Having an online coaching business can be simple

Hello there, it's Mary Schiller, author and coach of MarySchiller.com and your fearless leader here in the Healthy Wealthy Coach group on Facebook. If you happen to be watching this on the replay, thank you for taking the time and please feel free to comment as I will definitely come back here. And if you want to tag me in a question, that's great too. If you happen to be joining me live, thanks for for spending the time doing that as I know everybody's attention is quite diverted right now to all of the news around the world about the coronavirus, etc. But that's one of the reasons why I wanted to come on and talk with you today because I wanted to share a couple of things. Hi, Chris. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining. I wanted to share a couple of things about having an online business that I think people don't really understand. And they're things that may hold you back. Hi, Marina. From actually going in this direction towards having an online business, but it may seem like they're really difficult or kind of insurmountable. So let me just share a little bit about why having an online business was so crucial to me. The main reason is because I didn't want to stay living where I was living at the time, and I wanted to be able to live wherever I wanted to live in the world. I didn't want to have to be tied to any one location in order to earn an income. It just was not even an option to me to not have an online business. Hi, Lynn, thanks for being here. And so when I started this coaching business, I was originally a life coach, kind of a transformational life coach. In 2016, I just made a decision that I was not going to solicit any local clients. I was living in New York City at the time, and I just said, I'm not going to do that. Everybody I work with is going to be online through Zoom or the phone or something like that. And it was just a decision I made right from the get-go. Hi, Ali, nice to see you. And so, right from the beginning, I just said to myself, an absolute prerequisite for this business is that, hi, Lynn, is that it be online, period. There is no exception to that rule. Even if I get some kind of opportunity to work locally, I am not going to take it or I will figure out how to translate it into an online business. So for me, it was non-negotiable. This was the way that I wanted to live my life. This was the way that I wanted to work with people. And that was it. I was just going to do whatever it took to make that happen. So one of the myths, I think, that floats around out there that really hangs people up that really makes it look like having an online business is way more difficult than it is, is all of this talk about the email list. I wanna preface this by saying that having an email list is great. There's nothing wrong with it. But you do not need an email list to have an online business. All you need to have an online business is clients who work with you via like Zoom. That is all you need. And you can get those clients simply by reaching out to people whom you know in your immediate circles and letting them know what you do. You can, you can tap into all of the networks that you are already in. Most of us, have a vast network of people who are connected to us in some way. And we can simply tap into that network. That is exactly what I did. I, even the people who I knew locally, I said, you know, I'm going to be a Coach, but I'm only going to work with people online, not in person. So you can do it that way as well. You can even tell people, you know, physically that, hey, I work with people online. So if that's how you want to work with me, or if you want to work with me, that's how we'll do it. And so— oh, hi Sarah, I didn't see you there. Hi Sharon— Shannon, sorry. And so I think that there's this whole kind of mythic story around the email list, and it is not a prerequisite. For having an online business. It's something that you can develop over time, but it doesn't have to be in place in order for you to have an online business. Whatever kind of business it is, whether it's a coach or some kind of service provider or whatever it is, it can be done kind of the old-fashioned way of networking with people. And so that's something that I really wanna make clear because I really feel like that is a major stumbling block for people. Is they feel like they have to have this big online presence that's all perfect and their messaging has to be perfect and they have to have a freebie and they have to have an email list set up and all of these things they feel like have to be in place. They have to have a niche and all these crazy things. And that's how I used to look at it. But I have seen with my own eyes through my own experience and through helping people over the years, and particularly over the last couple of years, it's, and especially this year, and the way that I've been working with people in this accountability coaching, it's just not necessary. You don't need all of that stuff to have an online business. If you already have a business and you want to move it online, that's very easy to do. You can simply start telling your clients I am no longer coming to your workplace or whatever to deliver this. I'm going to be delivering it online. And they come with you or they don't. And you