087: 3 Keys to Grow Your Coaching Business

Overwhelmed by everything you *could* be doing to grow your online coaching business? Tired of sitting down to work and feeling totally lost on where to start? I see you.

That's why in this podcast episode, I'm sharing with you the only 3 things you need to focus on refining and mastering to grow your online coaching business!

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why focusing on less is the key to success 
• The 3 keys to growing your online coaching business 
• The 4 things to do to connect with your dream clients 
• The 2 things you need to do to have a high-converting sales process 
• The only 1:1 coaching package you need and why

Read the blog post: https://www.simplifywithmegan.com/blog/3-keys-grow-coaching-business 

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You finally have some time to focus on your business and you're like, yes, this is me time. I can finally sit here. You go up, you open your laptop. You're like, I'm going to make some big moves today. I'm going to make progress on my goals only to literally sit there and realize you have no clue where to start and where to focus on right now. So you're sitting there and you're like, okay, well, I. I need to do an automated welcome email sequence because like I'm supposed to have one, right? So maybe I'll do that today or, you know, I'm supposed to be posting on Instagram reels every day. So maybe I should do that, but I don't know what I'll post. So let me like look through Instagram and then suddenly 15, 30 minutes have passed. And you realize you have done nothing. So then you're like, okay, scratch that. That's not working. Um, you know, I really want to book some one on one coaching clients. It's time for me to start finally promoting that, but you know, I don't have like a sales page ready for that. Ooh, but like, you know, I don't have a website, so no one's going to want to book with me if I don't have a website. And you're just like really running through everything on the mental to do list or the gigantic to do list you have written out somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. And you're just trying to figure out where to start, where to focus the energy. And then you look over and your three year old has walked into your office when they're supposed to be napping and is no longer napping and asks for a snack. And just like that, your work time's up. I have been there and trying to run a business this way is super hard. exhausting. While I cannot sit here and magically give you more uninterrupted work time, because if I could, I would, I can't however help you use that limited time you do have, whether we're talking 30 minutes, three hours, whatever you got, more intentionally and with more purpose and Focus, because how good would it feel to instead have that moment where you're like, yes, I can finally work. And you sit down and you open your laptop and you know exactly what to work on. And that's not because you have some complicated project management system. or something else like that. It's because your actual business strategy is so freaking simple that you don't have to think about it. That's what I want for you because those of us who are working with limited hours for business, whether that's by choice or by circumstance, if you've got five, 10, 15 hours a week, and that's it, the, the way to simplify business and to use your time wisely is not. by having some complicated systems and automations and all these things. It is in fact by having a very, very simple and focused business strategy in the first place. So that what you're trying to work on is so straightforward to you that you're not spending time trying to figure out where to prioritize your effort and your energy. Instead, you know exactly who you help and you know how you help them. You know what kind of content to create and where to be sharing it and posting it in order to attract those dream clients you want to be working with. You have a really, really, really simple but high converting sales process for booking those dream clients and having them become your one on one coaching clients. And then your actual work with your clients is like, Actually, a dream. You're happy. They're happy. And this level of simplicity is totally possible. But the hard truth, and I say this with love because this has been a hard earned, hard learned, whatever the phrase is, this has been a lesson I have learned that goes against kind of my nature sometimes, which is that the only way to achieve this level of simplicity is to do less. It's to stop trying to be everything to everyone. It's to stop trying to be everywhere and following all the shiny object ideas that pop up. It's by stopping and like, stop looking around you for inspiration on what you're supposed to be doing. And overall, just literally doing less by deciding you're not trying to master everything. And instead, trying to get really good at the fewer things you're doing. So we're doing less, and we're actually focusing on getting better at those things. That doesn't mean we start out really good at them, but it means We get better at them over time. And when we have our focus on a fewer number of items, we get better at it way faster. So instead of sitting there trying to master YouTube and a podcast and tech talk and email marketing and funnels and memberships and masterminds