5 Things Life Coaches Get WRONG About Getting Clients

Here are 5 things that life coaches get wrong about getting clients. We're going to go through these one by one, and I promise that by the end of this, you will find something that will get you more paid coaching clients. So the first thing that we need to do is know who you help. Most people become life coaches to get paid helping others live a better life, and it's amazing career because you can do that. The challenge that many life coaches face is that they don't really have a lane that they stick in. They're trying to help everyone with everything, so they resort to vague messaging that doesn't really land with anyone. And they do this because they want to help as many people as possible. And that's totally natural. You know, we want to make as big of an impact as we possibly can. But when you are trying to help everybody, you end up helping no one, as the saying goes. And the reason for that is that people pull out their wallets to pay to solve a problem. And if you are just helping everybody solve every problem known to man, then that's not actually cutting through the noise. And it's not making people feel some sort of pain where they're like, this is my issue. I am about to get a divorce and I don't know how to get through this. Or is— can I save my marriage? You know, like that's a real issue that people have. Or my car is broken, I can't fix it, I need a mechanic. So when they see you as a person who specializes in a specific problem that a lot of people face and you're good at solving that problem and you like solving that problem, that's when you have a lane and a niche. And that's what makes you easier to find and easier for for me to make a buying decision in working with you because you're solving a specific problem that I have. Most life coaches are just way too vague because life is too vague. I was a life coach. I was a 22-year-old spiritual life coach when I first started, and I was helping people with relationship problems, with career problems, with business problems, with health challenges, and I didn't really have a lane. But when I did get in a lane, which in my case was productivity coaching at the time, that is where I started to make a lot more money because I helped a specific person get a specific result. So I'd recommend that you fill out this statement. I help specific person get specific result. So here are a couple examples of how I'd recommend you make this sentence actually sound, and I'll give you some examples of how not to do it. So here's what to do. You can say something like, I help men over 40 get lean and stay lean year round. I help online coaches get consistent leads and sales using YouTube, or I help authors turn their book into paid speaking opportunities. Can you see that we are targeting a specific type of person who can raise their hand and say, that's me, I'm a man over 40, or I am an author or a nonfiction author, you could say. Or I am an online coach who wants to get consistent leads and sales using YouTube. I'm an author and I wanna turn my book into paid speaking opportunities because I know that book sales aren't gonna cover my rent. This is the level of clarity that you wanna have on the specific person and the thing that you help them do. So if you're at an event and you say, I help men over 40 get lean and stay lean year round, and they look at you and you're a man over 40 who is lean and you're like, I stay like this all year round. Then they're like, well, I'm a guy over 40. I wanna get lean and stay lean year round. You're able to do it. Maybe you can help me. And the marketing gets so much easier. Now, here are a couple examples of what not to do with this statement that I know a lot of people can revert to. Do not say something like, I help people become the best versions of themselves, or I help business owners grow, or I help women level up their life. You see, this is vague. Women is kind of specific because, you know, you can just speak to women and resonate with them or business owners. But the outcome that you're helping them get, one, doesn't really land as a real pressing problem. Like, grow, you're helping a business owner grow. What does that really mean? Level up in my life? Like, in what way? So we need to be specific with this outcome that you have experience solving and that you want to actually coach people on. When you nail the sentence, this becomes your North Star in your marketing. All you have to do at that point is just think, how can I get in touch with more men over 40 and talk with them about how I can help them get lean and stay lean year round? Or whatever your specific person and outcome is that you're helping. By the way, if you're serious about getting consistent, high-paying coaching or consulting clients, then I want to invite you to my Get Paid Clients Challenge. This is a 5-day live coaching experience where I personally am going to teach you everything that I have learned over the last 7 years to build a 6-figure coaching business in just 5 days. You'll get my best frameworks for nailing your niche, creating a high-ticket offer, and getting your next or first high-paying clients so you can have months like this. I'll also be in the room with you each day coaching you live, reviewing your work, and answering your questions so that you know that what you're building is actually going to work for you. You also have replays and worksheets for each day. So if you want to get more details, visit