just, you just have to make the decision basically that this is what I want. And the way forward will become obvious. And it does not have to be this big complicated thing. So if you happen to be online with me live, do you agree with me that there's this whole myth around what you must have in place before you can have an online business because that's what the story looks like, but that has not been the reality for me and for a lot of the people that I've worked with. They have been able to create an online business really from nothing more than letting people know what they're doing. Kind of like I said, the old-fashioned way through networking, through email, through Facebook, through other, social media platforms, through referrals and all kinds of things. This whole big email list thing is just a myth. The other thing that I want to mention, and if you're posting comments, I'm sorry, I'm having a little trouble seeing them, so I may have to come back. The other thing that I want to mention is that if you do develop an email list, which is great, you can do that, you don't need thousands and thousands of people on it even. And you know, I have had a discussion with a couple of different business coaches over the years and I've told them, you know, my email list has been the same for basically the last 3.5 years in terms of the number of people, but it hasn't affected my income. And there's a reason for that. It's because If you, oh, hi, Chris. Yes, thank you for exchanging that idea. Oh, you're welcome. I'm glad that was helpful. The thing is that if you start to develop a core group of people who you're supporting, and through your coaching, you're taking them to different levels of success and results, and you keep building on that, you don't need hundreds or thousands of people on an email list. You don't need hundreds or thousands of clients either. You can serve either one-to-one or in groups, however you want to. Online, you can serve a small number of people at a very high level, and they will keep returning and/or they will refer people to you. So again, the idea that to have a successful online coaching business, you have to have a big audience or you need to have, you know, hundreds or thousands of people that you're selling something to is just not true. It's just not true. The key is delivering really great results for people consistently and also pricing your offerings in a way that helps you to reach your income goals from just a small number of clients. So, uh, those are my two big things. The first is it's a myth that you have to have all of this stuff in place to have a thriving online coaching business or any business, frankly, unless you're doing like e-commerce, and then of course you do need the whole website and all of that. But most of us in this group, that's not what we're trying to do. And the second thing is you can make a really good living online as a coach with a small number of clients. You don't need to have this gigantic roster of people that you keep selling things to. It's just not necessary. Let me go to the questions. Lynn says, I believe it's a Miss Sarah, never had my own email list. When I ran to mastermind groups, it was done by asking specific people I thought it would suit and also sharing about it on Facebook and inviting. Yes, exactly. Lynn, I've hired products and services 4 times in the last few months just from Instagram. I think it's a powerful platform for small one-person businesses. Very good to know, Lynn. That's a really That's a really good point too because there's an awful lot of discussion out there about social media and how to use it. One of the things that I have noticed is that you can focus your energy on just one platform, the one that you believe is going to help you reach people the most effectively and the easiest. You don't have to be spreading yourself all over them all. I would recommend getting really good at one. I'm big on focus, so getting really good at one and seeing how that goes. So thanks for that, Lynn. Sarah, consistency was my issue and I can see how the idea of an email list could help with being consistent. Yeah, hi, is it Carol and Sally? Thanks for being here. Yeah, I think that when we do have the email list, when we do have an audience, then definitely consistency is important. If those of you watching are on my email list, you know that I email you regularly. And it's, it's mostly because I really care. I want the people who have shared their email address with me to know how I can help them. And I want to give them something valuable as much as I possibly can. So, you know, that's mixed in there too. And at the same time, as I mentioned before, I do not have a large email list. My email list has been at about 1,000 for, I think it's about 3 and a half years. Now. I'm really only now just starting to look at how I could increase my audience size because of this pivot. Hi, thanks for joining, Carol. Because of this pivot that I've recently made in my business. I think that for all of the discussion that we're all in right now as I'm recording this about this virus that's spreading around the world and hopefully being contained soon, it's just pointed out that there are other ways of doing things, of working with people, that could actually be more effective than some of the traditional ones. For