How To Find Your First Coaching Client

Your first paying client is the hardest one to get and it's also the easiest. At the same time, it's hard because no one knows who you are. You don't have a following, you don't have a validator offer, and you don't know what to actually do to get that first paying client. But it's easy because it's only one client. Not 10, not 100, not 1,000. And in order to get to six figures and replace your income and go full time this year, you're going to need at least 20, 20, 30, 40, even maybe 100 clients to hit that benchmark. But getting that first one is easy if you know how, because every single entrepreneur and coach online started out with exactly one paying client. And in this video here, I'm gonna show you on exactly how and where to get your first paying client. Without a list, without a following, you won't need to know any tech, you won't need to speak on camera, you won't even need to post any pieces of content. And this will work regardless of any niche you're in, any industry, in any level of experience you're in. And all of you will be able to do this right now after this video. And I'll even drop real practical, easy to follow, step by step advice on how to implement what I'm about to share with you right now as well in order to get that very first paying client. I really want to paint this picture to you because this is a part where most people are missing and that's why they have an empty calendar and they go for months and months and months and even years and years and years on end without any result and they get discouraged and you feel like you want to give up. And so I want you to imagine if I wanted to launch a brand new steak restaurant or if you wanted to do it and you're going to do this launch and grand opening, who would you invite to the grand opening? Think about, like really think about that for a second there. Now if I was in your shoes, I'd be inviting for sure family and friends, maybe your neighbor, maybe your dog, maybe your mom, maybe your dad, maybe local shops, maybe local businesses. If you know some influencers, you might invite some influencers, maybe the local mayor or some or who, like just people around your sphere that you kind of know and that would be a great grand opening and it'll be busy and there'll be your launch. Now question, who would you not invite? Think about that. Who would you not invite? Would you, if you had a sister. Your sister was a vegan. Would you invite your sister who's a vegan to your steak restaurant launch? Would you do that? Really interesting question. I know some of you might be thinking, yeah, why not? She's my sister. She's my sister. Some of you might be thinking, no, she's a vegan. That would be offensive. And like, I wouldn't do that and a waste of time. Some of you might thinking, yeah, there might be some value in doing that. Here's what I'll do. 100%. I'm going to invite my vegan sister. In fact, I'm just going to invite everyone I know, regardless of whether they're vegan, regardless of what religion they are, regardless of what faith they are, regardless of what political views they have, regardless of whatever it is. Why? Because I want to give them the option of saying no. Because too often we are saying no on other people's behalf and we're making the assumption, oh, my gosh, I'm not even going to ask. Because they may say no or get offended or they may not like it or whatever that story is. And this is why this is important. Because if my sister was a vegan, I said, hey, sister, would you like to. Now, I don't actually have any sisters. I have five brothers. Five brothers. We grew up in a family where there's six boys. It's crazy. Now, if I had a sister that was vegan, and I said, hey, I'm opening up a steak restaurant. I'm launching it. Would you like to come? Here's the reason why I invite her, even though I know she's a vegan. Because if she says no. What, are you kidding? I'm a vegan and she hates me. Fine, that's okay. At least I asked her because I don't want to be the guy that didn't invite her. And she's like, well, I'm offended you didn't invite me. I know I'm a vegan, but at least you could invite me because I'm your sister. That might be offensive to her if I don't invite her. And I'm sure if you were in that situation and you were a vegan and you're one of your best friends or your brother or your sister had a steak launch and they didn't invite you, even though it's logical that they didn't invite you because you're a vegan, but a part of you might feel offended, too. It's like, well, they could have at least asked and given Me the option. So it might even be offensive by you not asking. That's number one. But the second thing is, if she says yes, if she says yes, what's likely going to happen? She's like, she'll say, yeah, I'll come. But, you know, I don't. It's like, I'll say, I don't want you to come. I'm not trying to sell your steak. I just like you to be there to support me. Keyword support. I just want you to be there to support me. And okay, yeah, that's why I'm coming. And she may come and order a salad, or she may just eat some bread, or she may not eat anything and just have a drink. But when she comes, guess what's going to happen? It's a high chance she's going to pull out. She's going to pull out a phone and do a story or a Facebook Live or a post about it, or tag me and say, hey, I'm at my brother steak restaurant. He sells