191 - How The Confident Eater, Amber Abila Went from $10k to $48k in Less Than a Year
Episode 191 of the Life Coach Business Building Podcast
In this week’s episode, we’ll reflect on Amber’s story of transformation, where a minor setback led her to launch her group program and increase her income fivefold from the previous year.
We'll talk about her marketing strategies, her approach to social media, pricing her program, and her mindset work – all contributing to making her business more enjoyable and profitable.
We'll also discuss how tapping into your own intuition can benefit you in your business-building journey.
Amber's story shows that staying committed to your business and receiving the right mindset coaching will pay off, because success belongs to those who just keep going.
Don't miss out on this inspiring episode to kick off your own year of transformation!
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Transcript:
Preview: So when I first found Debbie, I was really excited to have more of the actionable steps that she gives, really have a little bit more structure and guidance. And at that point I was just doing private clients, but I knew at that time that I wanted to do a group program. That was my ultimate goal. I travel a lot, so it's really important for me and my business to have time freedom and be able to, you know, eventually go live wherever I want at all times. I do a lot of that now, but to even have more time freedom, I knew that I would need a group program in order to allow me to do that.
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.
Debbie: Welcome to today's podcast. I am super excited to bring back somebody that I recently had on my podcast. You guys can refer back and learn more about Amber in episode 176. Amber, introduce yourself, tell us who you coach, and then we'll get into the nitty gritty of your incredibly successful second year in business.
Amber: Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Amber Abila. I'm happy to be back again. I am a binge eating and overeating coach. I help people feel normal and in control, heal their relationships with food so they can really create their dream eating habits. And I started this after years of struggling with food myself and doing therapy, trying intuitive eating, even other coaching programs. And nothing really worked until I learned the deeper mindset of our brain and how it works. And that's how I really came out of my food struggles.
Debbie: Well, your story is certainly inspiring and I know that you've had a huge impact on a lot of people. So we're going to dig into that. I wanted to bring you on to just talk about your 2023. All that kind of unfolded for you. We were working together I believe since February of 2023, so all through the year, basically. I'd love to hear kind of a recap, if you wouldn't mind, of where you started. You built your business with private clients and then we can talk about your group program if you want to give a little synopsis to everybody.
Amber: Yeah. So when I first found Debbie, I was really excited to have more of the actionable steps that she gives, really have a little bit more structure and guidance. And at that point I was just doing private clients, but I knew at that time that I wanted to do a group program. That was my ultimate goal. I travel a lot, so it's really important for me and my business to have time freedom and be able to, you know, eventually go live wherever I want at all times. I do a lot of that now, but to even have more time freedom, I knew that I would need a group program in order to allow me to do that.
So when I found Debbie, I had the idea in my mind that around April, I wanted to start a group program, and I was super excited about it, super gung ho, just like, ready to go full force with it, and I really put my all into that first group effort, but I really did not have anyone sign up. I had one person that I offered a scholarship offer to for like 80% off and she had said yes, but at that point she was the only one. So I decided to not go the group route and continued one-on-one for quite a few more months until I started thinking about the group program again more recently.
And the reason I continued to do one-on-one is I really just recognized the value of the ability to charge a bit more with one-on-one. And of course you can get your group to charge the same amount. But I just knew for me at that point, if I wanted to reach my income goals, I needed to focus more on one-on-one. So I prioritized that until I started thinking about doing the group again.
Debbie: Yes. And you did a really good job of filling up with private clients. What would you say was the most effective marketing or your approach to filling up your private clients practice?
Amber: Yeah, with one-on-one clients, most of them do come from Instagram. For me, that's kind of always been my primary platform, but a really surprising place for me has been a Facebook group too. I go live in my Facebook group every week. I ask a few prompts for engagements. And it honestly is a pretty easy thing to do, but I had a few people who had just found me randomly through Facebook, and like a month later, they had become a private client.
