Jo tackles the crucial topic of self-promotion and ethical marketing for coaches. She shares insights on overcoming the discomfort of self-promotion, reframing it as a service to your clients, and provides practical strategies for authentic marketing.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:00] - Introduction and podcast overview

[00:01:00] - The self-promotion paradox and its challenges for coaches

[00:02:00] - The hidden cost of modesty and missed opportunities

[00:03:00] - Reframing self-promotion as active serving of ideal clients

[00:05:00] - Psychology behind resistance to self-promotion

[00:06:00] - Addressing imposter syndrome in self-promotion

[00:07:00] - The likability factor and social expectations of modesty

[00:09:00] - Authenticity concerns in self-promotion

[00:10:00] - Reframing self-promotion as service, not sales

[00:12:00] - Jo's CLEAR method for effective and authentic self-promotion:

- Connect with your why

- Lead with value

- Evidence-based storytelling

- Authentic voice

- Regular consistent sharing

[00:14:00] - The ripple effects of self-promotion in the coaching industry

[00:15:00] - Addressing resistance to talking about money and success

[00:17:00] - Call to action: Share a client success story on social media

[00:18:00] - Closing remarks and resource information

Visit joannalottcoaching.com for free resources and leave a review if you found this episode helpful!

Useful Links

DARE GREATLY WAITLIST Dare Greatly (joannalottcoaching.com)

How to secure more coaching clients' free training

Download the 12 ways to get clients now

Learn about The Business of Coaching programme

Connect with Jo on LinkedIn

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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Hello and welcome to Women in

the Coaching Arena podcast.

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I'm so glad you are here.

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I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor

and ICF accredited coach

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

and I help coaches to

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build brilliant businesses.

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I know that when you prepare to enter

the arena, there is fear, self doubt,

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comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

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You can tend to armor up and

protect yourself from vulnerability.

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In this podcast, I'll be sharing

honest, not hype, practical and

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emotional tools to support you to make

the difference that you are here for.

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Dare greatly.

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You belong in this arena.

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Hello, welcome to the 81st episode

of women in the coaching arena.

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I am so glad you are here.

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Today, I'm excited to cover an

important topic of self-promotion and

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a coach's guide to ethical marketing.

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I don't really like the term self

promotion because I just don't see

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it like that, to be honest ' because

I just don't see it as promoting

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yourself as such I see it as solving

your client's problem, but it was the

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main, clear way I could describe this

episode, so excited to cover that today.

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Cause I know it's a real problem

when you first start your business.

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You do need to promote your business a

lot more than sometimes feels comfortable.

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Let's start by talking about

the self promotion paradox.

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As we know, we help our clients take

big action, do things to push out of

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their comfort zone, promote themselves,

their strengths, all of those things.

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But when it comes to doing it ourselves,

this is where many of us can hit a wall.

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If you've ever felt a knot in your stomach

at the thought of posting on social

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media, promoting your business, emailing

your list or perhaps feeling like you're

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emailing too often, perhaps feeling

like you're showing up online too often.

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If you're going to networking meetings,

dreading saying your elevator pitch,

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then you are not alone and today we

are going to really talk about this.

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I give you some practical and

inspirational strategies to overcome this.

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In my onboarding calls, when

someone starts working with me

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I do an exercise where we talk

about their annual priorities.

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Then I say the benefits of doing this and

I ask, what is the cost of not doing this?

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And that is what I'm going to talk

about now the hidden cost of modesty.

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You staying side on about your

achievements or how you can

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help people isn't humility.

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How about thinking of it

as a missed opportunity?

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I really liked to think of this as

your clients are out there and they

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need to know you exist and they

need to hear your way of saying it.

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I had a new client start this week,

who was saying, oh, there's already

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somebody in this space completely

dominating that particular industry.

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I said, well, what some meant to do

if they don't particularly like her

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or they don't gel with her approach?

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You know, just, just think, oh,

well, I'll just have to stay stuck

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then, because you know, there's

no one who resonates with me.

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I love to think about this self promotion

word as active serving your ideal clients.

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Really think about marketing as

helping your ideal client move forward.

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You aren't promoting your service.

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You are helping them take small steps

in the right direction, inspiring them

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to start changing their beliefs, to see

wherever it is they want to achieve is

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possible for them and perhaps eventually

taking that extra step towards you and

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working with you if they choose to.

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Again, I was hearing a lot of resistance

from my client about being a career

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coach and someone saying, well, I want

you to get me this type of job and, you

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know, be a hun headhunter, essentially.

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You know, that particular

client isn't for you.

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It's like if I were to just quit my

business coaching job, because one person

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asked me to do their social media for

them, then I wouldn't be in business now.

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Really think about the amount

of people there are in the world

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and you only need a few of them.

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Yes, thousands and thousands of people.

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Will consume this podcast, my marketing

social media email list and only a very

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small percentage of those will become

clients and that's absolutely okay.

