Category: Processes

Posted on by

E#255 How to Play Big (Stop Playing Small)

Listen Now

How to Play Big (Stop Playing Small)

Are you committed – but terrified – to taking your business to the next level? Have you been playing small and feel ready to step up and into what you were meant to be doing? This episode provides some proven methods to help you stop playing small and start playing big – so you can step into your greatness and live a more authentic and purposeful life.

What Playing Small Means

You’ve probably heard people talking about playing small. But what does it actually mean?

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* What Playing Small Means
* Why We Play Small
* How to Play Big

The Cambridge Dictionary says to ‘play small’ means to avoid risks and actions that might cause problems or make you feel uncomfortable, with the result that you might not achieve what you want to achieve.

It means your actions are motivated by fears, insecurities and low self-worth.

It means you’re not honouring your passion – instead, you’re settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living.

Now if that definition doesn’t punch you in the face, I don’t know what will!

To me, playing small is a bit like that old analogy of someone ‘being a wallflower’ – standing back, not knowing what to say, blending in and being invisible.

The signs that you’re playing small might include that you:

  • let fear defeat you
  • you wait to be asked rather than taking the initiative
  • you rely on others’ opinions or directives
  • you are crushed by criticism
  • you struggle to say no
  • you may be envious or resentful of others’ success
  • you match other people’s ideas rather than speaking your own – to avoid standing out
  • your life is full of clutter and meaningless stuff (keeping busy to avoid pursuing your dreams)

Playing small really takes away from our ability to live a full life – and it’s incredibly inauthentic. If you’re too afraid of being judged, of failing or not being good enough, then you will likely shelve your authentic self, needs and ideas to avoid the associated pain.

Why We Play Small

Why do we end up playing small?

Maybe it’s because our reptilian brain is constantly trying to keep us safe – to seek pleasure and avoid pain. After all, it’s much easier to sit on the couch watching Netflix than it is facing a difficult conversation.

Maybe we’ve been through traumatic experiences that have dysregulated our nervous systems – and we’ve become risk-averse. For example, some people have been through significant experiences that have led them to be fearful of exposure to harm at the hands of others. Burnout could be one example, or some sort of abuse or assault.

Maybe we’ve been conditioned to believe we aren’t good enough, or that we don’t have enough – and we have adopted those beliefs to make it our own narrative. For example, a lot of people fear not having enough money, of being alone, of being judged or criticised, or of failing, and those sorts of thinking patterns keep them stuck in their boring, unhelpful or toxic situations.

Maybe we’ve developed a habit of outsourcing our sense of worth, validation and needs to other people. For example, some people constantly ask others for advice or opinions of what to do, or to get help with something, not trusting their own ideas or solutions. Some have been in controlling relationships and believe that the other person knows better and has all the answers.

As you can see, there are these physiological and psychological drivers that work together to work against you.

The great thing is – a huge part of turning things around is in your hands. It’s about developing the skills to challenge and overcome your narrative – the underlying beliefs and assumptions you have created for yourself – and to start becoming an independent thinker.

An independent thinker is someone who can use “critical thinking” to evaluate situations and points of view, with curiosity and then, to change their beliefs or standpoints. Critical thinking is not about criticism – it’s about being open-minded to new ideas but ultimately deciding for yourself or solving problems on your terms, based on your own judgement and perceptions.

When you can unwind the thinking habits that lead to this impulsive, reactive and fear-driven way of living, you can start to play big and start living the life you were born to lead.

How to Play Big

It’s clear that playing small can feel safe but is deeply unsatisfying.

Playing big is the opposite of playing small. It means that your actions are motivated by the things that bring you true fulfilment and satisfaction.

So how can you learn to play big?

Firstly, you can become an independent thinker. This involves:

  • Reading and travelling to see a bigger picture and more expansive point of view.
  • Talking to different people with different opinions and asking why people think that way, so you can hear their reasons and understand their perspective.
  • Trying new activities or hobbies to discover new skills and abilities that you can apply to problem-solving and decision-making. For example – playing chess might help you think more strategically!
  • Developing a practice of self-reflection, so you become more self-aware and more in tune with who you truly are and what you want.
  • Ask for feedback from people you work with or who are in your friendship group. Get an honest, non-emotional account of what people really think.

When you do these sorts of things, you get to know yourself better, see life from a bigger and broader perspective, and gain skills to help you move forward on your own.

When you do this, you become more open minded, confident, competent at solving problems, develop impartiality and leadership skills, and learn to be more aware of your own thoughts and emotions so you can stay above them. You can also enjoy better relationships!

Secondly, you can notice and re-wire any unhelpful ‘playing small’ habits and replace them with healthier options.

If you think about it, a lot of people who are in the playing small mindset are operating and responding automatically.

It takes what I call ‘conscious conscientiousness’ to break these automatic patterns and start living a bigger life – that is, being aware of what you’re doing and consistently working on changing those patterns.

I’ve done a lot of this work in my own life, and developed my own model of Factualising (instead of Catastrophising) as per a podcast I did a couple of years ago.

Here are some examples I’ve used:

Thoughts

  • Instead of ‘they’re better than me,’ I caught myself thinking that and changed it to ‘I have unique abilities’
  • Instead of ‘I can’t do that,’ I caught myself thinking that and changed it to ‘I will give it 100%’
  • Instead of ‘what if I fail?’ – I make myself answer that question to see the actual consequences. What would happen if I did fail? Often, the outcomes I come up with are never as bad as it felt at first.
  • Instead of ‘I don’t know enough,’ I asked myself what enough actually looks like, what I want it to be, and if required, what I could do to improve my knowledge.

Actions

  • Instead of not starting a business, I decided to pursue a passion and give it 100% commitment and effort in terms of quality work.
  • Instead of trying to do it all on my own, I chose trusted partners to work with me or to outsource parts of my work to.
  • Instead of sitting in fear, I made plans to move forward and then reality-checked those plans based on research and help from others.
  • Instead of half-committing, I went all in with a focus on being my best and bringing my best. That involved extensive reading from multiple sources, observing others, evaluating what works and what doesn’t, and planning and executing toward well-thought goals.

The interesting thing is that it’s not actually about success as an end goal. Whether you win or lose, flourish or fail, what happens is that you learn to respect yourself, trust yourself, and embrace the processes along your journey. This is where fulfilment actually lies – not in the outcome!

In other words, playing big is a process. If you learn to embrace and love the process, you will get the reward of satisfaction, and integrity and you will live a more authentic life.

Summary

A lot of people play small in life because it keeps them safe – but the downside is a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction.

Playing small comes about from the interplay of physiological and psychological factors – things you have experienced, and things that you tell yourself.

To break out of playing small and start playing big, you need to do a lot of work on your mindset and to rewire your old, unhelpful habits.

When you start challenging and rewiring your thoughts and taking actions from a more conscious and conscientious point of view, you will live a more fulfilling life that is more authentic and meaningful.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#254 The Insecurity Project and Being an Exceptional Coach with Jaemin Frazer

Listen Now

The Insecurity Project and Being an Exceptional Coach with Jaemin Frazer

Today I interviewed writer, speaker and coach Jaemin Frazer on his work on The Insecurity Project, what it takes to be an exceptional coach, and how insecurity is a problem that can be solved.  Jaemin is currently writing his fifth book about self-permission.  

To learn more about Jaemin:

Visit his website

Listen to his podcast

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#253 Maximising Your Conference Spend

Listen Now

Maximising Your Conference Spend

If you’re attending the HCANZA conference for health and wellness coaches in August – or any other conference – how can you make sure that you get the most out of your spend? Today I’ll share some tips and tricks to help you maximise your return on investment at conferences so you aren’t just getting information, you are also implementing what you learn. 

Identify Your Goal 

If you’re attending a conference like the HCANZA conference, there is a lot going on over the few days and it can be both immersive and overwhelming. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Identify your goal
* Identify key learnings
* Follow up and follow through
* Deeper reflection on your vision

I feel it’s really important to identify what you want to get out of the conference in advance.  

Perhaps your goal is about learning specific things or being across cutting-edge industry updates. In either case, there might be certain presentations you’re particularly interested in, specific course providers you want to talk to, or people you want to meet. Look at the program and work those things out in advance so you have clear goals around learning. 

What if your goal is more around networking? Dig a little deeper and consider what specifically would you get from that networking? Perhaps you are thinking about building a community. Perhaps it’s about finding a collaborative partner to deliver services with. Or maybe it’s about finding others you can refer clients to if they are not within your niche or scope. 

If you’re introverted, your goal might be to talk to a set number of people over the course of the conference, rather than be stuck in a corner only talking to people you know. 

These are some of the reasons why you might attend a conference of any sort and some of the goals you might like to think about. Right now, I invite you to reflect on what you want to get out of that conference and write down a few goals. 

Identify Key Learnings  

I don’t know about you, but when I attend a conference, I get so caught up in the energy and interactions that I find myself running on adrenaline and floating around the room with excitement. 

Or you might find yourself immersed in the learning, or even overwhelmed with sensory overload. 

This is why reflection is so important during the conference, so you can ground yourself and pull back into the value of the conference for you personally. 

This period of reflection is so valuable for identifying key learnings along the way and how you might follow up, use or implement those learnings. 

For example, if you attend a presentation that you love, reflect on that session immediately afterwards and use the conference notepad to outline a few key insights or learnings, how you will apply them, and when you will do that (schedule them in). 

Similarly, if you have met a person that you’d like to reconnect with, consider the reason for reconnecting so you have a clear agenda, and then book the time with them during the conference.  

The goal is to squeeze as much as you can out of your time there and maximise the opportunities that present – to make it worth your while! 

Follow Up and Follow Through 

It’s easy to avoid doing the things that seemed exciting at the moment – but following up with your contacts and following through with your tasks are two important parts of realising the return on your conference investment. 

Following up with people can be the easier bit – especially if you’ve already identified the agenda for your meeting. 

Following through with tasks can be harder to do – sometimes they seem unimportant or not as urgent as other things and they get pushed to the back. 

For example, let’s say you identified a great training course that would help you build your skills in a particular area or some further reading on a topic – but you feel too busy right now.  I recommend you enquire about the course or schedule the further reading anyway – because that at least gets the ball rolling. 

