I remember being on the phone once with a life coach, right before she decided to join my Get Clients Now program.
“Maria,” she told me, “I want to coach people. I’m not good at the marketing stuff, and I honestly hate it. I just want to do what I am good at; helping people.”
I get it.
You, life coaches, are on fire to help people. You’re on a mission to make the world a better place.
But I know that sometimes it can be a real struggle finding clients, right?
There’s a quote I love that I feel describes many of the life coaches I have met:
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
— Pablo Picasso
So, life coaches, let’s help you find more clients.
Let’s get you a gameplan so you can go out and change the world!
I hope you find this helpful!
Step One: Start by preparing to receive these clients.
The first step is always preparing ourselves.
If you are trying to find life coaching clients while in scarcity mindset, you will actually repel the clients you are so desperately needing.
It’s the Universe’s Catch22.
You have to play it cool and project detachment and abundance.
The best way to project detachment, by the way, is to actually be detached.
When talking to a potential client, it’s so important that you truly release the outcome. I like to say things like, “It would be awesome if this person became a client, but I don’t need them! There’s always another one on the way!”
Another way I practice detachment is by writing down, in great detail, everything I am grateful for. I make lists upon lists of big things (my intimate marriage) and small things (the coffee in my mug.)
It’s hard to stay in scarcity mindset when you’re reflecting on all the things you already do have.
As you start this process of attracting clients, I highly recommend you commit to a daily gratitude practice.
If you’re like me, it will change your life…and it’ll be a good thing you can teach your life coaching clients.
A final thing you should do to prepare for your life-coaching clients is to repeat the affirmation, “Of course, I have lots of lovely clients!”
Of course, you do, right? This sets your mind at ease with the concept of having clients. It’s natural; it’s normal. Of course, you have lots of clients! Why wouldn’t you?
If you want to learn more about this concept of receiving abundance, check out one of my favorite books, “Dollars Flow to Me to Easily” by Richard Dotts.
I credit this book with being one of the keys to making over $1 million in 2020.
Step Two: Create a simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand coaching package.
As a life coach, one of the most important things to understand is that your potential client is probably still learning exactly how life coaching can help them.
You’ve likely been in the life coaching field for a while now, and you’re probably familiar with the terms of your industry and all the amazing ways a life coach can change someone’s whole future.
But your potential client probably isn’t there yet…so we have to keep it really simple and straightforward.
I suggest you create one coaching package that you offer.
Most coaches offer at least three packages, but I actually think they lose a lot of clients from that, and I want to explain with an example of two different restaurant experiences.
Back in the day when restaurants were open, I had a server come up to my table and run through all the specials at lightning speed. I could barely even understand what he was saying, let alone think about which one I’d like. I was overwhelmed.
But the other day, I was placing a pizza order for delivery, and the man on the phone asked, “Would you like to add garlic knots with that?” and I said, “Yeah, I would.”
It was simple and very straightforward, and I purchased his upsell offer.
Now, imagine you’re on the phone with someone who wants to change their life. She’s probably a little nervous just speaking to someone, and she might scare away easily.
At that moment, you can either run through a list of all your packages with all the different upsells and downsells and everything else…or…you could say something as simple as, “I’d like to help you change your life, and here’s how we are going to do it together.”
Which one do you think would close the client?
Two bonus suggestions:
- I recommend you niche down to help with one area of your client’s life. As a general life coach, it will be difficult to compete with the big names already established for decades.
- Whether you decide to offer one coaching package or three or five, your client should know exactly what she’ll be getting. Life coaching can seem a little vague, so be sure to get really specific.
Step Three: Tighten up your message.
One of my mentors told me, “Maria, there should always be one big outcome from working with you. And it should be something you can put into a wheelbarrow.”
What he meant by that was that my message needed to effectively communicate the tangible (def: Tangible: capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch) value I was providing.
As a business coach, I help you get cash. And that definitely can go in a wheelbarrow.
However, as a life coach, you offer something that has intangible value. Meaning, the benefits you provide can’t be put into a wheelbarrow.
So you need to intentionally tighten up your message so that your ideal clients understand exactly how you are going to help them.
You need to take the intangible and turn it into something tangible.
The best way I can explain this is by using an example that came up with my own business mastermind:
And someone else replied this:
As you can see here, the coach was struggling with how to convey the value of what they sold because it’s didn’t fit into a wheelbarrow. (It wasn’t tangible.)
As the reply answered so perfectly, you have to just create one extra step to get to the wheelbarrow.
If your life coaching will help people have more confidence, what will that confidence get them? If your life coaching provides more clarity, what will that clarity get them?
You need to take the intangible and turn it tangible.
Step Four: Write down a business gameplan to get clients.
Now that we’ve got more clear on the foundational things like your mindset, offer, and message, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and land those clients!
You need to first decide how many coaching packages you’d like to sell each month. “Getting more clients” isn’t a goal that’s specific enough.
Set a specific goal that feels big enough to excite you but small enough to feel realistic.
Once you know how many clients you want to get each month, it’s time to map out an action gameplan to make that happen.
I actually created a worksheet to help you do just that.
You can download a copy of mine for free here:
GET THE ACTION WORKSHEET FOR FREE!
Step Five: Provide helpful content everywhere
One of the reasons I get clients into my program every single is because I create tons of actually helpful content everywhere (like this very blog post you’re reading right now).
It’s an oversimplified formula, but I believe:
Content = clients.
The more helpful content you put out, the more clients you will attract.
I have always put out tons (and tons) of helpful content, and I’ve also always had more clients than I knew what to do with.
Why? Because when you create content that solves a little problem, your ideal clients will pay you to solve bigger problems.
They will pay you to be their coach and hold them accountable.
Sometimes people ask me, “Maria, do you ever worry about giving away too much value?” The honest answer is, “No, I don’t!”
I recommend you watch this little sneak-peek from my Get Clients Now coaching call to understand why content creation works so well!
Step Six: Spend time where your ideal clients are hanging out.
Your ideal clients are all hanging out together online…somewhere.
The trick is to find out where.
You could be saying all the right things, but if you’re in the wrong virtual room in front of the wrong people, it’ll be really hard to sign clients.
You need to make sure all that helpful content you’re creating is getting in the hands of your ideal clients.
But how do you know where your ideal clients are spending their time? Are they on Facebook? Instagram? Maybe Youtube?
The key is to get inside the mind of your ideal client and really think creatively about where she is hanging out.
For example, one of my clients coaches vegans. Not only are her clients hanging out in vegan Facebook groups (an obvious first step), but they are also hanging out in Intermittent fasting Facebook groups, in running Facebook groups, in weight lifting Facebook groups. She even found several parenting groups that had many vegans in them and landed a few clients from one Facebook group that was dedicated to being a pet-owner. Because she was creative and thought outside the box, she landed far more clients than she would have if she simply kept herself to vegan groups.
The more time you spend helping your ideal clients, the more they will send you messages asking about working with you.
One final thought: Right now, you’re building a lead pipeline so that you can have a steady flow of clients coming to you.
If we do it right, you won’t ever have to worry about getting clients ever again.
You’ll be able to focus on doing the work you love: coaching.
Hopefully, you found this list helpful!
Remember, it usually does take time, so really be patient with yourself.
Just like you wouldn’t expect a client of yours to change overnight, give yourself space and grace to learn this new world of marketing yourself.
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