Launch Strategies and Best Practices for New Coaches

This script discusses the challenges and strategies involved in launching a coaching business, emphasizing that it is neither as simple as a lemonade stand nor as complex as rocket science. Angie and John share their personal experiences and the lessons learned in the early days of their coaching careers, such as the importance of not relying solely on getting clients but also understanding the business and administrative sides. They explore the significance of niching, leveraging one's existing network, and the value of certifications in coaching. Additionally, the discussion touches upon the inefficacy of certain marketing strategies like cold messaging and the importance of adding value and building relationships in marketing efforts. The episode concludes with plans to delve into conducting effective discovery calls and handling questions about pricing in future episodes.

00:00 Introduction: Launching a Coaching Business

01:28 The Challenges of Starting a Coaching Business

03:35 The Importance of Certification in Coaching

05:29 Learning from Past Mistakes: What Would You Do Differently?

05:45 The Power of Niching in Coaching

06:26 Leveraging Existing Connections for Lead Generation

15:57 The Pitfalls of Cold Outreach and the Power of Adding Value

18:32 Effective Strategies for Attracting Clients

24:07 Conclusion: Best Practices and Things to Avoid When Launching a Coaching Business

Angie,

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Angie: John.

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John: how easy is it to

launch a coaching business?

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Angie: Hmm.

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Well, it's certainly not rocket

science, but I don't think

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it's a lemonade stand either.

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John: Is it like the field of dreams?

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If you build it, they will come.

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Angie: It most certainly is not.

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So let's start the show.

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John: Angie, this is a really good topic

because I know a lot of people when

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they're thinking about getting started

with coaching business, or maybe they've

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actually been dipping their toe already.

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And haven't really properly launched.

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They just don't know how to do it.

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So I think given that we maybe have done

this at least once, maybe more times

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we'll talk about that experience as we

go, but we probably are well positioned

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to at least be able to have a good and

informative conversation about that.

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So I'm going to ask you, how

was your experience of launching

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your coaching business?

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Angie: would have to say here's

the word that popped into my head

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first wonky at best, because I

didn't know what I didn't know.

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There wasn't the like, launch your

coaching business playbook, if you will.

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And, I just, I really didn't

know what I was doing.

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I didn't know about the administrative

side, like the business side of the things

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you should be doing, best practices.

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My focus was on,

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I just need to get clients.

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That was the only thing

that I had in my mind.

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And in my mind, I believed That's

all I needed to have a coaching

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business, which I'm sure you will

agree is not the case, right?

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John: I actually would agree I think

my first steps into Having certified

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as a coach and then deciding that

I was gonna get some clients We're

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Very what's the word i'm looking for.

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It was all over the place it was

a bit like throwing spaghetti

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at the wall except I hadn't

actually cooked the spaghetti yet.

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So nothing was

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Angie: There's visual.

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Who's cleaning up that mess?

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John: So really nothing was sticking

and it was all like happens happenstance

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kind of things like Very chancy think

this might work Awful things like

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trying to leave business cards at a

table at an event and stuff that really

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just isn't going to get you clients

might get you one prospecting call if

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you're really lucky, but stuff that

just isn't going to do a lot so It

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does take a while to figure that out.

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I did realize that I had it.

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I didn't have a clue what I was

doing when the phone wasn't ringing.

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The phone wasn't ringing.

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This is, this is a time when we

actually have to get on the phone

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with people rather than jump on a

zoom call because we didn't have that.

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Maybe we had Skype, but

we didn't have zoom yet.

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But again, most people

probably didn't have that.

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So waiting for the phone

to ring, it wasn't ringing.

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What's going on.

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I don't have a business

unless I have people.

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paying me to be a coach.

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Angie: Absolutely.

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Yeah, that's it That's the 100 percent

the truth and something you said is

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really resonating with me because you

said I got a coaching certification.

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I didn't even have that I started

coaching based on experience alone and

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then started getting, I have several

certifications now, but started in

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that arena of, I think I need to do

something with this because obviously I

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had no reputation except in the spaces

that people already knew me, but they

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didn't know me as a coach at the time.

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They knew me more of like,

cause I transitioned, right?

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So I was always in training and and

management the like that kind of arena.

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Which I guess essentially

is coaching, right?

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But it didn't dawn on me that maybe

First Step was a certification.

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And I think there's a lot of, and I

don't know what your experience is

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with that, because I think there's

value in having those certifications.

