Discover eight simple habits that can help you build real, steady momentum in your coaching business. Joanna Lott shares the honest truth about what actually creates paying clients and why qualifications alone aren’t enough. Drawing on her own early missteps and the small shifts that changed everything, she breaks down the eight habits that made the difference.

This episode is valuable for qualified coaches who feel capable but inconsistent, because it replaces overwhelm with clear, practical habits that actually lead to paying clients.

Timestamps

00:00 – Qualified but Not Paid

02:00 – The Time Audit Wake-Up Call

03:00 – Your Daily Pipeline Date

04:00 – The Power of One

06:00 – Automate the Boring Stuff

07:00 – Implement Within 24 Hours

09:00 – Playing the Long Game

11:00 – The Skill That Changes Everything

If you’re ready to stop circling and start building something that feels solid, these habits will give you a clear place to begin. Choose one, act on it this week, and let steady action, not overthinking, move your business forward.

Useful Links

Learn about The Business of Coaching programme

Signature Solution Course

Download the Free Digital version of Coaches' Planner (NEW edition 2026)

Free Essential AI Toolkit – 2 Must-Have Prompts for Coaches

How to secure more coaching clients' free training

Download the 12 ways to get clients now

Connect with Jo on LinkedIn

Rate and Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Women in the Coaching Arena helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you’re kind enough to leave a review, please do let Jo know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: joanna@joannalottcoaching.com

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When I first started my business,

I got the ILM level seven in

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executive coaching and mentoring.

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I was sure once I got that

certificate in my hand that I would

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feel confident and have people

lined up at my door for coaching.

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That didn't happen.

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So I did what so many coaches

do, which is then knuckle down

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for my ICF ACC accreditation.

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Maybe once I had that accreditation,

I would feel ready to start gaining

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paying clients in my business and

maybe then the queue would form.

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I soon learn that the general

population really don't care

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how amazing my coaching is.

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So I went on a mission to learn everything

I could about marketing my business,

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which led to very uncomfortable times

Googling do I really have to niche?

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I was sure I would find another way

and that I would be the exception.

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I also did a million different

webinars, challenges, free lead

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magnets, thinking if I could just get

all of that information, then that was

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going to completely turn it around.

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Soon enough, the reality hit that being

qualified doesn't equal being paid.

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That course that you loved, that changed

your life doesn't directly lead to income.

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So if you hear any of this, let's

move to exactly what changed things.

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Habit one is the time audit.

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Open your calendar mentally in your mind.

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Ask yourself if those really

important tasks for your

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business are in your calendar.

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How many hours have you got in

your diary to market your business?

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What's your output like?

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How many hours, for example, is it taking

you to write a social post or contact that

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colleague from your previous workplace?

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Maybe it's your website that is taking up

your calendar space, your branding, is it

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other certifications and other learning

that will help you to be a better coach,

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in case maybe when you have that team

qualification or whatever that next thing

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is for you, everything will open up.

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Maybe it's coffee mornings and

other things like going to the

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gym that are in your working day.

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And I'm not saying you can never have

fun, but I am saying if your business

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is a priority, it really does need to

feature very heavily in your calendar.

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Okay habit two is your pipeline date.

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Set 30 minutes ideally every day

or every working day of yours.

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No distractions.

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Block off your phone and close all

your tabs down on your computer.

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Review any conversations.

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Literally write their names down.

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Otherwise you will forget who they were or

your mind will stop you from following up.

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Send those follow ups.

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Send any other messages that you wanted

to send and decide on your next action.

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On Friday, I did exactly this and followed

up with two people who had messaged

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about my program and then had gone quiet

and I got two signups on Friday nights.

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It was a great reminder for me

'cause I like to think, oh, people

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will come in their own time.

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But actually just like I say to my

clients, we do really appreciate a

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follow up, especially when there is

limited places and when if you don't

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follow up, that person might not get

the opportunity to move forward quickly.

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Okay.

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Habit three is the power of one.

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One platform, one offer,

one action metric.

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So, for example, maybe you want

to fully focus on LinkedIn.

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Yes, you can schedule to Instagram,

Facebook, whatever other platforms you

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like, but at one point it really helps to

just decide what's your one core platform.

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And yes, you can repurpose from there,

but you aren't a social media agency.

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So you will not be able to go

big on all of them until you

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maybe have a team to support you.

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Start with one offer I find with clients,

instead of focusing on selling that one

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offer, they will create five more offers.

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So they have an offer suite to

avoid selling that one offer.

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Maybe the time will come when people

say they don't want your main offer,

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and then you maybe create a down sell.

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But do that in the moment

in the conversation.

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You don't have to have

that mapped out beforehand.

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The best thing about one-on-one

coaching is that you can

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just ad-lib it in the moment.

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You can go, oh, okay.

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So it sounds like you

want to work on this.

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How does that sound?

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And one action metric.

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Maybe for you that is 10

meaningful conversations.

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Maybe it's posting on social media.

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Maybe it's blogging and going big on SEO.

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What is your action metric?

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Your one core thing that you will do

every single week to bring in business?

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You do not have to do everything.

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In fact, I highly encourage

you to not do everything.

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Simplify your life as much as possible.

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Okay?

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Habit four is automate the boredom.

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So anything that's draining your

time in terms of logistics and

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admin, maybe that's going back and

forth, trying to find a date for a

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coaching session with your clients.

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Maybe it's onboarding forms or emails that

you send the same one of again and again.

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Maybe it's invoicing for you.

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So think about ways that you

can automate these tasks.

