1) What do you want to accomplish? 

Before you start creating the ad, you want to know what you want to see it accomplish. What’s your outcome?

Are you building a mailing list, or want to attract a new audience, or maybe you want to  promote your last workshop, …

When you know that, the next question you want to ask yourself is: How is the ad going to fit in my overall business strategy?

It could be easier to promote a free webinar or low cost presentation instead of the high-end training in itself.  During those moments you can present your high-end training, and can you answer questions in person.

Even when a future client doesn’t immediately buys your training, they have learned about you and your organization personally.

Be strategic on what you want to promote.

2) Know who you’re targeting

An ad is another way of communication. If you want it to be successful you have to know who you’re talking to.  The reader has to feel being addressed personally. This only works when you understand what your target audience is looking for.

Let’s say your new workshop is about helping kids to overcome their fear of failing. The people who you want to address directly here are the parents, who will likely be the ones who will be paying you. So you want to target them: “Help your kid to overcome their fear of failing and easily succeed their exams”

3) Have an attractive offer.

You’ll need to have a compelling offer and it has to move your audience towards taking immediate action.

When is something compelling? It’s compelling when it gives a solution to an existing problem. It’s also becomes more compelling when you can describe the benefits of attending your workshop, training, coaching very clearly.

4) Is your headline clear?

Does your headline show what you’re bringing? Dare to trigger. Your headline is about the most important part of your ad. Make sure that you make it clear and interesting enough for people to read on. Dare to trigger.
“Yes, You Too Can Become a Motivational Speaker!”  will be more likely to have people read on and take action on your ad than when the headline would have been: “Workshop public speaking”

5) What’s the next step

You’ll always have to be clear on what’s the next step for people. Invite them to take action right away. Be directive.
Is it clear what they have to do next? Ie: Click the link below, Subscribe and fill in your contact details, Call this number, Like our page and win a free coaching session, …

You also can help them to take action right away by offer a discount, limited places or an extra bonus only available to those who take action right away.
This could be an audio, a report, a video, a bonus coaching session,…  something that gives immediate value to the reader.

When you use the above easy to implement tips you’ll soon notice that your ads will have more impact and generate a greater response.

To wrap this up: Know what you want to accomplish with your ad. Know your audience. Have a compelling offer that gives people a solution to their problem. Create an intriguing clear headline, and give people a reason to immediately take action.

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1. Clarity.

This is a big one. It also can reach out to many different areas. Clarity in thinking, in marketing, in knowing whom your ideal audience is, …

Are you clear on what you want?  Knowing where you’re heading is crucial. If you don’t have an idea what the next step is, then it’s hard to achieve the success that you want.

It’s like showing up in the morning, and not knowing what to do. And that leads to distraction, to wasting time on FB or anything else. Lack of clarity leads to doing the wrong things at the wrong time.
Ie: building websites where you need to be out there talking to people.

When you’re clear on what to do next, you’ll avoid getting distracted gravely.

Are you clear on how many prospects or people you need to reach out to this week to get to your monthly outcome?

2. Commitment.

Commitment starts with making a decision. Let’s say you make the decision to go run every day. Commitment means that you go for that run every day regardless if it’s raining or not.

It means that you don’t stop doing what you set out to do because you feel not like doing it today. You’ll show up with a no-excuses approach.

A successful coach is also committed to the success of his or her clients. And will do what it takes to get them there. Are you?

Commit to your business success. Commit to being 100% responsible for your results, how you feel, how you act, the money you make.

Where in your life do you want something, but you are not playing full out?

3. Consistency

You know people like consistency. In getting new sales and attracting new people to your business, you want to set up the systems so that you can be consistent in your marketing and putting value out there.

It’s the hardest thing to do if you don’t have any systems in place to deal with setbacks. Sometimes as a solo entrepreneur live gets in the way, you fall sick, or something happens and then that week you don’t sent out your newsletter, or you skip a blogging article, or you don’t follow up some prospects immediately, …

I must admit I’ve had this happen more than once . This  made me focus on having systems in place, so that I don’t always have to be physically there to keep things rolling.

