If you’re a qualified coach and clients aren’t coming in consistently, where does your mind go first? Do you assume something is wrong… or that something is missing?

Today, Joanna shared a simpler truth: most coaches aren’t struggling because they lack skill, but because the actions that bring clients require courage, not complexity.

This episode is for qualified coaches who know they’re good at what they do but aren’t yet seeing consistent clients, and want a grounded, practical way to change that.

Timestamps

[00:00] The real reason clients aren’t coming

[02:00] Why growth is slower than you expect

[03:00] Hiding behind “busy work”

[05:00] Clarity that makes people refer you

[07:00] The power of uncomfortable action

[10:00] Recognition and trust over time

[13:00] Conversations that lead to clients

“Coaching businesses grow through uncomfortable actions repeated consistently over time.” - Jo Lott

Send the message, start the conversation, share your work - not when it feels easy, but because it matters.

Useful Links

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

Learn about The Business of Coaching programme

Signature Solution Course

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

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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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If you are a qualified coach and

the clients aren't consistently

2

coming in, then it's really easy to

assume that something must be wrong.

3

Maybe it's your niche isn't right.

4

Maybe your marketing isn't good enough.

5

Maybe you need a better

website, another qualification.

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But after working with over 200 qualified

coaches over the past four years, I

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have noticed something really important.

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And most coaches don't struggle

because they're bad at coaching.

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I've actually never seen that to be

the case, but they struggle because

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the things that actually lead to

gaining those coaching clients are

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uncomfortable, not complicated.

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But uncomfortable, and that is

what I want to talk about today.

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Hello, welcome to Women

in the Coaching Arena.

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Whether you are listening on

YouTube or a longtime podcast

15

listener, I am so glad you are here.

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I am Joe Lott, a business mentor

and ICF accredited coach, and I

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have helped hundreds of qualified

coaches build coaching and consulting

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businesses that bring in clients.

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And the most popular question that I get

asked is, can you just tell me how to.

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Clients, I would love it to be so simple.

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So let's try and break

that down for you today.

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When many coaches imagine getting

coaching clients, they often think

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about it as a big breakthrough.

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So maybe mapping out that

perfect funnel, a big launch.

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The perfect niche may be a viral

LinkedIn or Instagram post and expect

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something to suddenly change overnight.

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And the boring truth is that most coaching

businesses grow in tiny, tiny steps

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usually through a series of very specific

actions repeated consistently over time.

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Relationships that start to build.

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Conversations that finally start to

convert your skills in marketing and

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sales that finally start to pay off.

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And eventually that brand recognition,

which does take time and skill

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to build, starts attracting those

paying clients consistently.

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And all of these things, most of

all, take a little bit of courage.

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I remember when I first

started my coaching business,

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I had no confidence at all.

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There was no possibility of me

showing up on social media or

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anywhere else for that matter.

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I honestly thought.

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I could find some other way

of gaining those coaching

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clients without being visible.

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So I hid behind really busy work,

so my husband and family wouldn't

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keep giving me grief as to why

I wasn't making any money yet.

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So I kept saying, once I map out

this email nurture sequence, then.

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I will start to earn money

once I get this website done.

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Once I have a branding photo shoot

and kept making excuses and putting

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things in the way that were just

not the right things to do at all.

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None of those shiny, wonderful

things brought in income.

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What did bring in income is having real

conversations and overcoming that fear

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of being visible, showing up online and

showing up in so many other places too.

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I also spent so much time learning

every coaching technique that

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I could ever possibly consume.

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So I would always know how to handle every

type of person or question that might come

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my way through building my business and.

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Genuinely must have spent

hundreds of hours learning,

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coaching, and bearing mind.

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I was already a qualified

and accredited coach.

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So if you are in that trap of thinking

that the more qualified you are, the

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more clients you will get, please

know that that is not always the case.

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And if you are in that place, I was also

there only once all of that was ready.

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I thought somehow that cue

would start forming at my door.

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Looking back, I know that that delayed

things far more than it helped because

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coaching businesses often begin long

before everything is done because

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spoiler alert, it is never done.

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I am years into business

now, and I am still not done.

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You are constantly refining, so stop

waiting for it to be perfect and just

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get out there and make some progress.

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One thing I would really encourage

you to do today if you are avoiding

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doing your marketing at all is write

down 50 ways that your ideal client's

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life will change because of your work.

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Once you have done that.

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I honestly think you will

not be able to stop yourself

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from marketing your business.

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It will help you to shift

from being salesy into being

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of service to these people.

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So get away from that ego and thinking

your business is about you, and

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really tune to your ideal client

who actually needs your help today.

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Just yesterday, one of my

clients shared that he gained

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10 high paying coaching clients.

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In the first two months he's been working

with me, and that was from a zero start.

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He had been made redundant a couple

of months ago, and is the main

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family breadwinner And stories

like that bring me so much joy

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because he needed to make it work.