So I found that the people who did find my Facebook group, who were really looking for help, would watch my past Facebook Lives, they'd get really sucked in, and then they'd want to book a consultation with me. So primarily through Instagram, just making those connections there. I don't have a ton of referrals. I've met a few people in person. I had a gym that I go to pretty frequently and I had a few people from there, but it's been a few different routes and just really staying consistent in all those different areas.
Debbie: So in the fall, I guess late fall November ish, we started talking about the group again and you were forecasting for I think I'm going to relaunch my group after the first of the year. And I said, Well, why would you wait? So do you want to talk about after doing the group and then not successfully doing it? But certainly learning a lot and getting all the marketing done for it. How you decided, um, okay, I'll do it anyway, even though I'm not ready. You did decide to go ahead and launched in November.
Amber: At that point I was at, I think like eight one-on-one clients. I think maybe I even had like nine at one point in the transition phase of like, I had some people coming in, some leaving. So it was kind of like a temporary nine, but I just remember I had like a few weeks where I was just so overwhelmed with one-on-one clients. And I was like, I need the group now. Like, I just need to start figuring this out because I want to have space for these people to go. For me personally, my limit is kind of around 10 one-on-one clients. So I have enough time to do everything else that you need to do to run your business. So I was thinking about doing the group and yeah, I totally did not feel like ready to do it.
I wanted to wait, I think even till like mid February, I was just trying to push it off as long as possible. And our lovely mindset coach Thais, she told me that I was probably carrying in a lot of, like, the drama from the past launch into this one, which I totally was. I was really scared to do it again. I didn't want to have that same feeling of failure, even though I did get to a good place with the last group launch that I realized I had learned a lot. One of the biggest things I learned from the last group is putting your pricing on the website. You know, I know people can go kind of both ways, but for me, I learned that people were just scrolling to the bottom of the page.
They would see the price. And even though I thought it was an excellent price, they were just exiting out. And I had one moment where I was messaging this woman on Facebook. We had been going back and forth over messenger. She had been to quite a few of my free trainings and she seemed really interested in coaching.
And I was inviting her into the program. I said, I'd love to have a consultation call with you to talk further. And she said, Wow, Amber, that looks like an amazing program. And I would love to join, but we're saving for a house and we're trying to get out of debt. And then a few weeks later, she messaged me about private coaching and she said, Hey, how much is your private coaching? And I said, well, let's get on a consultation call. Let's talk through it. And then she ended up becoming a private client. So that was just the moment for me that I realized people will always tell themselves that's too much. And sometimes they just need to talk to you to realize the value of that.
Debbie: Yeah. I mean, I think too, for a coach, you want to know that you have a connection with the right person too.
Amber: Yeah. So anyways, I decided to go ahead and do the group because I felt like it was a good time. I was having a big influx of people coming in. So I was like, it would be really nice to have a place to put them. I felt like I was generating a lot of interest at that time. So I was like, all right, let's just go ahead and do it. And I decided to just use all my marketing from the last launch. I did tweak it some in a really good tip that Debbie gave me was to put it in ChatGPT, and I was just super simple about it.
I just said, make this email more engaging or make this email more persuasive. And I would just take bits and pieces of that to help me kind of refine the emails a bit more. But I was trying to make it as easy as possible because ultimately I decided on the group and then like a week later I was going to be talking about it so it had to be a pretty quick process.
Debbie: One of the things that I really admire about you is that you are able to come, ask questions, get coached, get what your next steps are, what I think your next steps would be. And then I love it that somehow you tap into your own intuition, and you come back and you're like, this is what I decided.
And it is often maybe a variation of what I suggested you do, but it's definitely not exactly what I suggested. And it's so great. I wish more people would do that. You take the concept and you make it your own. So do you want to share about that?
Amber: Yeah, the funny thing is, I used to never be like that. I used to always be the person who wanted other people's opinions and advice and would always put their thoughts above my own and really just realized what other people thought and said.
