Jo Lott offers an empowering guide on 'How to Become a Successful Solopreneur', laying out a detailed 10-step roadmap to transition from dreaming to doing, tailored for both aspiring and established entrepreneurs in the coaching arena.

[00:00:00] - Opening and Welcome

• Jo introduces the podcast and its mission
• The episode focuses on transitioning from dreaming to doing for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs

[00:01:00] - The Need for Action in Building Your Empire

• Emphasis on taking the first step in building a business
• Overview of the 10-step roadmap for success

[00:02:00] - Step 1: Identify Your Strengths

• Importance of understanding personal strengths and finding your niche
• Using a full life reflection to uncover unique niches

[00:03:00] - Step 2: Embrace an Obsession

• The role of passion and motivation in driving business success
• The necessity of obsession in the initial business years

[00:04:00] - Step 3: Master Your Craft

• The importance of consistent practice in skill mastery
• Continuous learning and refinement in coaching and marketing

[00:05:00] - Step 4: Share Your Journey

• Building authenticity and connection by sharing personal experiences
• Using public sharing as a tool to attract an audience

[00:06:00] - Step 5: Attract Your Tribe

• Attracting a community that resonates with your message
• Refining your niche based on who you attract

[00:07:00] - Step 6: Solve Problems

• Understanding and addressing the challenges of your audience
• Realizing the value of solving specific problems for clients

[00:08:00] - Step 7: Package Your Solutions

• Developing services that offer solutions to identified problems
• Reference to previous podcast episodes for deeper insights

[00:09:00] - Step 8: Establish Your Coaching Practice

• Setting up the business infrastructure and client onboarding processes
• Building a strong brand and defining rates

[00:10:00] - Step 9: Build Strong Client Relationships

• The significance of relationships in business growth
• Fostering lifelong client relationships and referrals

[00:11:00] - Step 10: Expand Your Impact

• Broadening reach through collaboration and networking
• Utilising other networks to grow your audience

[00:12:00] - Successful Solopreneur Examples

• Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Gabby Bernstein
• Each coach's unique approach and success story

[00:14:00] - Closing Remarks

• The importance of taking action and staying committed
• Encouragement to take a small step today for future success

Useful Links

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

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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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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-1:

Hello, welcome to episode 45

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of women in the coaching arena.

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I am so glad you are here.

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Today, I'm going to talk about how

to be a successful solopreneur.

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Because most aspiring

entrepreneurs or solopreneurs

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get stuck in that planning phase.

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They dream big, but often fail to act.

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And I see this time and time again, which

is why I'm so excited to do this episode.

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To build your empire, you

must take that first step.

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Today.

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I will talk about how to

shift from dreaming to doing.

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I'm going to outline 10

steps as your roadmap.

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And this will be the

blueprint to your success.

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So let's break it down step by step.

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Whether you are a new or established

entrepreneur or solopreneur these

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steps are relevant regardless.

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So I hope they bring you huge clarity.

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So step one, identify your strengths.

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So firstly, we need to understand your

strengths, what you are naturally good at.

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And this insight is crucial

for finding your niche.

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I like to take my clients

through a full life reflection.

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That often brings up niches that

they had never even considered.

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I love the fact that you are unique.

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You are the only one person who

has experienced all the different

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things that you have experienced.

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And those lessons are usually

the key to your niche.

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And that leads me perfectly into

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step two, which is embrace an obsession.

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You need to find something that

drives you, that you are motivated by.

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This obsession will be your fuel in

your business and it is required.

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I do not think you can build a business

unless you are obsessed by that business.

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Especially those first two

years when yes, it's hard.

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There is so much to do.

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There is so much to build.

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You do need to be obsessed to keep

going, to take action and to do the

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things required to build your business.

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Leading perfectly into step

three, which is master your craft.

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So now it's time to combine

your skills and your obsession.

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Mastery comes from consistent practice.

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People often want it to be easier than it

is, especially with regards to marketing.

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It's like, just tell me exactly

what to say, but the thing is you

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need to learn this skill because

you need to say it every single

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day and in several different ways.

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So it can't always be

a cut and paste script.

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You need to learn to love

and practice marketing.

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It's a bit like coaching.

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You need to realize it is multifaceted

and there is a lot to learn and

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just like coaching is something

that you practice time and time

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and time again, to get good at.

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And there is no such thing as done.

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It's a lifelong skill.

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Just like any other skill that we master.

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The same goes for your actual craft.

