Ep 235 - What to Expect: A Timeline and Schedule for Building and Growing Your Coaching Business
What Actually Happens in Your First 6 Months of Business?
In this week's podcast, we'll take you through the step-by-step progress you can expect while building your business over the first six months. Drawing from my real-life coaching experiences, we'll dive into essential actions such as branding, setting up social media, email marketing, and effective time management strategies to build your coaching business. I'll also share valuable insights that have been incredibly helpful for my clients, focusing on consistent daily actions, building a professional brand, growing your exposure, and eventually, finding clients.
Whether you're working on small steps or next-level strategies, this episode will serve as a guide to help you take the initial steps toward achieving business success. Be sure to tune in to receive actionable tips and discover how to track your progress effectively, ensuring you're on the right path.
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Transcript
Welcome to this week's podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about the progress that you could expect to make as you build your business. Let me give you the backstory on this. Inside of our VIP coaching experience, we had a client who was trying to figure out what she should be doing with her days.
Now we give very clear instructions, but y'all know, sometimes you get into drama and you start thinking, I don't know what to do. And I think that's actually really a common question. That we all have, as we're trying to do something we've never done before, even when we have very specific guidance. So I thought, how can I help people have the exact really day to day process for building a business?
So I created three tools that I shared with our clients, and I want to give you an idea about what they are, because I really think it will help you get your business built also to have a better kind of expectation for yourself of what could happen in your business.
Now, first of all, let me say, I'm talking about six months of consistent action. Now remember, all of us have different life circumstances. All of us have different goals, you cannot compare yourself to anyone else. You have to know what it is you want. You have to be committed to a particular goal and you have to know how much time you have to work.
How much time do you actually have to work in your business to learn? And I'm talking about focused learning. Those are some things that you need to look at, take some time, figure out what your actual work schedule will be.
In a minute, I'm going to cover what an actual work schedule for you as you build your business might be. But let's talk in general about what you should know about building your business. Let's imagine that we're at the beginning stages, all right? That's who I work with, coaches who are at the early stages of building their business.
The first couple of months, if you were just fully immersed in building your business, I would say your focus would be on branding. It would be on learning how to become a copywriter. I know a lot of you guys are like, what is copywriting? People keep talking about this. Essentially, that's just advertising.
How do you advertise your business? But this is really intentionally deciding how to write the words. Right? This is going to be getting clear on people's pain points, on the outcomes of your coaching, on the things that you say that describe to somebody what your coaching is. Also in those first couple of months, you're going to want to set up your coach's website.
Listen, just quickly, I'll tell you, your coach's website is not about you. It's not your story. It is their story. Okay? We actually have a template that we provide people, which is a 10 part template. And. The part about you is very small because your website is supposed to get somebody else to say, I see myself in this message.
So working on your website is kind of that foundational stage in the first couple of months. Then getting your social media set up. I'm going to just say social media is necessary. It's not required, but you're crazy for not doing it. All right. So getting your profile. My recommendation is that whatever your business name is, you have it across all platforms.
And I know we love to indulge about business names. Listen, I've been saying for a long time, just use your first last name and the word coaching or consultant or however you identify. The reason why I want you to do that is first of all, we don't waste a bunch of time trying to figure out the perfect business name.
There are no good coaching names except for your name at this point. Okay? So I recommend that you use Debbie Shadid. Add the word coaching if you want to or consulting or coach Debbie Shadid, something like that. The reason why I want you to do that is because I want your business to evolve. Okay? Right.
If you pick this name, and by the way, some of the names that y'all pick are hard to even understand. You've been spending so much time thinking like mystical mindset. It's like, what does that mean? Mystical mindset what? Okay, you have to be very clear about If you're going to pick some interesting name, you've got to be very clear about what it is that you do.
of the really clear and not clever names are already taken. So pick your name and get on with it. That way then I can say to people, look, you can find me everywhere at Debbie Shadid. So that's on Instagram. That's on Facebook, right? All the places, including my website.
