Ep 200 - 5 Business Lessons I've Learned as a Coach Through the Years

Episode 200 of the Life Coach Business Building Podcast

In this special milestone episode, I'm going to be sharing 5 key business lessons I've learned as a coach through the years. We're diving into everything – from building and supporting your community and unlocking the compound effect to maintaining authenticity and adopting a million-dollar attitude. 

I’ll let you in on some valuable insights and experiences that helped me grow and evolve my business, so YOU too can take action, make an impact, and build the business of your dreams. Whether you’ve been here since episode 1 or you’re just starting to tune in, this episode will give a preview of all the value that I offer in this podcast and in my Business Building Boutique Program.

Your journey matters, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. Cheers to 200 episodes of learning and success, and here's to 200 more!

👉 Learn more about the Business Building Boutique through the Sneak Peek! 

👉 Don’t forget to save your seat for the FREE workshop! 

👉 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! 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and forward this to a coach who is building and growing their coaching business. CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A REVIEW

Don’t forget to connect with me on social media: Instagram | Facebook

Transcript:

Preview: Practicing someone else's belief will never work. If I tell you that you have a $100,000 business and you don't believe it, it's never going to work. So start small and then you build your belief. Build from there. If you are thinking about this $100,000 business and you don't believe it's even possible, you're like, that's for everybody else, but you're like, I'm going to do it anyway. I really want to challenge you to just start with, I'm going to get my first paying client, or I'm going to get my first 12 clients, or I'm going to get to $50,000 this year. That's where I want you to start.

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 to today's podcast. I cannot believe it, but this is episode 200. I am so incredibly grateful for you that you come every single week and you listen to me and more than that, that you take the action to build your business. That is what makes me so happy. You guys listen to what I'm talking about. You come to our workshops. We have discussions. I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing in the world because that really is what is most important to me. that collectively we all make a big impact in this world and we can only do that if you get yourself out there and You expose yourself to the world.

All right, so I'm doing some really fun new things over the next few months One of them is a surprise program that I'm working on it's a coaching opportunity and let me just tell you you want to pay attention because it is Very limited time we're going to have this available and it is $500 so that's the teaser. Make sure you're following me so you can stay connected. 

Now with this episode, I just want to say thank you. And I want to be able to do something fun. So I have a giveaway. A little celebration for my 200th episode, and I'm going to be giving away a goodie box with a scarf. Yep, a scarf, because you know me, I love those scarves. And some of my favorite books. So, I just want to inspire you to be a better coach. I want to inspire you to really show up authentically as yourself. 

Now here is how you enter. You head over to Instagram. I hope you're following me there @debbieshadid. You tag a friend on the giveaway post. This is so simple and when you tag that friend, for everyone you tag you're going to have another chance to win our giveaway box with my favorite books with some other really fun treasures and a scarf.

All right you guys, let's get started. I want to share today Five key takeaways from 200 episodes. And I'm just going to give you the background of how I started because I think this is a really important point to kick off today's show with. So in February 2020, so four years ago, I decided on a Wednesday that I was going to start a podcast. And you know what I did? I started a podcast without any drama, without any thoughts about how to do it. I didn't go consult Pat Flynn on how to do it. I just did it. 

So on that Wednesday, I decided I was gonna do it. I talked to my virtual assistant. I said, hey, I'm gonna do this. She was like, okay, one more thing. Here we go. I recorded five episodes that same Sunday. So I just mapped out what my podcast is going to be about, and I knew that I needed to have a few episodes for somebody to listen to. I decided, hey, they're going to be this long, because I wanted people to be able to listen in one drive to wherever they were going to. This was going to be the idea. 

So I didn't have drama over the name of my podcast. I didn't spend hours doing research to see who else there was in the marketplace. I didn't even worry about my cover art. I just did the podcast and we just launched it. That is the way I have successfully built my business in a nutshell. That's going to be some of what I'm going to talk about today.

