In this Streamlined episode, Mary Cravets, Founder and CEO of Simply Get Clients by Mary Cravets, shares how to simplify client generation and boost income without burnout. If you struggle with overwhelm and inconsistent revenue, you won't want to miss it.

You will discover:

- How to simplify strategies to focus on high-impact actions

- Why defining "working" prevents wasted effort on tactics

- What intentional choices align business with your freedom

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Mary Cravets is an award-winning Client Generation Expert and International Speaker who helps coaches grow their businesses without working nights and weekends. She’s heard all the confusing and conflicting advice out there - so she isn’t surprised that most coaches struggle to establish a sustainable business. But she’s here to change that. Using her methods, the majority of Mary’s clients quickly increase their income by 50% or more. Clients range from the former CFO of Microsoft North America to coaches in their first few years of business.

Want to learn more about Mary Cravets's work at Simply Get Clients by Mary Cravets? Check out her website at https://simplygetclients.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the Founder's Evolution Quiz Today

If you’re a Founder, business owner, or CEO who feels overworked by the business you lead and underwhelmed by the results, you’re doing it wrong. Succeeding as a founder all comes down to doing the right one or two things right now. Take the quiz today at foundersquiz.com, and in just ten questions, you can figure out what stage you are in, so you can focus on what is going to work and say goodbye to everything else.

Founder's Quiz

Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again

to the start, scale and succeed. Podcast, the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven stages of your journey. As a

founder, I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and there's a

problem I see all the time, especially for founders who've

launched their business to create freedom and impact, but

instead find themselves out of one job and into seven all get

while getting paid a fraction of what they should. You're

juggling client, delivery, creating content, doing your own

bookkeeping, the actual work itself, managing your calendar,

writing proposals, and it just piles up and up and up. And

somehow it seems to get worse every time you get a new client

to the point where you just don't know how you're going to

make it all happen. And the revenue comes in. We do all the

work, but then it distracts us from bringing in more revenue,

and it starts this vicious cycle that can trap even the most

capable of entrepreneurs, and it happens in this startup

entrepreneur stage and to help us wrestle down the alligator

that is this cycle that wants to get the better of our revenue.

Let's because, let's call it that is the one and only Mary

Cravets, who is an award winning client generation expert and

international speaker, who helps coaches grow their business

without working nights and weekends, and she's heard all

the confusing and conflicting advice there is out there, and

isn't surprised that most coaches struggle to establish a

sustainable business, but she's here to change that, using her

methods, the majority of Mary's clients quickly increase their

income by 50% or More. 50% or more clients range from the

former CFO of Microsoft North America to coaches in their

first few years of business. She's here with us today. Mary,

welcome to the show. So excited to have you here. Thanks for

having me. Scott, fantastic. All right, so let's get started with

something that I bet a lot of founders watching, coaches,

service providers founders just early in their journey, they're

working harder than they did in their last job. That's just

universally true. We have this idea from Instagram, I think is

where it comes from, but it's like starting a business is

working four hours a week and then sipping two paint Nicoletta

is one for each hand, singing Garth Brooks songs or something.

But it's just not the way it works. And so we'll zoom in,

particularly with your expertise. Here, you work with a

lot of coaches, and these are smart, capable folks. Why do

they seem to still get stuck in this do it all yourself, do

everything all the time trap?

Well, you know what? First of all, they don't

even necessarily know what they should be doing at all, because

coming from a corporate background coming from an

academic background there. There's no school for this. I

work with people who have MBAs, who have marketing backgrounds

and this entrepreneurial piece of, how do you do it? It's just

not really taught anywhere, not any traditional place that you

would learn from, like universities and so forth, and

so they come in. I think the biggest thing is that everyone

thinks they should know how to do it. And why would they? You

don't beat yourself up if you don't know how to knit, you

know, it's like you just don't know how to do it. Go get the

skills.

Yeah, absolutely. So let's, let's

actually start there. Let's, let's try and as best we can, as

a big question, but let's answer that question for them. What do

you need to know? Let's start specifically with coaches,

because it's a little easier to define in a specific industry.

But folks, I'm in this industry as well, and work with a lot of

our coaches in the scale architects program. And one of

the things that I found out pretty early is that coaching

isn't coaching, it's it's a whole lot of stuff other than

coaching. I actually I was shocked when I started. And

maybe this was your experience, or you've seen others. I did

less coaching my first few months of coaching than I did

when I was just coaching people, you know, for fun beforehand. So

what is it, if you have a brand new coach, what do they need to

do?