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He needs to bring in that

income for his family.

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So he made damn sure it worked, and he

did all of that with no website yet.

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Marketing skills that are only

just forming because he's only just

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left his job and hadn't done social

media or marketing before, but that

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didn't stop him signing clients.

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What he did instead was something

that many coaches avoid.

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He went through his phone and

started sending voice notes.

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Text messages, even calling people

without an appointment that he

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hadn't spoken to for a while.

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I provided tons of different scripts

to help him get over the barrier of

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like, what do I say to these people?

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And he actually did it.

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And that is where these clients came from.

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He also went out there and did an

amazing job, so he's had referrals

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from the first few clients already.

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He also did gain some clients from his

LinkedIn post, despite the fact he'd

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only just started because he was so

clear on who he helps and how he helps

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them, that that message really started

to resonate quickly and all of those

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things led to those opportunities.

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It might sound really simple, and simple

and easy are very different things.

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Building a coaching business will be the

best personal development work you ever

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do because all of your business is down

to you and the actions that you take.

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And I do get how scary it can seem because

it took me a really long time to overcome

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all of the fears and start doing this.

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We worry about bothering people, we worry

about looking unprofessional, maybe.

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Getting it wrong or wasting that one

opportunity to contact their ex-colleague.

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Like, if we haven't got our website

ready, what if I've wasted the opportunity

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because I've done it too early?

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But really the difference between coaches

who sign clients early and those who don't

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is simply a willingness to do the hard.

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Things, and also the volume

of those things as well.

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So please don't do what I did, which

was send one message and then wait

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weeks for that person to reply.

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Send so many messages that you can't even

remember who you message, because then

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at least somebody will reply rather than

getting in your head that you don't like

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you and that it was a complete disaster

just up the volume of what you do.

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So the first thing you need to

do to be able to do any of this

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work is to gain that clarity.

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People need to understand

what you help with.

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If someone asks what you do and your

answer is vague and they glaze over,

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it's really hard for them to think

of someone who needs your help.

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But when the message is clear and

specific, then people will start

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to join the dots in their heads.

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So for example.

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I saw a great coach on LinkedIn recently

who helps empty nesters figure out what's

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next, and I couldn't help but to tell my

neighbor who's Ha, who has teenage kids

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and have just left home about this coach,

despite the fact that I'm also a qualified

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coach and I know I could easily help her.

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The fact that this person said

empty nester, and my neighbor said.

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My kids are leaving home.

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I'm an empty nester.

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I couldn't help but join

those dots and connect them.

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So that is what you are looking to do.

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Be so specific that people can't help

but think of someone to refer to you.

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That clarity will make it so much easier.

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The second pattern is recognition,

so people need to see your work

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multiple times before they reach out.

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This is why maximizing your warm

contacts in the beginning is so

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important because it takes time for

those cold people who don't know you yet.

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To start to trust you.

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There is recent research to suggest

that people need to spend around seven

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hours with you to actually buy from you.

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So if you are just posting on social

media once a month, for example,

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that's gonna take someone 0.5

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of a second of seeing your

posts before they scroll on by.

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So you are gonna be waiting

a really long time to reach

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that seven hours with someone.

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So what you would want to do is build

up what I call shallow marketing,

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which is your LinkedIn posts or your

Instagram posts, but also deep marketing.

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So things like podcast episodes,

videos, maybe an email list so

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people come off that platform

and come further into your world.

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Read your emails, read your blogs.

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Sometimes people reach out quickly,

but very often someone has been quietly

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looking behind the scenes at your work for

months, even years before contacting you.

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So that recognition of who you are

can build slowly, but once it's

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there, it becomes really powerful

and you will never need to send cold

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dms or do any outreach again because

people will start coming to you.

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The third pattern I notice is

generosity, and this is my favorite.

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It's really simple, but

definitely underutilized.

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So again, another thing I talk about

often is paying into the value bank.

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So be generous with people online.

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So instead of complaining that no one ever

likes your post, go out there and like.

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A hundred people's posts today.

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Put genuine comments on their post.

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Think about how you

can make someone's day.

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Today, I listened to a podcast with

Brendan Bachar and he says, every day

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he wakes up and thinks, what can I do?

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To make someone smile today, and it

sounds a bit cheesy, but it's great

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thing to do in the morning and just

think like, how can you surprise someone?

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Send them a gift, send them a

card, comment on their post.

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It doesn't need to be complicated,

but just do something to.

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Be in people's worlds and make

a difference to them, and they

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will want to return the favor.

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So go out there, support other people,

encourage them, help people to think and

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see things differently, and when people

repeatedly find you really helpful.

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And also are able to articulate the

problems that they're experiencing.

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They will begin to associate

you with being able to help

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them with those problems.

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Trust is one of the biggest factors

in someone choosing a coach.

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So the more you can get to

know someone, the more they

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will know, like, and trust you.