and one on one coaching and all of these things and making minimal progress towards our goals on any of them. Instead, we're picking a handful. A small, small, small selection of those things. And we're actually focusing our energy on refining and mastering those fewer things. We're going to then see results so much faster in all areas. Our skills will improve faster, but also our business success will grow faster because as we all know, and there's evidence that supports this all around us, any of these things can lead to success. You can podcast or YouTube. You could do TikTok or Instagram. You could do any of it and still be successful, but it's hard to be successful if you're trying to do all of it all at once. Okay. Now the good news is that there's actually very little you do need to be focusing your energy on when it comes to growing your coaching business in particular. So I'm going to actually tell you what to focus on here. And as a reminder and a disclaimer, anything you do can lead to success if you go all in on it and commit to it. Okay. But I am going to try to simplify things for you here by telling you the three things that actually matter that you should actually focus on. And then we can dig into a little bit on what I recommend you focus on even more specifically. So there are three things to spend your time on, especially if you haven't hit 50k, 100k for private coaching, or if you are Um, still growing your coaching business and like establishing yourself. But honestly, like at any level, these three things are pretty much consistently the only three things that matter as a coach. The first one is connecting with your dream clients. You may know this as marketing, content marketing, posting on social media, podcasting, whatever. Connecting with your dream clients. Number two, converting your dream clients, actually getting the sale. booking the client. Number three, coaching your dream clients, being a really good coach, getting better at coaching, getting your clients results, improving your coaching process. That's it. Connecting, converting, and coaching. Those are the only three things in your growing coaching business that matter. So when you sit down trying to do any of these other things, Does it fall into one of those three buckets? Yes or no? And sometimes it might, right? So like creating a welcome sequence, theoretically, could be connecting with your dream clients. But is it the most leveraged, strategic, valuable way for you to use your limited time to connect with your clients? Probably not. At least at this stage, when you have a team, when you are more established, when you are bigger, when you have more resources, whether that's time or team, you can do so much more. But most of us don't have that and uh, don't have that now, don't have that to start with or um, don't have more resources than they currently have. So it's really that simple connecting with your clients, converting your clients and coaching your clients. Now I'm going to be digging into all three of these things and more in way more detail in my upcoming free live masterclass, a hundred K from private coaching while working 15 hours a week. I'm very excited about it. It's happening April 30th in this masterclass, I'm going to dig into More than just these three things. I'm going to dig into the five C framework, the actual way to be spending your 15 hour work week, your six figure business plan from one on one coaching. And more so go to simplify with Megan. com forward slash masterclass to go ahead and sign up now and join me live on April 30th, but. I'm not going to leave you hanging here. We're going to dig into some of this and get way more specific here as well. Uh, but please know joining me live on that masterclass is where you're going to really get the full in depth training. So let's talk about, first of all, connecting with your dream clients. There are a million ways you could do this. Like we've already talked about, whether it's weekly YouTube videos, daily Tik TOKs, Instagram reels, podcast interviews, your own podcast, Pinterest, blogging, email marketing, Instagram, free communities. So much more there even seems like every week there's like a new way to try to market or grow a community, right? Now, the good news specifically when we're talking about private coaching as well, is that this can be. So, so, so, so simple, so simple. And I truly believe from my own experimentation over years, I've been creating content since like 2015, I have created content in all the different ways I've done all of it. I have seen firsthand without a doubt that there are certain mediums and platforms that serve private coaching. Better than others. It doesn't mean the others don't work, but they work really well for private coaching. So I'm, I'm actually going to like, go ahead and tell you that here. Not going to make you wait for the masterclass or be one of my clients or anything like that. But before I tell you what those are overall, there are four really simple things that I recommend you do to connect with your dream clients. I recommend you connect with your dream clients by having one longer form platform. So typically that's YouTube podcasting, et cetera. A longer form piece of content, a longer form platform where you share more evergreen content that people can come and binge. I number two recommend you have one short form