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Most of them, not all the

certifications that I have are

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actually really relevant right

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John: cracked.

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Same.

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Yeah.

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It's,

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Angie: right, like you kind of go, I did

it for validation or something like that,

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John: spot that.

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Yeah.

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Angie: but at the end of the

day, really is still coming

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down to our experience, right?

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It really is, unless there's like a

process that you follow as a coach.

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Um, and I think there's a lot of

debate about whether you really

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need a certification or not.

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So maybe we should make

that another one of our

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John: Oh yeah, I was just, I was just

thinking about how much money I spent

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on getting qualified a certified as an

NLP practitioner and master practitioner

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and again, was that money well spent?

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Angie: uh, uh, yeah,

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John: I look back and

I'm not sure at the time.

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I thought yes, but now,

now I'm less than certain.

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Yeah, so that would be a great episode.

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We will do that.

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Um, what I want to get to here

perhaps is if you could go back.

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To the start of your coaching

journey and be your own mentor,

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what would you do differently?

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how would you start things?

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Knowing what you know now?

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Angie: Well, I think, honestly,

the first thing, is I would

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have niched immediately, right?

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I would have been intentional about,

Where I was lead generating where

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I was fishing, if you will, I think

that would have been the very, very

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first thing that I did this way.

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I wasn't really cherry

picking because that was it.

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It was so, when I say wonky, I didn't

know what to do or where to do it.

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The only thing that I did have in my

corner was that my background was.

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Primarily in sales.

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So I at least I was lucky in that.

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I at least understood that Everybody

I know should know what I'm doing.

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And but I also didn't

know how to teach people

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how to refer me not to sell me because I

don't need anybody to sell me Right, but

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like how to refer me so I was very much

looking at it from a singular generation

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like i'm just going to talk to the

people I know and then once that's done,

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I guess that's it What do I do then?

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So the first thing would be the niching

I think and the second piece would be

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to You Not necessarily focus

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on who I didn't know yet, but really

focusing deeply onto the contacts

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that I already had because that's

to this day a golden nugget for me.

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John: I agree.

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And I don't know if you've ever done

this and I'm going to make it a slightly

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embarrassing confession that I have

taken on several different network

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marketing or multi level marketing.

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Opportunities, shall we call them?

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Angie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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John: And as you might guess from how I'm

saying this, none of it went very well,

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but there's a bunch of reasons it didn't.

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However, some of the situations,

some of the training that they

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give was actually pretty good.

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In some ways they nearly always get

you to start making a list of everyone

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you know and start contacting people.

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Now, There's good and bad to that

because obviously some people are not

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going to be particularly impressed

if you haven't spoken to them for a

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long time and all you're contacting

them for is hey I've got this great

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opportunity, which happens a lot.

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But there are going to be people who you

know who might actually be interested.

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interested, if you're actually

offering a service and started up in

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your business, might be interested

at least in what you're doing and may

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even be interested in your services.

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If you are specific enough about the

problem that you're solving, referring

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back to our niching episode, they

may also be having conversations

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with other people who talk about

something that's relevant to you

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that, ah, I know someone.

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Someone of my friends or

connections is doing this.

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Would you like me to

connect them with you?

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That happens too.

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So I do think that's a

good strategy to have of.

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We know that working with warm

leads is a lot easier than

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trying to get cold leads warm.

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So yeah, great.

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Start thinking about who

you're already connected to.

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Who's in your network.

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I would say probably for me for

the first couple of years of

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coaching, the majority of my clients

were people who already knew me.

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Angie: Yeah, and I think that's a

beautiful thing if you learn how to

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intentionally Do that and understand

like because to your point I think most

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people don't come out of the educational

womb Going i'm gonna be a coach.

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Maybe nowadays they will they're

getting younger and younger as you and

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I both know but most people that are

coaching that have been coaching for a

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period of time Have been doing it for

a while so they come from something

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else and they have so many people that

they know I think that most of those

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people that I've experienced, they

are looking for the cold lead because

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those people don't know them yet.

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It's for them mentally.

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The mindset is that it's very hard

for them to shift and say, Hey,

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I'm not in finance anymore, right?

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I am coaching.

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It's a very different arena.

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And I think they have a hard

time reintroducing themselves.

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As a new kind of different

type of professional.

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I think that's been a lot of the

challenge and not really knowing,

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if you're in a group with people

and they say, what do you do?

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Well, I'm the vice

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president of Deutsche bank.