So that's what I recommend. So get your social media set up using your name, right? Or using Debbie Shadid coaching, get them all the same. And then start telling people what you do. I mean, this is the most basic thing that people skip because they're so busy getting ready that they don't tell people what to do.
So in that first couple of months, you're going to start posting on social media. I know you don't know how to do it. You don't know what to say,But the only way to learn what to say is by starting to say it. next I want you to start creating your email list. And so that means you have to build an opt in. That's kind of that first stage. What is an opt in? It's the thing that people get for free in exchange for an email address, which means that you have to begin to learn some more technology. All right. We teach our clients flow desk, F L O D E S K.
We teach that email marketing tool, but you might use ConvertKit or MailChimp, whatever you use, you've got to learn how to use it. You've got to start growing an email list. There is money in an email list. I don't care if you think emailing is pesty or too many times. It is the game that we play. To be able to grow our business.
If you want to have clients, you need to be on social media and you need to do email marketing. All right. And then you can start in those first couple of months, considering what your offer might be and how you will price it. Okay. Onto the second set of months, your third and fourth month, what I'll call your implementation stage.
And also the time when you're growing your. Know, like and trust. So you're going to start focusing on putting yourself out there. You've got kind of the foundation laid, okay, your branding, your messaging, your social media setup, your website is ready. Now we're going to think about getting our name out there.
Okay. Building your reputation, becoming well known. That's one of our key components inside of the Life Coach Business Building School, the process of becoming well known. So put yourself out there, Start scheduling your first workshop, start educating people on what you do, share the benefits of your coaching, start doing weekly emails.
Yeah, weekly emails. And look, eventually you're going to turn out doing many emails a week, but weekly emails is where you start. Continue to do your few posts on social media a week, maybe three to seven posts. So you're starting to grow your exposure and you're consistently creating exposure. Okay.
Know like and trust is a longer stage than you think, right? You think that somebody should meet you and know you and like you and trust you immediately. And maybe see you like you posted. They should know you like you and trust you. That doesn't happen that way. Know is a very long stage. I've talked about this before in the podcast, getting to know you, getting to know me, right?
Starting to trust people, starting to like people, starting to identify, Hey, I know what Debbie's all about, right? People have to get to know you. They have to know who you are as professional, who you are as a person. then liking you like wanting. To engage with you enough and then trusting you. That's important.
People will not spend money with you unless they trust you and they see you as an expert, which by the way, in those first couple of months, what I was talking to you about is about creating a professional brand image where you can be seen as a Successful coach before you are one. That is one of the key ways that you build trust.
All of this is what we do inside of the life coach business building school in both our school and our VIP coaching experience. And in our elite where I do it for you, it's a done for you service. Then I want you to be thinking about. Finding ways to grow your email list again, every single week, coaching people for free until you are full again.
We're talking about the third and fourth months, the second stage of building your business and then beginning to offer coffee chats or free group coaching. Or open coaching, I call it, whatever kind of format works for you. Again, we're talking about exposure, getting people to know you, to like you and to trust you.
All right. The third stage, which is the fifth and sixth month of our six month cycle of growing a business is focusing on finding clients. I always say like all the stuff that we do and getting your business set up so you can be seen as successful about helping you become well known, all that's fantastic, but nothing matters.
Nothing matters. Until you have people in your world. So the focus has to become finding your people. And that's the thing that really when it comes down to it is not the fun part. That's the part that we don't want to do. I call this hustling you guys. There's a hustle stage to your business and just embrace it.
Right? This is just part of what we do. You hustle. You meet somebody. You make an offer. You tell them, I want to help you. Right? You ask people to work with you. I tell you, Hey, here's what I do. Do you know anyone who needs my help? I'll say to you right now, do you know anyone who is working on their business?
Who needs support? Please connect them with me or help them by sharing this podcast with them. That is literally making an offer. Okay? Don't beat around the bush. Tell people what you do. Tell your next door neighbor, tell your hairstylist, tell your nail person, tell anybody who will listen about your business.
Continue to do the workshops, right? Attend workshops. attend networking events, get on social media in groups that you love, in groups that are, a part of what it is you're interested in and be the most amazing contributor in that group. Do not go in a group to sell your coaching. Get in a group to be in a community of like minded people where you can share, you can connect, you can enjoy, You know, you can build relationships.