instance, the group that I am running online called Small Steps, Big Results, I don't think would work well in an in-person environment because People, part of it is they're required to log in every day and write out their answers to some progress questions and then check on other people's progress and make comments to them. And that's a beautiful part of it. I just don't think it would work well in an offline setting. I think the online setting can work very, very well for what we do as Coaches. So just to segue for a moment, as I'm recording this, it is March 12th, 2020, and March— not this weekend, but the next weekend, March— what is that? 21 and 22. I'm going to be running the first-ever Accountability Coach training program. I'm going to be hosting it live on Zoom on Saturday and Sunday in the evening, Paris time. I'm super excited about this because if you've been seeing my posts and my email— emails to you, I can't even begin to describe my excitement over the possibilities for you in this arena. It's an absolutely wide open playing field. In fact, just before I got on this Facebook Live today, I was speaking with someone, a coach who is not a client of mine. She was actually helping me with something and she didn't know me. We were just, chatting as a one-off short conversation, and I told her what I was, what I was doing and that I was starting to train people to be accountability coaches. And her eyes got really big and she's like, oh my gosh, I don't know anybody who's doing that. I don't know anyone who— she said, I actually do know one person, but it's a very kind of big and complicated program that I wouldn't recommend to people. And she said, I don't know anyone who is doing this in a really simple and direct way. And so I got really excited when I heard that because I was like, you're right, there isn't. And it's something that, as you have probably heard, I did a video on this a while back. It was something that I realized I was not providing to my clients that I really needed to be. And so now that I have seen for myself what some of the results have been from people being coached by me in this way, I feel like I just want to shout it from the rooftops here in Paris that if you are a coach right now and you want to really focus on getting your clients great results, no matter what niche you work in, this can work in life coaching or relationship coaching or whatever it is. There's really no limits around this. Oh, I know, Kris, I can't wait either. It's like, when is next weekend going to come? I'm so excited, I can barely contain myself. You know, or if you're somebody who wants to become a coach and you're not sure what kind of niche you wanna be in, you can look at this as a standalone, which is basically what I am now doing myself. So just to give you an idea of some of the possibilities here, since January I've been running a small group of other coaches and entrepreneurs to help them get their businesses going or take them to the next level. That is going really well. I've also been supporting some people one-to-one, and just about a week ago, I started working with a group of salespeople, independent salespeople for a company, to help them reach their targets faster and easier. And now of course I'm venturing into training other people who are interested in supporting people in this way. The only regret that I have about this is that accountability coaching sounds so boring. Just the name just sounds kind of, ugh, it's just kind of, it's very flat, but I don't have another name for it yet. So my daughter suggested I call accountability coach training, I call it ACT, and I like, oh, I was like, yeah, ACT, that's much better. It's so the opposite of boring, it's not even funny because it's a thrill. It's literally a thrill. Like, I get an electrical charge when I log in in the morning and I read people's progress reports and I see what they've been able to accomplish and I can watch their progress over time. It's just the most exciting thing ever if you are interested in being a great coach and you feel like you could do more for people, this is definitely a great answer to it. And one of the questions that I've been fielding from people is, well, you know, are you basically working 24/7 with people? And the answer is absolutely not. In fact, my coaching hours have dropped dramatically since I turned my direction towards accountability coaching. There's a lot less content that I need to produce. My coaching has just shifted. The way that I kind of work with people has shifted. I'm learning much, much more that I'm going to be sharing next weekend about how to support people in this way. Hi, Marina. Hi, Robin. You know, and so it's just, honestly, I've been in business now for 4 years and I can get kind of choked up about this. So sorry. This is absolutely the most most excited I have been about anything that I have done in the last 4 years. Nothing even really comes close to what I am discovering and what I am going to share in this training. It is absolutely life-changing for, for the Coaches who are going to be joining me. I know you are going to see what I am seeing, which is just opportunities everywhere. Then, of course, for the people that we are supporting You know, as I was mentioning to this coach that I was chatting with a little bit earlier, there's this— talk