Ask The Experts: How Did You Sign Your First Paying Client?-Ep:110

Hey welcome to she coaches, coaches, I'm your host, Candy Motzek. And I'm going to help you find the clarity, confidence and courage to become the coach that you are meant to be. If you're a new coach, or if you've always wanted to be a life coach, then this is the place for you. We're going to talk all about mindset and strategies and how to, because step by step only works when you have the clarity, courage and confidence to take action. Let's get started.

Hi, and welcome to this episode of she coaches coaches, I am so glad you're here. Now, whenever I asked a new coach, what's your biggest challenge? What is the thing that you just if you had the answer to this, you would just be able to move forward and do everything that you were hoping of doing? And reach all your goals? And this is always the same? How do I create clients? How do I find and sign clients? How do I become a fully booked coach? So what I've done is I've gathered together a group of experts. Each of them has a lifetime of business experience. And I asked them this question, tell me a story. Tell me how you signed your first paying clients, I know that you're going to hear something in here that is going to get you inspired, and get you out taking inspired action. I had a great conversation with these individuals, they are so interesting. They all bring a different perspective and a different set of experiences. Now you're going to want to listen carefully, and you're going to learn something new. I hope you enjoy it. Jeff, tell me the story about your first client. And the reason that I asked this is because new coaches, they're always this is like nine out of 10 times this is the question they want me to tell them? How do I get my first client? You know, how do I find my first paying client? And so the more that they can hear from a variety of people, the more it's going to help them. So tell me your story. You

know, it's funny, because if I if I think of the first because of my because I don't consider myself a coach, I don't call myself a coach, I a lot of what I do is coaching style. But I you know, I'm a mentor and a teacher. And I teach a lot of coaches, which is one of the reasons I don't call myself a coach. But the first thing that happened for me was I was doing these talks as part of my advertising business at the time. And somebody called me up and said, Hey, Jeff, will you come to a workshop with us based on your talk? I was like, Okay, I hadn't thought about it, there was an opportunity to have a new, a new source of revenue. And that was really, if you have my first training opportunity. And those four or five people were those four people were my first training clients. And I was teaching them the elevator pitch at a different level than I'd been doing it just as just in front of the room. And so I didn't instigate that, uh, well. I instigated it by being competent at what I was doing, and and impressing them with how I could help, right? So first of all, show your expertise that the best way to get somebody who wants to want to work with you, is show your expertise, so that you'll resonate with them. And the truth is, so much of what I do is about showing your expertise from the front of the room as a speaker. And when you speak, you're doing that you're showing your expertise, so that the people in the audience who are going to resonate with you will do that. And then they'll want more of you. So the best way to get your first client is the person who says, How can I get more of you? How do I work with you? And when that started happening? I had people coming up to me and saying, Jeff, I don't have any idea what it looks like, but how do I work with you?

So Shavon Could you tell me the story. How did you sign your first paying client?

My first thing client was my homie from college.

Perfect.

Yes. So she's not she's not a veteran, but she is a business owner. And really what I've noticed for me, I need someone to just be like, I believe in you and that validation that I needed At the time, was money saying like, I believe in you, because people connected with my mission, but I had no idea what I was selling. So it was very difficult for me to get that first quiet. And so I found that I'm most comfortable with people I already know. And that I have this other friend who has a great business. And she took a chance on working with me to increase her, her sales in her business. And so that was my first client, and it didn't ruin our friendship, because it helped me navigate. It helped me navigate, like, how am I going to show up and still maintain this friendship if the coaching results didn't work out? So it ended up being a great boost of confidence for me?

Hmm, that's wonderful. And you know, and like what you're saying just, many of the new coaches that come into my world this is their big question is like, how do I get my first paying clients? Right? Just like nine out of 10 of them? That's the question. And what you spoke to is this, you know, the sort of standard business concept of we start with our warm network, we start with the people that we know. Now in your case, it was somebody who you were connected with. But oftentimes, the warm network is really asking a friend, who do you know, that might be a good fit for me, it may not be that immediate, close circle, it may be asking that close circle to support you in referring you to others. And so it's a totally in line with what I see so often with new business owners. So thank you for sharing that.