But the longer I've been in business, the more I realized that I really need to put my opinion over it at the end of the day, because as amazing as Debbie is, you know, she's not the one in your business every day. She's not working through it five days a week, 10 hours a day, or however much you're working. It's you who are doing that. So you need to really figure out what works for you too. And, I just felt like the more I started tuning into what I wanted, the easier it became too, because you have a lot more knowledge than you might think about, your desires and what would work for you, and when I tuned into that, it just made everything so much easier for me to complete and do because it felt a lot more aligned in something that was truly a desire of mine.
Debbie: Yeah, I love it. And when you did the launch for your group program, you repurpose the emails from the first launch, like you said, put them in ChatGPT and have some changes made on it. And as far as social media goes, you want to share your approach to social media? Because it works.
Amber: Yeah, so I just did my marketing day by day through social media. I woke up and I was like, all right, we're going to have to create my posts today. They're going to have to say something about the group. And I did base a lot of them off the email. So I kind of just tweaked the email content to make it into a reel or a static post on Instagram. But it was really because I was doing it so quickly for the group that I was like, I can't get together a month's worth of marketing in one week with everything else I'm doing right now too.
So I was like, all right, let's just do it day by day. And I found that that helped my creativity a lot too, because sometimes I think we all know the feeling of sitting down at your desk and being like, all right, write five reel ideas and like nothing comes to your brain. It's like that writer's block.
So sometimes for me, just doing my content day to day allows for a little bit more creative freedom. And then sometimes those would often do a bit better because. I'm having more fun with it and it's not so structured and I'm able to just kind of do the first idea that comes to my mind. So I definitely think there's value in planning your marketing ahead of time, but it worked out fine for me to just do it day to day, as long as you're committed to making sure you get it done and working through any brain drama that comes up about doing it.
Debbie: Well, and I think drama does come up, you can share about this too, when you are close to the end of your launch, writing more emails feels like a lot as if you are, you know, in people's inbox way too much. So, you want to talk a little bit about how you felt about that from a mindset point of view?
Amber: Yeah. So I did my group launch for a total of a month, from the start of announcing it to the end that it closed. So I was sending out a lot of emails during that time and looking back for the next group, I'm definitely gonna make my launch period a little bit shorter because it was a long time to be talking about the group and having it open.
But definitely towards the end, I had a bonus that was expiring where I had bonus coaching sessions with me privately, if they decide to join by certain dates. So I was sending out, you know, multiple emails, like the bonus is expiring, make sure you sign up soon before it expires. And then I did have some resistance come up, well, now I have to send more emails to say that the group is closing too.
And I had already had a few people in my group and I felt really good about the amount of people I had. I think maybe at that point I had like four or five and so I was like so over the moon excited about it too that I was like, we officially have a group we're doing it. That my mind was kind of like, well, we don't really need any more people.
So we don't have to send out any more emails. But I did work through that because I imagined the type of person who was just waiting for one more email from me, just one more reminder, who is, you know, a busy woman and they're just scrolling through their email, you know, deleting, deleting, deleting. And so I thought about, you know, maybe there's that one person who is just waiting for a few more emails to remind them about the group. And that could be another person that I could help and have in the group. So I kind of use that to work through, okay, imagining that human who really needs these last few emails, to help me through that.
Debbie: And it worked.
Amber: Yeah, you know, in the last two days, I didn't get anyone. But I did have a consultation the day that the group closed. She had booked her consultation earlier that week. But who knows, maybe if I didn't send out those closing emails, even though she had the consultation call with me, maybe she would have felt a little more hesitant because I think when she saw the emails too, she was probably in the mindset of, oh, I gotta make this decision quickly when I get on this consultation. So, yeah, it worked.
Debbie: And so you officially have a group program. You're into it and you're loving it.
Amber: Yeah, so I'm just two weeks into it, but it has already been so fun. And I'm just amazed with the lovely women that have joined the group. They're all so interactive. I was a little bit nervous about my group being too small.