profityourknowledge.com/challenge, and I'll see you at the next challenge. Now, my second tip for life coaches who want to get more clients is to stop offering single sessions. People get started as life coaches charging by the hour, typically with single sessions. I'm not going to say that single sessions are inherently bad. I still do them every now and then, just depending on the situation. If I know that someone genuinely needs a single session because we've worked together in the past or talked about something, they're like, I just want help with this one little thing, then sure, I'll do it. But the problem with single sessions is that they don't create any real commitment to people. And it's like paying each time that you go to the gym versus paying a monthly subscription. You see that subscription coming through every single month and you think, man, I gotta go to the gym, I gotta go actually use this thing. But if you just paid, left, and then came back and paid another one, you probably wouldn't be as consistent that way. Now, many life coaches resort to single sessions because they feel safer to charge by the hour and in smaller quantities. Also, they're still in the mindset of charging by the hour rather than charging based on outcome. They're afraid of charging more upfront because they don't think that people can afford it, or they don't want people to get angry with them, or that they're not going to get any more customers because they're charging so much. And this results in you feeling overworked not getting paid enough and not making the impact that you really want to make. I've done many single sessions where I help them and they're like, okay, cool, well, thanks for the help. And inside I'm just like, there's still so much more to talk about. But if we were in a longer 3, 6 month or even 1 year program, then they were committed to because they invested in it and they were showing up every single week. And by investing more, they are more committed because people who pay, pay attention. So if you have been offering single sessions at $50 to $100, which is what most people will do. It might seem cool because you're like, oh, I'm making $50 to $100 an hour, but that's you still being in the make money per hour mindset, which is not going to help you in making more money and working fewer hours as an entrepreneur. I'd highly recommend that you create some kind of 3 to 6 month program and build this program around a core problem that you can solve for people. So think about that core problem that you know you can get for people that they would pay money for and lay out a 3 to 6 month program to get that result. You don't have to make like every every single week a certain thing, instead of laying out every week is one topic that you're doing, because that's just a little too cookie cutter in my experience, I'd recommend breaking up the outcome into 3 to 4 phases that they're going to go through to get that result in either 3 or 6 months. You could also do a year, but I think 3 to 6 months is a really good starting point. And again, remember, charge for the outcome, not the sessions. If you're helping men over 40 get lean and stay lean year round and you're talking to a guy over 40 who is not in shape, the outcome is that he is going to have a lean, strong body that he will keep for the rest of his life. And instead of thinking of the cost of that, think about what is the cost of not getting that and then charge based on that. I'd recommend two payment options. The first one would be a payment plan, and then the second one would be a discounted paid-in-full amount. You can do 10 to 20%. Totally depends on what you want to do, but I would recommend discounting or adding some kind of bonus as well, whatever you want to do. To the paid-in-full amount because you want that to feel more enticing than a payment plan. The third thing that life coaches get wrong about getting clients is that they never find their core message. Most life coaches struggle to get consistent clients because they don't have a clear message and they don't have bold viewpoints. They're saying a lot of good things that, quite frankly, are a little vanilla, but nothing is actually sticking or standing out. Because of that, their content sounds like everybody else's and it just gets ignored. And people do this because they don't want to be too opinionated or they don't want to say something that's going to make people angry or disagree with them. So then they get haters and trolls inside the comments. But like, quite frankly, it's going to happen no matter what. It's totally natural to feel that way. But also, you being so reserved in what you're saying out in the world is one of the biggest things that's keeping you from not getting discovered. And it's not that you have to say like out-of-pocket stuff just to try and stand out and be different. Like a lot of people do that, and I find that unethical. But what I would challenge you to do is think about what are my strong viewpoints that I have that other people just aren't saying. The coaches who grow the fastest aren't the ones who say the most things. They're the ones who say something that is specific. It's clear and it's memorable to your audience. It sticks with them. Your core message is the belief that you stand for and communicate over and over and over again that makes you different from other people. And yes, you should turn people away. You should put people off, but ideally put off the