Attracting Clients: Strategies Beyond the Hype
In this episode, Angie and John discuss the essential qualities that make a coach appealing to clients, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and expertise over showcasing a lavish lifestyle, which tends to attract followers to fake gurus.
They delve into the challenge of finding the right clients, highlighting the value of niching down and knowing where to look for potential clients in abundance. They explore strategies for coaches to effectively market themselves, including leveraging social media platforms suitable to their target audience, outsourcing non-core activities to focus on coaching, and the impact of strategic guest appearances on podcasts and other media.
The conversation also covers the pitfalls of trying to be omnipresent online and the importance of strategic planning, delegation, and building relationships in creating a sustainable coaching business. Towards the end, the significance of referrals in scaling up the business and ensuring consistent messaging across all marketing channels is discussed.
00:00 The Misconceptions of Coaching Success
01:15 Finding the Right Clients: Strategies and Challenges
03:23 The Pitfalls of Trying to Do It All
06:28 Strategic Focus: Niching Down and Delegating
12:30 Leveraging Relationships and Referrals for Growth
21:13 Concluding Thoughts on Effective Coaching Strategies
Angie.
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:Angie: John
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:John: what makes a coach
attractive to clients?
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:Angie: bunch of things, I think.
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:Their energy, their experience,
their openness, and probably
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:a few more things as well.
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:John: What about their lavish lifestyle,
their big mansion, their garage full of
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:lambos and all the models hanging around
with them in their pool or their yacht?
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:Angie: No, John, that is the
stuff that makes people attracted
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:to fake gurus and scammers.
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:John: Oh damn, I'm going to have to
completely rethink my new Facebook ad.
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:Angie: Oh, gosh, let's
just start the show.
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:John: Angie, one of the hardest things
for coaches to do is to find the
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:clients who they're going to work with.
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:Now we've talked recently about how
to launch your business, but you're
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:not really going to have a business
if you don't have the clients
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:.
Let's say you've been following our episodes and you've been niching yourself
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:and you've been thinking about the right
things to be thinking about for launch,
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:how do you then go and get some clients?
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:Angie: I think the good starting place is
is we already talked about niching, right?
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:We talked about finding the ideal
client that is, worth our time,
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:energy that we're a good fit for.
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:And I think that's the first space, right?
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:I think we have to start with
Who do I really want to talk to?
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:And then we need to figure out where
we can find them in abundance, right?
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:We don't want to cherry pick and just
one here, maybe one there, because that
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:I think is what many people coming into
the coaching industry, I think that's
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:like their first level of failure.
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:And they don't fail forward,
they stop and they go, Oh,
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:well, this just isn't working.
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:But it's because they're not looking
to find what for example, if you're
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:looking to do leadership coaching well,
where are you looking for those leaders?
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:Where are you trying to find them?
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:And if you try to find one here and one
there, I just don't think that that's
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:a good recipe to a strong launch.
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:John: No, I agree, we talked previously
about how we both started working
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:initially with some clients who are
people who knew us or were at least
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:aware of us and what we were doing.
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:But even then, it's hard to get
those people if you haven't set your
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:stall and saying, Oh, this is what
I'm actually coaching people on.
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:When I started getting clients is when
I was focused more on helping people
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:build their business and ended up
actually mostly working with coaches.
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:And so I think probably for at least
10 years, I was helping coaches
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:, start and build their businesses.
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:And a lot of them just giving
them the guidance to do that.
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:That was great.
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:That was a great niche to come in on.
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:And it was help that was really needed
when it comes to finding the clients.
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:I think people have all sorts
of weird ideas about what they
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:should or shouldn't be doing.
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:I don't know, maybe you have this
experience as well, but a lot of
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:people now seem to be doing everything.
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:They're throwing everything at it
and probably not getting a lot of
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:return for that, for their investment.
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:Angie: Well, I think, you know
what, let's go back to what we were
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:talking about and we were poking
fun at in the beginning, right?
