The Real Reason Your Audience Isn’t Turning Into Paying Clients

Welcome back. Welcome back. I'm Carly Hill. This is the Thriving Therapreneur Podcast. And if you listened to last week's episode, you already know what's happening today. We diagnosed the problem. We got real about why coaches and therapists are stuck in what I call this feast or famine cycle. Even when they feel like they're doing everything right, they're not getting consistent clients. Today, part 2 is the prescription, the actual marketing plan. This is what I call a cash injection framework. It creates visibility. It builds trust fast. It fills your pipeline with real conversations and it turns those conversations into paying clients. This is not theory. This is what works. This is what I have built my business on. This is what I teach inside of my paid mentorship programs. This is what I have watched hundreds of clients use as they go from nothing or complete crickets to consistent cash flow in their business. Now, before we dive in, two things. Number one, if you didn't listen to last week's episode, please go back and do so because I need you to go over the three points that I covered and diagnose why you may not be getting clients in order for what we're gonna cover today to actually make sense and for you to implement. Number two is I put together a free 23-page cash injection playbook that goes hand in hand with everything that we're gonna cover today. It breaks down the full framework. It gives you scripts. And strategy on all of it. The link is in the show notes. Go grab it now before you forget. Seriously, just go grab it. Pause, come back, because it's going to take everything that I'm going to teach today and make it a lot more actionable. If you can even print it out as you're listening to this episode and take some notes, I would highly encourage you to do so. All right. So let's start with the truth that most people don't want to hear. Fast cash, consistent clients— that is not going to come from more content. It doesn't come from better branding or prettier branding. It doesn't come from another certification or a better website. Fast cash comes from 4 things: visibility, clarity, conversations, and invitations. I had a client message me the other day and she was like, ah, I finally got professional photos done and I think it's time for me to upgrade my website. Her website looks fine, great as it is, to be honest. And I had to have a real conversation with her and I was like, if I'm being honest, I don't think that that's going to be the wisest business decision that you're going to make right now. I don't think that's where you should spend your investment. Instead, I would rather know what are the action steps that you're currently taking? I wanna know strategically everything that you're doing to market yourself. And what I was trying to diagnose was her visibility strategy, her clarity strategy, the conversations that she was having, which were none, and the invitations that she was making, which were none. That's it. The people who create momentum quickly They're not doing more. They're not focusing on fancier things. They're doing fewer things, but they're doing them with intention. So everything that I'm about to share, it's going to feed one core loop. Okay. Again, same things, visibility, trust, conversation to invitation, to a consult call, to boom, cash. And you're going to close the client. Okay, write that down. Visibility, you gotta be seen. Then you gotta build trust. Then you need to have a back and forth conversation. Then you need to invite them to go deeper. A lot of people miss this step. People say to me all the time, yeah, my DMs are flowing, Carly, but I don't have any consult calls yet. I said, well, tell me this, how many people have you invited to a consult call? How many people have you invited to Just hop on the phone real quick. Hey, you're going back and forth in the DMs. You know what? I happen to have 10 minutes right now. Do you mind if I call you? How easy is that? You need an invitation. Nobody's going to come to your dinner party unless you invite them. Okay. So this is what marketing comes down to. It's going to map back to this loop. And if it doesn't, then it's just noise. This is the foundational principles of marketing. Let's break it down and let's talk about each one of these. Point number 1 is visibility. I think this is one of the most misunderstood words in the coaching space. When people hear visibility, they think, oh, I need to post more. I need more platforms. I need more followers. I need to go viral. I need to point and dance on reels. This is not what I mean by visibility. Visibility is not about being louder. Visibility is about being more clear. You do not need to be on 6 platforms. Pick 1, pick 2, test them, double down on the one that's working for you. You don't need to post 5 times a day. You need to post intentionally to move the client along in the client journey. We talked about that in last episode, right? And you definitely don't need to go viral. I've never gone viral and I've been making 6-figure months since 2023. I don't point and dance and sing. Okay. You just need the right person to feel seen. I've had many clients create Instagrams off rip, 13 followers, and then close a $2K sale. Here's how I want you to think about every single piece of content that you create. I need you to ask yourself, if my ideal client scrolled past this right now, would they immediately think, holy shit, this is about me? And if the answer is no, then the post is not ready. It's not good enough. Your content needs to call out to a specific person with a specific problem. Your population, your hook, okay, the very first line always needs to call out to your population. You'll notice in my content I am consistently saying therapist, therapist, attention therapist, point of view of a therapist. I'm always calling out to my population. And then it needs to call out to their pain point as well, okay? Pain and/or pleasure. Some people are pain motivated, some people are pleasure