Think about where in your business you can improve your consistency.

4. Confidence.

My mentor always says: “The one thing you got to protect in your business is your confidence.”  And I agree wholeheartedly with her. It’s the key driver of what will make your business a success.

If you’re not confident that you can make the sale, it’s going to be hard. You can be a good coach but if you’re not confident in your coaching skills then it’s going to be hard to coach really well.

The great thing about confidence is that what all have an innate confidence where we can tap into all the time, if we allow ourselves to do that. It’s something that comes naturally for us. We only have to remember it.

On the other hand sometimes you miss experience. And the more experience you have the more confident you’ll become. Stretching your comfort zone by regularly entering new experiences is one of the best ways to become more confident in what you do.  Ie: If you haven’t spoken in front of an audience, reach out and take that next step.

If you want to be more confident as a coach, you want to invite as many people as possible for a free of charge coaching session. Do it today, and next week you’ll be coaching and building your coaching skills and confidence.

If you want to grow as a person and as a coach, look for what scares you, and go do it. You’ll find that most of the time the fear is very unrealistic.

When you master these four traits, Confidence, Consistency, Commitment and Clarity  you’ll be on your way to become a successful coach.

Remember the only person that can stop you, is you. Not the economy, not what other people think, not a lack of money, only you.

Let me know what you think below in the comments. What will you do to integrate those 4 C’s in your life and business?

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You can go nuts on social media or you can go network until you drop dead exhausted, without having a clear message that connects with your audience your efforts will be wasted energy.

There are 2 components to creating a message that will help  you get more clients:

Your audience wants to feel understood and it wants to get a solution to their problem.

Understanding your audience:

I see coaches (and many other entrepreneurs) being very passionate about the thing they do, about the program they created, about the service they offer. And this is great. They create things they ‘think’ their audience needs, but fact is that this is rarely true.

You got to get in your prospects head. What’s going on there? What’s on their mind?

What are the fears, the struggles, the pains they are experiencing?

What are the dreams they have? What are they looking for?

I ask every prospect, what their biggest challenge is atm. I ask it when I’m out networking; I ask it when people sign up for the free reports and checklists below; I ask it when I’m talking to industry leaders.

Ask your current clients, your previous clients, the prospects that didn’t became a client.

I keep on surveying my audience, in order to avoid a gap between my thinking and that of my audience. You should do that too. It will help you create a compelling message to them.

The second part is:

Knowing the benefits:

This morning I was talking with a sales guy in Australia, and at one point he answered me the following: “oh yeah, it’s so obvious but we always forget.”

The minute before I had told him to focus on the benefits he brings to the table when coaching and training.

It’s the exact same thing I told a coaching team in New Delhi two weeks ago and they went from zero sign up’s for their workshop to 15 people signing up right after they focused the message on the benefits that the attendees will get from showing up.

What a difference a couple of sentences can make.

What are the benefits that people get from working with you?

Be as clearly and as tangible as possible with this.

Ask your current clients what tangible things they got from working with you.

When you keep these two parts in mind (understanding your audience and the benefits you bring to the table) when you create your programs, services, messages, articles, workshops, website content…you’ll generate so much more response than when you don’t do this.

You’re here to make a difference. You’re here to create a difference in your life and in the life of your clients.

Start today!

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You’re doing all the right things, but nothing seems to happen.  People tell you that they like what you do, but they rarely become clients. Or they tell you that they will refer someone to you, but somehow they never seem to do that.  People subscribe to your newsletter, but they don’t respond to your offers…

I know. I’ve been there. And it’s frustrating. But I also learned how to turn that around. And the good news is that it’s easier than you might think.

Sometimes getting new clients or growing your practice might feel like a big long uphill struggle.

So you push a little bit harder, you push a little bit further trying to create that breakthrough.