Yeah, the first thing they need to know is that

they have to keep an eye on that vision of what they want to be

doing and the impact they want to be making. But then they need

to roll up their sleeves and get to work, and their number one

job is enrolling clients. We get very distracted with this big

picture of marketing and and sales and now social media, and

we see social media everywhere. So obviously, that's how people

get clients right now. So where they need to focus the first

system in the business. Like, the primary system is bring in

business. And people tend to go to coaches. Tend to go to what

they know. Like, instantly, I'll ask them a question, like, Okay,

what have you thought about growing your business? And you

see them go, and they look over in this place in their mind

where business development is, and it's, there's nothing there.

And so they go over to where they're they're like, I was

thinking of working on my accounting systems, because they

know that, and it's fascinating. So having they've got to first

realize client generation is the first skill set. It's not

getting more certifications. It's not necessarily even

bringing in your past experiences. Client generation

first skill set, and that is where you spend your time. And

it's probably, and actually the very, very first thing to do,

probably, is to unlearn everything, all the assumptions

that you know about sales and marketing. It's just like, No,

it's not about being pushy. No, it's about, not about convincing

people to do things they don't want to do. It's none of those

things. And I think that's probably my biggest job, is

like, show people you don't have to be that, that picture of what

they fear they have to become in order to grow a business.

Yeah, the you're stepping on all of the,

all the sacred cows here, but certifications, let's talk about

this. Because, again, this is something that I definitely see

in the coach world, but I see it across professional services and

and then I see that pattern happening in other environments.

But one of the things that I see folks struggle with is like

being an entrepreneur is hard. Hearing no is really hard. And,

you know, trying to do this sales thing, and to whatever

extent, it's because you were clumsy, or to whatever extent,

it's just they weren't ready, it's not time. You got to know

and it hurts, right? Because, especially in something like

coaching, it's kind of like they're saying no to you, not

your product. Oh, yeah. And it just cuts deep. So you get these

folks that were and really are quite confident, but that

confidence starts to take some knocks, yeah? And then I think

this is where the certifications thing comes into play, because

we try to get more confident by becoming more competent at

whatever it is the trade that we do. But what I think needs to

happen, and I think this is something that you do

exceptionally well, they have to become more confident by having

more reps just selling and closing what they do. Would you

agree with that?

Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's that comfort

zone. People go back to what they know the certifications,

and they come by it honestly, of course, because in a corporate

career and an academic career, the more certified you are, the

more knowledgeable you are. Usually that's how you move up.

So you know, with the best of intentions, these smart people,

they end up going after a solution with with the wrong

tools, and so the reps really important, and not just the

reps, but the strategy behind it. I was talking to someone

today, a prospective client, and she's like, well, everything

you're talking about, you know, the relationships and getting

your messaging, right? And doing those things, they all, I mean,

like, I know how to do that, she said, But how exactly? So it's

this pairing. Like, what I have found gives you, gives coaches

the reps, and then the confidence is getting the

strategy so specific and also feeling so natural and genuine,

and then the steps so small and well defined, they start taking

those steps, and the confidence doesn't really play as much of a

role, because they're just like, Oh, I'm gonna take some steps.

Well, look, I got a positive response from someone. I didn't

die when I asked someone for a referral. That's amazing. So

they're getting, they're getting this positive feedback, which

motivates them to keep going. So it's the reps, but not you know,

I hate hearing people say I'd be a no collector. I'm like, please

don't do that. That sounds like aiming for the wrong thing.

Yeah, yeah. So, so one of the things that

you said earlier was you have to forget everything you know about

sales? So again, impossibly large question in an impossibly

small format podcast, but what do we need to think about sales?

What's the right frame of mind to approach it as a coach or a

professional services provider?

You know, I was very fortunate my very first

trainer I ever heard. He defined sales for me, and I have taken

this with me forever, and I I share it now. And that is, sales

is helping someone make a decision they want to or have to

make, and when you like the processes I teach, the processes

I run before having a sales conversation. It's about taking

someone through a process so they can answer the question for

themselves, should they move forward? Should they invest?

Yeah, it's a very small answer to a big question. But sales, of

course, is the end of the process. Process, the sales is

the end. Most people, most coaches, will tell me, if I get

to talk to somebody, I can usually enroll them. That's not

the problem. It's how do I get all the leads coming in? Yeah.

So that's where clicking in the process is even more it's even

more important.

Yeah. So let's go there, because there's, there

are. I mean, my inbox every day has folks that are talking about

leads and appointments and you, if you spend any time on social

media, there's just just constant onslaught of the 92,000

things you need to do to bring in clients. Is it necessary? Do

you have to have, you know, SEO and five social media funnels

and lead magnets and all of that jazz. What do you actually need

to to create the sales that you need to succeed?