platform. So that would be something like Instagram or TikTok. The content itself can help you reach people a little bit faster on these platforms, potentially have like a faster way to get in front of new people, but it's not necessarily as evergreen or searchable content. Typically. Um, number three, so we have a one long form platform. You're gonna choose one. The next thing is you're gonna choose one short form platform. Number three, you are going to build your email list. This is something that a lot of my clients or new coaches come to me thinking they don't want to mess with this yet, or they don't need to yet. And while I don't think you need to worry about welcome sequences and all that stuff, I do think you should start to build your email list right away. Even if we don't have an incentive for them to join your email list, I think that you should. Have the email list and you start building the habit of emailing your email list when you have a new offer or a new piece of content you want to share with them. And that way this becomes something that you master and refine. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm really big on refining and mastering what you're doing. And everything we're talking about here, while I'm simplifying it and distilling it down for the most potent stuff you can do as a private coach, 100 percent of these things grow with you and are skills that you can master. when your business is the simplest in this form, that will only serve you better as your business grows. So starting your email list at the beginning is always like the best thing you can do for yourself. So I do recommend you start to build the email list. I don't think you need to stress about having like a branded weekly newsletter or like any type of thing to it, but just like building the list. And then number four is going where your people already are. So especially if you are starting from zero, you're a new coach, you have very little to know people in your existing audience. You're going to want to do all of these things, but you may want to put more emphasis on going where your people already are. So that may be where you do prioritize getting on someone else's podcast or being a part of existing communities where your dream clients already are. So there's a lot of different ways you can do it, but those are the four things that my clients that I recommend you listening to this as well, do to connect with your dream clients and you ignore everything else, one long form platform, one short form platform. Start your email list, start emailing them, and then get in front of where your people already are. Pick one strategy for each of these things. Keep it super simple. Say no to all of the other options. Of course, you could do five long form platforms. You could blog and do Pinterest and do YouTube and do podcasting, but we don't have time for that right now. And it is not necessary. So don't try to do it all. Remember we already talked about that. We're doing less, less is more. Bye. So, this is how I really recommend you simplify your marketing, simplify your content strategy, and ultimately our goal of connecting with your dream clients and attracting them is going to be the most leveraged when we distill it down. And I do want to go ahead and speak specifically, I wasn't going to, but I'm going to, because I can't resist. When it comes to which long form and short form platform to pick. Ultimately, anything would work. In my years of experience of doing all of the different platforms, I have found without a doubt that podcasting as your long form platform has the highest return on investment when it comes to coaching and getting clients to be comfortable paying you high ticket. So again, of course, YouTube and other things can work, but nine times out of 10. The people joining my group programs or my high ticket coaching services Tell me that they binged my podcast in order to know that I was the coach for them Even though I have other places they could binge my content It's the podcast that helps them see that I'm the coach for them in a way that no other platform Seems to be equivalent towards Again, I'm not hating on those other platforms. I love them all but to help you You Simplify your strategy. If you are building out private coaching in particular, I think the smartest use of your time is doing a podcast to one, just that's your long form strategies, the podcast. And I want to clarify that I have never been super consistent in my podcast. Um, I have under a hundred episodes and this podcast launched a long time ago and that's not necessarily something that I'm like patting myself on the back for here. But. It's to show you that you don't have to be perfect with this. You don't have to do weekly every Thursday at 5 a. m. or every single day on Instagram. Like, don't stress about it being perfect. Consistency at a large scale is just showing up consistently for your people even if it's not exactly perfect. So, the, the reason I share that is, My podcast has not been perfectly done every, you know, it's like I've been sitting here doing every Thursday at 5 a. m For five years. Nope, not at all. Like very much. I've taken long breaks have skipped weeks and it is okay because I'm refining and getting better. The content I'm putting out is improving. It's quality content and it's tapping into my zone of genius and I'm really able to