(Click the timestamps below to play individual conversations.)
0:56 Camille
Camille has received multiple invitations to organize large events, but she is feeling unsure about whether she should pursue all of them.
We talked about how she is telling herself two contradictory thoughts at the same time:
- The events would be great for building relationships, but she wonders if doing all of them means she is not focused enough on the right opportunities.
- But if she doesn’t do all of them, she has a fear of missing out on the results those opportunities could have brought.
She also has these two contradictory thoughts:
- She’s worried that participating in all of them will violate her core value of spending time with her family.
- But, she also thinks she might be ok with giving up on some of that family time.
She agreed that these contradictory thoughts are not serving her well. She is cornering herself by thinking she can and should do everything, while also thinking that she can’t or shouldn’t. Sometimes saying no to opportunities can be a way to feel even better about the ones you do say yes to.
20:51 Catie
Catie is putting on a free 4 week course on mothering, which includes small group video calls. Her goal was for 12 people to sign up, and already 62 have signed up! She was wondering if she should split the groups to maintain the small group atmosphere that she promised.
I shared with her my experience that no matter how committed people sound, show-up rate is always lower than the RSVP rate. I recommended that she do the initial call, see how many people show up, and then decide from there if it makes sense to split up into smaller groups.
Catie also acknowledged her discomfort with making her offer to coach–should she do it along the way, or wait until the end? I encouraged her to face that fear early on by making the pitch at the beginning! Here’s a little script for anyone who wants to use it:
“I’m so excited to spend these few weeks with you. I’m hoping that (X number) of you will want to continue the relationship in a 1 on 1 setting. Here’s what that looks like. We’ll work together for (X) months, and for that you’ll pay ($X). Experience tells me that some of you will want to move on in that relationship with me, and some of you won’t, and I’m thrilled with both.”
Catie was super excited about the idea of making the offer upfront, and how it would allow her to present the content of the call with greater enjoyment and confidence.
34:44 Deb
Deb said that something I shared with her a while back made a big difference in her business–I’m honored! She had a thriving individual coaching business and was feeling worried that she should be taking steps to evolve the business in some way. When I told her, “there’s nothing wrong with having a beautiful individual coaching practice!” she said she gave herself permission to commit to that, and since then her business has only continued to thrive.
She has more supply than demand, and she is wondering if she could take things to the next level. She wondered about whether a lower-priced group model could be beneficial, and we discussed how the price point of $500-$1500 is often a no-man’s land. It feels like a high price to a customer, but it isn’t a great payoff for the coach.
We talked about how typically the next best step in her case would be to maintain the same price point, but as a group coaching format rather than individual–but only if she wants to!
59:47 Adrianne
Adrianne also has the (great) problem of a business growing quickly–but she is way too busy!
- We talked about adding an employee to her business, and how it’s better to have slack built into the system. Don’t hire capacity that exactly equals your current demand, or you will be the one filling in the gaps when issues arise.
- For her, it may make sense to borrow a growth cushion fund, so that she can pay to train a new employee for a few months before the demand catches up (but it means that employee is ready to roll when it does).
- She worried about how to transfer knowledge to another employee, and I recommended that she start slow and simple with documentation–throughout the day, after you do a task, just write a quick description of it before moving to the next one, and over time, you will build up a good repository.
- We talked about hourly vs. salary compensation, and what makes sense for her business.
Overall I emphasized that she should share her frazzled feelings with her team in a way that doesn’t frame it as a negative problem they need to solve. Rather, it’s an opportunity to positively celebrate the success of the business and to work together on how to take it to the next level.
1:24:49 Heidi
Heidi is working daily at coaching and pursuing her goals, but she does not have a paying client. She is struggling with the story she is telling herself about that.
We often measure our success by the checklists that other people hand us, rather than defining our own version of success and our own path to it. Trust what feels right to you!
Even when you are not actively pursuing your own clients, we talked about how it is valuable to maintain relationships by creating and sharing a small amount of content each week.
1:42:56 Sara
Sara targets doctor’s wives, and we had previously discussed whether it makes sense to coach “the doctor”. We talked about how sometimes the best prospect is the one that is in front of us. If the perfect customer is here, great, let’s serve them, but if someone else is easier to access and is ready to be coached, serve them!
We talked about facebook ad ideas, and (credit to Rita Barry, who runs the marketing for Brooke Castillo) how one way to test receptivity is to create 20 videos of about 3-5 minutes each where you are teaching something.
Dip your toe in the water and see if this other target is interested. If it fails, no problem! It was just a small test. But if it succeeds, you have just opened up a whole new market for yourself.
1:48:22 Becca
Becca was feeling discouraged since she didn’t not have as many signups for her “lunch n learn” event as she had hoped.
I shared with her that I noticed she was exuding much more confidence online, and it showed in her writing and how she was acting. She said others had noticed it too.
I assured her that her confidence is going to move the needle, regardless of whether today’s numbers were low. She now has 100 followers on Instagram, which is awesome!