Scheduling those non-urgent activities is an essential part of following through and continuing to grow professionally. Being accountable to yourself is an important skill that builds confidence, self-belief and efficacy. 

Deeper Reflect on Your Vision 

Separate to following up and following through is the bigger-picture reflection that I like to do. This is where the magic of personal and professional growth often comes from, and it helps you stress test your vision to see if it is still current and in the right direction. 

I like to reflect on what I learned overall, what it means to me or my business, and how I will tangibly implement those insights. The more specific you are the better – and scheduling any next actions ensures they get done. 

For example, at a recent conference, I learned about some key trends in my niche sector. I have scheduled time to reflect on these, how they impact my business, and what sorts of actions I need to take or messaging I need to develop to capitalise on these trends.  

Your reflections might be different to this e.g. discovering a new area of science that you’d like to learn about and how that might impact your clients. 

The point is that you do the reflection at the big picture level so you can align and refine your vision.  

Summary 

Conferences offer a great opportunity to connect, build community and learn. But as we all know, information can have a profound impact on your business and life – but only if you implement it! 

If you want to maximise your spending on the conference, I covered a few ways that you can milk all you can out of attending so that you achieve personal and professional growth. 

The key points of today’s episode were around being intentional – making plans and goals, grounding yourself via reflection, following through and reviewing your vision.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#252 Successful Marketing at Events

Listen Now

Successful Marketing at Events 

Events are a great way to promote your business and find new clients. Today, I’d like to share some tips and key insights from the Workplace Wellbeing Festival held on 21-22 June in Sydney. I was there to prospect and qualify new leads for Sage Womens Health – a company that helps menopausal women stay well and at work. By the end of this episode, you’ll have some great ideas on how to engage with leads and identify prospective clients at events. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Choosing the Right Event and Setting Goals
* Planning for the Event
* Seek First to Understand
* Being Direct and Specific
* Following Up

Choosing the Right Event – and Setting Goals 

If you’re going to attend an event or even have a booth at an event to find potential clients, it’s obviously essential that you choose the right event, so that it’s worth your time and money.  

How do you choose the ‘right’ event?  

Well, think about your niche, and within that, your high chemistry client which is the type of person who you really have great chemistry with, and ask yourself two questions: 

Are they going to be at the event?  

Why will they be there – what will they be seeking?  

Here are two examples of events I’ve attended that have been really worthwhile: 

  1. Annual Health Expo in Moruya, 2014. This event showcased all the health-related businesses in the region and obviously, people who care about health and would spend on health are going to attend. That was a no-brainer and a great opportunity for my weight loss coaching business at that time. 
  2. The Workplace Wellbeing Festival in Sydney, 2023.  My target market for new business Sage Womens Health was at this event. Looking at last year’s version of this event, it was clear that a lot of corporates attended, and the focus was on employee wellbeing. It is attended by heads of HR, Culture, Wellbeing and the like. Clearly a good fit for my new business! 

Once you decide to attend or invest, think about your goals for the event. 

For me at the WWF, we knew that around 3000 delegates attended last year. Four of us were manning a startup booth at the event, so we set goals to:  

  • have 90 conversations over the two days,  
  • qualify 10 and secure follow-up meetings, and  
  • create 3 customers. 

In other words, for the time, energy and preparation we put into planning for the event, we wanted to make sure it would be worth our while and meet our business goals. 

These numbers are in progress at the time of this episode, but what I can tell you so far is that we secured 48 leads from around 50 conversations (a fair bit short of our goal), BUT we are on track for our 10 follow-up meetings with qualified customers. 

Qualified customers mean they are aligned with what we do and are ready, willing and able to take the next steps with us. 

Planning for the Event 

Next up, planning for the event is critical so that you show up feeling prepared, looking professional and being polished. 

Planning generally involves setting goals as I’ve just described, but also considering what you will do to stand out, be remembered, and engage the audience. 

Some people at events use lollies or drinks to attract people, or branded pens or notepads to achieve these aims. Some people even had games at the WWF23! 

We decided to get some cotton bags printed with our logo on them – because these will last almost forever and be used regularly. The branding will keep us front of mind when these people are out and about in daily life. 

Anything like this – pens, notepads, fridge magnets, squeezy stress balls, annual calendars, mouse pads etc – can keep you front of mind after the event if you can afford it. 

We also created a one-page marketing flyer with an outline of the problems our typical niche clients face in relation to menopausal women at work, and how our solution helps them in terms of services and outcomes. These were put in each bag along with a business card. 

We also had the planning and logistics around printing, delivery of these materials, what to wear, and also, how our conversations would go and what our key messages were. 

To get the messaging right, we discussed different conversations we’d had with the niche client and did some ‘social listening’ to see what topics were covered on social media. All of this helped us figure out what to say, and how to say it, when in front of our ideal clients. 

Seek First to Understand 

When someone comes up to you at a booth they will naturally say something like ‘Hmmm, Sage Womens Health – tell me about what you do.’ 

The rookie mistake is to launch into your spiel. The better approach is to follow the Stephen Covey method “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.”  In other words, flip it around and ask the person if you can ask them a few things about their business and needs, what’s working and current initiatives before you tell them about your business.  

Bring all of your being and doing skills to the table. Listen actively, be warm, ask questions about them, be empathetic, reflect on what you heard and so on. All of these things build rapport, relationships and trust. 

And their story helps you see if they are a fit for you or not, and also, helps you to identify their potential gaps and position your solution around those gaps. 

You can hear in their tone of voice how engaged they are. You can tell by the specificity and depth of their story how important this issue is for them. You can hear the frustration, despair, or irritation when they recount the problems their business is facing, and the heartfelt compassion they have for their desired outcome. 

Those are the people who you really want that follow-up meeting with. Anyone else is unlikely to be ready, willing and able to make changes – and that means they probably won’t buy from you.  They can be invited to your mailing list instead or referred to someone else! 

Being Direct and Specific 

Once you have heard someone’s situation, you can position your business offering around that as long as it is within your normal range of services, of course! 

The point here is not to waffle and have a long, convoluted spiel that will turn people off.  Notice their body language as you outline what you do and how you could help. Are they engaged, or falling asleep, or turning away as if to escape? 

The best way is to give an overview of how you work with people. For example: 

“I like to start with a discovery call to get clear on your specific needs and see if we are a fit for working together. From there, if there is a need, we discuss program options to help you solve A, B and C to achieve X, Y and Z’ – where A, B and C are the problems or X, Y and Z outcomes they mentioned earlier in the conversation. 

Then asking if you can connect with them and follow up for a discovery call is the next step! 

Following Up 

They say that leads go cold within 72 hours – for events it might be up to 7 days before this happens. In either case, the message is clear – get on the messaging, email or phone to follow up as soon as possible after the event. Otherwise, your hard work goes down the drain. 

Your follow-up message might mention your conversation (e.g. we met at X event and spoke about Y), and it might also invite them to a virtual coffee, a discovery call, or whatever it was that you mentioned as being the next step. 

If the person doesn’t respond, give it 2 or 3 more goes. Cold selling usually results in a close after FIVE conversations, but an in-person follow-up might require only 3 or perhaps 4.  

Summary 

Events are a great way to get in front of a lot of people to showcase how you help people. 

Today we discussed the importance of choosing the right event and setting goals, planning your approach, how your coaching skills help you engage, keep your offer simple and follow up right away. What is the next event you could attend and have an impact at? 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#251 Five Techniques for Winning Clients

Listen Now

Five Techniques for Winning Clients

Are you struggling to find new clients for your coaching or other health and wellness business? If so, it tells me one thing – that you might need some help with building strong relationships with people that you don’t know. Today’s five techniques will give you some simple techniques you can use right away to start winning clients. 

We all know that winning clients an essential part of your business’ viability, growth and success, but it can feel like you’re in a competitive, crowded market at times. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Understanding Client Needs
* Building Strong Relationships
* Delivering Exceptional Value
* Offering Customized Solutions
* Showcasing Success Stories

How do you stand out and capture the attention of potential clients? Today we’ll walk through five effective techniques that can significantly improve your ability to win clients. By using these strategies, you can build stronger relationships, establish trust, and ultimately secure your ideal clients who stick around and refer others. 

Understanding Client Needs  

The first technique for winning clients is one of the most important. It is to thoroughly understand their needs and pain points.  

The essential business habit behind this is that you are taking an hour or two each week to research and identify the challenges your potential clients are facing, the goals they want to achieve, and the kinds of solutions they are already buying.  

By gaining this knowledge and doing this ‘market research’ on an ongoing basis, you can more easily tailor your products or services to meet their specific requirements – which positions your services as extremely valuable to them. This personalized approach also demonstrates your commitment to their success and therefore improves your chances of winning them over as clients. 

One great way to understand client needs is to be curious and get into the habit of asking people about themselves. One of Steven Covey’s famous Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is – Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.  

This is essentially about the importance of listening attentively and seeking to understand others before attempting to convey one’s own thoughts and perspectives. Empathetic listening builds trust and is a key to having people like you, remember you and want to know more about what you do.  

The initial conversations don’t have to end in a sale, rather, it’s about building the initial trust that is the foundation of a later relationship that might lead to a sale. 

 

Building Strong Relationships  

We all know that developing meaningful relationships is the foundation of creating new clients. Networking events, industry conferences, and social media platforms are all marketing channels that provide you with opportunities to connect with potential clients.  

To build strong relationships on these channels, you need to engage in genuine and authentic conversations, actively listen to their concerns, reflect on what you hear, and offer valuable insights. As coaches we know how important it is it build trust and rapport – it establishes a solid foundation for future work.  

The relationships become stronger when you maintain regular communication through newsletters, email updates, or personalized messages that keep you top-of-mind, and able to help in the way your customers need it. 

Delivering Exceptional Value  

A key to winning clients is to provide exceptional value in a way that is different from your competitors.  

Before someone is a client, you can offer value through free resources such as e-books, webinars, or consultations that help your audience see their challenges and the impact of doing nothing – and what the reward is for taking action.  

When working with clients, you offer value by first helping them identify the key issue they want to solve and what that will give them if they do. Then through the coaching presence, you bring value by being wholly present with them, listening and leaving silence, asking great questions and helping them monitor progress and celebrate wins. The real value they get – no matter what your niche – is an increase in self-confidence, self-belief, and autonomy. If you coach people in this way, you position yourself as valuable and increase the likelihood of their great results and referring others. 