show my coaching style through podcasting. Now, when it comes to the short form platform, similarly, I really think Instagram's the highest return on investment. I know. I know. I don't love it either. I'm curious where Instagram's headed and Um, so I'm going to be talking about the future of it all, but especially with what's happening with the potential TikTok ban here in the United States. I mean, like, who knows where that's going to even land to, right? But regardless, I've been on TikTok. I've been on Instagram. I've been all of it. Without a doubt, Instagram kind of has the biggest bang for your buck in terms of, you know, Being able to get in front of people, nurture the people you have, but sell in the direct messages, which we'll talk about in the converting section in a second, but, um, it has been unparalleled compelled to like compared to any other app out there, just the ability to truly connect and engage and build a sense of community is very unique to Instagram right now. And the ability that you can do the stories, plus DMs, plus your posts. So is it a perfect platform? No. But am I simplifying your life by just telling you to do a podcast and do Instagram? Yes. And can it work? Yes. And again, I don't have huge followings. Like I don't have a, I don't have 10, 000 people on Instagram and yet it's doing its job. Right. I'm connecting with the people. I'm getting booked out. I don't need. I have a huge audience for this platform to serve me. And I think that's something really worth highlighting here when it's so easy when we're talking about social media, like platforms and content strategy to get really caught up in vanity metrics. Even when we're thinking about Instagram having kind of a reach issue right now, like that's okay. It's okay if not a lot of people like your content. I have people who come and pay me lots of money in my highest level, uh, packages. Who don't engage with my content, but they see it like even though they're not saying they're liking it or commenting They're seeing it and it is having an impact. I Went off on a tangent there. but wanted to get really specific there Even though this is just a podcast episode. I really wanted to simplify your life there. Okay, so let's move on Cause we got two other things to talk about. The second thing that we're focusing on, remember, is converting your dream clients. Now you do not need to do sales calls to book private coaching clients. If you want to, if you love sales calls, if you love discovery calls, I'm here cheering you on. But nine times out of 10, they are unnecessary. If the rest of your sales process is really simple and intentional, if we're connecting with people really well, if we have a very, uh, well thought out offer as well, if like We're doing some of these other things that I teach my clients about when it comes to having a really clear niche and a really clear offer, then the sales process becomes, um, in many ways like the simplest part of the process, although it is the most important because if you're a business owner, you're a salesperson and I don't want you to ever feel weird about that. But. Um, if you're listening to this in particular, you're like me, we have very limited hours to work. We don't want a million calls on our calendar, discovery calls and sales calls for me are just not practical in the season of life. Even if I wanted to do them, it would be very challenging for me to commit to them. And so I don't do them again, not because I think they don't work. I just think they aren't necessary in today's day and age, especially if the other things you're doing are done very well. So ultimately I think you need to do two things. for a high converting sales process for your dream clients. And again, that's assuming we're doing some of the other stuff we've already talked about and we'll talk about. But number one, have a very, very, very simple application that is on your website or wherever, but that is only being used to capture leads passively. I get this question a ton from my clients about, do I need an application? When do I need it? When do I not need it? Simply put, I like to view my application for private coaching almost like something I never send people to actively. Like it's, maybe it's on like a links page. Maybe I would promote it if I was doing a podcast interview, but nine times out of 10, it is just on my website. And if someone stumbles across a piece of my content, is binging my content, looking into what I do, how can I work with her? I like having an application up there because it still shows them how I can help them and shows them what information they need to know and then it allows them to tell me that they're interested in working with me. But I don't send someone who I'm already in a conversation with to the application. So it is meant to be a passive lead generation source almost. Um, the second thing I would recommend and do recommend is that when it comes to your engaged leads, so we just talked about our passive leads, people who just like pop up and have applied. Um, when it comes to people we are engaging with actively sell in the direct messages or in emails with a like loom video, a customized video response, something like that. You do not need to send someone again. from Instagram DMs. If someone replies to one of your stories and is like, I want to know more about your private coaching. Do not