motivated. You need to speak to both. But that's the anatomy of a hook, your very first line. And we have 3 to 5 seconds to stop the scroll. That's it. And that's what makes somebody think, oh wow, she bugged my house. This is kind of creepy. Here's the truth. Visibility without clarity is just going to be noise and noise does not convert. And that's when you're going to fall in this trap of, uh, social media or marketing is this chore, or marketing is a mystery. I don't want you to feel like that. It's actually not rocket science. Point number 2 is value. You have to give the right piece, not everything, okay? Just the right piece of content. Once you have their attention, you stop the scroll. Yay. Your job is to build trust. And this is where I see a lot of coaches go wrong in a very specific way. They're going to give away way too much. They dump everything they know into free content, every single tip, every single framework, every single strategy, and then they wonder why nobody is buying. Now let me be clear before I keep going. If there is any coach on this planet who gives away way too much for free, it's me. Okay? So there's a way to do this where you can still lead them along in the client journey. You have to let them know, you think this is valuable? I have a lot more where this came from. You have to dangle the carrot, okay? You have to still have call to actions weaved in. So for example, if you read my book, which if you haven't read my book, then you're absolutely missing out, and I have this huge fear when I was writing my book that, oh my gosh, I am giving away everything that I have worked for and I have spent years learning. I almost feel like this is better than some of my paid content, and my book is free, by the way. I just ask that you pay shipping. So I was dumping everything I knew, but one of the very first pages of my book is like, hey, this book exists for two reasons. Number 1 is so you read this book and you sign up for mentorship. There's many ways that I weave in and dangle the carrot throughout my book of, you think this is good, then there's a lot more where this came from. You understand this concept now, you have the how to do it, but you don't know all of the step-by-steps to actually implement it. You know what you should do and you know why you should do it, but you don't know exactly how to do it. You understand the big overarching framework of how to do it, but would you like hand-holding in how to do this? And then people read my book and literally like become clients 3 days later. All right, so I say all of that to say— and I went on that little rant and tangent, and I digress now— to help you not be afraid of giving free content away. Okay, but when you are giving free content away, it's not just to show up and give education. It's to show up, give education, and lead them along in the client journey. Real value is not always about giving away everything for free. Real value is about giving people the right piece of the puzzle when they need that so that they can trust you. The whole point of giving away free content is to earn trust, and I think it's the best way to earn trust. There's a lot of coaches out there that is like, don't give away free content, lead magnets are dead. Uh, they're not going to trust you if they're consuming all of your free content. They're never going to pay you. I call BS. Okay. It's the best way for them to trust you. If you can actually get them a micro win and solve one of their problems, they're going to see you as a guide and as their coach immediately. And they're going to want the rest of the roadmap. So it's not just about the gold nugget. It's about teaching the gold nugget while making it clear that there's so much more where this came from. Here's a simple formula that I want you to use. Pick one core micro problem that your ideal client is dealing with, something that shows up in their day all the time, day-to-day life, and I want you to create a piece of content around it. A post. Maybe you can go live about it. Maybe you can do a short PDF. Maybe you can do a free training. Solve one, just one, one specific part of the problem and make sure that they're getting a quick win. Then end with a soft invitation to go deeper. Something like, if this was helpful for you, imagine what we could do together. This is just one of the things that I teach. This is just one of the 5 frameworks that I teach. Even if you're just a little bit curious, I would love to continue the conversation. Here's exactly how you can get on my calendar. That's how you turn free content into trust. That's how you turn free content into a conversation. So you're not just dumping everything. Here's all your gold nuggets. Good luck. Goodbye. You're giving them enough to actually make a quick win and shift something in their everyday life. And then you're pointing them towards transformation. Point number 3 is conversations. This is the true gold. This is money. This is currency. This is the one that I really need you to hear. I think this is probably the most skipped step. And I feel like I keep saying that for every single step. Like, this is the one most people skip. Most people skip a lot of these steps, but truly conversations If just more people had conversations, more sales would happen easily and effortlessly in people's businesses. Conversations, they need to happen in order to make a sale. That's just the bottom line. Okay. I've said this a thousand times and I will say it a thousand more. Conversations equal conversions. Conversations equal conversions. I'll put it into a song. Write it on a sticky note, put it on your laptop, put it on your forehead, tattoo it on your forearm. So many coaches are hiding behind posts hoping people will just magically DM them. They think, I'll build it and they'll come, and then they get crickets, and then they think their content isn't working. But most of the time their content's fine. The problem is they're not starting freaking conversations. Your daily goal, especially when you're in the cash injection phase, is 10 to 