Offering Customized Solutions  

Every client is unique, and a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective in winning them over. When you start with a discovery call, find out about their needs and wants obstacles and challenges. That way, when describing your services, you can speak specifically to those things when you make your offer. 

Why does this work? Firstly it demonstrates that you listened and that you understand their specific challenges. Secondly, it shows how your program can help them meet their needs and wants. Testimonials from others like them can help them feel confident that you’re the right person to help them in a very personalised way. In other words, if you tailor your solutions to the client, it builds confidence in your abilities and increases the chances of winning their trust and loyalty. 

Showcasing Success Stories 

Nothing speaks louder than tangible results. When you share success stories and case studies of how similar clients overcame their challenges and achieved their goals, you create trust and certainty that you’re the right person.  

You can use testimonials, before-and-after comparisons, and data-driven metrics (e.g. % goal success, average waist circumference changes, or changes in resting heart rate etc) to showcase the value you have delivered. When potential clients see evidence of your ability to achieve positive outcomes, they will be more inclined to choose your business over competitors. 

Summary 

Winning clients requires a strategic approach that combines understanding client needs, building strong relationships, delivering exceptional value, offering customized solutions, and showcasing success stories.  

Guess what – as a coach, you instinctively know how to do all of these! And by implementing the techniques I’ve just described you position yourself as a trusted partner who can address specific client challenges and provide meaningful solutions.  

Remember, winning clients is not just about making a sale; it is about establishing long-term relationships based on trust and mutual success. 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#249 Communication Skills, Health and Wellness with Executive Communication Coach Laurie Schloff

Listen Now

Communication Skills, Health and Wellness with Executive Communication Coach Laurie Schloff

Today I speak with executive communication coach, Laurie Schloff who believes there is truly a deep relationship between communication and health and wellness.

Laurie’s work is helping professionals to achieve outstanding relationships and results through communication.

As a renowned master coach and author of three books, she is a specialist in the field of corporate communication. She is a recognized expert for adding to clients’ talents and toolboxes in the areas of:

  • Presentation skills
  • Conference coaching
  • Leadership communication
  • Fear of speaking
  • Leading and facilitating meetings
  • Speech clarity for non-native speakers
  • Communication program development
  • Certificate in Communication Coaching program

Laurie’s clients include Bain Capital, Fidelity Investments, MassMutual, Allstate, State Street, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, TJX, Pegasystems, and Johns Hopkins.

“He and She Talk”, “Speech Gems”, and “Smart Speaking”, the three internationally-translated books Laurie has written, offer practical solutions to communication problems most organizations and individuals face.

Smart Speaking https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Speaking-Sixty-Second-Strategies/dp/0615460607#immersive-view_1686176055733

He & She Talk: How to Communicate with the Opposite Sex https://a.co/d/5vHnVbN

Twenty Twinkling Stars children’s book – Fundraiser https://a.co/d/dPh4seE

Her website is www.partnersincommunication.com. Listeners can sign up for an initial call there or email her there directly.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#248 6 Tips to Transition from Work to Business Launch

Listen Now

6 Tips to Transition from Work to Business Launch

Are you working full-time and trying to start a coaching business on the side? It’s exciting to think about leaving your doldrum job to launch a business that is meaningful and purposeful. But launching a business takes a fair amount of creative thinking, strategic planning and hard work to implement. How do you juggle the demands of work and make time to start your business?  

I’ll share my 6 top tips today – and a link to other tips in my previous episode on this topic. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Commit and Go All In
* Your Special Workspace
* Your Ideas Diary
* Refresh Your Ideas and Mind
* Create Boundaries
* Set Focused, Achievable Goals

Starting a side hustle is pretty common. In September 2022, ABC Australia stated that more than ever, Australians are creating ‘side hustle businesses’, with a record 167,646 new businesses in the 2020/21 financial year.  

Of those, more than 80% were sole traders, where people were monetizing a hobby.  

What we know is that trying to juggle full-time work and a side hustle that becomes your part or full-time gig is stressful, time-consuming and can lead to burnout. Even if you’re a health and wellness coach with all the tools to stay resilient, we all have the same amount of time and are subject to pressure, stress and overwhelm that gets in the way of starting a business. 

I’ve had several conversations in the past four weeks with coaches who are facing very busy periods and finding themselves stalling and procrastinating about their business. 

Some of you are listening. I hear the stress in your voice. I hear the despair and the frustration and the ‘two steps forward, one step back.’ 

I understand that when the pressure of your job and life get too great, you can’t achieve your business startup goals and you feel despondent and start to doubt yourself. 

So how do you make the transition a bit easier? 

Commit and go All In 

This might seem obvious but if you commit yourself to starting your business then you’ll find the motivation, persistence and grit you need to succeed. 

If you have a ‘let’s try and see how it goes’ attitude, you will probably lack the commitment you need to make it work. Half-hearted attitudes get half-baked results. 

You need to commit to yourself that you will start a business and make it work in order to visualise what it will look like, why it matters, and identify the critical path and related goals to get there. 

Your Special Workspace 

My clients talk a lot about needing space. So my first tip is to start by giving yourself a distraction-free, special place to create, brainstorm, plan and get immersed into your business. 

Make it pretty, compartmentalised, and appealing so that it feels like a sanctuary where you can do great work.  

Further, make sure you have that same separation in your business tools. A unique email address. A unique Dropbox folder or Google profile. 

And set up a specific planner with all your tasks listed so that when you arrive in your special place, you open up your business-specific stuff and know exactly what to do, without distraction.

Use An Ideas Diary 

When I was in my late teens I started an exercise book where I could jot down all my crazy ideas. The front cover says Crazy Ideas in big letters. 

The function of this idea diary is to get all the stuff out of your head and onto paper so it doesn’t swirl around in there and create a big pile of things that you feel you have to remember, and so that you can sort through it later and weed out all the good ideas that are realistic and achievable.  

This is so important if you’re working full time, because you have a thousand other things in your head, and it’s disappointing to lose a good idea and stressful to try and hang onto them in your head. It can create tension, overwhelm and fear of forgetting things so you end up ruminating in order to try to remember everything. 

The ideas diary is amazing. Carry it around with you to get all that good stuff out of your head and make sure you capture it all. Later you can review and refine your ideas.   

The act of writing it down is also important to avoid acting impulsively in the moment and heading off into uncharted waters that go nowhere. Often, what seems like a good idea in the heat of the moment often ends up being trash – but you don’t see that at the time and it can be tempting to just take action due to time limitations, without really considering if these ideas have merit. 

When you revisit your diary you can weed out the great ones. Sometimes there are even learnings in the crazy ones. 

Do this and you’ll get better at decision-making, evaluating ideas, and choosing a focused, realistic and workable path. 

Refresh Your Ideas and Mind 

When you start a business outside of a paid job, you have small windows of time to generate ideas and concepts for your business. In that time-limited situation, it’s easy to fall into the trap of second-guessing your ideas and doubting whether they are sane and realistic, simply because you don’t have the time to fully explore evaluate and stress test your ideas. 

That’s why the ideas diary is important.  

But further, when you have great ideas, don’t keep them secret – start sharing snippets of them with people you know. Friends, business associates, colleagues, and potential clients. Get their feedback. 

Each little snippet of feedback helps you validate your ideas and see different perspectives. 

When I have an idea, I always run it past at least two people to gauge their reaction. Often, the positive response helps me to feel invigorated about my business. Any neutral feedback allows me to re-evaluate my ideas. 

Here’s one example – podcast topics. If I’ve run out of ideas, I might brainstorm a few and ask people for opinions on whether that’s of interest and why. Or I might even ask someone else for suggestions! 

Create Boundaries 

Your business is a living, evolving thing that requires constant attention, thought and iteration. If you’re constantly working late, putting other people first, doing things you don’t want to do for someone else’s sake, or taking on too much, then your business will suffer. 

It’s important to both schedule dedicated time for your business, and to also protect the time you set aside to work on your business so that you give it the attention it needs and so you can achieve the goals you set for yourself. 

Creating boundaries also applies to carving out not-negotiable time to see clients if you are in a service-based business. 

Set Focused, Achievable Goals 

The saying goes, it’s no good rowing hard if you are heading in the wrong direction. 

It’s so relevant to your business, especially if you have limited time and are trying to keep moving forward despite everything else. 

You will absolutely move forward if you are focused on one or two things, you can more easily set realistic and achievable goals and actually succeed. 

The 5-4-3-2-1-90-30 planning process I use with my clients is a testament to how focused outcome goals create clear action steps that are easily achieved. 

Just last week, one of my clients finished a 5-month block with me and she mentioned how much more she got done because she had clearly identified her focus areas for that time. 

She felt good because she’d set and achieved goals, and we’d celebrated them. 

It’s not rocket science, and it works if you are consistent with it.  

Summary 

Having a business is exciting but it takes a lot of time and energy, especially if you are working full-time and building the business on the side. 

Today’s six tips; creating commitment, creating a special workplace, using an ideas diary, refreshing your ideas and mind, creating boundaries, and setting focused and achievable goals, are a simple formula to help you get your business ticking along in the background in a focused and efficient way that is both energizing and rewarding. 

Which of these tips will you try first? 

Other episodes on this topic include: 

E49 – From Job to Business – Managing Time Expectations  

E135 – Transitioning from Job to Business 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#247 Wellness Workshops, Books and Breast Cancer Coaching with Sadie Goddard

Listen Now

Wellness Workshops, Books and Breast Cancer Coaching with Sadie Goddard

Today I speak with Sadie Goddard of Serenity and Sunflowers, talking about Sadie’s journey into coaching, accepting the need to work, and gaining a new perspective on how coaching fits into both employment and her own business. 

Sadie talks about an important project she is working on, the Breast Friend Project, and how she’s helping women in need of positive support in that space. 

Sadie shows that coaching can take many forms and that it’s ok to experiment until you find out where you want to land! 