I knew if I had three people, at least I would do the group. and I ended up with six people. So I had five paying people and then I did put a one-on-one client in as a bonus gift for her, for taking a leap on me. And it's been really nice to have six women. I felt like it's Truly the perfect amount where if I had 10 sometimes that gets like a little bit much where they don't all know each other, but I feel like it's been really nice to just see how beneficial that smaller group can be too because it really creates a stronger camaraderie among them of, you know, it's just this little baby group. We're all in this together and we're all going to figure it out.
Debbie: Oh, interesting. I hadn't heard that from you, but that makes sense. I want to talk about another thing that I was impressed about, which is your pricing for your group. Typically, I talk about doing beta pricing on a group. Now, to explain that further, a lot of the clients that I'm working with have not had Very many private clients.
They haven't had very many clients period. So, the beta pricing really feels more comfortable to them, but I love it because you just said, I'm not doing beta pricing. You want to share?
Amber: Yeah, I've been coaching for almost two years now, like in my business, I've had paying clients for almost two years. So I felt for me that having a really low price almost felt like I was going backwards in it. And I truly believed in my program and what I had to offer, which is so important. And because of that, I wanted to choose a price that really felt like it honored what I was offering people and the level of support I was giving them because it was such a small group and they also got unlimited support on Facebook.
I knew I was going to be giving quite a bit of time to these women too. And I knew if I chose a lower price that I might feel resentful of them, you know, Oh, I just wish they were paying more or, you know, my one-on-one clients, I can charge them three times this and I'm not getting those now. So I really felt happy with the price I ended up choosing for the group.
It felt like it was a good deal for them still, but it also felt like it honored what I was giving them. And I did raise it from the last group pricing I had. So what's interesting is even though the first group that I tried launching had a lower price, I didn't sell it out, meaning like, you know, no one joined, showing you that it's not just the price that matters. It's really how you sell it and how you market it to people that matters.
Debbie: Yeah. And I would think, between the first group and the second group, you filled up with private clients, which also kind of fuels your confidence. And that definitely reflects in the way that you show up from one launch to another. Talk to me about your mindset practice and how you notice what you need to get coached on. And you take advantage of our mindset coach Thais Glenn. So talk about what your practice is or how that works for you.
Amber: Yeah. You know, I feel like I could always be better at journaling. I honestly don't journal that much. I probably should. But for me, my biggest signal that something's going on is just when I'm feeling a lot of resistance in my business. If everything feels super overwhelming and super hard, I feel really unmotivated when I sit down at my desk.
That's usually a sign that there's some sort of mindset block going on for me. and that's when I know to get coached. I'm pretty good about getting it in and out quickly because I know the longer I stay in it, the more I'm going to be stalling my progress. So what's nice with Debbie's program is I can just choose a time on the calendar to book the mindset coach Thais and I get in with her right away.
So I can really get through that quickly. Sometimes I'll just write it down, like in my notes app, I'll even write like I need coaching on, and then I'll write the thoughts coming up. So I can be aware that they're there and acknowledge them, but kind of push them aside while I'm working until I do get more coaching on it.
Debbie: Yeah, that's great. I mean, for sure, every level that you come to, there's new thoughts that come up. Speaking of, let's talk about your income since you have given me the okay to talk about that. I'm so incredibly impressed at just the determination all year long that you had to not give up on your business, and I don't mean give up, but I mean, you kept marketing, you kept growing, you kept looking at it, analyzing, figuring out how to do more.
and there's lots of times that you could have said like, okay, I have enough right now. And I think I was always in your ear saying, yeah, but, but there will always be an opening. So you have to keep going even when you have enough today. So, um, yeah, you guys, she's like five times her income from last year. So you said you could talk about it. So if you want to share, I would love it. I'm so incredibly excited for you, the success that you've had.
Amber: Yeah, totally. So last year was my first year of business and I made $10,000. And I was so overjoyed by that. You know, I think whenever someone makes even your first dollar in your coaching business, it is like the most amazing feeling.
So then this year I set a goal of $30,000 because I thought, okay, you know, that will push me to a new level, but it still feels doable. And back in August, I was telling Debbie, I said, Oh, I looked at my income projection For the rest of the year and I'm going to hit the 30,000 goal. And I was so excited.