send them away from Instagram DMs to an application page to fill out an overly complex application to then wait to then see if they get accepted to then wait to get on a call with you, to then have a call with you and then wait to get a proposal from you and then wait to sign a contract and yada, yada, yada. We don't want to do that. Instead, if we're already engaged with someone, we just want to go and have the conversation there. And one thing I really help my clients do is make sure that the application that they're setting, setting up for their, uh, one on one coaching is also very simple. What are the questions we actually need to know to qualify someone? So there's definitely a way to just do this all really simply. Way simpler than you may be thinking you need to do, which is obviously the name of the game over here. Right? So that's really what it comes to, uh, converting your dream clients. That's what I want you to focus on is that passive application and then selling directly with the people engaging with you, either in DMS or in personalized email responses. Then the last thing to be focusing on, again, we've talked about connecting, we've talked about converting. Now we're focusing on coaching your dream clients. There's a ton of ways you can work with people privately. You can do two weeks asynchronous, six months one on one. And a million variations in between VIP days, intensives. There's a lot of options and honestly, like they all are great and there are pros and cons to each of them. And I truly think for a S a more established business owner or a more established coaching business, you could absolutely have multiple ways of working with you privately, but I don't want you to start there. As a coach trying to get off the ground, hit 50K, 100K, really master your one on one coaching, book out your private coaching. Your primary focus should first be one single coaching package with one clear result for one specific person in mind. So while I do like having intensives and ongoing private coaching, to me, The focus is private coaching. Intensives are something you can do optionally, do it seasonally, do it as a funnel. That's one of the things I do teach my clients is when they are ready to introduce an intensive, how to kind of set it up as your private coaching funnel. But when you're just starting out, I really don't think you need to be focusing on the intensive first. And instead I want you to really focus on the long game. Because I do not always have intensives available, but I always have long term private coaching clients. That is where I'm focused. That's the ultimate goal for me. So I want you to actually first master your one single coaching package and just let it be super simple. I always recommend 12 weeks or three months, depending on what feels better to you. But 12 weeks makes more sense to my brain, but you can totally do three months. Um, it's the same length of time, obviously. And just having that be your main package. There is a whole strategy when it comes to renewing these clients into longer packages and things like that. But when we're talking about growing your business, booking out and establishing your private coaching. Let's just focus on a 12 week one on one coaching package and there is a process for like reverse engineering what your package looks like. But simply put, I find most people don't need more than one to two calls per month and then some asynchronous support in between. And like, that's it. Your package can be that simple. There is a whole strategy with making sure we're communicating the result that we are being really intentional, thoughtful with how we design it. And positioning all of this, but from a practicality standpoint, when it comes to coaching your dream clients, the best thing you can do is know who is the specific person you're helping. What is the one specific result you are helping them with? And what is the one package you will help them through and like master and refine that. Figure out how to message it, how to position it, how to get your clients results with it and get really good at coaching. Get the results for them, get their testimonials, gradually increase your prices. Like it's the coaching piece is. It's like the part of the work that is so fulfilling and rewarding and often not talked about very much because we're all focused on how to market and get clients. We don't really talk that much about like what to do with the clients you have. And so a big focus should be becoming a better coach. So how can you improve your process, improve your package, improve your boundaries? How can you set it up so that your clients are getting results faster and easier? And that's really how simple this can be. Your, your main focus when you sit down to work and open your laptop is how can you connect with your dream clients? How can you convert them? How can you coach them and how can you get better at it? So the best thing you can do to simplify your business is decide these one to two things you're doing for each of these areas. Make that game plan, bake this into your weekly standardized schedule, and then just do it and get better and refine. It's not so much about always doing the new thing and the shiny object and the trendy thing and changing. It's about refining and you only get to that stage of refining and mastery through action. So we've got to just make some