give that phone number out. It's my Gmail, my Google voice phone number that comes to my computer. So I don't have my phone turned on. The app is downloaded to my phone. So the app is right here. It rings directly to my phone.
All of my client communication is in one location. So if I have to text somebody about something or if I need to answer a question or a consultation call, for example, if you guys have had a consultation, I leave my phone number there. So, in case you're stuck on getting on zoom or you're running behind or something you can text me. So all of that communication is in one location, which is in Google Voice. Again, it's free. I highly recommend that you use that.
The second piece that I want to talk about is Google Drive. Google Drive is like a file cabinet. It's like Dropbox. It's like, I don't know, whatever other storage tool that you've used. So Google Drive is a file cabinet where you create files of everything that you have. The most beautiful part about Google is that you can share what you do, a folder, a document, Google Sheets, Google Forms. Whatever it is, you can share it with somebody, give them access to edit, to comment, to view, and you can revoke the access. So it can become like your file cabinet full of links and information that you share with anybody, clients, eventually your team. I know I'll talk to you about having a team someday. I have an incredible team. You will share stuff out of your Google Drive and then you can revoke access. or they can share something with you and you can go in and collaborate with each other.
So Google Drive, an excellent way to start your business today from the very beginning by being organized by adding it to file folders. I want to make a strong recommendation that if you work with anyone or collaborate with anyone, you make sure that all of your file folders are in your name, in your Google, in your file cabinet, in your Google drive. I had an assistant who is wonderful, amazing. I love her Angela. we are not working together anymore because she's not doing virtual assisting and a lot of the things she made. So she shared them with me from her Google. And at the time I didn't think anything about it and she didn't think about it. But now she's not in that business. And she actually has my files on her computer. They're shared with me, but it would be much better if you set up the folder and shared it with somebody else. All right, so that you have all of your business assets in one place.
All right, the next one I want to talk about is Google Docs. This is like a Word doc. It's like pages. Oh my goodness, you guys, the beautiful thing about Google that I haven't mentioned is that you can put it on any device you have. It's cloud based so it can be on your iPad, it can be on your phone. And it can be on any computer and you can access it from anywhere in the world. So you can have an idea, you know, while you're laying in bed at night, grab your phone and put an idea in a Google document and it updates everywhere.
So Google documents are just like Word, just like pages. And they are a great place to either take client notes, to write your emails, to take any other kind of information that you need. I am literally on Google documents all day long. That is the software that I use to take client notes so I track my client appointments there. Sometimes I share the notes with clients, sometimes I don't. But it has been, wow, a really, really great tool. Highly recommend that you learn how to do that because again, you can share your Google document with somebody else. Let's say you have a peer coaching friend, you can send the document to them and have them look over. Once you review something, they can look over it and literally make comments. And it immediately is real time coming back to you.
Then I want to talk to you about sheets. Google Sheets are just like Excel. Now there is so much information for you to keep track of in your business. And when you're in the beginning stages of your business, you have an opportunity to keep it straight. So please start doing this now. I wish somebody would have suggested this to me years ago and they didn't. And I have been in business for so many years. I have so much information in a lot of places.
Google Sheets can be a place where you can track your whole business. So if you get one Google document, and let's say it was your content bank. One sheet can have like monthly themes on it. Then you can add a tab that would say like weekly themes and you break that down. Then you could add a tab and it could say daily content. You could add a tab and it could include newsletter information. You could add a tab and anything. You see what I'm saying? All the things that you copy the ideas that you have, it can all be basically like in a notebook. Those sheets, individual sheets that you duplicate and add in Google, then become like a spiral notebook of all kinds of information.
I heard somebody say, a couple of years ago, that was doing a podcast that they had documented from podcast number one. They had, like, the three key things they talked about in that podcast. The two stories they told. When they do a podcast, they've been able to pull out that sheet and reference any other previous podcast they've done because they can say, oh, I shared more about that story in episode 49 and 95. I'm up to episode 166 and I did not do that. And oh, my goodness, that's because I had 100 and something episodes done when I heard this idea that would be so valuable because I do wonder how often I tell you guys the same thing. I can go through the old episodes and kind of remember what I talked about, but if you had a document with everything, that would be amazing. So I love Google sheets.
All right. The next and final tool I want to talk about is Google calendar. I would recommend that you use a Google calendar versus anything else. So there's many reasons to use your Google calendar. Number one is it's all connected to Google to your email. It's all in the same place and it's all cloud based. Number two, it is a really nice, simple way to track everything. You can color code the type of appointments. So for example, a private coaching appointment in my calendar is red. My personal coaching that I get is green. My fast track clients, their appointments are blue. understand what I'm saying? They're all color coded. So I look at it like I have all of my bills, the days that everything auto processes, I have like three days before it's going to come out of one account. What the amount is and what it's for. That's in gray at the top of my calendar every day. I have a notice to a couple of mantras throughout the day that I say, so everything can be there. And once you learn that color pattern, it's so brilliant because you can look at your week on Sunday and say, okay, I see what I have coming and I can kind of plan the rest of everything else that goes on in your household around that calendar.
Now, the other thing that you can do is that you can collaborate with people through that calendar. So if you have a private client, for example, you can add their name and if it's repeated 12 sessions. You can add their name and your appointment with the zoom link goes on to their calendar. It is a way to keep track of appointments. And if for some reason, you get a little bit off on your schedule, and let's say, somebody cancels 1 or reschedules 1, you can still go back and I can put in the person's name.
I can put in Laura and under Laura, then it will bring up her name and every little red dot was a one on one appointment. And I can do a count to just double check myself. How many sessions did she actually have? So what session number are we on? It's a really simple way. If you will do that and track your appointments there, and then take your notes and your Google documents, oh, my gosh. So simple. You don't need anything fancy. You just need those tools.
One last thing I'll mention is AI is something you guys. You don't need to buy all the AI stuff or even subscribe to something. I will tell you, I did subscribe at the first of the year to several AI tools because I wanted to learn them to tell my clients about it. But you do not need to use any paid AI in the beginning of your business. At some point, maybe you will, but there are plenty of options that are free. And remember, AI is magic, but only when you give it the right information. You've got to feed it with the right information for it to be able to give back some good information to you.
So I hope that helps. Cannot wait to hear what you think about this. Will you do me a favor? If you're enjoying this podcast, will you guys leave me a review? I would appreciate it so much. I just love doing this for you. Would love to hear from you. Feel free to send me a message on anything else you want to learn. And I'm happy to serve you. So you guys have a great week 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.