If you’d like to learn more about what she does or the Breast Friend Project, here are her links: 

What Sadie offers: https://linktr.ee/serenitysunflowersjustbe 

 The Breast Friend Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/684941926748586/?ref=share_group_link 

https://walking.heartfoundation.org.au/walking/group/the-breast-friend-project-lets-stay-active

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#246 Marketing is a Numbers Game

Listen Now

Marketing is a Numbers Game

Are you fearful of marketing, not sure if you’re doing it right, or wondering how much effort is required? This episode helps to take some of the emotion out of it and shows you how to win at marketing via some key numbers – what they are and how to use them. By the end of this episode, you’ll be a lot clearer on how to market your business so you can succeed and grow. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Conversion rates
* Return on Investment
* Setting targets

Marketing is often referred to as a numbers game, simply because it is about reaching as many people in your niche as possible and engaging them to buy your product or service. If you want to assess the success of your marketing and improve it, you’ll need to gather data and metrics to guide your strategies and measure your success. 

Numbers help you to do business with your eyes wide open, and to plug leaks, and make decisions that will grow your business faster. 

By now you are probably wondering; what are these data and metrics? What are the numbers? 

Let’s answer these questions and in doing so, help you get a sense of how to rocket fuel your own marketing efforts and create more clients. 

Conversion rates 

One of the basic principles of marketing as a numbers game is “conversion rates”.  

Your conversion rate is simply the percentage of people who take a desired action, such as liking your post, signing up for your lead magnet, or booking an enquiry call, out of the total number of people who were exposed to your marketing message.  

In this episode, we are talking specifically about the conversion of leads to sales. 

For example, let’s say you write a blog that is a case study of how you helped someone, and at the end of the blog, there is a link to book a discovery call. 

If you shared a link to that blog on your social media profiles, which have 1000 followers in total, then 50 of those followers visit your website and read the blog, 10 of them book a discovery call, and 5 of them buy a coaching program, then your conversion rate (from initial share through to the sale of a service or product) is 5/1000 or 0. 5%.  

Conversion rates are important because they give you a clear indication of how effective your marketing efforts are. The numbers tell you where to focus your effort; on things like adjusting your messaging, being more targeted with your marketing, using tactics to acquire more followers, developing more helpful copy, and improving your sales conversations. 

If numbers drop off at any of these points in your sales ‘funnel’, then you can easily see the key areas for improvement. 

Depending on how you are marketing, you might also look at other metrics. 

For example, if you’re using Facebook ads, you’d be interested in tracking things like organic reach, click-through rates, and cost per lead. 

Or, if your marketing focuses on live webinars or in-person workshops, you’d be measuring the number of enrolments, number of attendees, and number of enrolments on the day. 

A key takeaway here is that you’re not measuring anything, then it’s like trying to shoot a target in a dark tunnel! 

I encourage you to consider what you’re doing in terms of marketing, what the steps are in your sales cycle, how you will measure conversion and then….. get started! 

Return on Investment 

Another key number to know in marketing is the return on investment (ROI), which is basically the financial impact of your marketing effort. 

A high ROI means that your marketing is generating a lot of revenue for your business. If ROI is low, you might need to look at your marketing strategy and tactics to see what can improve. 

A simple formula to calculate ROI is:  

(sales growth – marketing cost) / marketing cost. 

For example, you might be investing $200 in local promotion (e.g. flyers, posters) and spending a lot of time networking to get people to your live workshop, and you reached about 300 people in your direct and indirect network. Then, you have 20 people book in and 18 of them show up on the day. Let’s say that of those 18 attendees, 15 of them buy a discovery call for $100.  

Firstly, let’s look at your conversion rate. You had 15 attendees who bought a discovery call out of roughly 300 leads who saw the marketing for the event. The conversion rate is 15/300 or 5%. 

Now let’s look at the return on investment of your marketing efforts. 

  • Your ‘sales growth’ is 15 x $100 = $1500. 
  • Your marketing cost was $200. 
  •  ($1500 – 200)/200 = 6.5 – converted to a percentage is an ROI of 650%. 

In other words, for every dollar you spent on promotion, you got 650% back in revenue. 

Great! That was a winning campaign, and worth repeating. What’s most impressive is that in the workshop itself, most of the people who attended bought a discovery session. That means you must have done well in building rapport and trust in the session, and offered something valuable! 

If you are using other marketing tactics as well as workshops, you could also compare the ROI of different tactics, like Facebook ads, and see which had the higher ROI. 

This would shape the future direction of your marketing. 

Setting Targets 

It’s one thing to measure numbers after the fact, but when you’re starting or growing a business, you’ll also need to set some targets. 

This is much like helping your clients to set a vision for their future selves.  

What is the outcome you want? Once you define that, you can use metrics to monitor progress and change course if needed. 

How do you set targets? 

I’ve talked broadly about some of these before in earlier episodes, so this is a nutshell of the key steps. 

     (1.) First, set your sales target: Set a clear goal or target for how much revenue you want to bring in from marketing.  

Let’s say that after the success of your last workshop, you wanted to bring in a bit more revenue – let’s say $2000 in sales from the workshop. That’s your new sales target.  

     (2.) Next, work out your conversion rate: Based on historical data, work out what percentage of leads typically convert into paying customers. If you don’t have historical data, ask someone who has done this before to help you work it out. This will help you estimate how many leads you’ll need to generate to reach your sales target. 

In the last workshop, your conversion rate was 15/300 leads, which is 5%. 

     (3.) Next, calculate the number of leads you need to reach to achieve your sales target. 

In our example with live workshops, if you want revenue of $2000, this means you will need 20 people to buy your $100 discovery call at the next workshop you run. 

Last time, your conversion rate was 5%. 

In other words, in this new workshop, 5% conversion equals 20 people who buy. 

That means you’ll need to reach 400 leads this next time to get 5% buying from you. 

     (4.) Next, monitor and adjust:  

          (a.) As you start generating leads, monitor how many sign up for your workshop and adjust your targets as needed. If you get many more signups, you may be able to generate fewer leads in future to achieve your sales target.  

          (b.) If on the day of the workshop, your conversion rate ends up being lower than expected, you may need to generate more leads to hit your goal. 

Finally, you’ll need to consider the quality of your leads. Some may be more likely to buy than others, depending on factors such as their level of interest, budget, and timing.  

In the workshop example, you might find that most of the workshop participants who buy were referred by one or two people in particular, whereas other referrers may send people who don’t.  

One thing is for sure. When you start looking at marketing as a numbers game, it takes some of the emotion out of it and can reduce your misgivings or fear. 

You’re using the logical part of your brain to make decisions, and you are using data to inform your actions. 

Having marketing metrics and data is incredibly powerful and something that is worth looking at from the get-go. 

Summary 

As we’ve discussed today, marketing is a numbers game because it relies on data and metrics to guide your decision-making.  

There are two key takeaways from today. 

Firstly, by focusing on key metrics like conversion rates and ROI, you can learn about what works and what doesn’t in your business more easily, and therefore optimize your marketing tactics. 

Secondly, by setting clear targets for leads, you can ensure that you’re generating enough interest and engagement to achieve your sales goals.  

By monitoring your results and adjusting your approach as needed, you can continually improve your marketing efforts and maximize your return on investment. 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#242 Confidence in Your Coaching Business with Nadine Crawford

Listen Now

Confidence in Your Coaching Business with Nadine Crawford

Today I interviewed health and wellness coach Nadine Crawford of Future You Wellness. We talk about her marketing, traction and confidence in the 6 months after she graduated with her Professional Certificate of Health and Wellness Coaching from Wellness Coaching Australia.

Nadine shares some insights on what’s worked, and what hasn’t, and how being authentic is an important asset to help you find the confidence you need to persist and win.

In this episode, we’ll cover
* Marketing strategies; speaking, direct contact and networking
* Trials and experiments
* The power of a HCANZA membership
* Leveraging credibility to attract clients and referral partner
* What has worked and what hasn’t for Nadine
* How being yourself, peer coaching and doing things your way boosts your confidence in business

If you would like to connect with Nadine, visit:

⁠LinkedIn Profile⁠ ⁠

YouTube Channel⁠

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#240 3 Steps to 10x Your Online Reach

Listen Now

3 Steps to 10x Your Online Reach

Content marketing offers a great opportunity to grow your business. But how do you create and share content in a way that maximises your reach and helps you build a loyal audience? This episode uncovers three steps to leverage your content to ensure business revenue and growth.

In this episode, we’ll cover
* Titles Matter
* Create Valuable Content
* Add a ‘Direct Response’
* How to 10x Your Online Reach

It’s common for people to start posting ‘stuff’ on social media, or their website, and hoping to be discovered by clients. I did this myself when I started my business – and the silence was deafening!  I felt so despondent because I’d gone to the effort of writing blogs that nobody was reading, and social media posts that nobody was engaging with.  

What was I doing wrong? 

A lot of people tried to sell me solutions, but I realised that a combination of things was needed to successfully gain an online reach. I’m going to map out the process so you can do this for yourself, stop getting crickets and start getting visibility and traction! 

Titles Matter 

It’s tempting to think up a groovy blog or podcast headline that you like the sound of, with clever plays on words. But the reality is, nobody is searching for that. 

People use their own simple language to search for solutions to their problems. 

You want to use titles that ‘hook’ the audience in (titles are often called hooks) and get them intrigued and interested, thinking, well how do I do that? 

For example, compare two possible titles for this podcast. 

  • Ideas for growing your business online – or 
  • How to 10x your online reach. 

See the difference? One is way more interesting and intriguing, making you wonder – 10x – really? – how do I do that? 

After all, the 10x is the outcome that you really want, right? 

Create Valuable Content 

Based on what matters to the audience, what they want to know about, what skills they want to develop, or where they are stuck with something. This is how I created this podcast!  I choose topics of interest and answer questions about those. 

If you create content that doesn’t help to solve a problem, doesn’t answer the audience’s questions and is simply your random musings… well, they’re going to tune out. 

Conversely, listen to your audience and help them with their challenges, in a clear and simple way, and you’ll have people coming back for more. 

The litmus test is audience feedback. 

When someone says to me ‘I’ve been binge-listening to your podcast’ – well, mission accomplished. I’m helping people and they value the help.  

That’s exactly what I want. And that’s exactly what you can do too. 

The secret, once again, is to listen to understand (as Stephen Covey says) – listen to your audience.  