Let me tell you about the quick evolution of these 200 episodes. So I started in February 2020, and I was coaching women in the wedding business. So it's called the wedding business success show. See, again, I didn't worry too much about a name. I just picked a name and I coached around that same topic until January of 2021.

So I did that podcast for 50 episodes and then after 21 years, I changed my niche. I knew I had been wanting to for a long time, but I had such a high level of expertise and such a big following in my wedding business that I decided I didn't want to change. It took a long time.

In fact, it wasn't until after I became certified as a life coach that I thought, okay, this is it. I have the ability to be able to make this shift. I know what I'm doing. I'm so good at business that this is going to be an easy transition. So I restarted my podcast. I took one month off. I restarted my podcast in February of 2021 and it was just coaching women in business through the same concepts I had always been coaching and consulting on. And then by summer of 2021, I narrowed down and I was like, coaches, you are who I'm going to support. And that is where we have been since then. 

So as an overview of building my coaching business, this business where I'm helping only coaches that started three years ago. And for the first two years, I worked all in on just talking to people, on building my business. I did not stop for two years. It was all action, seven days a week. I was talking to people. I was communicating with people. I was figuring out how in the world I was going to get this done, and I just kept after it.

It was not until year three, which is This last year I started working with a mindset coach. So all of the rest of that was action, action, action, doing, doing, doing. And this last year, as I worked with a mindset coach, it was really about myself up leveling my mindset. And then just how do we optimize my business?

So my first key takeaway that I have for you guys in 200 episodes is about allowing your business to shift. As I just discussed, I allowed my business to shift. You're going to grow and evolve and your business will too. You're going to start somewhere and hopefully you're just starting where you are, just like I did with that first episode of the podcast.

And then you're going to allow yourself to become somebody different. Over the course of these 200 episodes, the one thing that I have always done is I've always helped women in business. I know that so deeply. So what I have done, it has not changed. The only thing that has changed is a slight shift in who I was talking to.

My mind, just like yours is, gets honed in on something and I know it so deeply. And for me, it's marketing. I listen in my mind as you speak and I think about marketing all the time. So as you're talking, I'm writing your marketing story. I know that you do that with the thing that you're most passionate about too.

If it's weight loss and health, you're thinking about it all the time. And if somebody is telling you about their situation, your mind is thinking about their health and their weight loss and what it is you could offer. So, marketing and business and growing businesses, that is my gift. So, I remain steady on that course and I'll never change that.

The only thing that changed was the person that I served. So, I want you to find your unique ability and own it. My unique ability is helping women in business. What is yours? you looking around to see what other people are doing to decide what that is? I hope not. Each of us has our own story. Each of us has our own unique beliefs and approaches to business, and we can recognize what we do as one of a kind. Are you doing that?

There are so many people out there in this world who will buy coaching, and you guys are my clients, and you'll have your clients. The more you show up truly as who you are, the more confident you will feel and the more confident you will seem in your marketing and the more likely you are to attract your ideal client. 

My unique ability is teaching and telling and showing you how to build your business. I can take something that feels so overwhelming, so unapproachable, and I can break it down into very simple steps so that it is easier for you to understand and do. I believe, honestly you guys, that if you do just one small thing at a time, you will get here. That is literally what I did.

I can teach you about how to write an email funnel series. You know, those 12 emails that you need to write when you're launching a group coaching program. But here's the deal if I say hey write 12 emails and I explain to you how to do it And I expect you to do that. I know what's going to happen. You're not going to do it because it's going to seem like such a very big task. But if I say, here's the deal. Here's how this works. Here's the overview. I want you to understand the process. And in that, I want you to take time to write one email. only your first email, because that will seem feasible and doable to you.

You are so much more likely to do it. That's how you build your business one step at a time. I wanna answer one question that I get so often, which is about my business name and about your business name. People spend so many hours thinking about what is the perfect business name. And I always say, look, just start where you are with your name, your first and last name.