wrong people and invite the right people. A prime example is that if you are Christian and you follow the Bible and that's like who you are and those principles have helped you in your life or your business, then talk about it because that is gonna make people who aren't Christian be like, mm, I don't know, it's not really my person. But the people who are Christian, they're gonna resonate with you more if that's who you wanna work with. So what's something that you believe that most people just aren't saying or they're getting completely wrong in your space? For me, in the space of helping people make money online and like build a coaching business and stuff like that, I am not a fan of the grind yourself to a pulp, stay up all night, keep working, work, work, work, work mentality. The hustle culture is totally not my thing. I was a productivity coach before I got into Profit Your Knowledge and the work that I'm doing today. I am much more of a fan of the 80/20 principles, finding that one thing that's going to make everything else easier or totally unnecessary. And I'd rather step away and give myself some space to come up with that one idea that's going to be the game changer and actually strike the stump rather than be whacking at the branches. Most people in my space are all about just like, keep working harder, keep like, suck it up, just keep working harder, send more cold messages to people. And yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm all about putting in work and doing what I need to do. But if something isn't really requiring me to be grinding all the time, like, I just don't like unnecessary grinding. So what is that viewpoint for you? What's a lesson that you learned the hard way that changed everything for you? And you see a lot of people aren't really talking about that. And why does this belief matter to you so much? Why do you want more people to understand it? For me, I want more people to understand that you can build a 6-figure-plus coaching business or education-style business on the internet while working 20 hours a week or less. You don't need to be working so hard. And a lot of times people just keep working and they're not doing good stuff. It's just like you're working, but nothing's happening. And if you actually work less, you reveal things that are going to move the needle more. And just do fewer things that have a bigger impact? Because when you find that viewpoint for you, that becomes your message. And it's up to you just to be consistent as heck with that message. Say it all the time. Keep hitting home that outcome and that message and that belief in the things that you do. By doing this, getting clients is going to be so much easier for you because people are going to be repelled by you and the right people are going to be attracted to you. The next thing that life coaches get wrong about getting clients is that they just charge too little. So it's up to you. To raise your prices. People are working harder at selling coaching than any other job that they have worked in their life. And I know that because that's what they tell me. And that was me for a long time. And a big reason for that is that they're just charging too little. They're offering $50 for an hour session because they're still in the mindset of time and money rather than charging based on outcomes like I mentioned earlier. And they're afraid to charge more because they still have limiting beliefs inside themselves around money. Or they haven't invested in themselves enough, or that they, they feel that they can't charge high prices for the thing that they do. A mentor told me one time that if you expect to charge $10,000 to work with you, but you have never invested in a $10,000 or more coaching program, how can you expect to charge that much money? And it is true if you think about it, because you have limiting beliefs thinking like, oh, I'm not going to spend that much on a coaching program. And yet you want to charge 10 grand or 5 grand, like the energy is just not there. And that's the thing about sales, is that sales is more about energetics than saying the right things or, or just doing the right strategies. Like, and it's really a transference of energy more than anything. But if you're playing too small around charging more, it's because you need to work on the internal beliefs that you are worth charging more and that you can charge more, even if you do something that you think I can't charge that much money for. So the first thing to do is to find the problem that you can solve for people, or maybe even create an experience around something that they would easily pay $3,000 to $10,000 or more for. I was in a mastermind with a guy who was charging $20,000 to teach you how to take pictures of birds. And when I heard this guy closing these deals left and right, I'm like, what the heck is this guy doing? So I talked with him and it turns out that he was taking people on guided tours. He would educate them on the birds and then he would show them how to take the best shots in these real scenic areas. It wasn't that he was just like telling people, here's like the lens or angle you should take a picture of this bird with. And he was charging them $20,000 for that. He was creating this full-blown experience with people, which is what justified the $20,000 investment. So whatever it is that you're coaching people on or wanting to coach them on, think about the outcome that you are getting those people and what the payoff