Every time I see this happening, it reminds me of a fly. You know a fly that keeps on bumping against the window glass, frantic looking for a way out.

And that fly will keep doing this until it drops down completely exhausted and dies, without noticing the open door next to the window.

The only way out seems to be the one right in front of you, the one that leads straight to your outcome.  But it’s also the one that has this invisible wall that keeps getting in the way.

I see so many coaches who are exhausted. They’re bumping in their own glass wall that they can’t see.

They look outside to what everyone else has. And they see: a great looking website, a nice looking logo, a Facebook fan page, nice looking business cards, flyers, a blog, thousands of Twitter followers, a newsletter, … and then the idea grows that – that is what makes the difference and should be attained.  So the energy and the focus is on those things.  But many times the energy focus and attention that goes to it is not where the focus should be.

This could be exactly your glass wall.  Or maybe your glass wall is how you think around money, or how you value yourself, or it might be the niche, or something you thought was a great financial opportunity, …

I got two questions for you today:

1) What is your glass wall?

If you don’t know, two indicators might show you the way

a) doing/thinking things that drain your energy
b) doing things that you ‘think you should do’ but they generate minimal results

2) Where is your open door?

I hear you saying “Well if I knew I wouldn’t be bumping into the glass” Let me tell you this:

In order to see it you have to be aware of your glass wall and then allow yourself to look in a different direction and see the open door that often comes as an ‘idea – opportunity – different set of beliefs …

And sometimes it might feel that there isn’t an open door to fly through but let me assure you, there’s always an open door. The only difference is, is that you’re not yet aware of it.

In order to see the open door, you need to allow yourself to see a different path than you’ve already walked… so you can fly freely.

Share your thoughts, glass walls and open doors below in the comment section!

I want to see you fly!

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1) They Don’t Trust You

This often happens when you’re trying to sell them something too fast. It’s like asking them to marry you the first minute of a blind date. They need some time to get to know you and like you before they can trust you.

So give them time to ‘experience’ you, before you offer anything.

Of course you need to be able to make them feel comfortable and safe.

2) Lack of confidence on their end

They don’t see or connect to the bigger vision that you’re holding up in front of them.  They don’t see, feel and believe  it’s possible for themselves. This is where you have to empower them and coach them through their fears and resistance.

Sometimes they just can not make up their mind. It’s a safety strategy. You have to acknowledge that. And recognize it when it happens. So you can help them raise their awareness.

3) Lack of confidence on your end

People buy on inspiration. If you fail to inspire them and come across lacking confidence people won’t trust you. If that’s true for you, I would urge you to find a coach to work with.

4)  They don’t believe in you

If they don’t believe you and your results. They don’t trust you. If they don’t trust you they won’t buy.
Having great before and after testimonials helps to gain their trust. If you’re just starting out, you can create a case study of how you help your clients to get to the results they need.

5) There’s no offer

Obvious to have an offer not? Sadly enough I see many coaches offering free sessions, but rarely they dare to introduce an offer or a program. Which would be the logical next step for the prospect to take.  They’re waiting for the prospect to set the first step towards them.

If you’re not offering a coaching program at the end of a free session, take a look at what’s holding you back from doing that. And whatever it is,  realize that it’s just a story. A story that’s costing you money AND is depriving your prospect from making the breakthroughs they’re looking for.

6) They don’t see the benefits and value

They are confused about what it really is that they will get out from working with you. A confused mind never buys. People don’t buy your coaching, they buy what they’ll get from working with you. More money, more time, more freedom, better job, new relationship, more clients, more self esteem, …

That’s why consistently improving the clarity of your message is so important.

7) They don’t want/need it (talking to the wrong audience)

They won’t buy because you are either speaking to the wrong audience or you’re not clear on the pain and needs of your audience and what they’re looking for.
Or you are offering something that they don’t need now.