20, maybe even 30 meaningful conversations a day. And I know this sounds like a lot, but you have to know that starting these conversations is not only gonna lead you to a potential client, it's gonna give you data and market research to make your content even better. Conversations are fun, and you're gonna get out of your head and into service. Which is going to help you. So people commenting on your post, or are you commenting on other people's posts and starting a conversation? You actually DMing somebody, story replies, group engagement, old leads who you never followed up with, referrals, people who downloaded your freebie months ago, and then they went quiet. The follow-up is where the money is. This is why people say fortune is in the follow-up. Most coaches follow up once, they get no response, and then they give up. But I want you to think about this: if somebody downloaded your lead magnet at 11 PM on a Tuesday before they were going to bed, they were clearly interested. But then they got busy the next day, they got busy the next month. They didn't necessarily forget about their problem, it probably still exists in their life. They just got distracted or they forgot about you. Your follow-up is not pushy. Your follow-up is quite literally a lifeline to the solution that they're hoping and praying and looking for. So all you gotta do is send a message. Hey, just wanted to check in. Are you still looking for help when it comes to XYZ problem? That's it. No pitch, no link, just presence. You're just leading with service. And when you're starting that conversation, whether it be in the comments or the DMs or anywhere else, you're not selling anything. You're not like, hey, Susie Q, who got my lead magnet 5 months ago, would you like to buy my program? No, you're listening. You're asking genuine questions. You're finding out where they are, where they need to be. If it feels aligned, then cool. You can invite them to the next step. That's it. That's sales done right. And I do this all the time in my DMs. Okay. And if you've ever DM'd me or my team, like You will experience this. And I've had people reach out and say to me, Carly, the fact that you just sat here with me for 10 minutes, because I'll voice memo back and forth, I've had people say, I just invested $10,000 in, or $6,000 in Spark Coach, and the coaching that you just gave me through the DMs, and she's not even a client, was way more valuable than everything I have gotten in the past 4 months. Okay, that's a true story of something somebody said to me. I audited her niche. I gave her an idea. I looked at her Instagram for like 5 minutes and I was like, hey, I think you should make these small tweaks. Where are you at with wanting to invest in, in Next Level? She wasn't ready yet. I'm like, cool. And we've been in touch ever since. Okay, she's not a client yet, but I genuinely wanted to help her. I was leading with service and I did help her and I earned her trust and Maybe if it makes sense working together one day and she recoups her investment that she made and not really getting anything out of it, then cool. I'll be here when her problems still exist. So we don't have to overcomplicate it, is what I'm saying. Just lead with service. When you genuinely care, it will go a long way. Okay. Point number 4 is going live. This is the fastest trust builder. If there is one thing I want you to take away from this entire episode, It's go live. Go live. I know, I hear you. I don't want to go live, Carly. I'm scared to go live. What if nobody shows up? What if I mess up? All right, well, your first is your worst. Go live anyways. Nobody will show up probably your very first time. I can't even— I can't even begin to explain to you how many times I have gone live and nobody showed up. And I'm just— I can literally see that zero people are there. And I'm just speaking to pretending like there's hundreds and thousands of people there. Most people watch the replay anyways. Okay. When I was first starting, well, before I even did any paid advertising or funnels, or before I had a team, I would go live every single Wednesday at 1:00 PM, religiously, same time, same day, every single week. And I'm going to tell you why lives work better than almost anything else for building trust fast. People can see your face. They can feel your energy. They can ask you questions in real time. Video builds connection and trust at a level that a Canva image or a graphic or a B-roll reel or a caption, it just cannot match. Here's the simple structure I use for going live, because we're not just going live for rainbows and butterflies. Okay. Start with who you help and why they should trust you. Name the problem that you're about to solve, and then be very specific about what this live is for and why you're doing it. Just teach one thing, one thing. Make it clear, make it digestible, that one small piece. And then you need to have a very clear invitation, not a pitch, an invitation. If this resonated with you, you want to go deeper, DM me or drop your email below. Let's talk. So you, you're not just showing up live without a plan. You're also just not showing up live randomly. You're scheduling it in advance. You're posting a poll. What do you want me to teach on? A, B, or C? Yay! Winning topic. It's C. I'm teaching on this date. Mark your calendar. Creating the event, inviting people to the event, inviting people via email, inviting people via Instagram to sign up. You're going to thank people for voting. Okay. There's an art and a science to going live. You're promoting it. You're inviting everybody. You're hitting them from all angles. The more people who show up, the more conversations happen, the more invitations happen, the more conversations flow, and the more conversions that you'll get. Point number 5 is lead magnets, lead magnets and email. Actually, I want to talk quickly about these because these two things together, it's going to build trust that combines and compounds over time. Lead magnet plus email. Lead magnet is not a passive tool. It's a trust accelerator. You're