Make More Money Without More Marketing
Why unlearning how to build my coaching business actually helped me grow my impact AND my business
I was speaking to a health coach this past week about her struggle to find more clients. Almost every coach I know (including myself) has struggled with this. You know they are out there somewhere, they just seem to be everywhere you’re not.
When our second conversation ended, she was conflicted. She wanted to work with me in my Weightless Health Coaching group, but didn’t trust her desire. The programs she just finished hadn’t resulted in the client creation and income that she expected. She was beating herself up and blaming herself for not being able to create the business she wanted. She’d decided that if she was going to deserve another coaching investment, she had to earn it from what she had already learned.
Worse, she was questioning if coaching was actually the right path.
What I have experienced and observed is that much of the training around the business building part of coaching creates a feeling of being trapped into one path of creation. Struggle to make it fit, or struggle.
The truth is, coaches are being taught to become a ‘Six figure coach’ who signs ‘high end clients.’ Coaches are being taught that coaching is all about them. And that is where the disconnect is.
To help my client see this distinction and begin to trust why she hadn’t created what she anticipated, I shared this email with her:
“To serve you, I also want to share something with you as I reflected more on our conversation.
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?”
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’m breaking down the sentence to help you see the distinction and feel the shift.
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 / had been taught, was not authentic to who I was and what worked for me.
The 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.
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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/girl. You meet this person, get to know them. And in the back of your mind, all (s)he is doing is saying everything (s)he needs to say to get laid at the end of the date. Gross, right? What if instead, (s)he was just getting to know you so (s)he could do everything in his/her power to make your life the happiest it could possibly be, and did this wanting nothing in return. You’d probably marry him/her, 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.
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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 ave 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 or 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.
— — — — — — -
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, say in service to that person to help them see, feel and trust that partnering will help them experience them 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 2 or three and then there is no proposal. That’s how dating your clients and serving them works.
Loving you,
Vanessa”
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A question to you:
What are you willing to do to help the person in front of you see that you’re the coach (love) of their lives?