Question number three, Lorraine, tell me the story of how you signed your first paying client. Now, I don't care if this is in this business pivot, or from when you started originally, I'd love to hear your story.

I'd like to talk about since pivoting, because that was a big step for me to really get out of my comfort zone and say, I'm going to try this introvert mentoring thing. And I actually just finished my big first big launch just this past March, April. And it was intense. It was an intense launch, totally stretching my comfort zone, doing getting myself out there just to get as many eyeballs on what it is I'm doing. So when my first client signed up, I was so excited, you know, during that sales call, using all my tools to step into that heart centered space and come from a place of service and not selling. That was it. It was so it wasn't even a sales conversation. It was it was just a conversation. And I was able to address any any objections that they had. And it was just a natural fit. And to hear the words, this is exactly what I need. Sign me up. I almost squealed like a little girl and jumped up and down. You know, and not just because there's going to be money rolling in, but because there's someone who believes in what I do, and there's someone who needs what I have to share. And I get emotional thinking about it now because that's that's a big headache. Yes. From the universe to say you are on the right path. So it's pretty powerful.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, so there's this element of trust, you listened, you trusted, you took action, even when it was out of your comfort zone, even when it was a stretch. And then the person showed up and said yes. And I love that. Selling as service. You know, I never want to work with somebody. I never want to sell somebody on being one of my clients. Unless they're like, Yeah, this is exactly what I want. You know, this is this is my pass. Right? So I love that selling as service. So congratulations. That's so amazing.

Thank you. It's exciting every time. It's exciting and exact. It's all about appreciation.

Sally, question number three. So tell me

the story about how you actually signed your first paying client. And now you've just shared a whole bunch of other places that you were a coach before you actually called yourself a coach. So I don't know at which point in your journey you want to talk about but you know, the choice is yours. You know,

when I showed up as an actual coach, I Okay, and I decided that I could do this thing, and that I would help people. And please don't laugh, but I charged $35 A session, because I didn't believe in myself, right. And I coached, I met this person when I first moved to Nashville, through a friend of a friend who said that, you know, he was having trouble in his marriage or, or with some sort of relationship, I don't know which. And he wanted to speak to me. And since now I understand, I don't do relationship coaching, although that's what a lot of people want to do, then, see, not all things for all people. And so I worked with him over a series of maybe 10 sessions, and things worked out for him. And then then I went, Oh, maybe you can do the thing. This was back like 2011. Maybe the end of 2010. Somewhere, it was a while.

So interesting, right? Hmm. So there's that theme, you know, just not quite believing in yourself until you until you're dead? Right? Yeah, that happens to so many of us. And not just in coaching. You know, like, that's just, I think that's an overriding theme for many people in their lives. But for coaches, I think one of the reasons that it's so challenging for them, is they really want this, you know, like they really feel led to be a coach that really matters to them, and wanting to make this positive impact, and to help people really, really matters to them. And, you know, so you put that much attention on something, and it's so much easier to have that place of self doubt fall into you. Right?

Well, what's interesting is that when I finally established that I was, I worked with healing people, I ended up having, you know, like, the, the doctor in charge of the VA, as a client, I ended up having I had probably five clients that are actual physical, you know, medical doctors, I had, I had a lot of therapists, psychiatrists, and therapists, as clients. So I was like the healers, healer, I had ministers, I had actual Lutheran and Methodist ministers, as clients. And an every time these people would, it was all through word of mouth. And every single time these people would contact me, I'd be like, Wow.

Question number three that I have for you, Jeanette has told me a story. Tell me a story about how you signed your first paying client. And I asked this because nine out of 10 of my clients when they first come to me, that is the first question, tell me how do I get clients? Right? So I'd love to hear what your experience was?