Add a ‘Direct Response’ 

Always create content with the goal of getting some sort of response – and ask directly for that response. 

For example, if you write a blog, finish it either with a question (e.g. what is your opinion on this?)  

Or even better, provide a valuable downloadable thing that can help the reader take action at the end of the blog or podcast or video. 

Ask them to subscribe to your podcast, or follow you on Instagram. 

Direct response is inviting them to start a relationship with you, by taking action toward that. 

How to 10x Your Content Reach 

Creating content is one thing, but getting eyeballs on it is another. After you create and post content on any platform, there is a follow-up task of sharing that content.  

Here are ten ideas on how to do that – which effectively 10x the reach of that one content piece. 

  1. When you post a blog or podcast, or YouTube video etc, make mention of it in your email newsletter and add a link to the post/episode. 
  2. Post a link to your original content piece (e.g. blog, podcast) on all the other social media platforms you use. 
  3. Get interviewed by someone (e.g. someone else’s podcast, blog etc – someone with a big audience) where you get to mention your original content piece and provide a link to it. 
  4. Publish your content on a well-known platform. For example, blog writers might submit their article to MammaMia, Sage Womens Health, or a platform like SourceBottle which links journalists with qualified information sources. 
  5. Share the content piece with people in your professional network, for their interest, in case they want to pass it on to others who might find it valuable. 
  6. Share the content piece with your industry association (e.g. HCANZA) who might publish it on your behalf. 
  7. When people ask you a question on social media, provide a link to your blog/podcast as a means of answering their question. 
  8. Curate some of your content and share it as a mini-guide for people who attend your free webinar, workshop or Facebook Live. For example, a one-pager with links to 10 blogs you wrote related to the same topic. 
  9. When a prospective client enquires about your services, send a link to some of your content to help them to better understand, or even solve, an immediate problem they have. This is valuable even if they decide not to be a client – you can still offer value. 
  10. Include the content piece as a resource within your coaching or educational program. For example, in my Passion to Profit course, I include links to past podcast episodes so that my students can deep dive into a topic for more specific how-to information. 

Further, over time, you can repurpose your content into other formats and share them on social media so that your message is shared in lots of different ways, to accommodate different learning styles. For example, a blog can be read aloud as a podcast, or sections of it can be turned into a video, or infographic showing a process, or similar. That way, the message is reinforced and can also lead back to the original content source for more information. 

These are just ten ideas for maximising the reach of your content.  

Summary 

Today we talked about how to create and share content in a way that maximises your reach and helps you build a loyal audience.  

The three steps we talked about to build and leverage your content to ensure business revenue and growth are to: 

  1. Use an appealing title 
  2. Create valuable content based on your audience’s interest 
  3. Add a direct response. 

From there, we discussed 10 ways to get the content out into the world to get 10x the reach of each piece of content. 

What other ideas do you have for sharing content? 

What has worked well for you? 

 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#239 How Following Up Grows Your Business

Listen Now

How Following Up Grows Your Business

If you’re building business, then you’ll be pursuing new leads and making offers to your growing audience. The surprising thing is, after making an offer or delivering a service, so many people DON’T follow up on their existing leads and customers – yet this is an incredibly cost-effective way to grow your business. Let’s explore how following up grows your business and revenue, and how to create, automate and celebrate your follow-ups!

In this episode, we’ll cover
* The Statistics on Following Up
* How to Follow Up to Grow Your Business

For so many coaches and other business owners I know, their version of ‘business as usual’ is a kind of set-and-forget approach.

What I mean is, that they go out and meet lots of different people or organisations in an attempt to become known and win work. Or they’re on social media and they put out an offer, and then forget about following up.

In either case, they commonly say things like, ‘If you’re interested, give me a call!’

Why do we do that?

Often, it’s because you don’t want to feel pushy, or salesy. You feel like following might pressure your leads and put them offside.

But think about your own busy life for a minute. How often do you remember to book your next appointment?

And when you’re struggling with something, how easy is it for you to reach out for help?

Do you hate making phone calls?

For me, I book the next appointment when I am in the session, whether it’s a haircut, massage or any other sort of session. I hate making phone calls and am busy – I’d rather be efficient.

And when the car service business reaches out to me, I’m thankful that they’ve prompted me and I book in for a service online. Otherwise, I might not get around to it. Now let’s go back to your customers. You don’t need Harvard Business Review’s insights to know that most people have hundreds of emails in their inbox each day, and spend up to 2.6 hours per day on email.

So the problem is not that people are ignoring you, or resistant, or don’t want what you have to offer. It’s just that they have a lot happening.

Now in the customer’s shoes – how would you feel if you had a great service with someone, but they never followed up to see how you were, or whether you needed help?

One word comes up for me – I’d feel FORGOTTEN.

I’d question my trust in the person who makes an offer and never follows up. I’d wonder how reliable they are, and whether they really care or not.

The Statistics on Following Up

Online CRM Hubspot cites a study by Brevet, that says:

  • 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal.
  • However, 44% of sales reps follow up with a prospect only once before giving up.
  • After four follow-ups, 94% of salespeople have given up.

These are the stats for professional salespeople – what do you think the follow-up rate is for coaches and small business owners?

That’s a lot of money being left on the table.

My Chiropractor friend told me that if an existing customer doesn’t rebook an appointment, he sends out a physical letter, then another, then another – all about a month apart. He says that most people respond and book on the third letter.

One important point about this is that these are the existing customers that he’s re-engaging – not new customers. So, it’s going to be way easier to follow up and secure appointments with them because of the existing relationship.

Of course, if you don’t want to follow up existing leads and clients, you can always start from scratch, put yourself out there again, and spend money on advertising! Who wants to be on that treadmill when you can invest in building more valuable and supportive relationships!

How to Follow-Up to Grow Your Business

Let’s start from the beginning and talk about setting yourself up for follow-up success.

Direct Response and Customer Connection

Before you do any follow-up, you need to make sure that you are getting a direct response from every lead and creating some sort of customer connection – a database, list or group – where you can have regular contact.

What does that mean?

Firstly, it means that everyone who enquires about your business is invited to join your newsletter email list or your online group, or your F2F meetup group, or to follow/subscribe on social media.

Doing this gives you clarity on whether they’re serious about building a relationship with you.

Then, that list, group or following – or whatever it is – is the vehicle that allows you to follow up! Without this ongoing contact opportunity, you’ve got nothing.

Defining when and how you’ll follow up

The next thing to do is to define your process for following up.

For example, let’s say that someone comes to a live event that you run (e.g. webinar, workshop etc) and you make an offer at the end to join your next program. They’ve never worked with you before.

With all of your leads in  one place, I recommend you map out what the next two follow-up steps are for them to work with you will be.

Firstly, make sure you are VERY clear on where you are leading people. What is the follow-up product or service you are offering them?

Then, map out the next actions they will take, and you will take, to engage them with that. Planning this in advance means that you have an intention and are mentally prepared to talk about it effortlessly and with confidence.

Make sure the follow-up steps are active, not passive.

  • Active = inviting someone to do something/sign up for/ etc.
  • Passive = call me if you’re interested (although this is relevant in some cases).

In other words, on the day of the session, let them know what the steps are – and then follow up! Now, when will you follow up, and how?

Some ideas might be:

  • At the end of the webinar/workshop, invite them to register for your program,
      • Make sure you outline the next two follow-up steps so they know what they are, and
      • say you’ll follow up for confirmation either way, so they expect to hear from you.
  • Follow up with a friendly email within 24 hours with a link to book now or have a quick chat
  • Follow up with a second email within 48 hours with a link to book now or have a quick chat, plus a link to some FAQ on your website
  • Follow up with a final email within 72 hours with link to a blog (case study) with a testimonial, and a final invite

These are just examples of how you could do this – it’s totally up to you as to what you do exactly.

Here’s another example for existing clients.

Someone completed a coaching program with you two months ago. You want to check in with them and see how they’re going, and find out if they need any support or a top-up session.

When would you follow up, and how?

Some ideas might be:

  • Send a ‘how are you going’ email or DM
  • As follow up, ask them to fill out a survey talking about what is new or different form them (the survey is not about you, it’s about their progress and what they’re able to do! So that they learn about themselves)
  • Ask them if they need a ‘top up’ or ‘check in’ session – has anything gotten in the way, or do they need some support with a specific thing? This could be free leading to a paid offer, or a single paid session.

Once again, I just made this up.

Come up with your own ideas, considering how you’d like to be treated if you were the client.

Templating your follow-ups

The next thing to do is to sketch out your follow-up process (or checklist it), and then create any templates you might need e.g. email templates, message templates etc.

That way, you can easily rinse and repeat your follow-up process, or ask a VA do to it for you!

Actioning your follow-ups

The next thing to do is to diarise times to follow up, and actually do it.

Maybe you schedule a Friday every three months where you dedicate half a day to phoning or emailing old clients to check in with them.

Maybe you have a dedicated time slot for follow-ups in the three days after you make an offer. This might include your email that goes out, but also answering questions by email or by phone.

Make time for your follow-ups, and therefore, your clients!

Summary

Leads and clients are people you already have a relationship with. It means they’re interested in what you do.

If you want to generate more revenue and grow your business, following up is an easy and important process to help you get there.

If you are clear on where people are heading, and what their next steps are, and you have systemised your follow-up (templates, and diarised actions), you’re well on your way to actively building relationships and increasing your revenue.

This is a low-cost way to build a business compared to spending money on advertising and starting from scratch!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#238 Scale Your Business with Group Coaching

Listen Now

Scale Your Business with Group Coaching

If you’ve been coaching 1:1 for a while and want to scale your business, moving into group coaching is one option. By the end of this episode, you’ll have clarity on how group coaching works, why it’s so powerful and how it can accelerate your business growth.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

How group coaching works

You might feel like groups would never be your thing, but they could be a ‘later’ thing once you have enough experience and confidence as a coach.

Groups are really interesting.

For you as a coach, working with groups requires you to have certain skills in facilitating. For example:

· You’d need to learn how to ask a few broad questions and invite the group to discuss their ideas, and maybe write down their own goals and/or insights around those things.

· You’d need to develop the skill of helping everyone have a chance to speak and be heard while keeping the more boisterous people attended but not dominating the floor.