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You might not be in a position to

delegate things yet, but there still

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could be options of things that

routinely happen in your business to

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grow it without it costing a fortune.

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I'm really lucky I have a virtual

assistant who just does routine tasks?

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Every single week in my business that

grows my business, but without it

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having to cost me a fortune, without

us ever speaking in all honesty.

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I don't think we've spoken for 12

plus months, but the work gets done.

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She knows what needs to be done.

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We've got a great relationship,

and she just gets it done.

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So there may be options of people

supporting you in some way without

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it, meaning you have to commit to 10

hours a week with a virtual assistant.

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There might be smaller, easier ways

that can free up your mental space,

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but still get those things done.

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Okay.

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Habit five is the one day

implementation, so learning without

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action will delay your results.

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This is why in my program, as much

as I teach something in our group

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call, for example, I'll then say,

let's put eight minutes on the clock.

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Let's go on mute and

let's actively do that.

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And that helps the learning actually

get done, and it's the doing that

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is going to generate the result.

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So you will gain so much traction

if you can just implement something,

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anything as quickly as possible.

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There is a thing called the law of

diminishing intent, and the more

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time that passes from you choosing

to do something or learning about

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something or thinking about doing it

in some capacity to actively doing it.

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So in other words, if you do

it within 24 hours, great.

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If it gets to 48 hours,

it's less likely to happen.

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If it goes beyond about 72

hours, you are highly unlikely

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to ever implement the thing.

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It's a bit like this week I

was due to be in New York.

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We found this amazing deal and

instead of booking it, we made the

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mistake of looking for better flights,

looking up the hotel on TripAdvisor.

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Maybe we should stay in a different place.

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Maybe we should do this, that the other.

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Three days went by.

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We hadn't booked anything, and here

I am at home and not in New York.

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So it was a great reminder that

actually the speed of implementation

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can really change your life in terms

of having an amazing holiday, but

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also having an amazing business.

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Habit six is to break the sales taboo.

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Really convince yourself before

anyone else that working with

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you is an amazing thing to do.

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I know that this takes time and it does

take experience, I suppose, of working

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with clients to build your confidence,

but spend as much time as you can in

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that space of how can I help clients?

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Read those testimonials back.

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Really, really let it sink in and

know that the more people you are

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in touch with, the more people will

gain that transformation with you.

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So conversations create opportunities.

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How can you have more conversations?

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Whatever that might mean for you.

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Habit seven.

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The long game reframe.

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So today's effort rewards you

usually in three months time.

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How can you thank yourself for

doing the work today that your

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future self will be grateful for?

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So for example, before sending that DM

or sending that message to a colleague

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or putting that social post out, how

about reminding yourself that this

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action is for my future flexibility.

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Really connect the difference that

that action is going to ultimately

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make to exactly what you want.

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And know that the best things

are not visible immediately.

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If you want to have a great

marriage, you might have to date

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for ages or go out with your partner

long enough for them to propose.

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If you wanna get fit, you might have to go

to the gym multiple times and work really,

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really hard before you see any results.

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Keep knowing that the actions and habits

you build today will be gratefully

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received from your future self.

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Okay, final one, habit eight.

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The skill rule.

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So really think about the skills

that you are gonna need in

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order to build your business.

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They will be marketing

skills, sales skills.

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Maybe tech skills.

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Like really think what skill do I need

to improve and how will I learn that?

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Also ensure that it's really

implementation focused and

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there are things in place that

will help you to implement.

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I've loved recently working with someone

called Tom Cleary, who's gonna be on this

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podcast soon, on my facilitation skills.

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That was an area I chose to up level

because I facilitate groups every

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single week, large groups, small groups,

in-person groups, and I've never actually

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had official facilitation training.

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So I didn't feel like I needed a course as

such, but I wanted someone to work with on

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specific areas that I wanted to uplevel.

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So habit eight is upleveling your skills.

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Identify what skills you want

to uplevel and do something

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really practical to uplevel them.

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For example, in my program,

it's all about implementation.

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I don't want somebody to just

tick off all of the modules.

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I want them to watch the offer

module and then share their

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offer so we can review it.

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I can give feedback within 24 hours.

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They can see how that lands, amend

it, and then the job is done and then

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they can move on to the next module.

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So it's all about actively implementing,

making things better all of the time,

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and making it good enough to move

now, but also know that you will

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want to come back to everything in

your business, it's all circular.

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Even years into business.

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People join my program years into

their business because at some point

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you'll want to go back and think,

what do I want as my niche now?

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What do I want as my offer?

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What does my marketing look like?

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So just know that the more experienced

you are, the more that you understand

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that you're never too experienced.

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You do not need to be a shiny,

overtly confident person to build

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a successful coaching business.

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Every single thing about you

is perfect just as it is.

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And it's all about bringing

all of that out to the world.

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So take action before you feel ready.

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Trust that internal pull to do whatever

it is that's pulling you towards.

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And choose just one tiny habit from

today's episode to start this week.

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If you haven't downloaded the 2026

coaches planner yet, then that will be an

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amazing tool for you throughout the year

to map out your business, but also to

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continuously reflect and check that you're

going in the right direction and readjust.

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You will find the link to the 2026

coaches planner in the show notes.

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You can either have a free online

download, or if you prefer a paper

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copy, you can buy it on Amazon.

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So search for 2026 Coaches

Planner Joanna Lott, or you'll

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find the link in the show notes.

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So I hope this episode

helps you to implement some

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great habits into your life.

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And like I say at the end of

every episode, trust yourself.

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Believe in yourself, and be the wise

gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

Thank you so much for listening to this

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episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.