Now, maybe you need to add the word coaching to it, strategist, consultant, whatever that is, that's fine. But when you start with your name, it will allow you to shift. So since I started this podcast and actually before that, my business name was Debbie Shadid. You can find me at every social media platform at Debbie Shadid.

Why did I do that? Because they never lost followers. As I evolved, I never lost anyone. They stayed with me and that gave me the ability to really flow with my business and to keep people engaged. 

One word of caution I want to tell you about evolving is do not let your business shift until you have tried everything. So often people are shifting before they are ready. I heard my mentor, Brooke Castillo, who's the head of the Life Coach School, talk about the number one problem She sees with people in business, and it is shifting their niche too soon, and I agree. Do not change your niche. Most people are changing their niche because they haven't gotten the success that they wanted yet And they didn't give it enough time. So run the full course of working on your business and that could be 12 or 18 months. I mean working on it really strategically, allowing it to evolve, then if it doesn't evolve, then shift your niche.

But let me just tell you, chances are you're shifting and you're thinking your niche is the problem. Y'all know what I say, the niche is not the problem, marketing is the problem. 

Alright, here's the number two takeaway that I have found in 200 episodes. It's the importance of finding your people. Now, there's two types of people that I want you to find. Number one, it is your people. The people that will believe in you. The people that you can share your goals with and do not share those with outsiders who do not understand this online business space. Share it with people who will help you win. Share it with people who will believe in you. 

You have to find this community of women. Who will support you, women who believe what is truly possible for you and then stay connected with them. Those women will be the women that will become your best friends. I have literally friends that I have never hugged that I love and adore so much, that believe in me beyond what I believe in myself. That is what I want you to do. Find that tribe of women, your women. 

The second community of women that I want you to find is your ideal audience. Those women are the women that are the best type of women for you to work with. Those women, you take the combined skill that you have, and for those women, you're the perfect coach. They're going to be drawn to your concepts. They're going to be drawn to your coaching. Those women are you before the coaching that you've done. This is your tribe. 

You're my person. You're my tribe. You are who I think about every single business day. You're who I think about in the middle of the night when I think about my work. You are who I am working for every day. It's not honestly for all the money. It really is to help you. You are the why behind I keep trying, why I keep planning, why I keep expanding, why I'm thinking of a new program opportunity that's that low price at $500 so that more of you can work with me. So I'm thinking and working and fine tuning because it is all for you. That is the importance of finding your people. So the two communities, one is the community that supports you and the other is the community that you support. 

All right, the third takeaway is all about the compound effect. Nothing happens overnight. Who wins that business? The person who doesn't quit. It is as simple as that. You have to keep telling people what you do and eventually somebody will say yes. It's not about talking to one person, one consultation, one post. You hear me say it all the time. You might talk to 10 people, 20 people, 50 people, and at some point one person will say yes. And most of those other people, they're all going to be no's. 

You think others have gotten to where they are so fast and it's just not true. It is so misleading in the online space. It takes effort. It takes work. Do not quit. The only people that you see are successful are the ones who didn't quit. When you start doing this, eventually your efforts will compound.

This is the same way in every area of your life. If you cut out coffee creamer, my dear, you will eventually lose some weight. If you stop eating a few M&Ms every day, you'll eventually lose some weight. How do I know this? Because I lost 35 pounds by doing those two things. Honestly, it wasn't much more than that.

But you start with that, and then eventually compounds, then you can add one more thing and one more thing. So it got easier as I went. I always give the example of weight loss because so many of us can understand that one concept. You don't wake up tomorrow believing that you should have lost 35 pounds. You know it's not possible. You know you have to cut out 3,500 calories to lose a pound or whatever it is you have to do for one pound. This is the same way as your business. So it's the compound effect. It's every step that you take that compounds, that gets you in better shape, that gets your business in better shape.