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So your actual coaching

or your delivery method.

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Again, it never stops.

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I'm refining my program massively

at the moment and it's been

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running for two and a half years.

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And I'm learning every single day,

how to make it better, continue to

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refine again and again, and again.

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So continue to reflect, refine, get

feedback, think about what else,

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where are people getting stuck?

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How can I make that better?

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Really think about how you

can make your products.

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In other words, your coaching service,

the best that it could possibly be.

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Step four is share your journey.

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So do share those learnings publicly.

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If you are in the middle of your

coach training, share about that,

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share what you learned today.

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Share how you found the journey so far.

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Publicly sharing your journey

will build authenticity and

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connects you with your audience.

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No one wants a perfectly done person.

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Everyone wants to see your

journey and then they cannot

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help, but want to support you.

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So show as much of that journey as you

possibly can, while you are building it.

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Step five is attract your tribe.

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So by sharing your story, you

will start to attract people

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who resonate with your message.

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And this is how you build your community.

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It certainly happened for me.

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And I was helping loads and loads of

coaches who were contacting me saying.

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I see you're a career coach.

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I see you out there.

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You're doing all these things.

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Do you mind sharing how you're doing that?

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So then I started to share

how I was doing that.

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And that's who I attracted in.

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So often people create a niche,

but really you need to also just

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start noticing who's coming to you.

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And I know loads of other

people have had the same.

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My friend Fay Wallis who had talked

about a lot was running a general

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career coaching business, but then

she realized nearly everyone were HR

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professionals wanting to change career.

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So she eventually niched into that.

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So it's about constantly noticing

who are you attracting, and that

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will help you to continue to refine

your niche, your audience, your

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tribe, so you become a niche of one.

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Step six is to solve problems.

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Listen to your audience or your

network, identify their challenges and

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think about how you can solve them.

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It surprises me all the time,

how little we realize that

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people pay to fix problems.

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They don't pay for coaching or such.

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They pay to.

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Have a better relationship

with their husband.

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They pay to get that next promotion.

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Or to get to that next

level in their business.

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That is what we are paying for.

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So I think the more we can realize and

hone in on particular problems, those

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exact challenges that people need solving.

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The more money you will

make in your business.

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Leading me perfectly into step seven.

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So this is to package your solutions.

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So develop services that provide

solutions to those problems.

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It can be a complete solution.

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For example, my program will help you

to build your whole coaching business.

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But it could be a micro problem as part

of that, like I could niche into helping

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people niche, or I could niche into email

marketing or I could niche into sales.

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So it depends on what you want

to do as to which part of the

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problem you want to solve.

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Do you want to take them on that

big transformation from having no

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idea where to begin to Having that

fully fledged thriving business.

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Or do you want to have a shorter

transformation, which might

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just be one small stage of that.

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If for example, it's a

leadership challenge.

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Do you want them to communicate

better or do you want to help

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them become a better leader?

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There are so many

different ways of doing it.

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So really think about those solutions.

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If you want to look back to episode

10 of this podcast, it's on how to

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create a signature coaching program.

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So that will help go deeper

into exactly how to package your

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solution into something that people

understand enough to pay for.

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Okay.

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Step eight is to establish

your coaching practice.

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So now you roughly know who you're helping

and how you're helping them we need to

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set up your business .Define your rates.

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Create a great client onboarding process.

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Create your website.

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Create your profiles.

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All of those things will build

as part of your business.

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So, this is the part where we really take

your ideas and we start bringing them

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into a strong business and a strong brand

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step nine is to build

strong client relationships.

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Relationships build your business.

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So if you aren't sure what the

purpose of marketing is, it is

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all about building relationships.

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So if you're thinking it's sleazy

or anything along those lines, just

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go back to you are just building

a relationship with people.

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You are actually trying to help

them make progress in their life.

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We need to get rid of this chore

that most people think marketing is.

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I am here today.

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This is marketing.

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This is my Friday night.

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And I am here talking to you

because I hear from you all the

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time that this makes a difference.

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So this for me is an absolute joy

of building a relationship with you

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and helping you to move forward.

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So the more you can turn that in your

mind of building your business, helping

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as many people as you possibly can.

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Then you will start to

reap the rewards from that.

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You also want to build

strong client relationships.

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So those people want to continue to work

with you and become lifelong advocates

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and refer other people your way.

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I am so lucky that my word

of the year is championing.

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And I wrote in brackets,

both me, them, and then me.