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The fourth pattern I see is conversations,

coaching businesses are built on

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conversations, so talking to people

about what you are actually working on,

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asking thoughtful questions, listening

carefully, listening carefully, taking

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people on that journey with you and.

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It doesn't need to be like the

one person that can definitely

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help you with your business.

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Think about the fact that many of us know

up to 250 people, so even if your next

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door neighbor isn't your ideal client,

they will still know people who are.

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So stop waiting to identify that

perfect pool of people who might

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be helpful to you and just start

having more conversations generally.

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I know about this through my own

experience when I did everything I could.

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To avoid doing exactly this isn't

hindsight a wonderful thing.

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So I realized finally that

I needed to contact my old

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employers and tell them about my

transition into executive coaching.

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And I really didn't want to do this,

like maybe you don't want to do this.

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I thought I wanted nothing more to do

with them once I'd left that place.

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But actually when I finally plucked up the

courage to message somebody that worked

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in the l and d team, so actually not the

team that I worked in, she took about

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two to three weeks to reply all the time.

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I was thinking, oh my gosh, I

never should have done that.

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She's probably making fun of me with

all the people in the workplace.

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But anyway, she clearly wasn't because

eventually she replied, she agreed

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to a conversation and by the end of

that 30 minute conversation, I had

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secured 10,000 pounds worth of work.

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And that relationship

continued over the years and.

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Even so that I started to pass on the

work to my business of coaching clients

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when I became too busy to take that on.

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So it was so, so worth

taking that scary step.

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It was just such enjoyable work, helping

engineers in career transition, doing

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talks, teaching LinkedIn, despite the

fact I was just learning LinkedIn.

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So the opportunities could be everywhere.

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You just need to have those conversations.

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So the fifth pattern, this is my

final one, and again, another one of

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my favorites is getting proof and.

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Proof can take many forms.

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My favorite one is case studies.

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If you have listened to this podcast

or YouTube channel before, you will

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have heard some examples of case

study conversations that I've had.

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They are so much more powerful

than testimonials where people

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share what a lovely person you

are because people really want to.

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See someone that you've worked

with and see if they are the

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same type of person as them.

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And I know it's not always easy.

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My clients always say, well, my

clients won't give me case studies.

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And I know it can be much more

tricky depending on if you

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are working with corporates or

what type of work you're doing.

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But don't generalize.

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Like ask 10 people to give you a

case study and one might say yes.

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So if that first person said,

no, don't think my people

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won't give me case studies.

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Try again.

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Like lots of my clients

also say, no, sorry.

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I really don't feel comfortable

doing that, and others say,

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I would absolutely love to.

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So don't make those generalizations.

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Get out there and try and build those

case studies as much as you can.

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One of my favorite examples of this

recently is a client who came to

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work with me because of my case

studies, and she said, no one will

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ever leave me case studies like that.

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How do you get people to say such

amazing things and now she has.

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About four or five absolutely

amazing case studies.

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I literally watch them and think,

my gosh, that's amazing what change

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you've had in that person's life.

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And she honestly thought that no one would

ever give her a case study like that.

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So I love seeing those beliefs shifted.

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So if you're telling yourself any of this

stuff today, then just know that it will

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be possible for you to, in summary, the

first thing you want to do is get clarity.

252

The second is to build that recognition.

253

Know that you are in this for the

long haul, and it's gonna take time

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for people to start seeing your staff

and start recognizing your brand.

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Third one is generosity.

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Go out there and give until eventually

you will start to receive, have more

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conversations, and finally get proof.

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Those things done consistently will

create momentum in your business.

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That is where your clients will

start to come in more consistently.

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Your confidence will grow, seeing their

confidence grow your testimonials.

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Case studies will grow.

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Word of mouth will start to begin

and suddenly your business will

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start to feel very different.

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So if clients are feeling slow

right now, it doesn't necessarily

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mean you are doing anything wrong.

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It just means your foundations

need to be stronger, your.

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Volume probably needs to be more, and

that consistency needs to be built in.

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Relationships also take time.

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Trust takes time.

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The work you are doing today will pay

off in three months time, not next week.

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So don't throw the baby out of

the bath water if what you've

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done now doesn't pay off tomorrow.

273

If you want to be taken step by step

through the process of building your

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business, and that may be a business

that you have had for years and just want

275

to go back and redo those foundations,

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It's not just a simple plan your year.

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It will also take you through why

you want your business, your niche,

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your offer, the marketing things like

tracking your numbers, as well as

279

that yearly planning and reflection.

280

So do grab that in the show notes.

281

I hope it's super, super helpful for you.

282

You can also find the paper copy

283

Coaches Planner Joanna lot on Amazon.

284

You can get yourself a copy

posted to you tomorrow.

285

So I hope today's episode was helpful

and like I always say, trust yourself,

286

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

288

episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

290

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.

293

Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

294

Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

295

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.