· You need to be able to keep the focus of the session and keep to time so that you deliver value and respect the audience.

For clients, groups are rarely a ‘forever’ thing because people come to get a result, and then they either:

  • get the result and leave, or
  • don’t get the result and leave, or
  • outgrow the group and leave, or
  • lose focus on all the other things in their lives and leave (other things become more important)

This can happen in groups with a defined period (e.g. an 8-week program) but more likely in a long-term group (e.g. a membership-style group).

People will be more likely to commit and stick with 8-10 weeks to help them solve a problem. In membership style groups. dropping in and out is part of the natural buying and change cycle! Readiness to change peaks at certain points in time and that is where the enthusiasm is. When enthusiasm wanes, people drop out.

Remember also that as a coach, you are helping your clients become self-empowered and self-responsible so they don’t need you anymore and can do new things consistently on their own. That is a mark of your success as a coach!

Some groups do persist – and they have a few things in common:

  • like-minded people who love being together for further growth
  • continual stream of new people coming in with that problem who feel supported by the group
  • the problem is painful on a day-to-day basis and requires long-term support, and/or
  • people lapse back into the problem and keep coming back.

These types of groups are good candidates for a membership model versus just a program on rinse and repeat.

Grey area drinking is a good example. Drinking affects health, self-worth, productivity and relationships. It’s a big pain point that can disrupt daily life and can be hard to be consistent with.

It might take 6 months to feel ‘sober’ and it might take a year to ‘trust yourself’ to remain sober. Once you’re sober, great. But you might keep feeling pulled back into it. Or, you might really want to be a role model to others and help them stay on track.

Why Group Coaching is so Powerful

Why is group coaching so powerful? One way to think about it is to consider how you feel when you’re watching a DVD at home, versus how you feel when you go to the pitch-black cinema to watch a movie with surround sound and a large audience laughing, getting a fright and shrieking all at the same time as you.

Groups leverage emotional contagion. They create an energy that is attractive and appealing.

Groups create connections between members. In fact, some studies into group education show that peer support is just as important for learning and insight, as facilitator support in a group environment.

Group coaching presents multiple points of view so it’s easy to gain a broader perspective, to feel like you’re not alone, and to learn more ways to overcome your challenges.

How Group Coaching Can Accelerate Business Growth

When you move from income in a 1:1 setting to a 1:many setting, you’re earning more money per session. If you have a group of 5, then you’re earning 5x as much per session.

How big should the group be? A group is technically two or more people. Small groups of up to 10 are best, as it’s easier to have intimate conversations and give everyone a chance to speak and be heard.

In my own face-to-face weight loss business in a small country town, I ran four groups of ten people, with a few separate individual sessions for those who wanted more privacy and personal conversation. The program was successful for the 3 years that I ran it until I decided to pivot my niche and move online in 2016.

Larger groups are less personal and less interactive but can be peer-supported. I like to define group coaching as up to 10 people, beyond that I feel it’s an interactive workshop. In that larger group setting, you’d use tools and strategies like asking the audience to fill in worksheets, asking for hands up to answer a question, and using small break-out groups for peer discussion, which you walk around and monitor.

Beyond creating a group and earning more money per session, you are likely to earn more money over time.

Why?

Because groups tend to stay together for camaraderie and support to stay on track e.g. Weight Watchers which started in New York in 1963 and is still operating worldwide today.

Further, groups grow when members tell their friends about the support and value they get and invite them to come along. Growth can be exponential if the group program is great; more easily in an online environment.

Summary

Group coaching is one way to scale and grow your business and revenue and is a natural progression from 1:1 coaching.

When you understand how groups work, and why they’re powerful, it’s a no-brainer to turn to this business model to build your business.

https://anchor.fm/dashboard https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#237 Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

Listen Now

Three Tips for Creating Irresistible Offers

Today we’re talking about crafting irresistible offers as part of my season about business and revenue growth. I want to help you craft mouth-watering offers that make it super easy for clients to buy from you, following a simple process.

There’s a lot to think about when crafting offers, let alone making them irresistible. You might like to check out my previous episodes on the topic, such as Episode 65, Discover and communicate your value, and Episode 205, How to Develop a Magnetic Value Proposition. Both of these do a deep dive into messaging.

But what else matters, and how else can you create an offer that is irresistible, mouth-watering and exactly what your audience wants? These three tips will help you get it right.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Tip 1 – Make it Relatable
* Tip 2 – Make it Valuable and Selective
* Tip 3 – Make it Easy to Buy

Make it Relatable 

When you’re describing the offer, you might find yourself going into technical jargon, being verbose, or fumbling with your words. 

The easier way to talk about your offer is to make it relatable to the person and what they are going through. 

The offer that sells most easily is the one that talks about the specific emotional struggles and then the emotional benefits your audience desperately wants, using their words. 

Remember: your suffering is your story, and your strengths are your solution. 

Here are two examples – a very dry version and a more emotive and relatable version. 

The dry version that uses coaching language: This 6-week program is designed to counteract the energy and sleep challenges that new mothers face and helps them to create a vision and goals that they set for themselves.  

Here’s the more relatable, emotive version that uses typical client language for the same niche: Are you a new mum who is struggling to sleep and feeling anxious? This 6-week program will help you to create simple, practical routines to help you feel calmer, grounded and sleep better so that you can be a happier mum and a great role model.  

Can you hear the difference? 

Make it Valuable and Selective 

Value is in the eye of the beholder. If someone is desperate, ready, willing and able to change, then your offer will be more valuable by default. 

Just this week, a coaching student in my P2P course discussed her market research interview results. She was trying to gauge interest in a coaching program she wants to run, for her niche who wants to achieve some specific outcomes and needs help to develop the habits to get there.  

One person in her niche was desperate to change and lacked confidence that she could do it herself – she said she’d pay $1500 for a program to help her achieve the specific outcomes that the coach had mentioned her niche wanted to achieve. 

The other person she interviewed had the same desired outcome goals but was already doing some of the work herself. She said she’d pay around $500 for the same program – she obviously didn’t place as much value on the support being offered by the program. 

The first lesson is that the offer needs to mention the outcomes and benefits that are meaningful to the target audience (not the features, and not what you think they want). 

The second lesson here is simple – don’t try to make offers to everyone. Target the people who desperately want to change, right now, with your help. They’ll have a greater sense of value around the offer, will be more committed and will likely pay more. 

Not everyone will want, value or succeed with your offer. 

So, be specific about who it’s for, and not for. Be discerning. 

It’s no use trying to sell something to somebody whose heart isn’t in it, who is too busy, or who isn’t quite sure. They’ll more likely try to beat you down on price. They’ll more likely be half-hearted in their approach and get mediocre results. Then they’ll tell people about their mediocre results – or tell nobody about your business.  

You’ll feel like an imposter! And it will affect your reputation. 

On the flip side, if you are targeting people who are the right demographic or niche, who are desperate to solve a problem right now, and are ready, willing and able to do the work, then they’ll most likely succeed, and you’ll get great testimonials that attract more people like them. 

Simple, right? It works. I’ve built multiple 6-figure businesses this way. 

When I hear someone talking about discounts, I immediately think less of their offering. I think about the crazy ads on TV telling me about all the stuff I can buy for next to nothing. 

Make It Easy to Buy 

What makes something easy to buy? 

It solves the problem you’re desperate to get rid of, that you feel is huge, complicated and overwhelming, by taking you through a process that feels easy and simple and relates to the solution or outcome that you want. 

This comes to life in your strategy session, webinar, workshop or other lead magnet where you speak specifically to the problem you help to solve and outline the two or three steps that the client goes through to get to their desired endpoint. 

When people hear that there are three simple steps, they are flooded with relief that there are only three steps, not the thousand that were in their minds. It shows that you clearly understand what they need to do to achieve their outcome, and they’re also confident that you know what works. 

For example you might help “people who are disorganised and want to take back control of their schedule and life.” That’s the appealing webinar you might run. 

Your three-step approach that you talk about in the webinar or workshop could be something like: 

  • Step 1: Define it – Identifying the areas of chaos at work and at home so you have clarity on where and how to start 
  • Step 2: Plan it – Developing a foolproof plan to overcome the key areas so you know exactly what to do and when 
  • Step 3: Do it – Follow a simple, step-by-step schedule to get it done with the accountability and support you need to achieve 100% success! 

See how I’ve used some language that the target audience might use, including the outcomes that each step gives. It sounds like a simple process that makes sense to them – define it, plan it, do it. 

What the coach might actually do in the program is help them create a vision (what needs to change and why), then step 2 is to develop some 3-monthly goals (the plan), and then step 3 is where you support them to navigate small weekly goals and any obstacles that arise. 

In this example I’ve just given, you can see how using powerful words that are meaningful to the client to position the service. Foolproof plan, simple, step-by-step, accountability, support. 

This way of communicating your offer makes it way easier to buy! 

Summary 

Creating irresistible offers comes down to a simple three-step process. 

Firstly, describe your offer simply and clearly using the clients’ typical wording, to address the problem and solution that your offer can help them achieve. 

Secondly, make it valuable by only making the offer to people who are the right type of person – desperate to change, and unable to do it on their own. They’ll place way more value on your offer and be more committed to your program. 

Thirdly, make it easy to buy by describing simply the key milestones that your program will help them to achieve. This is about translating coaching language and methodology into what the client will get out of that methodology as a result, if they do the work. 

Need help crafting an offer? Hit me up on the contact page of my website to enquire about my June intake of private business coaching. 

 

 

 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#236 How to Grow and Scale Your Business with a Virtual Assistant

Listen Now

How to Grow and Scale Your Business with a Virtual Assistant

How does engaging a Virtual Assistant (VA) help you to grow and scale your business?

By taking over the tasks that frustrate you, or that you’re not good at – like marketing and being consistent online! A VA helps you grow and scale by freeing up more time and helping you get more headspace to focus on your income-earning work.