I usually follow along the lines of the just

follow the thread of what's working. It's very blunt. I had,

in my second year of business, I had a total burnout, and so I

had, like, four hours a week to run a business that was

providing half of my household income. And so the only thing

that could occur to me is I have to follow what's working. I

can't waste time with all of these other things that are not

getting me anywhere. Just out of pure crisis necessity, I had to

pare it down. All right, how can I spend the least amount of time

and get clients and starting with what's working, I looked

at, what are the words that are working, what are the audiences

that are working? What are the tactics that are working? Like

every single thing had to have a track record, either in my

business or in the industry, in coaching, number one ways that

way that coaches get clients through relationships. That is

true of also most service based businesses through

relationships. And by that I mean referrals, connections,

getting to the cold market through your warm market. The

problem is, what we see everywhere is social media, and

nobody sees on my desk personal note cards and little Starbucks

cards that I send as thank yous. And guess what? I make very good

money on very simple things like this, yeah, but it's what's

working you follow that thread and then systemize it.

Here's what I love about that most of the

folks that I feel get the most confused and frustrated by the

funnel world, if you will, are the ones that have absolutely no

business doing it. It's so far from how they would naturally

behave, that the chances of them ever having success there are so

low that even if they did it right, it still probably

wouldn't give them what they want. And so I love this idea of

following the thread of what's working. I'm wondering if you

can clarify that a little bit, because I think your definition

of what's working might be a little different than the

average coach sitting listening. So what do you mean? What's

working?

Yes, and actually this, this is a piece of advice

I give to all coaches, because coaches tend to sit around with

other coaches and bat around ideas of how to grow their

business. And they say, oh. They say, Oh, you know what worked

for me? And they will talk about it, and then they'll all follow

that rabbit. And so I've primed my audiences and my clients and

everyone I can run into. I say, when someone says this is

working for me, ask them to tell you what that means. What do you

mean it's working? Does that mean you closed a client, or

does it mean you got 486 impressions on LinkedIn, like,

what does it's working? What does it look like to them? What

is it actually and does that working mirror what you want to

get? And if it isn't, do not chase that rabbit.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Data. When I'm talking about what's working,

I'm talking about data,

yeah, and and what's what's actually,

enrolling clients, your number one job generating revenue,

enrolling new clients in your business. And we're picking on

coaches a little bit here. There's low hanging fruit. But

again, this really is true for entrepreneurs in general. And I

would say we could zoom and say, especially those for whom the

work that they do is what's really important to them, right?

We see this in the nonprofit world as well, where, honestly,

if you start a nonprofit, the number one thing you need to do

is generate revenue. It's exactly the same, but they're

even worse at it in the sense it's like, no, we're a

nonprofit. We don't talk about money. It's like, well, you

know, good good luck. So it really is something that goes so

deep into the world of founders and entrepreneurs. And this idea

of what's working and defining that properly, I think, is so,

so very important. Fantastic way of putting it. And, yeah. And

sharing with other founders. Yeah, it's just go back and

listen to it. If you're listening to this, and any of us

just go back and listen to it again. I'm not gonna repeat it

again. But Mary, there's this question that I want to make

sure we have time for, because I ask all my guests, I'm

interested to see what you have to say. And the question is

this, what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at

all? What's that one thing you wish every founder watching or

listening today knew?

What is the number one thing? You know what? I

think it's I'm not sure I'm going to say this, right, but

it's about when you engage in something in your business, make

sure it's doing the right job. We do things, we follow things.

We habitually do things, and we don't take the time to say, Is

this doing the right job? People are blindly doing social media.

Social media is great. Is it doing the right strategic job?

You know, you're getting up early. Is that for the right

reasons? You know, we do this for ourselves, so both on the

strategic and the personal side of things, you know, are you, is

everything in your business doing the right job, and is it

really? Are you owning it and valuing yourself in all of that?

I think I answered like five things in there, but it all

wraps together our identity and our time and our and our out

outputs from what we get, just making sure that everything is

doing the right job. And you know what? It's about,

intentionality. Yeah, like, the more intentional you are, the

more you feel at home in your business, the more results you

get. It's worth taking the time for that intentionality of

strategy and choices and values and everything in your business.

Absolutely, absolutely. So Mary, if there's

a coach or consultant listening to this, and they're in that.

They're they're in the roller coaster, they're in the thick of

all of it, and they'd love someone to come and help show

them what those steps are and and build a strategy for their

sales and revenue. How can they find out more about the work

that you do? Where can I connect with you directly?

Yeah, the very easiest way is to go to my

website. Simplygetclients.com the entire front page is kind of

like this big arrow that is pointing to a button that says,

take the class. And every month, I take people through this

process and the components and assess what you have in your

business, as far as client generation, what needs help, and

what is working well for you already. And from there you can

you get a lot of insight into that intentionality that I'm

talking about.

Fantastic, fantastic. Well, Mary, this

conversation could have gone on for a very long time, but we

like to keep it short and sweet for our listeners, thanks so

much for being on. It really was a privilege and honor having you

here with us today. For those of you watching and listening, you

know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you

got as much out of this conversation as I know I did,

and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.