8) Price: It’s too expensive OR too cheap

Although price is rarely the ‘real’ reason. Most of the time, if not always it’s an excuse for one of the above reason’s. People always buy things. They spend hundreds of dollars on new iPads, travelling, … It means that they do not put coaching with you high on their priority list.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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The success of your coaching practice or business will start with that.

It will also be a never-ending task to improve your skills and your services, so that you can be of the greatest service to your clients as possible.

Now lets get to one of the most important questions you should ask people all the time.

One of the easiest ways of expanding and growing your coaching practice and easily getting more clients is by asking your prospects and clients the following:

 Who else do you know that might get value from what I have to offer?

This is a question you can ask at different stages throughout.

• You could ask this at a network meeting, where you just introduced your services.
• You could ask this after a free coaching or intake session.
• You could ask a client after you’ve coached them successfully.
• You could ask this in a ‘warm letter campaign’ to your mailing list and network
• …

Actually change the could into a should

Grab every opportunity at hand to ask them, guide them and have people spread the word for you.

You can email them a follow up sheet where they can fill in the name and contact details of those people they can and want to refer to you. Asking them to return it by the end of the week or so.

That way it will get more concrete, and will not stay just an idea you planted in their head.

What other moments or opportunities do you know to ask people this question?

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Over the years I learned a couple of things that helped me greatly and I want to share with you here:

1) Work with ideal clients.

You can’t help everyone, and you’re not everyone’s teacher or healer.  So don’t let does who are not go.  Make sure that you know who you would love to work with. What kind of people give you energy? If you don’t get energy from working and helping people, maybe being a coach isn’t the right profession for you.

Knowing whom you want to work with is good, but it’s even more important whom you don’t want to work with.

For me personally I don’t like to work with whiners, people who get disheartened by every bump in the road. People who don’t follow through, don’t implement, want to argue instead of follow directions, …

BUT I love to work with the focused, energetic, having a big dream kind of people. Those that see possibilities.

Make your own list of trades that your ideal client possesses.

2) Be clear on your boundaries

In order to communicate your boundaries to your clients, you first need to get clear yourself.  What do you keep up with, what do you allow them to do? Showing up late? Not doing the assigned tasks? Rescheduling at the last minute? Not keeping their payment obligations? …

Be very clear and tell them: “These are the rules” This from out a caring confident state.
Don’t fall in the trap of ‘trying to please them’ out of fear of losing that client. Come from your own power. A client needs a coach who can take a stand.

3) Improve your awareness.

Not all the above might prevent you from getting your energy drained. Sometimes there’s a topic or an issue brought up that gets to both your client and you. And that’s ok.

Improving your awareness of where you are emotionally & energetically will help you to catch that drain, but it also will help you to become a greater coach.

4) Show up energized & healthy

In keeping your energy from being drained, you want to look at yourself first. When your own energy levels are low, a bit of client work could throw you out completely.How are you managing yourself? Are you on a healthy track, drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, living in a great surrounding? Do you have your mind freed from the daily clutter?

Make sure to take care of yourself first!

5) Change Your Business Model

For some it might help to get out of the 1on1 business model, and take it to group coaching. Instead of seeing 20 clients a week, you might do 1 group coaching and 10 clients a week. Freeing up time to replenish your self. For others it might be the way around. Getting out of group work to 1on1 work.  Find the model that works best for you. So that you can bring your message to the world fitting your own desired personal life style.

Love to hear your responses. Feel free to share your ways of protecting your energy in the comments below.

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I used to answer the question like this: “Do this and this and this, in that exact sequence and you’ll be fine.”

And sure it will work. But it would only work for a small percentage of coaches.

I realized that for 90% or more of those who are asking, this is the wrong question at the wrong time. I noticed that many of them where making the same mistakes, over and over again.

1) Not being clear on what your message really is.

All the marketing strategies in the world, the latest Social Media ninja courses will do nothing for you if don’t have a clear-cut message to bring to your clients. It’s an ongoing task and sometimes it’s hard to put into words, what exactly you do. Though it’s not so much about what you do for whom, but rather about why you do what you do.