That is what building and growing a coaching business is all about. So every single week you work to grow referrals and connections again, by going to networking events, by meeting people in Facebook groups, by talking to your neighbors, by talking to anyone who will listen, then you want to explore different ways to market your business.
that could be collaborations. I'm so excited. I just saw a collaboration between a current client and a past client. and they are two totally different niches. I mean, totally different niches, but they found a way to talk about a topic that could be common. On each other's podcast. How amazing is that?
That means you're exposing yourself to her audience and vice versa. So find people to collaborate with. You could do a workshop together. Then I want you to think about ways to market outside of the box. A lot of people use Eventbrite. You could do meetups. Okay. You could do things in your local market. I have a lot of you that are building.
Coaching businesses locally. There would be local Facebook groups. There's neighborhood boards that you can post on, right? There's places in your community websites that you can promote on upcoming events. Okay? So prepare and then launch. Your method of coaching when we work inside of a life coach business building school, we create your signature offer, which is your coaching method.
I know you learned a method when you went to certification, but this is an opportunity for you to take all of the things, all of the knowledge, all the multiple certifications, maybe for you don't have certifications, but you've read thousands of books. You've had life experience. It's about a way for you to create.
Your own process, whether for private or group coaching, now you start sharing it, you start launching, which again, we don't build fancy funnels and we don't do fancy launches launches, just getting a series of emails together and promoting your business. So launch your business and then just focus on your belief.
In those last couple of months of working together, people need to focus on the belief like this is working, right? You have to have belief. So while it is not working and you're not getting the results, You can say, actually it is working. I'm doing the work. I'm putting in the time, the marketing compounds, the people who win, they don't quit, You keep coming back to yourself and you say, how do I make this inevitable? Okay. So that is a high level overview of what you could expect in six months. I'm going to try to go quickly through a couple other things that I would encourage you to do. The second piece is to create a Tracker for your progress.
We actually created one that's a coach to profitable entrepreneur framework tracker. Okay? What you are doing as you learn to build a coaching business is that you were learning skills for how to market. You're learning tech, right? You're learning how to write marketing, copy, do the branding, all the things I just talked about.
You're making offers, you're learning how to sell. So I think to make a comprehensive list of what all those things are, And then put like a check, like three columns. I've learned and completed. I'm working on, I haven't started yet. So all the things that you know you need to doing your business, make a list and then start tracking what you have done.
This is evidence. I call this building your evidence bank evidence that you are making progress. You sometimes want to measure evidence immediately by how many consults and how much cash you have in the bank. You can't have consults or cash in the bank until you learn how to be in business, until you learn how to market, until you are marketing.
So on a progress tracker, you might have things like, I identified my niche, I did my niche I did my branding. I did my marketing message, right? You're the things I talked about your social media, announcing your services to your friends, sending your first email, creating your opt ins. You could literally go back through what I just described to you in your six month business building period.
And you could add that to a list, right? Learning Canva. That is literally a major skill that you learned. Designing your branding, beginning to post consistently, learning how to do, you know, a carousel or a post, setting up your social media sites, selecting your price. Like deciding on your price, setting up your consultation calendar.
Okay. Right. Sending your first workflow emails. If you guys are doing any email marketing, you would know what that was, right? Connecting with people in Facebook groups, making offers, doing free sessions. This is a comprehensive list that you would create. This would serve as a tool to track your progress.
Okay. You want to include the things that you know you need to do and then just keep it as a running document. Again, so I love Google Documents because you can continue to update this, but keep it as a running document where you are adding things onto it that you know that you need to do, that you have heard about, you know, or that your coach has told you about.
Add those things on there. All right, the third piece I'm covering very quickly is a possible schedule for you in your business. So people were asking me like, what should our day look like? And I think actually that's a very valid question. What should you do in your day? So let's just imagine that you do not work full time and that you could work on your business during the day.