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:Is that, fake gurus and scammers and
I think that ties into what you just
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:said about throwing everything, right?
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:Trying to be all things to all people.
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:Is not going to work.
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:Now, I do have one or two friends
that are actually life coaches.
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:So, their business model is,
well, I could talk to anybody
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:because I'm sitting and I'm talking
about life and the areas of life.
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:So I'm not going to say that that does
not exist because it certainly does.
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:Okay.
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:But still what you always
want to be thinking about is
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:where am I going to find them?
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:I'm always going to come back to that
piece where, you know, yes, you can
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:start with everybody you know, right?
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:Who's in your book of business
or who do you know to launch and
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:say, Hey, this is what I'm doing.
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:But in the long term because that might
bring you some immediate success or
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:appear like it's immediate success,
but it's going to run dry eventually.
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:The idea of coaching is that we
don't want to keep people with
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:us forever and ever, right?
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:Coaching is supposed to, hey,
move you up, move you on.
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:So where are you finding
these people when you are lead
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:generating over the long term?
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:So you have built a sustainable business.
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:It's really important
to be able to do that.
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:So when you say throwing everything
at it, tell me, cause I have my
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:own ideas of what that means.
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:What does that mean for you?
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:What are you seeing?
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:John: Yeah.
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:Okay.
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:So I see that they're trying to be
omnipresent on social media channels.
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:They're trying to do Instagram,
the LinkedIn, the Facebook, all of
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:it, and start a community, have a
podcast, have a YouTube channel,
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:have A blog whatever else, all of
it, a book speaking, everything.
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:And, they're trying to do it all at once.
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:Angie: Yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:That's kind of what I thought you meant.
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:But I wanted to be clear for everybody
who's listening because I really,
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:because here's the thing, since you
and I got into this, so we've said
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:between the two of us, we have over
50 years of coaching experience.
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:That's a lot.
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:And
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:John: hmm.
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:And most of it's yours.
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:Ha ha ha ha ha
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:Angie: Stop.
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:John: ha
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:Angie: Well, okay if you say so But i'm
saying so but when you and I started
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:right in our businesses It was a very
different landscape in terms of Lead
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:generating and you were going to sit in
a Networking group or things like that.
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:It had to be much more in person, right?
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:And maybe some cold calling, we weren't
really putting out email campaigns.
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:This was a long time ago, remember?
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:So I think that for coaches that are
coming into this space now, it's hard
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:not to see what's going on around you and
not want to join in on that and feel like
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:the right thing to do is to do all of it.
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:I think it's just a perception
that's how you do it.
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:John: I feel like it's
part of the hustle culture.
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:There are people out there and i'm not
going to name names But there's like
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:hustle hustle hustle grind grind grind
and it never ends and there's But if
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:you actually saw their journey, that's
not what they've done They have focused
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:in on a particular area and have been
able to expand they have teams they're
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:delegating stuff They're not the
ones who are doing all of the hustle.
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:I'm not saying they're not working
hard But they're not doing what
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:individual coaches are perhaps trying
to do, which is do it all themselves.
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:And that is a big difference.
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:When you can afford to pay people and
have a team and delegate a lot of the
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:work and have people who have expertise in
different social media channels and other
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:kinds of advertising, then yes, You can
do more and you can be more omnipresent.
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:But until you get to that level,
you are gonna have to focus in.
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:And that's just the reality of it.
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:But that message is not so
much out there as it should be.
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:Angie: have to say I'm so glad that you
brought that up because I feel like one
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:of the number one killers of All things
coaching businesses besides trying to be
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:all things to all people and not really
knowing where to go what to do But in the
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:business structure, you definitely have
to identify where you need to delegate.
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:And I understand like we should have
a budget and that's part of having a
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:great business or a solid business is
deciding what the budget is that you have.
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:And when you have a budget, if you
have no budget, it's going to cost you.
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:I did it.