about a myth— there's a myth that I really want to just destroy, which is that, well, if our clients don't get results, you know, it's not on us, it's really on them. They didn't follow through, they didn't do what I asked them to do. Even in a life coach situation or kind of more transformational coaching like I used to do, You know, there's this attitude that, well, a fairly high percentage of our clients probably won't get the results, you know, that maybe they could, but it's really because, you know, they're not showing up with everything, all these things. And I just want to say, no, no, no, no, no. This is what I had to reckon with last summer when I came to this point of going, There's too high a percentage of my clients who are not getting the results I know that they could get. What am I doing wrong? I am doing something that needs to be changed. Hi, Kris. I think accountability coaching is super clear. Everyone can feel how things could shift if they were doing small steps every day. Oh, hi, Laurie. And that is exactly what I realized, Kris, was that I had not provided a structure for people to hold themselves accountable for what they signed up for in working with me. And I'm not saying that nobody who worked with me got results. They did, but not a high enough percentage. You know, what if your coaching practice, instead of maybe bringing really good results to like 20% or 30% and the rest just kind of middling, What if that percentage went to like 80 or 90% of your clients getting really amazing results with less time coaching from you, a lot less effort on your part, and a lot more ease for them? That is really what I have discovered from doing this type of coaching for the last several months now. Uh, and I know that one of the things that I brought to it is my many years of teaching experience at the university level. And I'm gonna be sharing a lot of what I've learned from that and how I've brought that into this coaching into, I'll be sharing that in the training next weekend. So one last thing I will say is there are still spots available. I decided to not cap the number of people. So the weekend training will have, right now there are 12 people. But if, but the 4 weeks that follow, which will be your experience of accountability coaching, will be a manageable size group. So you're not going to be in there with 50 people or anything like that, which is cool. And I've also decided to keep the price the same. I was going to raise the price tomorrow and I went, you know what, I'm not going to do that. So the cost is $997. I've also made a 3-payment payment plan available if that's helpful to you because I really want to get this out there. Like if I could take everyone in this group and, and just share with you how much of a difference this has made to my clients and to my business and to the number of opportunities that open up so you're not having to like you know, fight for clients and do all of this client attraction stuff. All of that can just kind of go away because when you help people get better results, they will keep coming back for more and they will refer people to you. So this whole process just becomes so much easier. It's been a very easy thing for me to sell because people understand what they're getting. Uh, it's opened up more ideas for me of groups that I would love to run. Like I would love to run a group for people who want to write their own books because I've had so much fun writing my books. You can take a passion that you have and turn that into an accountability coach program. You can bring it into your current practice. I mean, really there are no limits on how you can bring this into your business and into your life. It's been absolutely life-changing for me so far this year. I am never going back. To working with people in any other way. It's exciting. It's still based on the core principles that underscore all of the coaching that I've done over these past 4 years, and it's just an absolute joy to see people succeed. So if you really want an experience that will just open your eyes to so many possibilities that may not seem available to you right now, I highly encourage you to join me for this live training that takes place next weekend on the 21st and 22nd of March. And then for 4 weeks following, you'll have tons of support from me and from the other people in the program to help you bring this into your business and/or get your first clients. That's going to be our goal. So if you have any questions about that, please feel free to post them here. I'm going— I don't have a sales page for this program. I really I haven't had the time to put that together. I just wanted to get the information out, so it's been going out by email. But I will put the link to the payment button here. And of course, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to get in touch with me either here in the group, or you can email me, mary@maryschiller.com. So I hope you're all having a wonderful day, that you're, you know, able to have fun and enjoy yourself despite all the news that's going on. Create an amazing online coaching business that you can do from anywhere and that really helps people get results. Thanks so much for watching live. Thank you everybody and for watching the replay. I so appreciate it and I'll talk to you again very soon. Bye for now. Thanks.