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Okay.

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That's great.

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Obviously it sounds, even if

you don't know who Deutsche Bank

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is, It sounds really great.

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But if you go, well, I'm a coach, people

go, Oh, well, what do you coach on?

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And it's really hard to articulate

that unless you know like what you do.

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People ask me now, what do you do?

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I'm an executive coach.

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That's what I say.

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I'm an executive coach.

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I'm not a life coach per se.

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That's part of what I do,

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but you have to know how to talk

about yourself and you have to be.

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Intentional about reintroducing

yourself and rebuilding the

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relationships that maybe you don't have.

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You know what I mean?

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Oh, we graduated together 40 years ago.

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Why would this person

want to hear from me now?

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I don't know.

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Do a little research.

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Can you help them?

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Is there synergy?

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There's definitely ways to go about that.

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John: yeah, and even if it's that

warm lead isn't very warm, even

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if there's a lot of distance.

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There are always ways to turn

things up, warm things up.

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You can always heat up, heat

up your old leftovers, heat up

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Angie: Absolutely.

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That's great.

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What a great analogy.

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We don't care how long they've

been sitting in the refrigerator.

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Heat them up anyway.

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That's great.

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John: Yeah, yeah, we just bought

an air fire at home, which is ideal

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for doing all that kind of thing.

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But don't put your leads in

there, they won't like it.

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Angie: That's

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John: But, when it, when it comes to when

it actually comes to getting yourself

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some new clients, I do think it's really

important that you at least know who you

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want to be serving and you can then have

that conversation about it and probably

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maybe refer more than once back to the

episode that we've already done on niching

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about how difficult, how difficult

it is to even have this conversation

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if you're trying to help everybody.

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So you do need that bit.

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So go and listen to that

episode if you haven't already.

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But when you are actually having

that conversation, how do you get to

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that conversation in the first place?

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How do you get people on board

and into your little world?

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And I think it has to come from a number

of things and it can't just be a slap

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dash strategy of like, as my marketing

coach would say, hope is not a strategy.

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And so, so it can't, so it

can't just be that you hope that

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you're going to get some clients.

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You really actually need to do

things that will get you clients.

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And that's going to be a bunch of things.

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That I, to my mind, there are

still two real ways of doing this.

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If you're, especially if you're having

to go down the avenue of exploring

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outwards for clients and going past

what you, who you already connected

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to which is either going to be

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paid ads or social leveraging social

media in different kind of ways.

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And there are right ways

and wrong ways to do this.

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And so I wonder what your

thoughts on what I just said are?

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Angie: Well, I agree and I think that this

is it's gonna sound very elementary and

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baseline But I think it works and it has

still it still works for me to this day

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Is that I number one I show up curious.

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So when I'm doing some homework

I'm looking to see where people

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are What challenges they may be

having whether it's like personally

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like what are they even posting?

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Sometimes that's easy bait right

easy, you know easy catch but I really

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I show up curious to conversations

And then I literally think about

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where I can connect the dots.

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It really is like the coaching

perspective starts immediate from for me.

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It's not, Oh, I need to sell

a package to this person.

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Even in my discovery calls, if I

get to that point where somebody's

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like, yeah, I have heard of you.

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I'd like to talk to you.

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And I say, okay, let's have

a, complimentary 30 minute.

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I don't go in telling them all

the wonderful things about me.

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I don't do that as a coach and all

the things I don't go in and go,

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Oh, let's be the best of friends.

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Like I really go in with that

curiosity piece to connect those

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dots and stitch in my mind.

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Can I really benefit this person this way?

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When I, when I opened my mouth to speak.

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I've already got a strategy in my head.

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So that's like the first thing.

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But that's obviously like a step later.

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But in terms of getting reintroduced to

people, it's really just a conversation.

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Look at people from

the space of curiosity.

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What can you do for them?

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and being intentional

with those conversations.

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And it can take a lot of time.

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John, if you look back, if you were

to look on Instagram or Facebook,

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I leverage social media constantly.

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I don't really do any paid advertising

because what I'm doing is working.

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So if I have a promotion that I'm

doing or a topic that I'm talking

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about that's new or Something that

popped up in my head today while I was

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driving, and I need to talk about it.

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I make sure that I am introducing

that across my platforms.

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So think about it.

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If you look at your Facebook friend

count, or Instagram, or LinkedIn, or any

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of those other spaces, how many people

are connected to you that know your name?

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They already know your name.

