Speaker:
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If you are trying to grow your coaching
business and you are either tired
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of social media or you are posting
regularly and not seeing results, you
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might be wondering, is it actually
possible to get coaching clients
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without relying on social media?
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The answer is yes, but not in
the way that most people think.
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If we haven't met before, I'm
Joe Lott, a business coach, and
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I help qualified coaches get
clients with honesty, not hype.
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I have built my own coaching business over
the last six years, and I have supported
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hundreds of coaches to do the same through
my program, the Business of Coaching.
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Did you know this podcast
is now on YouTube?
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I.
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Really appreciate you heading
over to my channel Joanna lot
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coaching and subscribing, liking
and commenting on a video.
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In return, I will put your name into a
draw to win a one-on-one session with me.
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Let me start with this.
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You don't need social media to get
clients, but you do need visibility.
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You need to build trust, and
you need to have conversations.
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Social media is just one way of doing
that, and it's not the only way,
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actually, for many coaches, it's not
even the most effective way in the
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first few years of your business.
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The first place I always look with
clients is their existing network.
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And I know this can feel uncomfortable
because often we are worried about
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friends, family, former colleagues
seeing us and thinking who do they think
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they are or all this kind of thing.
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And we are far more afraid of that
than what strangers think online.
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But here is what I see again and again.
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People haven't always told their network
really clearly what they do, who they
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help, or how they can help you, and
that is really a missed opportunity
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because your network already knows you,
so you have built that trust already.
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One of the first things I advise
clients to do is to really explain
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simply and clearly what they do now,
and we're not talking just as a list
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of services, but really through their
story, why this matters to them.
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Why have they have chosen this path,
but also really tangibly what they can
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help with in problem and results terms.
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That is really what
people will connect with.
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And beyond that, relationships grow your
business, not just one-off messages,
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thoughtful, ongoing connection.
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I met somebody around six years ago
now who would regularly send me useful
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resources, the things he genuinely
thought I might be interested in.
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He didn't ask me to buy
his services, he just.
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Kept in touch with me and not in a
sleazy way, but because of sending
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thoughtful articles and different
things that he did over those years,
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he has always stayed top of mind.
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And whenever an opportunity comes up,
I always think of him straight away.
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'cause essentially he has paid into the
value bank of me and evidence shows that
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we feel this reciprocity to pay that
back, and that is how referrals happen.
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Not through harassment and pressure,
but through genuine care and really
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keeping in touch with people.
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The second big area you
can focus on is speaking.
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This is one of the fastest
ways to build trust.
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Instead of someone seeing one
post on social media, they
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really get to experience you.
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They hear how you think, they understand
how you work, and they get a sense of
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what it would be like to be coached
by you and to hang out with you.
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I have spoken at events and training
organizations and groups, and often
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a large percentage of people who
contact you afterwards are genuinely
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interested in working together.
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This is because the trust has
already been built, and I've
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seen this with clients too.
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One of my clients built a
six figure coaching business
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without any social media at all.
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She focused on networking,
speaking, and being known in
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the right rooms consistently.
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This wasn't a magic pill.
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This was over a year or two of
her showing up all of the time
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and building those relationships.
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Another powerful route is partnerships.
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So who already has access to
your ideal clients and how
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can you maybe work together?
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This might be speaking to their audience,
maybe running a joint session together.
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Referring clients to each other, and
I have seen this work really well
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when it's done with consideration
that it's a win-win for both parties.
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So a genuine collaborative relationship
between the two of you, where both of
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you are likely to refer the other person.
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Then there is content, and this isn't
always the kind that most people think of.
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I'm talking about long form content here.
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So things like blogs, podcast, YouTube.
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Content that really allows people
to understand how you think, because
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that is what builds depth and social
media can be quite surface level.
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Things move quickly, post disappear.
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You get their attention for one second
or two if you're lucky, whereas long
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form content stays for so much longer.
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Someone can find a podcast episode
or a blog post or YouTube video years
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later and still connect with it.
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A lot of my business has come from a blog
post I wrote maybe four or five years ago
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now, and it now is number one on Google
for how to start a coaching business, and
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that is because it was an amazing piece.
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That is really, really helpful.
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I didn't even know about SEO
when I created that blog post,
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so really think about what do
people really want to know about.
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Share that in your long form content, then
people will be able to trust you because
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they have spent more time with you and
you have helped them to make progress.
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Finally, let's talk about email.
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Your email list is one of the most
valuable things that you can build because
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these people have chosen to hear from you.
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They have taken a step to opt in.
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Therefore they are more engaged
and when you share something,
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they are more likely to respond.
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But of course, you do need a
way to grow that email list that
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can come from speaking events.
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Content partnerships.
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It doesn't only have to
come from social media.
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So if I step back and simplify all of
this, getting clients without social
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media comes down to being known.
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Being trusted and being remembered.
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So keep asking yourself, what
are the ways that I can do that?
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And they all require one thing,
which is consistency and a plan.
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Not doing something once or
being told that you can grow your
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business without social media.
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Without telling you what else you
need to be doing, but whatever you
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choose, you do need to go into it with
full energy and real enthusiasm to
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build those relationships over time.
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What doesn't tend to work is trying lots
of different things without sticking
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to any of them for long enough for
them to work or avoiding visibility
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altogether because it feels uncomfortable.
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Waiting until everything feels
ready before putting yourself out
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there, because that moment rarely
comes when everything is ticked off.
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So if social media doesn't feel
like your path, that is okay, but
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the question then becomes how are
you going to be visible instead?
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Where are your people already gathering?
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How are you intending to build trust and
how are you going to stay top of mind
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because that is what leads to clients.
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If you would like help with this and
you are planning your next quarter, you
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can download my free Coaches planner,
which will take you step by step through
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the steps of clarity and visibility.
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You'll find the link to the free
digital version in the show notes, and
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you can also buy it on Amazon as well.
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You will also find the link to the
Amazon version in the show notes.
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It is designed to help you to take action
straight away and start building momentum.
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Thank you for listening to
today's episode, and like I always
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say, trust yourself, believe in
yourself, and be the wise gardener
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who keeps on watering the seed.