When coaches are asked why they do what they do, they often don’t get further than an obvious: ‘Oh, I want to help people’.

I encourage you to go deeper.

What do you stand for?  What do you believe? What is the one thing that people need to learn in life?

Align your core message with the benefits that people will get from working with you.

I stand for: Empowering and helping coaches to make a difference.  The one thing that drives me is to help coaches embrace their own purpose and message, fully step into their power and confidence; so they can be of service and help to many more people. Building a profitable business by making a real difference.

2) Not playing full out.

Sometimes we don’t realize what it takes to be successful. Becoming a successful coach takes standing up and letting the world know that you’re here to make a difference.It often asks us to feel the fear and do things anyway.

Though we rather avoid the work, over think things, get attached to our excuses and forget to commit 100%. And in our quest for shortcuts, we overlook the things we can do and should focus on.

Now you’re clear on your message, it’s time to embrace that fully and step up.  You can’t blame people that they don’t know about you and your message. It’s your responsibility. You have to do the work.

Your message is bigger than you, bigger than how you or your ego feels about things. There are people waiting to hear your message. Don’t be selfish. Play full out. The world needs  you!

And you’ll reap the rewards.

I’m curious to reading your responses below:

If you could share one thing that you learned in life that you feel people should know, understand or learn about, what would that be?

What do you stand for?

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Throughout the years

For the last year or two, I’ve found that on many occasions my email address wasn’t used in the way I envisioned it to be; to get in touch with me and learn about how I could help them.

Though to my great despair, these days it seems that getting someone’s business card has been a straight route to sending unsolicited newsletters, mailings and offerings. Defying everything what business cards are created for in the first place. Networkers have turned out to be spammers.

When you hand over your business card to the person you just had a great conversation with, you do that to prolong that conversation and deepen the relationship into the future. You expect them to use your information wisely. It doesn’t mean you asked to be spammed, and basically be treated without any respect.

Having a great conversation or a connection with someone doesn’t equal that automatically that person should be interested in your services.

So what can you do to prevent them from spamming you?

1. The Conversation: Have at least a conversation with them,  so you get to know them a bit and you make sure that they are not just there to grab your card to get your email address.

2. The Blunt Way: When exchanging cards tell them that if they would love to get in touch with you and find out more about your services, that they can certainly mail or contact you.

“I loved talking to you here. You know these days it sometimes happen that you meet people at a networking event, exchange cards only to notice afterwards they spam each other with mailings and newsletters, and I don’t find that really respectful. But you, do not seem to be that kind of person at all, and I appreciate that.”

If they have been using the spamming strategy, they’ll get the message. And those who haven’t they will appreciate your honesty and your value for being threated respectfully, which will build rapport and deepen the connection you have with them.

3. The Simple Way: Just don’t display your email address on your card but direct them to your website, your Facebook Page, Twitter account, phone number, … so that they still can easily get in touch with you but are not so likely to send out spam emails.

What do you do when you have all those business cards sitting on your desk,  but  you still want to update people about your offers and services? Instead of adding them automatically to your mailing list,  first reach out to them in a personal email. Refer to where and how you both met, and invite them to visit your website and download your free report and subscribe to your email list. That way you won’t spam them, and they feel like you’re reaching out to them in a natural authentic way.

This will turn a network meeting and exchange of business cards into an ongoing respectful relationship.

One of the best ways to get your message out  and get new clients is through speaking.

Speaking in front of your target audience. If you’re not yet doing this, here’s how to start:

1. Design your own signature talk. 

Having your own signature talk helps you to differentiate and position yourself as an expert. It gives you almost instant credibility.

Your signature talk could be a description of what you do in your work with your clients in a step by step format.

You want to have a prepared structured talk. A talk wich is focused primarily on delivering great value to your audience.

