SUMMARY

Many coaches do the work, show up consistently, and still wonder why their business feels stuck.

In this episode of The Coaching Clinic, John and Angie unpack the often-overlooked principle that coaching businesses grow in direct proportion to what you intentionally plant, not what you hope will happen.

Using the simple metaphor of sowing and reaping, the conversation explores why visibility alone does not create momentum, why being busy is not the same as being strategic, and why many coaches accidentally dilute their brand by trying to do too much, too early.

You will hear a grounded discussion on:

1. Why clients cannot buy from you if they do not know what you stand for
2. The difference between foundational work and high-level activities like podcasts, books, and speaking
3. Why referrals dry up without a system that keeps you visible and memorable
4. How clarity of audience, message, and platform choice drives sustainable growth
5. The danger of chasing tactics without a clear strategy behind them

This episode is especially relevant if you feel like you are working hard but not gaining traction, or if your coaching business relies too heavily on referrals, hope, or inconsistent visibility.

Rather than offering hacks or quick wins, John and Angie focus on building a business that compounds over time, with clearer positioning, intentional action, and fewer wasted efforts.

If you want a coaching business that feeds you consistently, not sporadically, this episode will help you rethink what you are planting and why.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The Concept of Branding in Coaching

04:19 Building a Strong Foundation for Growth

09:41 The Importance of Clarity and Specificity

14:45 Creating Memorable Connections

18:43 Choosing the Right Social Media Strategy

20:18 Contact the show

Want to contact the show? You can leave us a voicemail. It's free to do, and we might feature you on our next episode. All you need to do is go to https://speakpipe.com/thecoachingclinicpodcast and leave us a message. You can also find our clips and full episodes on the exclusive Coaching Clinic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@coachingclinicpodcast

You can send us a video or voice message on LinkedIn:

John's LinkedIn Profile or go to PresentInfluence.com for coaching enquiries with John

Angie's LinkedIn Profile or visit AngieSpeaks.com

2023 Present Influence Productions The Coaching Clinic: Grow Your Coaching Business & Master Coaching Skills 80

Good morning.

Hey Angie.

Although it's not morning for you, I take it back. Greetings, my friend.

And it may not be

morning for our listener either. could be any time of day.

It's true. Greetings all. I have a big question for John this week, something we've talked about. What is your perspective on the idea, the concept of you reap what you sow?

I'm not a farmer, Angie. are we we we talking about wheat here? Are we talking about ⁓ zucchinis?

No kidding. No kidding.

Okay.

So wait, that is awesome, right? Because you just pointed to the reason I even asked the question, right? When we're thinking as coaches about the idea behind branding ourselves, which we've talked about a little bit, you know, in our show, we've talked about branding and things like that. But as recently as last week, thanks for that reminder. But but is there relevance to it? Is there really a point to branding?

As recently as last week, yes.

how much intentionality should we put behind the concept?

Right. And in that case, I think I think yes, it's very hard to to get people to know and trust you enough to want to buy your products or services if they don't really know who you are or what you're about. And so I think it's definitely important to have things in place that that help them to do that. ⁓

I have I have a bit of a thing here. Like one of the things that made it was a bit of a big impact on me when I first heard it. But this is from one of my business mentors, Chris Ducker, who had said that when we were chatting about some of the struggles that I was having with my own business, that I was essentially doing too many high level things, and didn't have enough didn't have enough of the foundational stuff to be ready to do that. However,

Okay.

Sometimes it can be hard to do the foundational stuff. If you don't have some of the high level things and by that by high level things, I'm talking about a book or a podcast or something that people might people might know you for. Because when I talk to people who have had those things and had success with those, a lot of their other successes have stemmed from that. Does that make sense?

Mmm.

Right. Sure. Yeah,

no, absolutely. I think that we have to realize that, you know, coaching in and of itself inherently is just the kind of space where things that you do can then can support other things. Without a doubt, right, you can speak to get coaching and have coaches that give you speaking events or or vice versa, whatever, however that works out. However, to your point, though, people need to know where to find you.