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:You know, this is me.
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:I, Do not want to sit there and
post on social media all day.
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:I do not want to.
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:It's not a can't.
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:It's, I do not want to.
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:I want to be working in my
business, not on my business.
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:So what have I done?
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:I've hired people because the cost
of me taking all of that time out
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:every week is leaving me there, or
it was leaving me very little room.
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:To actually coach To actually if I
actually got clients what was I going
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:to do because my week was so full
of I used I think I told you this I
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:call them like nippa nippers n i p a.
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:Okay, not nipples nippas Non
income producing activities.
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:Are they necessary?
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:Absolutely.
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:But that is not what's really
going to help me earn my income.
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:And I had to delegate.
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:And I think that's a really important
piece for anybody starting this type of
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:business is to decide what's going to
cost me more time than it's really worth.
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:And is that social
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:media?
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:John: Yeah, I think that's a really
great point because even if all your
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:efforts did pay off And you end up
with a full client list You are then
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:going to have that problem of you
don't have time to keep all that up.
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:So you're going to have to
bring other people in to do it.
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:It's just the realities
of running your business.
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:You cannot have a full client list and
do everything else that you're doing
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:when you don't have a full client list.
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:So it has to be some level of balance,
but if you are finding your clients
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:in the right place and the right kinds
of people, which is if you've got the
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:niching question and you know, the
problem you're solving for people.
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:That should be a bit easier to figure out.
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:You do not need to be
in all of the places.
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:for many people, if you're more focused
on business side of things, LinkedIn
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:is probably the place for you to be.
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:If your audience or your, say
demographics, probably not what I want
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:to use, but if your potential audiences
may be more of millennial crowd.
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:Maybe Instagram is the place
that you need to be more present.
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:Because that's where a lot
of people are hanging out.
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:So it is going to the watering holes
and joining in the conversations
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:and adding value and all of those
things that needs to be happening.
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:And ideally, if you want to go faster,
paying for some advertising, and
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:Not just throwing money at it, but
actually figuring out how to do it
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:right either for yourself or hiring
someone who does know what they're
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:doing that will move the needle faster.
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:Angie: Yeah, I love, so here's what we're
saying, strategy, be strategic, right?
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:You know your niche, you know your
message, you know your niche, right?
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:You know who's going to probably respond
best to what you are putting out there,
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:but going to the places where you're, and
I am going to use the word demographic,
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:where do they meet, where do they gather?
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:So for me, my ideal, my avatar that I
have now just fine tuned is middle aged,
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:men and women so I'm not necessarily
going to be making posts on TikTok
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:about what I do professionally.
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:It's not that they're not there.
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:It's not that they don't watch,
but if they are watching, that's not
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:what they're necessarily looking for.
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:So I'm going to spend my time
and my effort on LinkedIn.
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:And I hate to say this, but
even on Facebook, because
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:that's where they tend to sit.
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:So I will do that.
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:And that's all I'm doing.
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:I have friends that are like you should be
on, Instagram and you should be on Twitter
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:and I'm like, no, I shouldn't because
that's not where my people are sitting.
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:John: If you have a favorite social media
channel that you like to hang out on,
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:then sure, include it in what you're
doing, but is that where your audience is?
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:But I do think there is a
differentiation that we probably.
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:We'll talk about this at some point of
are you consuming or are you creating?
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:Because there's a difference when
it comes to social, when it comes
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:to social media and most people,
business owners included, are spending
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:the majority of their time on social
media consuming rather than creating.
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:That is completely the wrong way around.
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:So there's some stuff that needs to
change around that, but we did take
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:the piss a little bit out of the sort
of scammers, the fake gurus and stuff,
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:the guys who like do those videos in
their garage next to the Lamborghinis
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:that probably aren't even theirs.
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:And.
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:Those people are out there, but I
think we see far less of them now.