Well, to be honest, I have to answer who my first client really was. It's somewhat instructional and related to this, but not necessarily to the work I do now. But I will tie in the point behind it. So my first client, I was working in a corporation and a friend of mine, and his partner wanted to start this was many, many, many years ago, like almost 40 wanted to start a business, a very particular kind of business, and they asked if I could help them. And I said, Sure. I had no idea. I never done it. I didn't know how to do it. But the particular business they wanted to start was a phone sex company. This was way long time ago when they didn't exist, et cetera. And and so I, I said, Yes, I will help you figure this out. And I helped them with market research. And I actually my very first training job was teaching vocabulary to phone sex operators. So I was in the back of the room, going through pages of vocabulary going seriously, this is what that means. I did not know that. And then literally walk up to the front of the room be professional when I had never done this, who a roomful of people and train them on vocabulary, how to use it and feel comfortable, you know, I had to make them feel comfortable because it was an awkward situation. So the lessons that I learned from that, and that I still apply to getting clients today is to be willing, first of all, willing and open to figure it out that that to rely on your core competence. I knew more than anything that I knew how to figure things out. And that I would be able to figure it out and add value. So that's a core competence thing, not an experience thing because I didn't have experience at that point. I now can rely on my experience, but I couldn't then so if you're starting out, rely on your competence, your core comp Don't send your ability to figure things out. Don't necessarily, you know, go do things half cocked and willy nilly, but, but do trust in your ability and your knowing more than in, I've done it 20 times, therefore I can't. And the third thing is, a lot of it is about really being over there in what they need, rather than over here. So during the training, it was about making them feel comfortable, even though, to swallow my face and run out of the room, right. But as long as I was worried about my nerves, then I couldn't show up for them. So if you want to get a client show up and be curious about them, what do they need? What's going on in their world? How can you serve and support them, it takes the focus off of ourselves away from our approval issues, and all of that kind of stuff, gets us curious, gets us engaged, and allows us to show up and serve. So that was my first paying client, it was very different and interesting kind of work than what I did later. But the lessons that I learned there still apply for every time we get a client now.

How did you sign your very first paying client?

It was through social media. So I don't know how many years ago, I did a challenge, I did a really super challenge in a Facebook group. And it was all about, excuse me, it was all about like, sustainability, just different facets of sustainability. And I just did this free challenge. And at the end of the challenge offered people to be part of a membership or get some sort of one on one help for me. And that was kind of my funnel, it was just, I'm presenting you with this free information. But not all of the information I have in my brain, I'm presenting you with some of it over five days. And then if you want more, come on over here, and I could give you more information. You know, things have changed with time. I'm not I don't do a lot of challenges anymore, per se. But that was like the first way that I was able to like capture people's attention. It was simple. They didn't have to. They yes, they got emails about it. But they could just watch it on Facebook, when they wanted to watch it, they could listen to it. And if it didn't speak to them to move on, then they just had this great information that I knew could still change their life in some form, depending where they are on their green journey, you know, the light green? Or are they like more towards the dark green?

Yeah, so social media, but social media used in a way where you're contributing, giving value giving information that people can use? I like that you did it. I think you said simple. You know, they could watch those videos any time. They could move forward, they could take a couple of small actions, or they could do a deep dive. And there's something about this, like allowing people to make their choice, what are they ready for in their life right now. And knowing that every step makes a difference. So so interesting, and very, like I'm thinking, you know, my audiences, coaches, new coaches, mostly people that have been successful in their career. And now they're going to do something different in their life. It's their turn to create their business. There's something very organic about it, you did something you're interested in, you just did it in a simple way. Not super fancy. And then you offered people a way to help them it's perfect.

Jen, tell me the story. How did you sign your first paying client? And I'll just preface this question with, you know, so many of my clients, the first thing that they asked me is how do I get paying clients as a coach. And so I just love to hear a variety of ways that coaches and professionals have gotten their first paying client. So tell me your story.

Yeah,

I was.