They have to know, yes, I think if you're putting yourself out there in a certain way, you have to be clear in messaging and what it is that you want to do. Like, what is it that you want to attract? How are you attracting people to you? How are you finding the right people? And ⁓ we started talking about farming a little bit because what's the truth, right? Simplicity. If I want to grow a tomato, I need to plant the seeds

to grow a tomato. If your point, cucumber, I need to, I don't know other cucumber seeds. I'm not a farmer either. So I'm just saying, but let's assume everything has a seedling, right? Let's assume whatever it is we want to grow is what we must plant and nurture to give it the best possible outcome to grow in strength and not like my plants, you know, grow for a minute and then they die. Right? So like, isn't that

Yes.

That's really what we're talking about.

Yeah, you have to know you have to know what you're trying to grow. So that requires a little bit of vision. So it is a conceptually, this is this relates very much to strategy, which we were talking about a lot last time. But I do think it's really important to know where you're going with all of this for sure. But I think this is where you want to know who you're helping and how you're helping them so that you know where you can find them.

Mm-hmm.

Because early days, particularly, this is about finding them. One thing that I hear time and time again is like referral. Referrals are great, but you can't always rely on that for a long term business. It's like the referral was made at some point start to dry up, especially especially as people's lives get busy and hectic. And they don't always have the mental space to be able to give you the referrals that you want that you want to need for them.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And so whilst that whilst all that stuff is great, having stuff that keeps you in people's consciousness is far better. So you do want to be memorable. I think it's important to find this way to be memorable. And that's why with social media and stuff, you probably need to really pick one platform and go for it. If you're thinking, well, do I have a book or a podcast? Don't do all of them. You pick pick something as I'd like to be known for this. And probably

Mmm.

No, I would probably looking back, so I saying, all right, start, maybe start with a book. that says you might need to update it at some point, but it gives you a bit of market relevance. It will help you get some speaker bookings for starts. And that's where you can start to bring in coaching clients and whatever else as well. And you can become known for the content in the book and you've got your IP. In print. It's your IP then.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So

sorry, these are these are things to think about and not necessarily that this is not the only one way to go forward. But you need to have a system or a plan in place. There's like, all right, this is what I know I can do in order to grow and become more known. You don't need to know we're not talking about necessarily becoming like top tier, world famous coach here, unless that's what you want to go for. But just to be more known in your in your general market to get you enough of the lead flow.

Right.

that's going to keep you well fed and taken care of.

It's like creating kind of an autonomous pipeline, if you will, right? If that even can happen, but I know plenty of people for whom that does happen. And it's because they've done the research, they've tried and they've done trials and tribulations, they've gone through it. And they're looking at literally like doing a business, what sticks? Think about any company, like I always, I don't know why I do this. Sometimes I go back to...

McDonald's Burger King because they're so easily branded worldwide like it's just easy right and ⁓ but you see like you know they had their basic foundational concept right which was a burger let's just say right both of them different ways they promoted it differently hey we're flame broiled that was different right they differentiated themselves and they're still competitors right they are still neither have to close their doors they could kind of

grow independently parallel ⁓ but you know what the differences are you do and as they grew they would test out a new product to see if they're in their ⁓ foundational following if it felt right for them if it caught their attention if it had any legs to it.

But to your point earlier, they didn't start out with everything. They did not have a menu of 85 things on it. They had a very small menu. So we got to know them as the fast food burger place, right? Fast food being very clear. And it was deliberate and it was very specific. So we almost have to do that within our businesses. You have to be pretty specific so that you know where and when to market yourself. And we have those capabilities now.

differently than they did back in the day. ⁓ So I mean, I get a little long winded about it, but I just love how it translates. It's like, you know, they're not just doing what they started out doing, but they laid a very, whether you eat the garbage or not, oops, sorry. ⁓ They're going to come at me and say, you will never coach for our companies, by the way. ⁓ But anyway, but you know what I mean? Like they pay and they also trailblazed for other fast food places.