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And that's exactly what it

feels like for my clients.

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I will champion them like no one else and

they luckily for me champion me in return.

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So that is what you want for your

business and for your clients,

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because they will then feed your

business as you continue to grow.

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So finally we have reached step 10.

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So expand your impact through

collaboration and networking.

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Now is the time to broaden your

reach by collaborating with other

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people and engaging in networking.

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Back to our earlier point of marketing.

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It's all about building your

relationships and the more people that

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know about your service, the better.

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How can you borrow other people's

audiences or networks by asking

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them if they will share your things.

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By offering to a talk for them?

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How can you continue to get in

front of more and more people?

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Audience building for me has

been the biggest learning I've

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had in the last couple of years.

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There's no point putting stuff

out to a stagnant audience.

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It's about how can you get more

people learning about your services.

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That might be through paid advertising.

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That might be through you hitting

connect on LinkedIn or trying to grow

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your followers on Tik TOK or Instagram?

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However you like to do it .But it's

about how can you get in front of

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people who has your ideal client and how

can you go and speak to those people?

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So let's look at some really inspiring

coaches who have succeeded and now build

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huge brands based on these 10 principles.

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Marie Forleo is an influential life

coach and motivational speaker.

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She focuses on helping entrepreneurs

create the life they love through

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business development and personal growth.

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She worked for absolutely years.

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I think it was 10 plus years

before she felt successful or

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before she really achieved success.

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So I love knowing those stories

because I think often we

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want that overnight success.

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We don't want to do the hard slog.

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And all of the people I'll mention

now have done the hard slog, and that

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is what it takes to be a successful

solopreneur or entrepreneur.

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So let's look at the

biggest one I think I know.

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Tony Robbins, obviously he has

a large organization now, but

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he did start as a solopreneur.

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And he is a prime example of how far

you can go in the coaching industry.

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He is a life coach.

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Self-help author.

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A motivational speaker.

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And he has done it all through showing up.

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So big.

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So much with the idea of service.

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How can he make people's

life better today?

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I think that's one of his quotes.

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Like how can you continue to add value?

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How can you do something to

make people happier today?

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Mel Robbins.

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The five second rule also

started as a solopreneur.

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Her approach is straightforward.

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Action-orientated.

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Focusing on helping people overcome

procrastination and be more courageous

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in their personal and professional lives.

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Brendon Burchard is my next one.

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I love listening to his podcast.

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If you haven't listened, I

would highly recommend it.

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He focuses on high-performance habits

and he has high energy and focuses

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on performance and productivity.

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He has this great practice of every

morning thinking what's one small thing

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I can do to surprise someone today

and I abosolutely that you love that.

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I haven't implemented it every single

day I must admit, but I would love to do

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it because doing good things for people

makes you happy and it makes them happy.

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So can you imagine.

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If you, like him.

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Could implement that small thing.

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What could I do to make

someone happy today?

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And, for example, in my end of year

planning workshop for coaches, I invited

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them to voice note someone there and then.

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Voice note, someone that have

made a massive difference in their

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life in 2023 and say, thank you.

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And they absolutely loved it as did the

people that received those messages.

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And my final example today is Gabby

Bernstein because I am on her spiritual

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manifestation 21 day challenge right now.

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She is combining life coaching

techniques with spiritual principles.

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She's been going a really long time.

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She has showed up.

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She has borrowed a lot

of people's audiences.

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I've heard on loads and

loads of different podcasts.

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And that is how she

has grown her business.

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So each one of these coaches

has a unique approach.

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An area of expertise.

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They all started a solo

preneurs, inspiring for us all.

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Building their brand and

clientele from the ground up.

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They are excellent examples

that we can use to continue to

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grow our own personal brands.

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Create value and create

impactful coaching programs.

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Stepping into solopreneurship can be

daunting, but it is necessary for growth.

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Start small create consistently

don't aim for perfection.

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Remember start now get

perfect later because perfect.

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Never comes.

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So to wrap up the key to successful

solopreneurship is about taking

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action and staying committed to

your passion, to your obsession.

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Ask yourself what is one small step that

you can take today for your future self?

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So thank you for listening.

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If you enjoyed the episode, do

drop me a line and let me know.

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I'm on LinkedIn as Joanna Lott.

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Or Instagram as joannalottcoaching.

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And I would love it if you would

leave me a review and rating.

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It really helps me to get the algorithm,

getting this podcast out to more people.

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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.