So, I think it sounds so basic and so simple that you almost ignore this. You almost ignore the idea about people who got rich because they let their money compound. You think there's some magic solution and there's not. They invested their money and it compounded. You started walking and it compounded and you got in shape. This is the only way that you win. So start where you are. 

Another pointer here is don't worry about getting all the fancy systems. Don't worry about getting the fancy software. We spend so much time trying to figure out how to get everything set up? And I'm just going to tell you start where you are. Start today giving free value to one person. Then there will be another person that comes into your world because you've talked to enough people. Now you'll be coaching two people. Or if you're coaching 10 people, 

just look for the next ten and eventually, you will need fancy software and then you can eventually build your course, but not today.

Do not worry about getting your course built. Just worry about finding somebody that you can help. So today my podcast is listened to by so many people, but here's the truth, you guys. It's still a very small amount compared to so many other podcasts and yet every day, every week I talk to people that say, I listened to your podcast. I am here today talking to you because I listened. That is how small things compound.

All right. Be true to yourself. Really have authentic connections. I am a truth teller. I am so sincere with people and so authentic. I get so irritated with the misleading information out there, and I know that it's the same in your niche. I know it is. 

Again, I'll use weight loss as an example. You see all those people touting how you're going to lose all this weight just, you know, in one month. Or, all the drugs that people are losing to lose weight in one month. You know that that's misleading. And I know the information out there about building your business is misleading too. 

I want to keep people. building and growing their business. But that misleading information out there keeps people from having success. Because they quit, because they think something is really wrong with them.

When I started my business in 2017, my goal the very first year and this is my online business. When I started it was 187, 500. I had sold my business that I had for 17 years and I was basically starting over from scratch. I hired a coach and she should have told me, Debbie, that is not possible. But she didn't.

This is what happens in the online space. People just let you believe that you could make millions right away. In my case, my millions was $187,500. The truth is, she should have said, Hey Debbie, you're not prepared to do this. Even though you have been very successful, and I had generated millions of dollars in my business, I knew about business consulting.

That's what I was going to be doing online. I was already at expert status, and still, she should have said, Debbie, you can't do this. So I'm telling you, chances are, you can't do what you think you should be able to do. Why? Because you have to start and get prepared. You have to learn how to do what you have never done before.

This same coach let me burn up 57, 000 in Facebook ads in the first 18 months of my business. I did not know what I was doing. She should not have let me do that. I didn't believe in my price. I knew that my price was too high. I knew that I wasn't even prepared to work with people online. It was different from the in person consulting that I was doing.

I needed to build my own evidence bank and you need to build yours. I needed practice talking to people all around the world. You guys, seriously, we have the opportunity to reach every corner of the world and I have, but you have to be prepared. You have to know how to sell. You have to know how to talk about the results of your coaching.

So often I felt pushy. If this is you, there's a problem. Listen to your intuition because here's the truth, you guys, there is no such thing as passive income. It takes money to make money, even in the online space. It takes time to build a business. I tell people, look, just give me 12 to 18 months of doing the right thing consistently, and you will have an online business that works.

Look, if you knew how much money I had generated, In the last four years from this podcast, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if I said to you, all you have to do is stick this out for 200 episodes and you will make hundreds of thousands of dollars, you would say, okay, I'm going to do it. But you start out with zero listeners. You start out with zero dollars and then eventually it compounds. 

So come work with me. I tell you the truth. I feel like it's a moral obligation to be straight with you. What is your truth in your business? Do you know what it is? I tell my clients that we can talk about their pricing. I say, look, I'll tell you what I think your price should be in your coaching because I have experience, because I can be your guide. I can explain why you're coaching should be priced the way it is. I can teach you and tell you so you can understand, but ultimately you get to decide what price is best for you. So you're going to teach and tell your people, you're going to instruct them, you're going to coach them, you're going to help them find the answer that is right for them.