That's how impactful their foundations were. the concept, have to have like, conceptually, you have to have an idea in place of who it is you really want to be. You have to really kind of brand yourself and decide where to start with that. Whether you said like, whether it's a platform, social media, or like, you know, writing a book, but don't try to be all things to all people all at one time, there's time for that.

Yeah.

Because where do you go? Right? You can't stay still and think you're going to grow.

Yeah. Right.

No, I mean, as much as I don't regret starting my podcasting life when I did, it wasn't looking back, I see it wasn't the right decision at that time, I wasn't really ready for it. And so I could have made wiser decisions had I known better because better uses for my time at when I was I was in a growth stage would have been podcast guesting.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, yeah.

or having getting a book out and probably again, maybe maybe podcast guest, maybe speaking about that. Now, if you you look at books like ⁓ book yourself solid ⁓ from Michael port or ⁓ the Donald Miller's coach builder, highly recommendable check check them out. ⁓ There's main the main ways that coaches are getting clients are not through just having a website up there, although it's a good thing.

Right.

to have, know, SEO will do something but this is speaking is whether that's ⁓ stage speaking, virtual speaking, podcast, whatever else speaking, organic social media, a big one for any people paid ads. And really, those those are three of the main ways in which coaches are getting their clients, but you still have to have that clarity around that and be able to essentially become known because I think one of the things

Yes.

know, we know from years of experiences that it can take multiple touch points before somebody feels ready to want to buy and invest with you that they feel that they know you enough or know what you're about enough or trust you enough to be able to solve their problem for them or help them in the way that they want helping.

Yeah.

It's so funny that you say that I was just it just kind of jarred me back to ⁓ somebody it was a company I worked for it was a sales based company. And this woman was hilarious the way she would just say things like so off the cuff. And she was like, Come on ladies. It was a women's group by the way. So come on ladies. You know what? Are you looking to get married on the first date? No, right? We want you have to kind of warm up to that.

and you have to kind of get to know each other and understand each other and build that relationship the way she said it that was hilarious but that's the truth right you have to build a relationship even though you may not ever you haven't even spoken live yet you have to think of it as i need to show i need to illustrate i need to consistently show up so that there's no mistaking who i am and what i do

And again, to your point, multiple touch points, absolutely. You know, once in a while, you know, I have somebody who's like, I just saw your XYZ and that was, it just spoke to them. It was the timing and that's great. That's not the norm. ⁓ We build relationships. They do take time, which is why it's so important to not get it perfect because like you and I very much experienced.

We don't know necessarily out of the gate, but that's why we go back to other episodes and say, what are you doing? What's your vision? Who are you talking to? So that you're not weeding through people an underbrush that has nothing to do with your deliverable. It's important. So that when you're doing it, your time spent is really just cultivation, not

testing out and you might do that right let's be honest like you might test things out you might think you're going in one direction and the market or the people that are coming forward are not necessarily where you originally intended and you should pay attention to that right you should listen ⁓ because there's something maybe that you're not even recognizing about yourself yet

Yeah. I say for a coach who doesn't have the pipeline fully figured out. Yeah, they're funnels like where are people coming in? Where are people finding them and coming into their coaching business? It would not be the best advice to start doing all the speaking organic social media or paid ads all at the same time or whatever else you might want to try out and do that. Like pick kind of pick your lane, pick one of them and start building up and growing that and even if you pick social media, for example,

Yeah.