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And what we really want to do is know

that we want to serve that particular

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group of ideal clients whether or

not, they eventually become clients.

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We obviously hope that they

do because we know that then

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they will get the best results.

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Even if you improve someone's

life, just a small bit.

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Is that not worth overcoming

your ego of self promotion?

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Another way to reframe this is that you

aren't talking about how great you are.

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You are talking about your client's

problems and solutions to their problems.

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You don't have to go round saying,

oh, I've got 20 years experience in

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this and I'm brilliant at that and it

doesn't have to feel like it's your CV.

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All people really care about

is what's in it for them.

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Take a moment now to think about how

many people could benefit from your

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expertise if only they knew about it.

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I know this is very easy to say a

much harder to do so let's address

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the psychology behind this self

promotion and why so many of us

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feel resistance to doing this?

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Because it isn't just an ego thing, even

though I just go to my soapbox about that.

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There are so many other reasons at play

and it's probably why I genuinely went

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for counseling for the first time in my

whole life when I started my business.

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Because so much of this hidden

trauma really came up of

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being seen, being visible.

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Thinking about my views and how to share

them, because I felt like I didn't know

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who I was and who I was serving well

enough to really show up and do this.

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Let's talk about the main

psychological and social factors

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at play in this resistance.

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The first one, we will all

know well is imposter syndrome.

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We are always learning and in grow.

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We will all be very aware of

this from helping our clients.

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But we will also feel it ourselves and

we can feel like we are not an expert

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to promote our services confidently.

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I had a client start this week who

said, despite having 20 years experience

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that she didn't feel like an expert

and I said to her, my definition of

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an expert is the person who knows

more about a topic in an average room.

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I said to her, if you're at that

networking fan, do you know more

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about your particular topic than

most of the people in the room?

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She's like yes most definitely.

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So really step into that expert status.

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People love feeling your certainty and

you claiming out will really help the

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energy in everything else you share.

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Let's talk about the likability factor.

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This was a big one for me.

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I had been a real chameleon, my whole

life saying what my bosses wanted

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me to say, trying to behave like

they wanted me to behave, trying

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to fit in all of those things.

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And I think, especially for women, there

is that social expectation to be modest.

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We can tend to build relationships based

on putting ourselves down essentially

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and it's probably why my friendship group

has changed massively since I became a

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coach, because I realized that that's

what a lot of women do is we talk about

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my kid was up in the night last night,

and then someone has say, oh, well, my

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kid wakes up five times a night and it's

like, who can have like the worst life?

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I suddenly realized.

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I didn't want to be part of

those discussions anymore.

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I wanted to talk about how we could be

better and not get into this kind of

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whinge Fest that can easily become a case.

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Don't get me wrong.

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I'm no angel, but I do think that

like ability factor brings out that

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tendency to pretend that we haven't

got it all sassed, but most of the

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time we actually make things out

to be worse than they actually are.

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When someone says to me, wow,

you're so lucky to have your own

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business and do it around the kids.

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I always immediately go back, say

yeah but, you know, don't forget,

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you can never switch off ., try

and bring out all the negatives.

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So they like me more.

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And I'm becoming way more

conscious of this now because in

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marketing, you want to be Marmite.

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If you are Vanilla, then you just blend

in with the crowd, everyone scrolls by.

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You need to start being able to share your

views, even if someone might not agree.

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That come feel really very hard.

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I do think it's a journey and

the only way you get better is by

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continuously sharing your views.

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Starting to look at your data.

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Look at your top posts,

for example, on LinkedIn.

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You will see that it's the ones that make

you feel physically sick to share that

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are usually the popular ones, because

people love hearing your point of view.

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The final one I will cover on why we feel

resistance to sharing is authenticity.

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Many of us feel like it might compromise

our authenticity and make us feel salesy.

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Make us feel like we're just in

this for the money that's why

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we're promoting our service.

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Maybe people will think that we

don't care about them because

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we're charging for our service.

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That type of thing can really come up.

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I think if you have any of these three

factors coming up acknowledging them

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is the first step to overcoming them.

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Let's now reframe self promotion

because I genuinely believe that

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it is about service, not sales.

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I felt a huge resistance yesterday

when I was in a WhatsApp group

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and people were sharing really

needing my help on something.

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They were talking about pricing

and packaging and coaching.

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And I was really hesitant, avoided

the message for hours and hours.

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They weren't particularly asking me.

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It's not my group.

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Which is kind of why I was feeling

the resistance of if I comment

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helpful comment they'll think you're

just trying to sell your service.

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About five hours later, I overcame

this and thought, do you know what?

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I can really help these people move

forward on this and by me not sharing

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because I think they might think

that I'm trying to sell my thing I'm

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actually doing them a disservice.

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I just provided really long, really

helpful replies to their comments and

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gained a lot of support and hopefully

really help shift these beliefs.