this. He does this. If you love steak, come along. It's awesome. And she may take some pictures of the food or do a video of the food or, you know, just the video of the vibe. And she's going to do a post. Because most people, when they go out to nice restaurants these days, they do a post about it or they do a story about it. And guess what happens when she does me and she tags me? Then she's doing marketing on my behalf. And then she may have some friends. Now, is it possible that she may have some friends that eat steak? I would almost guarantee that's highly likely. And then suddenly, by the way, as you're watching this, if you're a vegan activist, then you don't need to watch any more because this video is clearly, I'm using a terrible example, but I hope you realize that this is an example of what I'm about to get into to get your very first paying client right now. And so then she'll do a post, she'll do a story, and suddenly her friends will know about me. Or when her friends come to town, I saw you do that thing about your brother. It's like, well, where is it I like to go? And you see, it's like, you should go support him. He's my brother, he's my friend, he's my son. He's whatever it is. And now suddenly, five people, 10 people, 100 people, a thousand people see that you just launched a steak restaurant. And that was from you in inviting Your sister, who's a vegan, who you did not try to sell to, but came and did a story about it, or maybe said no because you allowed them to say no on their behalf. Is this all making sense? If this makes sense, type in the comment below. This is clear and makes sense because this is important, because we're going to lean into the second thing when your sister comes, she may love the vibe. And maybe three years down the track, she says, you know what? I'm done with this vegan thing. I'm not a vegan anymore. I want to eat steak. And next minute she becomes your ideal client. Next minute she starts eating steak. And I say that from place of congruency because about eight years ago, I was a vegan for a whole year and I did it for health benefits. And I didn't find any health benefits personally for me. I gave it a really good go for a whole year and I wasn't getting more energy. I was actually losing a lot of weight. It was hard for me to maintain my weight. It was very difficult for me to do, but I did it and I didn't see the benefits of it. And so after that, I decided to become pescatarian, which means that I'm only eating vegetables and fish, but no dairy, right? And so. And then I was pescatarian for six months and I didn't find any benefits to doing that. And then I just went to a normal balanced diet, and now I'm eating a range of meats and other stuff. And so I did it for a whole year and a half. And then I went back to my normal, regular diet, which was a bit of everything. So I was that vegan for a year and a half that didn't eat meat. And then I turned into a person that started eating meat again. And so my sister could be the same. She'd be like, I'm a vegan now. But maybe six months time she decides, you know, I'm going to eat steak. I'm going to be more friends now because I've changed my diet because it really wasn't working out for me or my circumstances changed and things didn't work out anymore. New research came out and they realized that this is actually good for you. You should try some of this. And whatever the case may be. So she may not be the client now, but she may be the client in the future. Not that I'm trying to sell to her, but what I'm trying to say is that later on she may find value in what I'm offering. And that only started because I didn't say no on her behalf and I gave her the invitation for her to say no. And if she said no, great, that's fine, I'm cool with that. But she said yes. And most often than not, this is what I found. More people will say yes to supporting you than you think they will. So most of the time, when you think I can't ask my dad to help me out, I can't ask my month to support me, they think I've drunk in the Kool Aid, they think I've joined the cult. They don't believe in this personal development stuff, they don't believe I should get in business. But the moment you ask for support, I'm doing this launch and they say, would you like to come to launch and support me? You'll be surprised at how many people say yes. So that's the first thing. And so what am I getting at here is when you are starting out, you need to let everybody know around you what you're doing and ask them for support and allow them to say no. But you do not say no on their behalf. And so most of us, we will not invite the vegan sister, we will not invite the friend that we haven't spoken to for the last three years. We will not invite the person that is on a diet. We will not. Because they're not my ideal client. But you are not trying to sell to them. You are literally just asking them to support you. So how does this translate to an online coaching business? If you want to get your first client, your very first one, and you're launching your business, this is what I did when I started and this is what's working for thousands of our students. If you go online right now, you will see that I have over 1000 testimonials. You can find it on my website, you can find it on this channel here. You can scroll and there's any endless amounts of scrolling of testimonials after testimonial after testimonials. And how