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:Well, I think I do because I've probably
blocked most of them, but we see far
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:less of them now because things have
changed in the post horrible events
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:of a few years back where we couldn't
socialize much and things like that.
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:Things changed.
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:People became much more
focused on relationship.
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:And I think that had a huge impact
on how we, as coaches, as speakers,
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:Market ourselves and reach out to
people because the relationship side
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:of stuff suddenly became a much bigger
deal It was already on the way to
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:happening, but that got I feel that got
super accelerated By quarantines and
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:everything else that followed from that.
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:So Building those relationships is one
of the most important parts and how
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:you get those relationships to happen.
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:Well, that's up to you because probably
my number one strategy for finding new
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:clients is going and appearing on other
people's podcasts or video channels
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:and getting myself out in that out
there in their media, leveraging other
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:people's media and marketing so that
I don't have to do all that myself.
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:That's my top source.
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:Angie: That's awesome.
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:I love that.
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:And I think that I'm going to use this
word again, but I'm sure that where
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:you appear, you are, you're choosing
that you're being intentional, right?
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:You're not going on somebody's podcast.
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:That's all about swaddling babies.
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:And I'm making that up.
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:I don't even know if there is one, right?
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:But I'm trying to show the, the natural
opposition of making sure that you
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:are being strategic because, I think
one of the things you have to think
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:about is your branding in your image.
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:Right?
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:Who do you want to be?
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:Who do you want to be associated with?
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:And that is where stepping onto somebody
else's space is a great way to do
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:that, but you have to be very clear.
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:And again, strategic about how
you do that and when you do that.
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:And I think it's a fabulous idea.
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:I love that you do that.
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:This
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:John: Yeah, yeah, 100%.
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:So I certainly started off just going
on all sorts of podcasts with all sorts
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:of people initially and realized that I
wasn't seeing a lot of return on that.
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:I was having fun and making
new connections, but also a
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:lot of the connections I was
making weren't very relevant.
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:to my progression.
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:So I did start getting more strategic and
I did start thinking about whose shows is
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:it worth me being on and started learning
more about how to pitch myself to those
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:shows so that I was a more attractive
prospect for the host and could really
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:add value to them and their audience.
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:So it meant doing less appearances
but getting more return of my
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:time investment in those shows.
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:In those connections and appearances
because I'd done my research because I'd
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:put in the work And because I was getting
on the right kinds of shows to the right
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:kinds of audiences That really put me
in a position where I could leverage the
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:other people's audiences or opas as we
like to call it because that's more that
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:was more powerful and more bang for my
buck then Paying to do this all myself
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:add that if you could add something like
that into your strategy for attracting
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:Clients and becoming more known.
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:I think it's a at the moment still
a very winning strategy Yeah,
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:Angie: like it's one that.
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:we don't hear very often.
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:It's step out of the box a little bit.
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:It's not always the obvious that's going
to gain you the most momentum, right?
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:You have to stick your heels in a
little bit to gain that traction, right?
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:To grab on.
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:And then how you gain momentum is doing
what you said, is to be able to say,
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:okay, where am I going to be strategic?
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:And spend my time and figure out
what kind of time do I even have,
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:I think for a lot of people coming
into the industry and you briefly
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:touched upon it, they feel like I'll
change it up when I get to that point.
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:And my attitude is, I dress for
success now, not when you get the job.
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:That's, how I feel about it is,
set your business up as though you
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:were already doing those things.
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:I'm not saying that you should be lead
generating one day a week or one hour
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:a week, but just make a plan, make a
business plan, set up and say, what
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:am I doing and when am I doing it?
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:When does it make the most
sense for me to do that?
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:Not just willy nilly plug
it in wherever I can fit it.
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:That is not a great business strategy.
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:John: I told you never to call me that
It's absolutely it's absolutely not a
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:great strategy it is Now, I can think
of times where I've been invited on to
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:shows that would have been a lot of fun,
but would have really hurt my brand.
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:And one was I'll tell you,
I'll share with you one.
