One of the big challenges new coaches face is finding clients, and many turn to Instagram. But Instagram is not everyone's cup of tea. So what if I told you that there are other ways to land coaching clients without relying on Instagram? Yes, you heard that right!
Join me as I share more about my early coaching days—where Instagram was merely a side character in my client acquisition story. Discover the top strategies that helped me bank my first 5k, and then 10k, without relying on the 'Gram. I'll reveal the unexpected places where my ideal clients were hiding and how shifting my focus led to MIND-BLOWING results.
If you're pouring hours into social media with little to show for it, it's time to rethink your game plan, darling! Tune in to learn how to attract clients in ways that truly resonate with you, and let's turn your coaching business into the powerhouse it's meant to be—no Instagram necessary.
Topics covered on How to Land Coaching Clients Without Relying on Instagram:
The challenges new coaches face when using only Instagram to get clients.
What motivated me to start looking at alternative ways to land coaching clients without relying on Instagram?
My personal experience of making my first 5k and 10k without focusing on Instagram.
What are the alternative strategies for landing coaching clients without relying on Instagram?
How to adjust your client-finding strategy if your social media strategy isn’t converting?
[00:00:17] In this episode, I'm going to tell you how I made my first, not only 5k, but 10k as a coach without focusing on Instagram. In fact, for the first year of my coaching business, Instagram was not the main way that I got my clients, which actually blew my mind. When I sat down to look at the stats of where my clients were coming from, social media was not number one.
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[00:01:06] I wish I felt the same, but back in the day of building my business, I found Instagram to genuinely be soul destroying. I remember thinking, I did not train to be a coach to spend all day on social media. I just wanted to coach people. Being on social media, on that hamster wheel, was not what I signed up for.
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[00:01:44] And in the early days when you're posting on Instagram on this wheel every day, and you're putting your heart and soul into captions that no one reads, or you're even doing funky things on reels that really isn't your cup of tea, but you're doing it anyway. And you do that and you don't get any likes, you don't get any engagement.
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[00:02:29] Told you this was never going to happen for you. Who do you think you are? Thinking you could have a six figure coaching business? Get back in your box. At this point in time, you are very vulnerable, it's like a make or break stage for your business. You either decide to hold the stay, and I mean stay as in S T A R E, that you do with your eyes, and by the way that phrase is from the wonderful Lucy Sheridan, and I love it.
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[00:03:16] But they are darling. If you feel like you're at that point in your business. Just hold the stare, darling. I want you to know that there is another way to get clients. And I'm going to tell you everything that I did to get fully booked and hit 10k that wasn't relying on Instagram. Are you ready, babes? So the first thing that I did, and this is actually how I signed my very first paying client was as a referral from an old client that I'd worked with.
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[00:04:17] And you will also get three free coaching sessions with me. And I know you may be thinking three was a lot, but that just felt good to me. And I would urge you to go with whatever feels good to you. This is open to you. If so, if you've worked with clients before and I mean your beta clients or your free clients Then why don't you reach out to them and see I'm looking for some new clients.
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[00:04:59] But don't okay, because it can take you weeks to actually realise that you need volume. You need a lot of people to know about you to actually sign as many clients as possible. So don't hold back on the amount of people that you tell about this referral programme. Tell as many people as possible. And also don't just tell your old clients, like tell your friends and family.
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[00:05:46] So yes, big round of applause all round when you do this exercise. So another thing that I did to get fully booked was that I put myself out there for corporate collaborations. And I think that this is a fantastic [00:06:00] way to bring in some paying clients that is a lot of the time overlooked. So what I did is that I went back to the company that I actually used to work for as a graduate.
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[00:06:29] And then I said, if anyone wants to do some one to one coaching with me in a more intimate setting, then jump on a call. And people did. And I signed, I think six absolute dreamy clients. that came to me via that one corporate collaboration. It was amazing. And from that corporate collaboration came another referral and another referral.
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[00:07:15] What I would urge you to do is to think about the connections that you already have, so where your friends are working, where your partner works, and see if they will be interested in putting you forward as someone who could potentially come in and do a masterclass or workshop or offer some one to one sessions with someone that might be your ideal client.
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[00:07:54] There will always be a way that you can tweak your messaging and your offer to fit a corporate setting. I actually tweaked mine in the very beginning. My first ever workshop was called something like how to shine so your kids get to sunbathe in your light. Clearly that wasn't going to work in a corporate setting.
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[00:08:32] Another thing that I did to send my first clients is that I went out and met people in real life slash offline. I did a little bit of networking and you know, it does feel uncomfortable putting yourself out there in real life but I knew that my ideal client We're mums and moms and I had to figure out a way of getting in front of them in real life.
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[00:09:14] And I came up with the idea of going to some forest schools. So that's what I did. I spent a couple of months going to weekly sessions of my local forest schools and just meeting other mums. I wasn't like a weirdo salesperson. I wasn't a networking person. I just went there, was introduced as Leanne.
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[00:09:52] But these people got to know me and got used to my face, and it worked for me. So I would encourage you to think about where your people are hanging out in real life. And go meet them and talk to them. I know it's going to feel really stretchy and awkward at first, especially if you've just become a coach and you haven't quite stepped into your new coach identity.
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[00:10:33] Another thing that I did is that I went into some relevant Facebook groups. The ones that I tend to go in are ones that had working mums in there. And I was just a human in there. I wasn't salesy because that's not my vibe. I wasn't trying to get in everyone's face. I was just being myself in there. And if I could answer something, then I would.
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[00:11:13] So I would encourage you to think about your ideal person, and see if you can join some aligned Facebook groups, and just be yourself in there. You don't need to have these forced conversations, just genuinely care about these people and give them a chance to experience some of your coaching magic. And I know that you won't do this, but you don't need to comment on every single post because that can seem a bit robotic.
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[00:12:04] I hope that your shoulders have dropped, okay? I hope that you feel relieved. I hope that you've got a smile on your face and you actually are starting to believe that this could fucking work for me. Because if it worked for me, it can work for you. I am not a special unicorn. Okay. So what I want you to do is be human, hook up with some corporate collaborations, find out where your clients are hanging out in real life and in Facebook groups, hit up your friends and family and some old clients for some really aligned referrals.