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I'd be mining that all day long, you know?

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And looking to see, I think

the word that keeps coming up

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for me again is that synergy.

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So, I think I kind of glossed over

your question a little bit, but

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those are the best practices for me.

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John: Because there's something I want

to give a little bit of attention to,

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and I think maybe we will have an episode

on on that call as well on your first.

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Call your prospects in calls and

how to get how to make those work

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because I think that's important.

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I'd refer to them as triage calls

where you're doing a bit of like

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hospital triage figuring out What their

problem is and really you're matching

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up to see if you can help each other

or not So I think we could do with

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spending some time on that and we'll

come back to that on another episode

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Angie: Agreed.

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Yeah.

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John: a lot of coaches doing a lot

especially newer coaches, but not

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necessarily only newer coaches is You

A strategy I really don't like and I

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think a lot of people don't like it of

Getting into your either your dms on

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facebook because you're in a coaching

group together or sending you cold mail

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And connection requests on linkedin or

other places when you have no relationship

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You have no connection before Have

you ever had this kind of message?

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Hey, I noticed we're both in the

same facebook group Blah blah blah.

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That's an instant delete for me.

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i'm sorry it is and say same on LinkedIn

as well like almost almost every day.

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There's a message coming through

I off I have these services.

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It's like well I have no relationship

to you and I didn't invite you into my

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inbox if you come into my email inbox

uninvited Even worse and I I I will I

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will actively campaign against you if you

come into my email inbox It's like oh,

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sorry, you might be starting a war here.

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Angie: Wow, wait a second.

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This is so, wait, I just want everybody

to pay attention for a minute.

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You know, when John and I started

this we talked about, how different

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we are and he made it like I'm

the mean one here, by the way.

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And I think John is showing a little bit

of his, his darker side right now because

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he and I are 1000 percent in alignment.

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But go ahead.

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I agree.

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Let me hear more about how you

campaign against these people.

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John: I am I am being I am

being somewhat what's the word?

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Angie: Cynical?

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no,

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I'm joking.

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I'm joking.

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John: God, I'm losing my words today.

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Well, you know, that thing when you make

some more of something than it really is

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Angie: Dramatic?

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John: dramatic.

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Well, I am being dramatic.

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Uh, perhaps, perhaps a little, perhaps

being a little overly dramatic here.

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But I just like it.

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I, and I am going to rant about that.

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And, and there are things that

grind my gears as relaxed and zen

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like as I am most of the time.

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Sometimes things sometimes things really

get my goat and maybe because I am so

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relaxed the rest of the time I get very

riled at particular other times so don't

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do that Don't do those best if you feel

something that you're doing is a bit

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sleazy or a bit Not the best or you

don't have any kind of connection or

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relationship with the person that you're

reaching out to and never have Don't do it

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because it's the return on that is going

to be far lower than the damage that that

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does to your reputation in the business.

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So I'd say don't do it.

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Steer well clear of it.

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If you're going to reach out and

connect with someone, add value to them.

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Don't try and start a sales

conversation with them.

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Try and start a relationship.

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If you're going to do that kind of

strategy and be helpful, be friendly,

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be service minded, um, And hold

off on whether there actually is

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a relationship there or not before

you try having a sales conversation.

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So I do think it's just important

to know those strategies.

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They may get a little return, but I

don't think you're really going to get

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the effort, so many people are doing it.

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It's spammy, it's sleazy, and it's

not a good, healthy way to grow your

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business that you can feel good about.

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So things like, maybe you don't have

the budget for paid ads right now.

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Start getting a name for yourself,

go into the groups that have the

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people in that you would like

to have and add value to them.

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Go into the Facebook pages, the YouTube

videos and wherever else and comment

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on them, go on to the live calls, be

on their live events and be adding

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value, be having conversations with

people and start creating relationships

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Angie: You know what, though?

356

That's your, that's the

point, though, John.

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That's exactly the problem.

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Everybody that I talk to doesn't want to.

359

Does not want to go back and recultivate

that relationship or cultivate it, right?

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I mean, reintroduce and then

cultivate they want to do the

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quick quick hit and I'm with you.

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I don't know if they did this overseas.

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I don't know if they did this in England

or if they do it in Spain, but like

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during the holidays here in the U.

365

S.

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It's not as big now because malls are

closing and whatever, but I could remember

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walking into a department store and

there's this attractive person standing

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there with a bottle of perfume, right?