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:They wanted to talk about a
time that you broke the law.
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:And it's okay, well, there's
a few times I could pick from,
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:Angie: No way!
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:You know what?
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:I don't
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:John: like, it's true,
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:but yes, but I decided not to go on
the show because I thought not that
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:I don't want to be, not that I don't
want to be dishonest about like my own
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:past experience or anything like that.
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:But what would that do for my brand?
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:Like if that was a big hit and lots of
people listening into that thinking, are
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:they going to want to connect with me?
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:If I've been talking about that time,
I got I went through a red light and
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:I did get caught and I did pay a fine.
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:And I got points on my license.
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:It's like that doesn't seem like,
doesn't really seem like the kind of
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:thing that is going to actually benefit
my brand probably shouldn't be talking
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:about it now either but it's, but
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:Angie: We've all gone
through a red light, John.
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:Come on now.
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:I thought you had
something juicy to share.
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:I'm a little let
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:down right now.
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:I'm just saying.
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:John: not.
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:Not on this podcast, but, uh, let's
not go there moving swiftly on.
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:Yeah it's really just, is it going
to help your band to go on this?
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:Or is it just going to be
one of my favorite analogies
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:I've used before on the show?
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:It's just going to be pissing in the wind.
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:It's just going to go everywhere
and not really serve you.
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:Because throwing spaghetti on
the wall and hoping something
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:sticks is never a good strategy.
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:Hope it's not a strategy.
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:Let's get that
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:Angie: Oh my gosh.
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:Right?
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:Hope is not the strategy.
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:You definitely want to,
take this as it comes.
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:What's my niche?
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:How do I brand myself?
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:Where do I find these people?
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:And then, how often am I kind
of fishing for them, right?
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:What am I doing?
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:What is the structure of my business?
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:What do I want that to look like?
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:And I think it's a great, basic
way to think about how you're
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:gonna find those people, right?
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:Beyond the obvious let me do
all the things because you're
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:not gonna do anything, right?
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:You're gonna say I actually have
clients and students right now that
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:come into a session hysterically crying.
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:And I'm not exaggerating because
they are so overwhelmed, they put
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:so much pressure on themselves
that they're stuck in the mud.
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:They're not gaining any traction and
they're certainly not gaining momentum
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:because they can't even get a grip.
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:So we have to start eliminating some of
the things like writing the book, doing
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:the podcast, multiple types of businesses.
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:It's overwhelming to even
listen to as a coach.
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:It's okay, wait a minute.
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:Let's go back to square one.
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:Start at square one.
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:Not at square 15 or 25.
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:John: If you have your message and you
clear with that, and you're in showing up
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:in the right places and you're showing up
with with good energy and competence about
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:what you're talking about, then you become
an attractive prospect to your clients.
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:I think, and, and of course.
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:Being the kind of coach who is doing
a good enough job to get referrals
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:from other people is going to make you
a very attractive prospect as well.
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:Because I think that one of the things
we perhaps haven't got to we can spend
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:a whole episode on this is going to
be getting yourself referred by your
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:clients and building up your business.
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:Cause that can be one of the best
ways to scale up your business.
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:Angie: Love that because guess what?
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:I think that's probably at this point
more than 50 percent of my business.
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:I don't know how that works for you,
but it's a nice place to be where people
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:are just referring you and referring
you and you're like, wow, it's working.
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:And making sure the messaging is clear.
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:Cause you know, Really quick when you're
out there trying to do all the things.
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:What's the message is the message even?
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:Consistent across the channels.
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:So we'll have to talk about that.
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:But Yeah, referrals beautiful thing.
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:My favorite thing ever.
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:John: Me too.
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:Love me referrals.
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:Why don't you refer someone to our show?
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:We'll be back very soon with
another episode of the coaching
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:clinic Talking about how to
get the right kinds of clients.
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:So we'll see you for that
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:Angie: Ta ta for now