Keep in mind that the talk has to address a specific need  or pain your ideal clients are having and want a solution for.

2. Discover where your clients are already gathering.

Now you want to get in touch with organisations, events,  associations, … where your ideal clients are already gathering together. Reach out to them and see if they take outside speakers.

Online you can do this also in multiple ways.  You can organize your own webinar, promote and drive traffic towards it.  Or you can have other key players in your niche interviewing you.

3. Start the Relationship

Your signature presentation is the start of a long term relationship you’ll build with that particular audience.

Make sure that you’re easy approachable the day of the presentation.

Deliver your value packed signature presentation with enthusiasm and passion.

The easy way to connect with your audience here is weaving in your personal story and examples of your work with clients.

4. Invite them to work with you.

Fact is that in your presentation you can not give them all that they need or want. You have so much more to offer to them. You can give them the what and the why, but  a 20′ – 60′  timeslot will rarely allow you to go very deep into the how.

So at the end of the presentation give them a call to action.  Even if you’re not allowed to sell from the stage, make sure that you always sign off with a call to action.

ie: coming up to you after the talk, downloading a free resource on your website, invitation for a strategy session,… .

5. Follow up. 

Add the new contacts to your ezine/newsletter list and make sure you follow up on them, expanding the relationship you started at the speaking event.

In order to create a profitable coaching business you want to think things a bit through here.

The great thing about being a self employed coach and entrepreneur is that you can design things in your own way to fit what you want to get out of life.

You’ve to keep in mind that the business is there to support you and your lifestyle and not the way around.

You don’t want to get hung up in a business that is running you instead of you running your coaching practice.

So it’s important for you to create your own business model. And I understand that coaches often fall into the 1on1 coaching as the very first option. And some people really love it that way. But you don’t have to stick with it.

1. Understand your big why

The first step in defining your business direction is that you want to get clear on why you are or want to be a coach.

Maybe you’ve got a message to share with the world.

Maybe it’s just having the freedom of working for yourself.

Maybe …

2. Envision the perfect life style that you would love to live.

This is the second part in finding your direction. In setting up a profitable coaching business you need to know where you need to take it and what the outcome is for you on a personal level of being a successful coach.

What is your ideal perfect day that you want to live? Where are you, what are you doing, who is there with you?

What kind of business would fit this picture?

3. Put on the entrepreneurial hat.

Let’s put down the coaching hat for a moment and put on the entrepreneurial hat.

Keeping the ‘direction’ in mind, and getting out of the ‘coaching’ thinking, will allow you to come up with different business models that will allow you to get your message out there, your freedom, …

Keeping the big picture in mind allows you to stretch your thinking and possibilities into other business models than the 1on1 coaching business model.

The business models are just a frame work or vehicle that will support your message, your service, …

It might be 1on1 coaching, group coaching, speaking, becoming an author, trainer, expert, product developer, online/offline, …

Now tie everything together.

What would the perfect fit for you. For your coaching practice and for your personal life.

Having both in balance will allow you to get your message and your service out in the best way possible. For you and your clients.

1. Stretch your mindset to the next level.

In order to grow your business, elevate it and create that breakthrough you are looking for  you first have to look inside what you can change.

As a coach or consultant you’re the one who drives your business and the way you hold yourself will reflect in your results. It will reflect in how many clients you attract, it is the decisive factor if you’ll be struggling in your business or not.

To create breakthroughs you’ve to first create a shift on a personal level.

I know that everyone is looking for the shortcuts, the golden marketing strategy, the latest social media scheme, …

But all of this won’t help if you don’t have your mindset fully supporting where you want to go.

2. Take an in depths look at your business processes.

You want to streamline your business processes as much as possible. The trap is that we as coaches, solo entrepreneurs are sometimes so far into things that we often do not see what’s lacking. 

Bringing in someone who has an outside perspective on things will help you to put it in the right perspective and bring that clarity we sometimes need to being able to improve upon things.