Okay. I'm going to give a schedule like that. But if you work full time. Which a lot of our clients do, by the way, and they build successful businesses. The first thing you have to do is figure out how many hours that you have extra that you could spend on building your business. Maybe it's six hours a week and then you have to decide what you're going to strategically do during those six hours and you actually schedule it.
So for example, if it was six hours during the week you worked in your business, you might spend one hour a week creating social media content. You might spend one hour a week. Posting on social media, might spend one hour a week engaging on social media, like in Facebook groups. Okay, you might spend one hour a week writing an email, one hour a week networking and one hour a week offering free coaching.
That'd be six hours of really intentional business building in those six hours. If you did not allow yourself to do anything else. I'm talking about don't go to Amazon and buy something. Don't look on Facebook and you know, while you're in the Facebook group, you get control of what you're doing. You go to Facebook and you do that.
If you did six hours of work on your business like that, not looking for the fastest solution to get clients, okay, stop Googling that stuff. Just do what I just told you. If you did that for 90 days, Six hours a week. Those steps for 90 days. Do you know what you would have? You'd have a business. Okay, now imagine if you do not work full time and you could do six hours a day, three days a week.
Now then you have six hours a day to literally do what I just told you, right? Maybe hour one on Monday is social media content creation. Hour two is posting, you know, on the platforms. Okay, hour three is getting in the social media groups. Uh, and then the fourth hour, uh, is working on, consults or having conversations with people and tell you have consults about your coaching.
And then the sixth hour, is about, geez, did I count that right? You guys, anyway, six hours in a day, the sixth hour would be, maybe open coaching that you offer. So hopefully I did the math right on that. and then you repeat that the next day and the next day. One thing that I want to know when I made this schedule for our clients, for our VIP clients on Tuesdays, we actually meet for three hours to do coaching.
So we have coaching at 10, 11 and 12. Those are different strategy sessions where we teach, we offer strategy, we do mindset and we teach technology. But those are hours that are part of your schedule. So when you make your schedule for Tuesday, it's like between eight and 9am, I'm going to do this between 10 and 11.
I'm going to do this for our clients. Between 10 and one, we have our VIP coaching where people are coming prepared to learn. They're asking questions, they're getting their next steps. So on our Tuesday schedule, The balance of the day, the last hour of your six hour day is spent in implementation.
Implementing what you've learned, what I have just told people to do because I give the exact steps. So make sure if you are doing coaching or maybe you're still in certification, that that is actually in your six hour schedule, or maybe you're certified, but you've got to get your hours in to get your, you know, ICF something.
Okay. So make sure that that's on your schedule. Okay. Then the third day would again be something similar to the first day. It would be like social media engagement, maybe preparing a workshop, Finding ways to grow your list. Remember, there's money in your list. You have to get people on your list.
Then the fourth hour might be spent, having a free coaching call. The fifth hour, I love this, would be reviewing and tracking your progress. And then the sixth hour would be planning for the next week. So those are three, six hour days. You just time block it on your calendar, literally block it out.
And again, I just want to point out if you did the way this calendar works, like two hours of social media creation, two hours of Facebook engagement, two hours of free coaching. You wrote an email every week. You did a, worked on a workshop every single week. And all of the other things I did, You guys, your business would be so much further along than it is versus you looking for posts that look interesting instead of just deciding to write something on social media.
stop looking to see what somebody else is doing. Ask yourself this, what idea can I share about coaching something that I'm interested today that I can share on Instagram and just do it. *Stop looking for quick fixes.*
*Business building takes time*. And when you know what to do, it happens a lot faster. All right. You know, as always, I want to invite you to connect with this, get on my calendar. Let's have a conversation. Not only do we have a life coach business building school, which is amazing for those of you who just want to know exactly all the things I just told you and you work full time, you've got limited time to work on your business or you've got limited resources and you got to know how to do this.
Join our school. If you want to do it with us, like done with you or done for you business building, that is our VIP. Okay. Or our elite coaching experiences get on our calendar. debbieshadid.com/apply Let's get your business built this year. So 2025 can be an Epic year for you. All right.
See y'all soon. Thank you. Bye bye. Have an amazing week.