Make More Money Without More Marketing
Why unlearning how to build my coaching business actually helped me grow my impact AND my business.
I sent the email below to a coach that I was speaking to about possibly joining my Weightless Health Coaching program.
Much of our conversation was around creating clients, as it is for many of the coaches I speak to.
One of her struggles was that she was beating herself up for not already creating the success and income she wanted, despite having invested in coach trainings that teach you to get / find / attract clients.
After experiencing that same frustration, I was committed to a better approach. And I found one. Creating clients. First in the book, The Prosperous Coach, and then with my own coach, John P Morgan, who’s coach was Rich Litvin — the author of the book (I believe coaching lineage is important).
After sharing the email with her, though, I realized how much value it might hold for you, too.
From a meta perspective, if you’re stuck on content: Look at what I created from one simple sentence written a few different ways. Where could you take a simple thought and turn it into an act of service?
The email:
“A sentence popped into my head about how I felt after more than a year in coach training / business training for coaches.
I remember beating myself up for not being able to close the deal on a $4000 client in 35 minutes.
I thought, “I should have been able to do that after everything I’ve learned. After being in training as long as I had. What was wrong with me?”
I’m breaking down the sentence to help you see the distinction and the shift.
Reading this sentence now, it’s almost hard to read. Almost hard to remember thinking that way.
I’m writing this to an earlier ME. But I think it will help you, as well.
- I remember beating myself up for not being able to close the deal on a $4000 client in 35 minutes.
I wasn’t the problem. The system I was using and had been taught was not authentic to who I was and what worked for me.
My application of this system in my business was also about me and getting what I wanted out of signing a client. It was not about the client getting what they wanted from signing with me.
2. I remember beating myself up for not being able to close the deal on a $4000 client in 35 minutes.
You’re not closing a deal.
Imagine you’re on a date with a new guy. You meet this person, get to know him. And in the back of your mind, all he is doing is saying everything he needs to say to get laid at the end of the date. Gross, right? What if, instead, he was just getting to know you so he could do everything in his power to make your life the happiest it could possibly be, and he did this wanting nothing in return? You’d probably marry him, right?
You’re creating a partnership. Proposing the marriage of a deep, intimate, and powerful relationship. Perhaps more intimate, deeper, and more powerful than any other relationship in their life. Speak from your heart about what you see for them. What you see for your partnership. Why you think it would work. What you’re inspired by in their vision.
3. I remember beating myself up for not being able to close the deal on a $4000 client in 35 minutes.
Your client is not a handbag. This language upsets me as a coach. You may have high paying, high performing clients. But not a high priced, $4000 client. Remember that your client is a person with hopes, dreams, and desperate desires. And that is why they are sitting in front of you.
If you can help them see that what they want is possible with you, they will pay you whatever you ask. But they are paying for their hopes and dreams. They’re not paying for you, for your abilities, skills, reputation, or body.
And they, themselves, certainly aren’t priced at any amount. The investment they pay you is what they see in themselves. Help them see their truest, highest vision for themselves, and they will pay you what you ask.
4. I remember beating myself up for not being able to close the deal on a $4000 client in 35 minutes.
Stop acting like a college frat boy. You can’t just pour a few drinks down your client’s throat and expect to get her in bed. Would you pay someone you just met 35 minutes ago $4000 and trust them to help you achieve your entire heart’s desire? How many conversations are you willing to have with someone before they agree to marry you? What are you willing to do, give, and say in service to that person to help them see, feel, and trust that partnering will help them experience being who they want and creating what they want together?
Now, I offer two 90 minute conversations. Sometimes, the proposal happens after one. Sometimes, it takes three. Sometimes, it takes two or three, and then there is no proposal. That’s how dating your clients and serving them works.
What are you willing to do to help them see that you’re the coach (love) of their lives?”