As the next episode in a series on how to grow your business and revenue, I talk to Kristy Smith, Founder of Virtual Elves, to discuss what types of tasks VAs typically complete, the benefits and value of using a VA, what’s required to engage a VA properly, and how to hand over tasks to a VA among other things.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* How Kristy Smith Started a VA Business
* How VAs can help you
* What onboarding a VA looks like at Virtual Elves
* How to hand over work easily to free up your time and energy

Kristy Smith is the founder of Virtual Elves and has worked with many businesses helping them to develop the strategies, methods and tools for effective outsourcing. She shows them how, with outsourcing, they can scale, grow and be profitable. She is known for her ability to see how businesses can operate in a more efficient way, and for walking business owners through the process. She uses her own business growth, mistakes and lessons learnt to give hands-on practical strategies that can be implemented immediately.

I’ll provide her contact details at the end of this episode!

Virtual Elves started in 2009 with just Kristy at the helm and now boasts an international team of over 50 virtual assistants, graphic designers, web developers and other various contractors.

Kristy is a popular expert in her field for guest podcasts and Entrepreneur education groups such as The Entourage and Her Business.

Prior to founding Virtual Elves, Kristy managed large teams and implemented front office processes and customer service training for private hospitals and 5-star hotels. A mother of two teens, she lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her husband and family.

If you’d like to connect with Kristy Smith and/or Virtual Elves:

www.virtualelves.com.au 

www.facebook.com/virtualelves

www.twitter.com/virtualelves

https://www.instagram.com/kristysmithinc/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/virtualelves/

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#235 3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

Listen Now

3 Proven Strategies to Grow and Scale Your Business

In this current podcast series dedicated to business and revenue growth, let’s talk about three proven strategies you can use to grow and scale your business – even if you’re relatively new to the business and have a few paying clients. Two of these methods discussed today do NOT require you to find new clients – which is often the most costly and time-consuming way of building your business. That means you can improve revenue immediately!

Background

When your business reaches a certain size, you might find yourself working at full capacity in terms of the hours you can physically work or the clients you can physically service in your business.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Upgrading Your Systems
* Changing Your Prices
* Increasing the Offers

You may reach an upper limit of income or find that your start-up business systems (e.g. manual invoicing) are inadequate and time-consuming to manage.

While there are no immediate problems with either scenario, a business that relies solely on you presents a level of ‘risk’.

What happens to the business if you get sick? What if you want time off? And how can you outgrow your expenses and start making a real profit?

These are just three of many considerations that might inspire you to grow or at least improve efficiencies in your business.

There is a saying that goes, ‘If your business isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.’

If you want to grow your business and revenue, there are several options.

Here are three of the easiest options for businesses in the early stages of growth (‘seed’) who have some customers and are ready to expand their reach, sales and profit.

Upgrading Your Systems

Upgrading your systems becomes a relevant growth strategy if you have reached a limit as to how many clients you can see, and therefore how much money you can earn.

Before you consider upgrading, you’d want to make sure you have regular cashflow and enough profit margin to cover the costs you will incur via systems upgrades.

Two ways of upgrading your systems include:

– Getting specialist help (outsourcing) and

– moving away from manual systems into more automated ones.

Either or both of these can free you up to service more clients. Let’s look at each in turn.

Upgrading by Outsourcing

Thinking about the outsourcing, hiring specialist contractors is an easy way to get qualified help when you are busy or need help in a specific area. This is known as a ‘business to business’ arrangement whereby you engage another business to complete specific work or tasks within your business.

It is also helpful if you don’t want the burden of buying and setting up software (e.g. accounting software) and just want someone to do it for you.

If you are considering outsourcing, you might not have the workload or cash flow to employ someone permanently, but they could do some monotonous but important tasks for you, or cope with irregular busy periods, so that your time is freed up to service more clients.

For example:

· Hiring independent contract coaches can be helpful for irregular work e.g.

  • busy periods
  • when you go on holiday.

· Alternatively, outsourcing allows you to hand over specific tasks or regular roles to an expert e.g.

  • virtual assistant
  • bookkeeper
  • accountant
  • marketing consultant
  • IT professional.

I will be talking more specifically about VA’s in the next episode of this podcast.

If you do any outsourcing, you would need to have a formal signed agreement in place before work commences, which clearly outlines the scope of work, specific duties and payment arrangements.

You’d need to have some clear policies in place about privacy, conduct and other things that state your expectations around quality of work and expected behaviour, and procedures to help hand over specific tasks.

Upgrading by Automating Tasks

When you start a business, you’re often doing a lot of things manually. For example:

  • Creating invoices in Microsoft Word.
  • Keeping track of clients in a log book, or an Excel worksheet.
  • Posting your social media posts one at a time on each platform.
  • Manually writing individual, separate emails to your customers, before, during and after programs.

When you switch these manual systems to automated processes and/or use software, you can save yourself a lot of time and mistakes, which frees you up to coach more clients.

Examples include:

  • Using dedicated financial software like WaveApps (free), Quickbooks, or Xero
  • Using a social media scheduling tool instead of manually posting (e.g. RecurPost, HootSuite)
  • Using an email system like Mailchimp or Mailerlite
  • Using a booking system like Calendly or Acuity Scheduling. For more info on these, you can listen to episode #105 Best Essential Business Systems or episode #106 Best Advanced Business Systems.

Increasing Your Prices

When your business reaches a certain level, a very simple strategy to grow your income without any cost to you, or without working extra hours, is to repackage services and/or raise prices.

For example, you might decide to:

  • raise prices by 10% and may also offer a bonus downloadable training course with your program – which raises the tangible value of your services and makes the increase more palatable with only a one-off labour cost, or
  • raise prices by 15% and re-position yourself as a highly experienced specialist in one area of coaching –raising your tangible value, or
  • creating a group coaching model to increase ROI
  • develop a premium (high-priced) specialty service.

There are many pricing strategies to choose from.

Pick the one that best suits your niche, your level of expertise and your business and lifestyle (working hours) goals. Work with a business coach to create the right strategy for you. You might also be interested in my podcast episode #202 Should I show pricing on my website?

Increasing the Options

When you start out in business, you’re often just focusing on doing one or two things well, becoming known, and getting a good reputation.

As you start to get more customers, you will start to see more opportunities to work with people in different ways.

By increasing the number of service options you have, you can grow your business and revenue.

For example:

– A short, DIY program with email support provides a low-cost entry point for people who are interested in working on one small problem they have (e.g. establishing a bedtime ritual for better sleep).

This means you are getting some income for very little live client time and gives them a step into your main program. This equates to more money for less time and effort (note: you would still need to promote this program regularly in order to sell it).

– A 1:1 program is now available as a small group program

This means you are earning more money per session, and also building a community of like-minded people who work with you and connect with each other. They are more likely to want to stay connected.

– Your initial 8-week program is now followed up with a 6-month maintenance program (VIP high-end pricing for individuals or mastermind, or moderate price for groups) or a membership.

This means you are keeping customers longer, earning more money and/or over a longer period, and helping your clients get next-level results after their initial program has finished.

– A higher value program where you add specific resources, a welcome pack, or package up other services or products such as meditation playlists, or a recipe book.

This means you can earn more money in the same amount of time.

One important caveat is this – keep your number of available services to 3 or 4, maximum. Otherwise, you risk entering the paradox of choice, where customers walk away without making a decision as there are too many options or difficulties in making the best choice.

Summary 

When you are coaching enough clients that you hit a ceiling of available time or income, or if you notice opportunities to help clients more or for longer, there are a few strategies you can do to take your business to the next level.

We talked about just three of the options today, including

  • Upgrading your systems
  • Increasing your pricing, and
  • Creating more options for working with you (but not too many).

If you need help developing business and revenue growth strategies to suit your business and niche, contact me to join my private coaching waitlist, which runs for five months in February and June of each year.

My private coaching programs usually sell out within a week of advertising, and you need to qualify to be a part of them. To enquire or join the waitlist, hit up my contact page and I’ll get back to you!

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#234 The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

Listen Now

The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence with Dr Joel Bennett

If you’re racing through your day struggling to manage your appointments and be present with your clients; if you’re stuck in your head worrying if you have enough clients, or whether you know enough; if you’re trying to get a lot done and procrastinating or experiencing overwhelm, then this episode is for you.

I’m interviewing Dr Joel Bennett, PhD, CWP, is CEO of Organizational Wellness & Learning Systems (OWLS), whose mission is to catalyse healthy cultures and communities from the inside out with science. OWLS programs, many tested in clinical trials, have reached over 250,000 workers.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Presence and resonance
* The inspiration for the book: The Connoisseur of Time
* How changing your relationship with time supports better coaching and business growth
* How being present creates more satisfying relationships

Dr Bennett’s programs, shown to reduce behavioural health risks and improve the work climate, have been recognized as effective by the US Surgeon General. Dr. Bennett is the author/co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles and seven books, including “The Connoisseur of Time: An Invitation to Presence” (available for free at www.presencequest.life). He lives in Texas with his wife Jan and relishes mysticism.

If you’d like to connect with Dr Joel, please visit: Becoming present: www.presencequest.life Resilience Coach Training Certification: 

https://organizationalwellness.com/pages/resilience-coach-and-consultant-certification Stress management tools and toolkits:

Toolkits

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#233 Running Pilot Programs for Quick Revenue (and Growth)

Listen Now

Running Pilot Programs for Quick Revenue (and Growth)

Whether you’re starting out in business or thinking of a new service line, it can be tough to break into a new market.

Pilot programs allow you to test a new service for the first time on a test audience in exchange for feedback but better than that – they are a great way to create business and revenue growth through live customer experience, results, reviews and referrals.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Why Pilot Programs?
* How to Create Value in Pilot Programs
* Building Revenue with Pilot Programs

 

Why Pilot Programs?

Pilot programs are a low-risk opportunity for you to test and refine your coaching or other program using live feedback from people in your niche or target audience.

But more than that, running a pilot program is a pre-marketing activity. It is essentially a soft launch that creates visibility, interest, engagement and excitement around your new program.

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

What I mean is this: by running a test version of your final program, you’re giving people a live experience of what you do, which generates positive feelings and other outcomes (which is what people actually buy – feelings).

You are showing you care about the customer because they’re helping you to make it exactly what they want and need.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, and there is far less pressure for you as you work out the kinks and bumps with a willing audience.

In return, they feel wonderful about helping you and they’re also getting a result in a structured, step-by-step process. Then, they are going to tell people about what they’re doing – spreading the word for you.