Next step is to make sure if the processes in place are adequate enough for where you want to take the business. That will help you to prevent the bottlenecks from showing up. 

3. Increase your customer experience.

Increasing your customer experience is the way to go if you want to move from having clients who just think you’re ok to having raving fans.

This is not always about over delivering, and bombarding them with bonuses.

Well you’ve to be consistent in delivering great value. That’s the bare minimum. The other part of that is the way you’re capable of building a trustworthy relationship with your clients. One that is genuine and authentic.

Raving fans will be more likely to spread the word for you and refer you to their peers, and network so you can start building that automated referral machine.

Which will lead to less time and money spent on marketing.

Remember that the customer experience starts at the moment when they first heard about you.

4. Know where to find the big leverage.

Where in the process can you increase/ improve things,  that will have the biggest impact. 

Is that in the before phase. Are you turning strangers into qualified prospects into new clients? Is this easy or do you need more better focused marketing? 

Maybe it’s in the phase where you’re working together, and doing your coaching. Are you delivering the results they are looking for? 

Maybe it’s in the phase after you’ve stopped working together, … are you still in contact with them, do you regularly check in with them where they’re at. Is there a way for them to extend working with you. 

When you have that vision for your coaching practice, then leveraging your current assets and network is the next step to go. 

Wherever you are in your business, it’s never too late to put a great marketing plan into action and develop a more strategic way to get in front of more ideal clients.  And that’s where using your current network to help you spread the message is crucial. 

5. Be open and aware of  the opportunities showing up.

It’s easy to ignore growth opportunities, but it’s also as easy to follow a track that might distract you from your bigger vision because it sounds like a great opportunity.

Make sure that you open up to the things that you’re meant to put in the world. And then grab them even if they scare you a bit or pull you out of your comfort zone. So you can start growing and leveraging your coaching business.

Making a bigger difference in the world.

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They read somewhere or hear someone say:  ’In order to make some money with coaching, you got to be able to differentiate yourself and you start with defining your niche.’

And sure that makes sense. If you don’t know what your niche is you cannot address and get in front of your ideal clients. 

Actually I’ve told starting coaches this over and over again. 

But then they start to think it through. They might even come up with different possibilities and different niches, … but then they never dare to pick one. 

They seem not to be able to decide.

So they immobilize themselves. They stop getting the website up, they wait till they ‘get it’ before getting out there. And before they know it 6 months have passed. 

And sure I understand that you want to do it ‘right’ from day 1. 

Well understand that things don’t rarely work that way. 

We do not know what we do not know.

What you want to do is get out there as fast as possible, don’t wait until you have defined your niche to enroll some clients.

Let  your current network know that you’ve started coaching, and that you’re available for coaching. That means reaching out to your family, friends, (ex-)colleagues.

One day it will just start making sense what your passion is, who your target market is and what you’ll be able to help them with. Trust yourself.

Sometimes it takes time to get clear on what you have to bring to the world.  You can not force that.

So stop nitpicking and over thinking what  your perfect niche should be.

There’s nothing wrong with making a u-turn and heading a different direction when you and your business evolves. 

You know as coaches we realize that people have possibilities and growth ahead of them. 

Things evolve. So do you. So does your coaching practice. 

Does marketing and selling devalue your service? 

That’s a good question. To me it’s the way around.

If you don’t market and sell your coaching and mentoring programs you won’t be able to change businesses and people’s lives. 

The gift and the value you can bring to the world diminishes if you don’t market and sell. 

I understand that many coaches don’t like marketing and sales.

It’s not their fault. 

It comes down to the following mindtrap I see many coaches fall into.

Coaches are trained in their coach training to create an environment which is supportive and safe for the coachee to grow within.

As a business owner you need to be realistic. You need to have patience. You need to have commitment, focus, be able to manage money, be creative, be solution focussed, you should be able to handle your fears, doubts, insecurities, you got to trust your coworkers or your partners, be able to see opportunities.