is really worth to them. And one of the easiest ways to come up with a good price point is just to compare the price point that you want to charge to alternatives that these people have available to them. For example, the average divorce is from $11,000 to $20,000, and it goes way up from there depending on assets. So if you can charge $7,000 to work with you to save this marriage or navigate this divorce to where they don't lose all those assets, think about how much money they're actually saving by paying you $7,000. This is the key to pricing. And by the way, we cover all this in my 5-day challenge. And the last thing that I see life coaches doing that is stopping them from getting clients is that they're trying to do everything themself. Most life coaches start out by themselves without a team or support, virtual assistants or anything like that in their business. It's just you. And because of that, they're doing everything themselves, from creating their website, their content, products, marketing, coaching, sales, etc. But last I checked, you want to be a coach to help people, not get burned out by all the subskills that fall under marketing and sales. But this is something that I wish someone told me way sooner that would have made me a lot more money. You are not in the coaching business. You are in the sales and marketing business. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you get to actually start coaching more people. But underneath sales and marketing, there's all these other subskills like editing videos, creating posts, learning how to create content, like all that stuff. And that's different from actually delivering on your coaching. So you have two options. You can either learn all those subskills like I did because I didn't think about hiring people. I thought I had to be at a certain point to hire people. Or you could just hire people to take a lot of the heavy lifting off of your plate and give you more time to focus on the things that you actually are good at. You see, life coaches don't want to hire people because they feel that they don't need to until they get to a certain level like I did, or they just think it's too expensive. I cannot stress this enough. Change your perspective from hiring someone as a cost into an investment. When I hired my virtual assistant to take video editing and content management off my plate, it felt so amazing to just record a video and send it over to him and not have to edit. Because before that, I would have to research, create the video, and then get in. And after I've done all this work, sit down and be like, okay, Now I have to go edit. I'll never forget the first time he sent me a message after editing the first video, and he said it took him over 5 hours to edit a video. That could have been me. And quite frankly, it was me for a long time when I was doing all my own video editing. Hiring someone else to do something that's important, but it doesn't really require your voice or your face is only going to help you grow this coaching business faster. And the sooner you get started doing it, the sooner you can start focusing on the things that actually make you money. But encourage you to go through this exercise. Write out all the tasks that you do in your business throughout the week and then highlight the ones that actually require your voice and your face. Once you've done that, look at the list and eliminate anything that does not directly bring in revenue. And then lastly, automate and outsource the rest. Some tasks cannot be automated like video editing, and there's some tools that promise they can do it, but honestly, just hire someone who can actually do it for you. So automate as much as you can and then outsource the rest. Here are some tasks that we'll call you tasks, and your job is to do things like creating and recording your content, guesting on podcasts, speaking on stages, coaching your clients, sales calls, which technically could be outsourced, but I think it's worth you doing. Anything like that actually requires your voice or your face. Now, tasks that are worth outsourcing are things like video editing, scheduling and uploading your content, creating thumbnails, customer service, etc. These are all things that are important, but you don't need to actually do them. I don't need to edit my videos. I don't need to upload the video to YouTube or to my podcast or to cut it up into clips and put it out on social media. My VA does all that for me. So even if you start by outsourcing one simple thing like video editing, for example, that is going to save you you so much time throughout your week that you can then put into speaking on more stages, getting into more conversations with people that you can help, coaching clients, doing more sales calls, guesting on podcasts, etc. Because that's the stuff that's actually going to grow your business. Now, as I mentioned before, one of the fastest and easiest things that I did to hit $100,000 in my coaching business without working more hours was raising my prices. Watch this video next and I'll help you double your coaching prices in just 10 minutes or less. If this video was helpful, please give it a like, share it with someone that you you think would benefit from it. And if you have any questions or comments below, please comment. All this stuff does is help grow my channel, and I appreciate you for that. But as always, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen. I'll see you in the next one.