It's kind of funny. I've only shared this piece with maybe a couple of other people. But I think that this is this is a really valuable lesson. My first paying client was not one that was paying for a program, or one on one coaching. It came very unexpected. So I'm much many moons ago in my career, I was a corporate trainer at one point in time. And one of the things that I inadvertently accidentally ended up doing was helping people just gain the confidence in the skills that they had and the skills that they were growing into. I accidentally ended up with some trainer trainees that ended up leaving the organization we were with because they got better roles elsewhere. Which yay for them. Yay. Oh, no. But I was like, I don't think I was supposed to do that as your trainer. Um, but so as I launched my coaching business, I got a kind of a surprise booking for discovery call one one day, and it was an old trainee, who Sure enough, she was one that had left the organization and had moved on to actually something much bigger and better for her. And she's like, Oh, you're a coach. Now this I need you. And so we had an amazing discovery session. And and I said, and it was online, and I said, you know, what was said, we both are in town, we just need to meet up in person. And, and I think, you know, even if you, you could decide if you feel more comfortable just doing coaching online or in person, but let's grab some coffee. And so long story short, she ended up she asked me to send her my programs, etc. And I sent them her way. And then she, she asked me if I accepted payments via I don't remember which app like Zell or something like that. I was like, yes, they do. And I thought she was just asking, so that, you know, as we had discussed, my one on one coaching is what she was looking at that that's what she was looking for payment options. And next thing, you know, I have this, this large payment that I get a notification for. And I thought, No, it wasn't the amount of the full program. But I thought, well, maybe she wants to do a payment plan. And that's perfectly fine. And then I got a message from her. And she said, I just need to pay you I've received so much value from you, not just previous but just on the Discovery call. You are worth this. So please accept that. And I can't wait to meet for coffee. And that was my first exchange of money. And the reason I say that so valuable because as we know money is energy. Right? Yeah. So did she buy a full package program that day? No. But did she give me energy back that we had now just exchanged that kicked it all off? Yeah.

That is the best story. That's awesome. I love it.

This is story time. Tell me the story of how you signed your first paying client?

Yeah, oh, this is a fun one. So I started my business as a blogger. Um, I went out and said, I am doing really amazing things with my kids. And I want to blog about it. So I was gonna go and start a blog. I knew bloggers make tons of money. And that was going to be me. So I started this, I went out there into the world, I did find a couple people who were in a network together, they would share each other's blog posts. And I was in the kid blogger niche. So I did crafts with my kids. I really loved it. I liked being able to showcase this. But I found at that point that this really wasn't my thing. Like I'm not a content writer, I it takes me hours to put together like 100 words. It's terrible. And so I started to kind of talk with some other bloggers. And they were like, well, we never know how to put content out there consistently. And we don't have a plan for marketing. And we haven't done emails before. And all of these planning things that came together and the consistency in their business. And I said, Well, I do that really well. So my first paying client was actually somebody who was in the same kid blogger network. And I said, Why don't I put together your marketing plan for your social media? And why don't I make sure your content is out there consistently. And so I started that way, I started just helping one of my friends. And then it became a paying client gig. And it was a ton of fun to just kind of work in the niche a little bit differently.

Oh, that's cool. So you were like the lock to their key, basically. Yeah, right. Absolutely. They had the content and the content. I mean, as amazing it is it as it is to create content doesn't do you any good. If it's not helping somebody if it's not, you know, being dispersed if it's not available to be consumed. That's cool.

I like that. Diana,

I have a question. Tell me the story of how you signed your very first

paying client. Um, okay, I'm not sure if it was my first paying coaching client, but the one that stands out and you know, some of your listeners are gonna have a good giggle over this. I went and spoke at a small I'll call it a workshop for financial advisors and hire, I was hired by one of the financial advisors. At that time, all I had was private coaching $300 Drumroll please. Just a month for private. Right? So, um, yeah, things have changed a little bit since, you know, 2014, or whatever that was. But I think the thing to remember is that we all start at zero. We all start at zero. We're in something called a business, and we've got to go out there and get clients. And so we've got to go out there and get clients. Maybe things aren't perfect. Maybe we don't know how to charge exactly, but we start. And that's how it's done.