Sure we all have our moments and that’s ok, we’re after all humans. And one day goes better then the other, but you should work on improving your attitude and mindset on a consistent basis.

You do not want any fears,doubts, insecurities,.. to get in the way of your success in business and life.

If you grow, your business will grow. Actually it happens so often that business grows to fast for the business owner to keep up.. and then business start slacking.

Realize that you are the driver of the business, and how you drive will have an immense impact on if the business is successful or not. And that’s the ONE thing business owners are overlooking when they run into a problem and get stuck.. they tend to lay blame, on a technical aspect, or a coworker, or the market, or the economy, … but they fail to look at how they are dealing with the problem. And to any problem in a business there’s a solution, but you gotto to be willing to see where the real problem is… In the IM business people could be easily tempted to start out by the image that they could easily make thousands of dollars with no work at all..
Well anyone buying into that has a success rate of close to 0. I see lots of people buying into the four hour workweek illusion. This only will work if you already have a business, with implemented automatization procedures, BUT when you are just starting out it’s gonna take lots and lots of long workdays.

Basically the one best advice is: get your attitude and mindset in sync with where you’re outcome is. The MAIN reason why small businesses fail, is because the person in charge is not great at managing themselves H

And though I agree that you need to invest, money, energy and time in it,  marketing these days is as cheap as it gets.

So there’s a misconception that many coaches and entrepreneurs in general have.  They don’t know how to market and get their message out.

Maybe you’ve tried it a few times, spend a 1000$ here and there but didn’t get much ROI from it.

Knowing where, when and how to get your message out will drastically change your results without draining financial resources.

What can we do as a coach to market out business?

As you know there’s a difference between the act of coaching and running your business. These are two entirely different skill sets.

Now we as coaches have a great advantage over other entrepreneurs. when it comes to marketing, you can draw on one of your coaching skills. Building connection and creating interpersonal relationships is one of those skill sets that most coaches will do naturally. And this will help you in marketing your coaching business.

People buy from people they trust.

You can build  trust with people online and offline and get your message without spending much money.

Because it’s not so much about the money you spend on marketing that is going to make a difference, but your level of capability in connecting with people and communicating a clear message.

A few examples of how marketing and getting your message out there is basically free:

ie: Online forums. Many of my clients get to me through LinkedIn. You can do thisas well, set up your profile and start engaging on Linkedin Groups where your ‘target group’ of clients hang out. If you go out to offer value for your target group, and have it backlinked to your own website. You’ll start a communication with them and your target market will want to start finding out more about you.

Ie:  Attending networking events, can pull in enough clients to get you going. Which won’t cost you but a couple of hours every week, and buying someone a drink or two. Make sure you follow up on your new connections!

Those are just a few of the examples of getting  your message out in a genuine authentic way without spending thousands a month on marketing.

Creating promotional material is something you want to do when you’ve set up your systems, have a very clear compelling message, and you’ve a way of tracking the leads and RO

Most of the time it’s a combination of different things…depending on where you’re at in your business.

Mindset is the first thing. As a (sole) entrepreneur everything starts with mindset.

Thinking that you only need to be good at what you do (coaching) in order to make it all work is a big trap for most coaches and sole entrepreneurs

They start out with working on their coaching skills – trying to get the confidence.

But not many of the coaching schools teach you that there’s a difference between what you try to be good at (coaching) and running a business.

It are two different skillsets… and we as coaches are great at that interpersonal stuff but very often lack the business skillset to get out there in a big way and make things work for them.

Understand that you’re in the business of marketing your coaching and not so much in the business of coaching.

That is the distinction that successful coaches make.

“Coaching” is just one service modality that you helps your clients and just a small part of running your own practice/business.

Where could you start to and shift your mindset towards being an entrepreneur in the first place and second a coach.

We like to set goals and in some way we’re trying to give our life a direction where to go the next year. We all set up our new years resolutions, though most people even forget about them, before the first week of January is over.

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