decisions, say yes to less and say no to more. And so we have a really simple but intentional strategy and business plan. And then we're not sitting there wondering, how am I going to attract clients today? You already know, you already know the key actions. That's exactly where I'm at right now. I have very limited time. In fact, as I'm recording this, I think I hear my three year old in the other room saying my name. So hold on. Okay, I'm back. So as I was saying, I have limited time. I mean, this week in particular, my three year old is sick. My one year old is sick. Childcare looks different this week. My whole plans for the week are totally different. But when I do have pockets of time to work, I know what my priorities are. That's why I'm sitting here recording this episode right now, because connecting with you is a priority of mine and getting a podcast out this week is something that's a priority of mine. And I know where that stands on my priority list. And it's near the end of the week because it's taken me this long to get to this part of my priority list because I've been spending what limited time I've had this week taking care of. Actually coaching my clients and doing some of the things I need to do to convert for my upcoming launch. And then here we are connecting. And so I don't have to sit here and say, where do I even want to start? What strategy am I working on right now? Because it's super simple and I know the business plan. I know the strategy and the peace of mind. And not even, I mean, yes, peace of mind, but the mental load shift that has happened since simplifying my business this way, coming back to business last year as a parent has been radical. And um, I just want that for you as well. I want you to know that it can be this simple and when you are really just trying to get your business off the ground. And hit six figures and multi six and beyond as a private coach in particular, we don't need to be everywhere. We don't need to be everything to everyone. The fastest path to success and fulfillment and letting this all build momentum and get easier is by doing less and just getting really good at the things you're doing, https: otter. ai with not trying to help everyone and instead getting really good at who you are helping and understanding how to connect with them and how to get them results and talk about it. And that is just going to come through practice. And so if you are too distracted with other things, it's going to take a lot longer for you to master that. Whereas when you're hyper focused like this, you're going to be so good at selling and so good at creating content and so good at coaching so much faster than you would have otherwise. And so then when you do go to do something like a group program or a mastermind or a course or whatever it is you're doing. That's scalable. You will have all of these skills already mastered and selling those things and messaging those things. It's going to be easier. You're going to already have testimonials. It's going to be so much easier. So it's worth it to be in this season of doing less. And just focusing on less, but then getting really good at those things you are focused on. So remember, connect with your dream clients, convert your dream clients and coach your dream clients and nothing else matters. And you don't need to do a hundred things for those three things. Pick the smallest amount of items to be doing and focusing on for each of those, commit and move on. And just know I'm here cheering you on. I would love to see you on my upcoming free live masterclass happening April 30th. Go to simplifywithmegan. com forward slash masterclass to get all the details to save your seat. This is going to be such an action packed, valuable training. This is not the kind of masterclass we're going to sit there and just hear my story and walk away with nothing. We are actually going to go deeper than this. We're going to go very, very much training style, not like fluffy infomercial style. So I'm really excited. I'd love to see you there. And at the end of this masterclass, I am opening the doors to my 12 month program, rich coach club. The doors are only opening now. And then again, later this fall. So only two times this year, and this is where you will go to get support and actually implementing. Everything we're going to cover and everything we've talked about today. So actually nailing down your strategy for connecting with your clients and deciding what your sales process is and refining your niche and your offer and becoming a good coach, and just this process of refinement and mastery. And it's really beautifully done in Rich Coach Club because, yes, there are trainings that are getting released over the next couple of months to guide you through all of this, but you're also doing it with a community of like minded people who are keeping it real. We've got limited time. We're all really good people working towards the same thing. So you get that community aspect. You also get the mentorship aspect where you get actual feedback from me, where I'm looking at your sales conversations and I'm looking at your offers and I'm giving you feedback and I'm helping you move through any resistance. So, if any of that sounds good for you, we'd love to see you there. Go to simplify with Megan. com forward slash masterclass. And I hope I get to see you in rich coach club on April 30th.