Last week, I told three people they could not work with me. I had consultation calls with three people and I said, look, this is not for you what I do. Now, why did I do that? Well, one person was already working with another coach. And I said, look, I don't work with people who are already working with other business coaches. It doesn't make sense. One person was working full time. She didn't have time to work with me. You know, one person was just not ready. 

So this is my help for you is that you will really be truthful with people, that you will really shoot straight with people. That is what authentic connection is and when you are honest and truthful in your business, it will grow.

You guys have heard about our mindset coach Thais Glenn. She had a conversation with me and it took six months before she decided to hire me. Sometimes it takes time but I told her what was the truth on our consultation call and when it came time six months later she was up against a challenge and she was like, Oh, yeah, I know Debbie's the one for me. So eventually it works out. 

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to give and give and give. I want you to teach. I want you to give tons of value. I want you to give workshops, education, free coaching, Whatever that looks like for you. I want you to tell people hey, I'm here to support you. I'm here to teach you I'm here to give you coaching that will change your life. But only if it's right for you. And I really mean that. 

Every time I have a workshop, and I teach you guys something, and I teach you the best of what I can teach you, in one hour, I still say, look, I want to sell you coaching. That's the truth. I know I can help you. Come to my workshop, learn from me. And if you never buy from me, it's okay. You can come back to the next workshop. But when you're ready, I am ready to help you. 

Alright, the last final takeaway of 200 episodes is about having a million dollar attitude. Now, I don't know what it is for you. If it's a million dollars, I don't know. But having that attitude where you believe in your coaching so much, where you show up like a professional, where you act like one and you look like one, where you keep your word to yourself, to the commitment that you made to starting this business where you show up because you have a plan.

Yeah, you follow your plan. You treat your business as if it is a business. You make business hours and you keep them. You show up when you're sick. In the last month, I had lost my voice so bad that I couldn't even record a podcast episode. And I had to think, how can we do this? I literally am out of pre recorded episodes.

What can we do? I have no voice. That is what you do. You figure it out anyway. You don't skip work because you're not feeling your best. You don't skip work because somebody said no yesterday. You don't not show up on social media because some weird guy said you were pretty in a DM and said, hey, he wanted to connect with you.

Those are all just excuses. You show up as your successful self today. You dress for success. You plan for success. You imagine success. All of that, you guys, is possible for you when you step into the identity of a successful coach today. You speak as if you are already successful. You talk about clients, whether they have paid you a dime or not.

Every single one of you have worked with so many people because through your certification you had to work with people. you are not certified and you have just learned from experience because I wasn't certified until 2021. For 21 years, I supported people and consulted people because of my expertise in business.

So if that is you, I had helped so many people that had never paid me. Now, yeah, I had lots of clients that had paid me, but the point is, you have been helping people, so you've had clients. That is where you build your evidence bank. You start right there with the clients and the people you've supported who have not paid you a dime.

And you speak as if you already are successful. You say, hey, the people that I've helped, this lady that I talked to, this person that I supported, the client that I was talking to on a coaching call, doesn't matter if they've paid you. That is your evidence. So treat your business as if this is your career for life. For life, you guys. 

I'm going to be 60 in June and there is no chance of me considering retirement. I think we're all going to be working a very, very long time. So I'm not thinking of how to get out of this. I'm thinking about how to continue to let this evolve and create this to be the very best business for me and for you.

So stop playing around with your business. The work that you do is so incredibly life changing. This is what really drives me every single day. It's so important. Coaching is life changing. You change one person and you change everybody they interact with. When I say I think coaching changes the world. Oh my goodness, I really mean it.

So every day, believe that you can make a difference. Share something about your coaching. You are changing the world. Alright? So decide what your million dollar attitude is. Maybe for you it's 50, 000. Maybe it's a quarter of a million dollars. But you just ask yourself, in the situation you're in today, what would that person do?