Yeah.

focus, focus in on that and be clear. But any anyone could start doing any of these strategies, and still find themselves not getting anywhere. And the reason that that tends to happen is because what you are saying may either just be too generic, or not well thought through enough, and it's just not cutting through. And this is this is why the relationship stuff becomes so important. So we need to, we don't, we don't need to become like the ⁓

Sure. Yeah.

the contrarian sort of YouTubers or Instagramers who are putting out, putting out contrarian viewpoints for the sake of it just to get clicks, we don't need to we don't need to become that it's not just about getting clicks are going viral, that may not help you as much as you think anyway. But it is it is very much about getting a point of view across and your personality across and your what you are actually going to do for people getting that clarity.

Yeah, yeah, no.

to them was like, this is who it's for. This is what I do. This is who I help and how I help them. And if that's you, we should probably talk and then demonstrating through whatever content or book or talks or podcasts, whatever you go on with met with memorability, make things memorable for them, demonstrate what you can do and how you can help them. If you can't do those things, you're not going to cut through.

Yeah.

just wrote something down and maybe it's for our next, actually our next recording, but ⁓ I think that, and this might be helpful for people, one of the things that I've learned to do is to create conversations, right? I'm not selling anybody anything. I'm learning better all the time on how to create conversation. ⁓

And I think that is to me nowadays the key because times have changed. It is so noisy out there. And wanting to effectively demonstrate or illustrate like who you are and what you do, ⁓ your perspective, your brand ⁓ is becoming increasingly more difficult because let's just say, for example, I am an executive leadership coach. There's a bazillion of us.

But how can I cut through that? And I always say to, and this is just me, instead of demonstrating and illustrating what I do, I focus on the who I am. And it's taken me so long to get to that point.

to get out of the old sales mind of sell, sell, sell. The product is the best. This is the best engine. Maybe I'm not interested as a woman in the engine. Maybe I want to see how pretty it is. Ask anybody that knows me. They're like, OK, Angie, we know you're attracted to that. It's so pretty. Again, I'm not minimizing myself. I'm kind of poking a little fun here. I love learning how to So now when I approach everything that I do, writing of my book,

the you know all my social media i have by the way now focused on one area of social media because that's where my people sit right so now i'm not looking to go hey guess what what's your biggest issue let's talk about that and i'm not downing anybody who's doing it or has done it and it's worked for them but for me i just want to talk to people and if i focus on creating conversations i am developing a

Same.

Almost an invisible pipeline of business opportunity for myself so I kind of feel like there's a shift and maybe we can talk more about that but.

I think we can go into it. I would say this as well before before we wrap things up for today. The social media thing is particularly important with this because ⁓ because every social media platform requires different strategies and different things work. And if you really want to make one work, you pretty much have to go all in with it. If you want to make LinkedIn work, you pretty much have to go all in with it. If you want to make Instagram work, go go all in, because then you can listen to the experts there who can help you get the growth and development as well.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Great. Yeah.

and keep practicing practicing there. But if you're

trying to do that over all these multiple platforms, and it should be the one that makes the most sense to you, maybe the one where you spend most time or the one where you know people are there, maybe even connecting with you, or maybe just where you have the most followers, whatever. But or if you if you really don't have that social media tool right now, where which one do you think that are you mostly professional, then get yourself on LinkedIn? Is it mostly social relationship coaching, whatever else? Maybe Instagram is a great place for you or even Facebook.

Sure.

there's still people on there. So whatever platform is for you go all in, if you really want to see something work and keep trying stuff out and get the strategies and development there. Before you try and do anything else. But if you think I need to be speaking as well do this, do the speaking and don't worry about your social media so much for now. You just need to get yourself to a level in many cases of where there's enough

lead flow and business coming through that you you're attracting the clients that you're able to convert the clients and then you're able to deliver your coaching to them that you're getting paid, you've got food on the table, you're covering your bills. Then you can start to look at where do you grow from here?

Right.

Right. I agree. It's creating a better foundation. Yeah, but I'm excited because now I'm like my wheels are turning and I'm like, ooh, more conversation to come around this topic.

Yeah, definitely. There's a big one is important one. But I hope that at least some of the things here are practical and guiding for people. We certainly have more to say on this.

Yeah.