do we help the absolute beginner get their first client? It's what I'm sharing with you right now. We get them to message and contact just everyone they know. And this is what I did. I messaged and contact everybody they know, mom, dad, brother, sister, and tell them that you're launching a steak restaurant, a coaching business or whatever it is, and you're gonna start to see me do some marketing and go online and do some few things differently in public. And I will just ask for Your support. That's the same version of you asking to come to your big launch and you're not telling them, I'm gonna try to sell you anything. You're asking for support. So when I started out, I messaged my entire contact list. And this was nine years ago. And so it was like when your Facebook friends were real friends. And, and you know, I had people on my. I had. There was no DM games back then. I had actual phone numbers, right? And I messaged my entire list and I didn't have that many phone numbers. I probably had maybe 200 phone numbers. People in optometry, my optometry friends, my cousins, my work colleagues, my boss. Like everyone had said, hey, Mark. Hey, Susan. Hey Mary. Hey, Angela. And just wanted to let you know that I've decided to become a coach, a life coach. Help people just get clear and confident on their life. And I've just launched and you're going to start to see me do some posts online about it very soon. And I'm reaching out to you because it would mean a lot to me if I could just have your support with this new chapter that I'm going into. And that's it. Hit send. I'm not trying to sell to them. I'm not saying, hey, can you give me a referral? I'm not saying, do you know anyone that needs clients or anything like that. That's all I did. I stated, hey, Mary. Hey John. I'm launching a life coaching business to help people get clear and confident on their life, live a life of meaning, of purpose. I stated, the things that I solve, the desires that I help people attain. And I said, you're going to start to see more things online from me over the next coming weeks or very soon or something like that. Like you do your version of it. Right? I'm going to put a script in the comment section below of some suggested words you could use. And you just make it your own words, you know what I mean? I don't want you to sound robotic. I want to make it sound like it comes from you. And I said, and I asked him, would you. I would love would mean a lot to me to have your support. And sometimes the support could be like just you cheering me on or maybe you liking my post or maybe you sharing a few things or whatever. Just your support. Now the amount of people that I thought would say, you're weird, you shouldn't leave optometry. What are you doing? You're crazy. I'm worried about you. That was almost zero. The people I thought that would say something like that actually said, of course I'd love you, to support you. I'm so proud. Proud of you. I'm so grateful for your decision. You're inspiring so many people. It was like, that response, it was crazy. Now, some people never responded, which is like. And I thought they would and they didn't. And that's okay, too. At least I know. And there were some people who said, oh, no, thanks, I don't need life coaching. And I'm like, I wasn't trying to sell you. I actually wasn't trying to sell. I just asked for support and said, no, thanks, I don't need life coaching. And that was the start of it. But here's the crazy thing. Here's the crazy thing. Before I even did any post about it online, three people that I sent the message to, two were my cousins. They said, oh, life coaching. So you're like, doing this and this and this. And I was like, yeah, like, finding people purpose and confidence and just helping out with their personal life. Oh, wow. I think I might need that, actually. So can you tell me more about what you do and how you do it? And I'm like, oh, wow, three people. Two were my cousins that reached out and said, I think I might need your help because of the message I sent. I wasn't trying to sell to them. One of my cousins, I never thought she needed any help. I thought she was fine. I thought she had a life in order. And I said, richmond, I'm having a lot of problems right now, actually, a lot of problems with my mom, which is my auntie. I'm like, wow. And then so I started coaching both of them, and one of them ended up, like, I started coaching them for free first, like, just, you know, getting the reps up. And then he became a paying client. And then this other person that reached out was a colleague. He said, I think I might need life coaching. And then he became my second paying client. And so from me just sending out messages to the people that I already know, whether I know them really well or whether I just met them once at an event, but the fact that I had their phone number on my phone, or we chatted via WhatsApp already, or we chatted or we chatted some communication in the past, I got. I had the details. I just sent them that message I sent to everyone. And a lot of people started supporting me. A lot of people didn't respond. And some people thought I was trying to sell to them, but I wasn't and they said, hey, actually I don't need life coaching. I said I'm not trying to sell you. And then a proportion of them said actually I need that. But here's the other cool thing. A lot of them said, actually I think my friend needs that. Can