You've heard me say it, million dollar Debbie. I think, what would million dollar Debbie do today? And then I go do it. What would million dollar Debbie, who has integrity, do today? I did it last week. I turned away three people who could have potentially been my next three clients. That's integrity, you guys. That's what million dollar Debbie does. She works with the right people because she knows that there are plenty of people for her. So $50,000 you, what are you doing? 

You have to be the one who believes in yourself and sets a goal that is possible for you. Now I know what's possible for you. Practicing someone else's belief will never work. If I tell you that you have a $100,000 business and you don't believe it, it's never going to work. So start small and then you build your belief. Build from there. If you are thinking about this $100,000 business and you don't believe it's even possible, you're like, that's for everybody else, but you're like, I'm going to do it anyway. I really want to challenge you to just start with, I'm going to get my first paying client, or I'm going to get my first 12 clients, or I'm going to get to that $50,000 this year. That's where I want you to start. Alright, so where else do you display this attitude? This million dollar attitude? Everywhere.

I talked with someone the other day who'd been networking and she wasn't getting the results that she wanted and she talked to me about it and she did not feel good. She said, I feel like I'm making a pitch. I feel so salesy. That was the problem. And as we talked about it, what I discovered is that a coach that she was paying had told her to do a particular pitch, you have to go in and do your elevator pitch. She didn't feel good about it. She was like, I feel like I'm in there just selling people. 

Now for her, she wanted authentic connection. So we talked about that. We talked about her being able to introduce herself and we talked about how she could find a way that would feel exciting to her. So what does that look like for you? You have to ask yourself. For her I said, Hey, how about if you just talk to people about life coaching and you just start inviting people to connect with you, you create some education, you provide some free coaching and you say, look, my goal is just to enlighten people about what coaching is all about. That's just where I'm at right now. She was like, Oh my gosh, that feels so good because my belief is that when you do that, And you invite people to connect with you and you teach them about your coaching and you offer them free coaching. When they see the value of it and when they see what you've given them, they will want to work with you.

She loved it. She walked away from our call and she was like, dang, that feels so much better. I feel so much more in alignment with that. So when you feel out of alignment, be honest to yourself. Are you avoiding doing the hard stuff? Or you're not doing something because you really don't feel good about it?

You really do have the answer. She had the answer. She knew that she didn't feel in alignment with that little pitch, with that elevator pitch, but she was doing it anyway. So be honest with yourself. Be honest with your clients. Be honest with the people that you love to help. Serve the people and it will all come together.

All right, here's the bottom line truth of 200 episodes. I want to be your coach. I really do. It'd be my honor. I want to help you. I know what is possible for you because I've helped hundreds of people create businesses. I know how to help you get your business growing and expanding. And if you are ready to do the work, I am so ready to help you. I am prepared to do it. Myself, our mindset coach Thais Glenn and our tech support team. We are here to help you have success. We're here to help you create an incredibly professional business that you can be proud of. 

All right. I want to remind you one last time. There's going to be one lucky winner of this really fun giveaway box for my 200th episode. You too are going to have a scarf just like me. I hope you'll love it. And I'm going to give away some of my favorite books that will inspire you to be a better coach. So you know what to do. Head over to Instagram. Make sure you're following me @debbieshadid. Tag a friend on our giveaway post. Do it as many times as you want to because I want you to win this fun giveaway box. 

One last thing. I would love for you to leave a review of this podcast. It was my 200th episode. That would be so fun for me. If you have benefited from this podcast or any of the podcast episodes and you keep coming back, I would love it so much if you would just head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen and share a review. This really helps me understand what it is you want. It helps me get more listeners.

Thank you so much, you guys. I can go on and on, but I'm going to wrap it up. I love and adore you. I appreciate you more than you know for listening to me, for giving me the opportunity to inspire you to go build the business of your dreams. Do not quit on what it is. You know what you are meant to do in this world. All right. I love you guys until next week. Cheers to 200 episodes. I will see you guys very soon. 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.