And I was like, wow, I don't have to do anything all year now. I can just sit back and relax. And Debbie considered, you know, pushing me a bit and saying, well, what if you thought about reaching $40,000? And I was like, oh, I don't know. That seems a bit far. And as of right now, I'm going to end the year at 48, 000.
I'm a little bit above that, which I am super excited about. And a big shift for me with that, that I recently had the other month was I realized that I don't need my coaching business to make me money and that really allowed me to have this non attachment to it because you know, I have a college degree I could go out and get another job. Plenty of my friends are doing other things, you know making more money than me. So not only could I go out and get another job ,I could probably make more money right now doing something else. So knowing that I was like, well, the only purpose of my business then is to have fun and see what happens because I could always go get a job doing something else. And so that really allowed me to just have fun with it and make it easy and, you know, do the things I want to do with it without that same fear of needing to make money this month.
And I am fortunate. I live at home right now, but my goal is to move out this year, which should be totally achievable. but I also realized that, you know, as coaches, our job is to believe in our client's ability to do anything and reach their dreams in any way possible. And I kind of had this moment where I realized what kind of coach I am if I think you must own your own business in order to live out your dream life, in order to travel the world or, buy your dream house.
Like if I believe that you need to have a business to do that, that's a limiting belief that I have about my clients. So by looking at that for myself, I'm like, Oh, I don't need this business to go travel the world. I don't need this business to have my dream car dream house. I can do that no matter what. And that allowed me to make my business so much more fun and easier and ironically make a lot more money.
Debbie: Yeah. I love it. I remember that conversation when you said I'm going to make my $30,000 and I remember that energy that you came with, which was like, and now I'm done. Like I'm going to post the rest of the year. And it was like, wait, we're only in August. Like we're just starting to go. So, congratulations on, uh, sticking to that. And now coming out the end of the year five times more than what you did last year. Well, is there anything else you want to share about this year? About any part of how you built your business or what you feel like was a highlight that maybe other coaches might want to know or the challenges you've had.
Amber: Yeah. You know, after trying to do the first group, I was definitely a bit discouraged. And as I mentioned, I had a lot of fear going into the second one trying to launch it. But for me, I've just always had a pretty clear vision on my business and how I want it to be. And I know that I want to have that group. I know I want to have that time freedom. And so I've always just been super committed to figuring that out no matter what. And that's such an important skill to have in your business because there are going to be times where it sucks and it's hard and you're overwhelmed and you feel like you can't figure things out.
But if you stay committed to your vision of what you want, I just think this really proves that you're going to get there eventually. And you just gotta keep taking those leaps, you know, as scary as it is. And as many times as you fall down. Eventually, if you stay committed to it, you're going to get to where you want to go.
Debbie: Yeah. That's so exciting. I can hardly wait to see what is going to happen in 2024. All right. Thanks for being here and sharing your journey over the last year. I'm super honored to be your coach. you're such a great asset to our community and to the other ladies, and inspiring to everybody. So thanks again.
All right, Amber, before we go, I want to share the exciting news. You're working on a new project. Do you want to tell the ladies what they can expect from you in 2024?
Amber: Yes. So my next exciting project is launching a podcast. I have been doing free training every week this year for most of the year. And I realized I'm essentially doing a podcast every week. So I thought I might as well make it official.
So I'm planning on launching the podcast at the end of January, early February time. It's tentatively called Become a Confident Eater. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna stick with that name, but you can always find me on Instagram @theconfidenteater_ for more updates on that, and it is just going to be such an awesome way for people to go even deeper with the tips and tricks I offer on stopping overeating and binge eating, and I'm really excited to be bringing that out into the new year.
Debbie: Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to hear it too. So, well, that's it you guys have an amazing week. do what Amber did. Just stay committed to your business. get the mindset coaching that you need and keep going because the people who win in this are the people who keep going. That is for sure. So anyway, thanks a bunch. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Amber.
Amber: Thanks, Debbie.
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.