I send your details to my friend? Then I got more referrals that way. And in fact this is how I didn't get my first paying client, but it's how I got my first 10. And then when I started posting online about what I was doing, here's the crazy thing, my sister in law was one of the people that I messaged and she said of course I'll support you. And she was one of the first people that would like all my posts, share my post, tag her friends in my post that thought may need some life coaching. And then that's how I grew my business. One client to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next with very limited posting. And here's the crazy thing, that first client came and I didn't need to know any tech because all I needed to do was message that script. I didn't need to be on camera because being on camera petrified me. Going live and speaking to an audience was my number one fear. I didn't need to create some crazy funnel because I just texted people for support and they said actually I might need that help. I didn't need to worry about having perfect content. I didn't need to have any following at all. I didn't need all of that. From this principle here of really understanding that it's not my job to say no on people's behalf, it's their job to say no. I just have to send the invitation out and ask for support of the people that already know me. Now if you're a coach, this will work for you. If you're an E comm, this will work for you. If you're in whatever niche possible, this will work for you. Whatever you're doing to get that first client, you must always immediately just let your family and friends and acquaintances and colleagues and people maybe you met once know exactly what you're doing. Ask for support. There is no harm in doing that. The only thing that would stop you from doing that is your preconceived judgment of what they may say. And I really believe that that is borderline egotistical because who are we to say no on their behalf? Who are we to make that judgment? And you could offend people by not inviting them or not asking to support you. Because they'd be like, hey, I know we only met once, but I thought we kicked it off. How come you didn't ask me? I want to support you. In fact, they may even say, I wish you told me because I need that. I wish you told me because my wife. I wish you told me because my son's going through that or my daughter's going through that. And so the opposite will more likely happen. Do not rob the people of doing that. If this has been useful and valuable, just type invaluable below, because in the comment section here, I'm going to drop the script, suggest the script for you to use to do that right now. And even if you don't do it to your entire list, but if you just did it to 50 or 20 or just that first 10, I would love for you to even just do that first 10. And what's going to happen is you are going to realize that a lot of the judgments or assumptions that you had that might happen won't happen. And then you'll be off to the races. So sound fair? Sound fair. Now, you might be asking Richmond. They said, oh, my gosh. I got a referral for you. Oh, my gosh. I had. Oh, my gosh. I think I have that problem. Can you help me now? You're like, oh, my gosh, I've got a hot lead. You've got potentially my first client. What do I do now? What do I do? I don't even have an offer. Put that together. Oh, my gosh, what do I do now? Oh, my gosh. And you're panicking, you're freaking out. You imposter comes in. Overwhelm comes in, oh, my gosh, can I actually do this? Am I good enough? What if I don't deliver all these questions come in because it's working and you only sent off 10 messages and you're like, oh, my gosh. If that's the case, my strong suggestion to you is offer them a tiny challenge. What is a tiny challenge? I'm not going to go through that in this video, but it's the reason why I've been Interviewed by over 30 podcasts all about this one principle called a tiny challenge. It's the reason why Russell Brunson forwarded my book. It's the reason why I got to speak at Funnel Hacking Live. It's the reason why Pedro Odeo has said this is the next biggest thing. It's the reason why Myron golden believes it's the most genius thing he's ever heard. It's the reason why the biggest names in history are edifying this tiny challenge. If you want to know more about what it is, but more importantly how to do one to convert that first prospect that you got from what I just shared with you into cash in your bank, I've got a training video on my channel called what is a Tiny Challenge. It goes through what it is, how to do it, watch the trainings. There's various trainings on that and we go deep about it and also have a book about it. The book is free by the way. Just got to cover shipping. But if you want to learn on this channel right now and what it is and get a sense of what it is and how it works for you, you can search it right now. It should be in the links or in this video page here. For now though, this principle here highly encourage you to pull out your phone, go to 10 people, start there and start messaging right away. And once you get the feedback, you're going to become addicted. Do another 10, another 10, another 10, another ten and before you know it, this could easily be your very first, first client, but Also your first 10k, 20k, 30k, 50k, ladies and gentlemen. Trust. This was useful. Keep believing, never settle.