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Ready to spray me.

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And I literally got to the

point where I would put my

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hands up like, no, don't do it.

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And run in the, I might even not go

into the store because then they put

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them on either side of the entryway.

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There was no way around it.

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And as you're walking while

saying, trying to be polite, saying

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no, thank you, no, thank you.

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They still wanted to spray me.

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And I was like, Oh, I

have perfume on already.

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Like sleazy, hated it, hated it.

380

And that's what I feel like you're

describing in the coaching world.

381

And guess what?

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But now they've smartened up.

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What they do is that same attractive

person might be standing there

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and they give you a little packet

that here, here's my free sample.

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And then you get to open it at

your own leisure and decide,

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because if you like it, you will

go back and make the purchase.

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But if you're chasing me down, spraying

me with, even if it's a beautiful

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scent that I might love, you've lost

my sale because you are coming at me.

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And that is exactly

what you're describing.

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So, I think it's better if we

give somebody that packet, right?

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Show yourself.

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Do some videos.

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Show people.

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Do some reels.

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Do some shorts.

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Do some

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lives.

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Showing

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what you do.

400

And then they will come.

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So maybe that's where the, if

you build it where they will

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come mentality might come from.

403

And I'm not a believer, but I think it's,

I think it's a much better way of branding

404

yourself, introducing yourself and

saying, Hey, I'm not going to spray myself

405

all over your DMs and in your email.

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I'm just showing you what I do.

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And if you're doing it well, and

you're doing it often enough with

408

consistency, people will know

what you're doing and kind of

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go, huh, that's interesting.

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You said something that

really resonated with me.

411

That to me is so much more valuable than.

412

You know, the perfume

of, the coaching perfume.

413

Like, stop it, stop it.

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It's bad.

415

You have me, I mean, emails I get

a day with Angela, great profile.

416

Please stop, stop it.

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John: This is one of the reasons why

I like podcast guesting as a strategy.

418

And, uh, I do think by speaking podcast

guesting, these can be great strategies

419

because people have the choice of whether

they want to turn up and listen to the

420

conversation and whether they're going

to carry on listening to you or not,

421

the responsibility is all on you to pull

people in and keep them in there as well.

422

And also if you're strategic about that

kind of thing your voice is being heard by

423

people who are likely to be your audience.

424

Clients, the right kind of people

to be working with you, who will

425

want to have that conversation.

426

And if your message is specific enough

and impactful enough for them, then

427

they are likely to take that step of

connecting with you, getting on your

428

email list or or booking a discovery

call with you to find out a bit more

429

about where things could go from here.

430

How could we take this relationship to

level where I'm going to get what I need?

431

It's like one of my business

mentors, Chris Ducker, I didn't

432

know anything about Chris.

433

I just happened to see him on

a Pat Flynn video because it

434

turns out they're good friends.

435

But him and Pat were talking

and Chris just said something

436

that was like I don't do that.

437

I need to do that.

438

I need to speak to Chris.

439

And I did, and I reached out

and, thankfully, Chris has kind

440

of become a friend now as well.

441

It's great.

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He's still a mentor of mine.

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But that's sometimes just

how things can happen.

444

Getting yourself out there and having

your voice heard in the right places.

445

Otherwise, it's a bit like, it's

a bit like pissing in the wind.

446

It's it's just going to go everywhere.

447

You need to, you, we want it

to, you know, Go in the fight.

448

Angie: I'm sorry.

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The visual took about three seconds.

450

There was a delay and I had this visual

of pissing in the wind and spra Oh, okay.

451

You get it.

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But go ahead.

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I'm sorry.

454

I was a little delayed

in my reaction there.

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John: It's a little messy.

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It's a little messy.

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So we want to be a bit

tighter about things.

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And I think that's one

good way of doing it.

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Angie: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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John: so I think we've maybe have covered

not the specific, like we haven't given

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you a launch plan here, but we've at least

maybe given you some best practices and

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some things to avoid as you start your

journey of launching a coaching business.

465

if you do have more specific

questions about this, reach

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out to us on social media.

467

We'd be happy to hear them.

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I'm sure.

469

We're going to be coming back very soon

with a with an episode like when you

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are in that conversation One of the

bits that a lot of people worry about

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is what happens when you get to that

question of how much is this gonna cost?

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And a lot of people fall apart at

that point So that's what we're

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going to be talking about next time.

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Hope you'll join us for that

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Angie: You want to be there for that one.