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Let's reframe it self promotion

isn't about inflating, your ego

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it's about serving your audience.

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In order for them to know

that you are the right person.

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Yes.

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You may have to share your

successes and capabilities.

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You are not bragging.

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You are showing them that you are the

person that can help them to move forward.

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You will enable them to make informed

decisions about what they want to do

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and whether they want to work with you.

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If you don't give them the information

they need, then they will never

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know if you are the right fit.

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Let me introduce my clear methods

to helping you promote yourself

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effectively and authentically.

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Firstly, connect with your, why.

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Remember the reason you became a coach?

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Let that passion for what you do really

shine through in all that you do.

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It sounds like a wishy-washy thing to

do, but it really makes a difference.

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Second step is lead with value.

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Instead of talking about how great you are

focus on the transformation and the sorts

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of results that your clients will get.

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Also try and solve their problems.

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If you can help them to take

one small step in the right

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direction than they did yesterday.

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Then when it comes to the time that

they are ready to take action they

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will think yeah, that was the person

that gave me that mindset shift.

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Our third step is

evidence-based storytelling.

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Use case studies and concrete

results to illustrate your impact.

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I think I'd spoke about this in a

previous episode that I have absolutely

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masses of case studies and social proof.

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I really need to utilize it more often.

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I'm talking about upping my game to

twice a week sharing case studies.

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I do know someone who actually

shares every single day.

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I think if, for example, you use Instagram

stories, then that's really easy to do.

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I personally use LinkedIn, so it feels

a lot to post a testimonial or a case

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study every single day but I really

do think I could do it twice a week.

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That is what I am intending to do.

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Going forward to really up my game

on evidence-based storytelling.

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Our fourth point is authentic voice.

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Promote yourself in a way that feels true

to you, your personality, your values.

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If you're funny, be

funny in your marketing.

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If you're serious, be

serious in your marketing.

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Really think about how

you can bring it in.

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For example, one of my

clients is in fashion.

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She was talking about having

a branding photo shoot.

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Maybe in a dress store

or something like that.

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I think it's a great idea.

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The more you can do to bring your passions

and experience into everything that you

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do, the more successful you will be.

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My fifth point to my clear methodology

is regular consistent sharing.

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Make this self promotion a habit, not a

one-time event, the more you do something,

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the less sensitized you will become to it.

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You know what it's like when you

first put out your social media

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posts, it takes months of exhausting

energy just to do that one thing.

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Before you know it, when you are a

consistent poster, you just hit post

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you're closed on the tab and you carry

on with your life because you have become

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used to that level of discomfort that now

it makes the uncomfortable, comfortable.

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So keep doing it as much as you can.

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As a final motivator . Let's talk about

the ripple effects of self-promotion.

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Every single time you promote

yourself effectively, you are not

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just growing your own business.

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You are also inspiring other coaches

to step up and share their value.

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You are showing potential clients

what's possible for them and you are

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elevating our industry as a whole.

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Something I really want to get better at

is talking about money because I often

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say that the reason I do this work.

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Is to help women make money, which took me

a long time to say, but what I've realized

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is the only reason I went into this work

is seeing other coaches talk about it and

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me thinking is really possible for me.

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I noticed my own resistance in

talking about this and my client's

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resistance in talking about this.

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I had a potential client reach out to

me yesterday and said, I want to know,

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like in figures what your clients make.

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And the problem is many of them have asked

me to edit that out of our case studies.

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I had one recently who said online I made

25,000 from this program in the three

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months that I was working with you and

then she was like, oh my God, I don't

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want anyone to know how much I'm earning.

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Do you mind taking that out?

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I've had another client who has

just had her first 10 K month.

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But people feel really nervous.

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Like they're bragging.

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Say my type of clients generally

won't say the amount probably because

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I don't also say the amount, I

really want to become better at that.

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In terms of knowing whether clients have

achieved results, I would say, look at

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my website, for example, and you will

see them say, got five corporate clients

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and know that my clients don't do one

off 50 pound or a hundred pound coaching.

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If they've gained a client, it's

going to be a thousand pounds plus

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and obviously if it's an organization,

it's more likely to be closer to

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10,000 pounds for that one project.

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Read between the lines to know if

people are making money there is this

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huge resistance to promoting yourself

and showing how well you are doing.

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I really need to lead from the front

hair and start showing everybody

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how well I am doing in order to

inspire my clients to do the same.

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As we finish today's episode, I would

love to invite you to share one client

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success story or one aspect of your

coaching that you are proud of on

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whatever social media platform you use.

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Think about how it feels, notice any

resistance and remind yourself that by

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doing this, you are helping that one

person he might need to hear it today.

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I hope that was really helpful

for you to move forward.

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I cannot wait to see your

social posts out there.

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And like I say, at the end of every

episode, trust yourself, believe

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in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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.