not just creating free shit to give everybody free shit. Okay. It is like a business card on steroids. It calls in your ideal client like a magnet. That's why it's called a lead magnet. And it starts a relationship. The best lead magnets are short, 3 to 4 pages. Nobody wants to read your 30-page ebook. If it's too long, nobody's going to get to the end where they can read your bio and they can see your call to action for the invitation to the next step, which is typically a consult call. One specific problem, one quick win, a very clear, sexy, compelling headline. So Fastest path to outcome for population without things that they want to avoid. There's your simple formula. Once somebody downloads your lead magnet, don't just send it to them and ghost them. Send it personally. Ask a follow-up question. Listen to their response. If it feels aligned, once you have a back and forth conversation, then you can invite them deeper to a call. And then there's email as well. Your email is your highest leverage asset in your business. The algorithm can't touch it. You own it. This is where trust compounds over time. You absolutely need an email sequence. The moment somebody joins your world, they opt into your lead magnet. They need to get a series of 6 to 8 emails. You need a nurture sequence. It keeps them warm and addresses their objections, proactively overcomes them. It's showing them proof that you're a real coach and you get real results. It's moving them towards a decision. You have clear call to actions throughout it. P.S. I have an email marketing agent. Her name is Emily, the email marketing assistant, and she can write all of this for you. Check out Carly AI on my website. It's $97 and it can do this and then literally like a million other things. You have to track your open rates. You have to track your replies. This is going to get somebody to go from, oh, I'm interested in this XYZ free resource, into I'm ready to work with you, take my money now. This is a full body yes for me. This is the engine that keeps working even when you're not actively posting. Point number 6 is doing organic first, but then moving into paid advertising pretty soon after. Okay. Do not run paid ads before your organic strategy is working. Ads are only an amplifier. It's not a miracle worker. If your organic content is not converting, ads are not magically going to fix that. Ads are going to amplify what's already working. So if what's already working is quote unquote broken, then you're just going to burn money faster. I've watched so many coaches throw money at ads before they've nailed their niche, before they've dialed in their messaging, before they've learned to have powerful conversations, maybe even before they have proof of concept. And it's like putting gas on a car that does not have wheels. It can be a disaster. So build your organic foundation first, learn the skill, build the messaging clarity, get proof of concept. Once you know what's resonating, then put dollars behind it. Start smart. Okay. $10 a day, $20 a day. You're going to test it. You're going to optimize it. You're going to scale what's working. Okay. I have a paid advertising expert that works with my clients directly. Okay. Tells them step-by-step what they need to do. And by the way, boosting a post, this is not paid advertising. I just need to say that boosting a post is a waste of money. If anybody's teaching you paid advertising and they're teaching you how to boost a post, you should probably run. True paid advertising is strategic. It's targeted. It's tied to a conversion goal. So don't confuse the two. Paid advertising is something you should not be afraid of. It is an absolute game changer and it can double, triple, quadruple your business. Once you have an organic strategy that is already working. Okay, let's bring this all the way home, tie it back together. Key takeaways: number 1, get visible with clarity. Speak to one person's specific pain. Make them feel seen. Go deep. Number 2 is give value that builds trust. Not everything you know, not give everything under the sun. And if you are giving everything under the sun, let them know there's more where that came from. And lead them to the next step. Number 3 is have real conversations every single day. Stop hiding behind your posts. Like, I'm talking 10, 20, 30 conversations a day. Follow up. Fortune is in the follow-up. Just be present. Lead with service. Number 4 is go live. Put it on your calendar. Go live same day, same time. Commit. Make it consistent. Number 5 is build your email list. Nurture your email list. Build your email nurture list. Build your email list, then nurture your email list. That trust is going to compound over time. Number 6 is master organic marketing first and then move to paid traffic. This is it. This is not complicated. Okay? It doesn't require fancy funnels, massive followings, going viral. It requires focus, intention, consistency. So momentum first, then we're going to refine what you created, and then we're going to move on to scaling. So if you've listened to both parts of these series and you're sitting here thinking, okay, I need help implementing this. This was great, Carly. I took pages of notes. This is exactly what we do inside my mentorship. We build your marketing plan. We nail your messaging. We get conversations happening. I will make you money in your business. Don't believe me, go look at my testimonials. We turn those conversations into clients. We help you build a business that is sustainable and scalable, that works for you, that works for your life. And last thing, don't forget, if you haven't grabbed your 23-page cash injection playbook yet, it's sitting there. It's waiting for you. It's in the show notes. It's everything we talked about today in a format that you can actually work through, save, come back to. There's some scripts in there, there's frameworks, there's full strategy. It's my gift to you. Go get it. My love is with you. I am here for you. Check out the show notes if you wanna work together, and I'll see you in the next episode.