You can also share wins, photos, insights and progress along the way with your future audience to build their interest and excitement for your next program.

That means you end up with a refined product that exactly suits your target market – ready to go for a full launch – and with plenty of eyeballs on the next intake of your program. Much more fun than a pile of ads for something you’ve never tried or tested!

If you choose the right people for your pilot program, you’ll get relevant feedback to improve the final product, and glowing testimonials that will attract more people to your business.

I covered how to get the right people for your pilot program in episode #134 Five Top Tips for Finding the Right Pilot Program Clients. I explained why being selective is important, and how to find the right clients for your pilot program.

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

Now that we know why pilot programs are great, how do you get people to join your pilot program? Well, you need to create value by communicating the problem you help to solve, and the solution or outcomes people will get by participating.

How to Create Value in Pilot Programs

Two previous episodes of this podcast do a deep dive into creating value within the program. In episode #154, the Why, What and How of Pilot Program workflows, I talked about how to map out the steps of signing up clients, onboarding clients, and the key steps in delivering the pilot program to those clients, so that you can prepare properly, and then deliver a complete and wonderful experience to your clients that covers all the bases. In episode #155, The Value of Pilot Program Content and Emails, I described how to create value for your clients in different elements of a pilot program – basically, how to create value within the content of the program that you can then test with a pilot group!

Building Revenue with Pilot Programs

Someone asked me recently – does a pilot program have to be free or can it be heavily discounted?

The short answer is – it depends on the niche clients, the size and urgency of their problem, their ability and willingness to pay, and the importance of change to them.

If you think about it, someone with a big, painful, problem that disrupts their daily life will be more willing to pay, and to pay more, and to get help, than someone with a minor problem that has little to no impact on their life.

Let that sink in for a moment – it’s important.

How do you feel about paying for something versus getting it for free? Several people have told me that they want to pay me for coaching because then they have skin in the game and will be more committed.

And on top of that – as the saying goes – nobody wants a free kitten. Because then the question is – why is it free? what’s wrong with it?

So how do you price a pilot program? Firstly, I think the language is important. If you talk about discounting as it devalues what we do as coaches.

I prefer to say that “this first program as a pilot will cost $X, and future versions will be $X”. This can help people decide to buy now or to wait until later.

Generally, I charge about 1/3 to ½ of the retail price for a pilot program, with a clear requirement for feedback along the way (which includes verbal and surveys). So if it will eventually be a $1500 program, a pilot version might be promoted as a one-time-only price of between $500 – $750.

Remember that even with in a pilot program, the right clients will get incredible value, assuming that you pick a niche, you’re clear on the problem they want to solve, and that the aim/outcome/result is clearly defined and exactly what they’re looking for. That is where the value is created – the old ‘what’s in it for me’.

People love to help, and they love getting a sense of value (which is simply a function of the results they get – and how important the results are to them – in exchange for their investment of time and money). If they can get a result in your pilot program, they’ll be incredibly grateful and will spread the word.

This is how pilot programs lead to business and revenue growth.

Summary

To answer the question – why pilot programs? – they are a great way to give people a taste of what you do, and to create initial revenue, results and reviews (traction) that lead to future sales.

They are more engaging than the more formal and structured forms of marketing, in that they are experiential and give your customers a feeling. After all, that’s what people buy!

I’ve linked you to two other episodes of this podcast to help you map out the steps, create valuable content, and take your idea to the world.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#232 The Work Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

Listen Now

The Work Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

As a coach, you probably know about the power of keystone habits. But did you know that self-made millionaires share some keystone habits that helped propel them to success? This fourth episode about business and revenue growth highlights the importance of daily health-based routines as a foundation to show up with the right energy, mindset and well-being to achieve success more easily.

It’s no surprise that being healthy and having healthy routines is the platform for business revenue and growth.

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* 5 Habits that Millionaires have in common
* How to get started with your own success habits

If you think about it, how you treat yourself and what you do for yourself has a profound effect on your mood, attitude, energy, health, sleep and stress – and your ability to show up and do your work well, even on the hardest of days. And those things directly affect your business and revenue growth!

So what are the keystone habits that could bring you success? A 5-year study of 233 self-made millionaires and 128 poor individuals by Tom Corely, author of the book Rich, found some common habits that helped them achieve their success.

This episode is on the edge of a bigger project I am initiating which I think you’ll like – and I’ll reveal more in about a year after I’m finished.

For now, I will give you a hint about my project – while the points I’m about to mention are keystone habits of a bunch of millionaires – not EVERY millionaire surveyed had all of these habits. And rather than just following this list, I encourage you to come up with your OWN success habits.

So let’s dive into the list of key habits.

While you listen, reflect on how many of these do you do. Or, what’s your version of these?

Reading

In Corley’s study, 86% of self-made millionaires spent at least an hour reading after work, usually self-improvement books. Only 2% of the average income earners were doing that.

I loved this because I start and finish my day with reading. Marketing and business books in the morning, and fiction in the evening, is how I like to roll.

For me, reading something non-fiction in the morning sets me up with a positive, inspired and focused mindset for the day. Reading non-fiction at night (and sometimes in the morning) helps me switch off from work or get lost in a story when I’m feeling a bit fragile.

I think the upshot is that reading helps you to feel positive, to grow, to engage in stories, and to separate yourself from the stresses of life. It boosts your vocabulary and helps you relate to others in a similar way.

If you’re not a reader, you might be into journalling, or a podcast listener, or an e-book listener. Work with your learning style on this one.

Or if you’re not into any of these – totally ok!

Exercise

Consistent exercise was another keystone habit of the millionaires in Corley’s study.

This makes perfect sense. After a busy day (or before one), exercise gets you up, out of your head and into your body. It helps you to maintain good physical and metabolic health, and to release endorphins that help you to feel good.

During exercise, you get time to reflect, plan, and dream, collect your thoughts and step out of the day-to-day stuff. You get a chance to blow off some steam and release tension.

Exercise helps you to get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, helping you to stay competitive with yourself and perhaps others, too. This obviously helps to build self-esteem.

Last week I went for a 5km run with a friend. It was tough but there was a sense of ‘instant gratification’ when we finished. In that 30-minute run, I got myself to finish, therefore I got a tangible result (doing the run), and I felt strong, amazing, invincible even!

Exercise also helps you get into the habit of creating schedules. You also bring in an element of discipline both within the workout, and in getting yourself to do the workout.

Do you exercise? Why or why not?

How does exercise make you feel?

What are some of the benefits for you?

Sleeping

The Sleep Foundation shares a list of recommended sleep hours for each age group. Adults need 7 – 9 hours per day to function optimally, or at least a minimum of 6.4 hours per day.

Corley found that the millionaires in his study slept at least 7 hours per night.

Sleep research shows that sleep gives the body a chance to undergo a tune up. At different times of night, the body goes through cycles of physical recovery and repair, processing and embedding memories, and mental rejuvenation.

It’s no wonder that the amount of time you sleep is linked to success. It affects memory, mood, cognitive function and physical health.

Interestingly, each person’s bedtime is unique, according to their chronobiology.

How is your sleep? What is the optimal amount for you?

Thinking Time

It’s no surprise that most of the millionaires in Corley’s study carved out time to think or brainstorm. We spend so much time in the micro details of each day, that we rarely sit back to reflect on life, our goals, where we are going or whether we are investing time and energy in the right direction.

Since blocking out thinking time for myself, I have noticed huge efficiencies in the way I work. The realisations and mental links I make in my time out have saved me spending hours on pointless tasks, and on making impulse decisions.

These days, my time out (usually walking, with or without a podcast) gives me ample reflection to get clarity, direction and focus for my next burst of work.

The Mean of the 5

Finally, millionaires choose their friends and mentors carefully. They spend time with supportive people who hold space for them, who have experience, who are calm and not pushy or overbearing.

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn says you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

If you’re running a business or just doing life, this could include the podcasts you have in your ears all day, the coach you hire, your significant other, your family, and the people you work with.

If your people mix is not ideal, you can certainly make focused time with the right people, for enough time each week to keep your mind in the right place.

This is something I’ve done, and it pays in spades. I minimise the people and social situations that drain me or add no value. I intentionally choose to spend my time with, and cultivate relationships with, people who are smarter than me, better coaches, better critical thinkers, and who are thought leaders and knowledge leaders. That way, I know I am putting good fuel into my brain, having impactful conversations and building my mental and emotional energy.

Who are you surrounded by? How does that affect your energy?

How can you reduce your time spent with the negatives, and increase your time with the positives?

The Nutshell

While all these keystone habits are great, it is what they create that matters.

Effective habits are the ones that help you to feel inspired, invincible, strong, thoughtful, grateful, engaged, in flow, calm, full of zest, rational, creative, de-stressed, and empowered.

And why does that matter?

Because when you feel like that, you will show up with energy for your business, you will be consistent with the tasks that need it, you’ll be putting your best foot forward, you’ll overcome the hurdles more easily, you’ll be in a growth mindset, and you’ll feel the fear and do it anyway.

Summary

The habits discussed in this episode are based on a study of 200 people. We covered 5, but there were several more in the list.

The real point of this episode is that millionaires are committed to doing the habits that work for them. Their habits aren’t necessarily everything on this list – but their own secret formula.

As you reflect on what you’ve heard today, I encourage you to identify the habits that make you feel ready to tackle the world with energy, enthusiasm and confidence you need to grow your business and revenue.

References

CNBC Online https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/tom-corley-top-10-common-habits-of-high-achievers.html Accessed 6.2.23

Cohen, Jennifer. Exercise is One Thing Most Successful People Do Every Day. https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/exercise-is-one-thing-most-successful-people-do-everyday/276760 Accessed 6.2.23 Corley, Tom. Rich Habits Study – Background and methodology. https://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-and-methodology/ Accessed 6.2.23

Loudenback, T. 2019. 17 habits of self-made millionaires, from a man who spent 5 years studying rich people. https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/good-habits-of-self-made-millionaires?op=1 Business Insider Website accessed 6.2.23 Suni, E. 2022. How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need Sleep Foundation Website accessed 6.2.23

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

Posted on by

E#231 Annie Braendle on Health and Wellness Coaching with Athletes, an Integrative Clinic and Better Up

Listen Now

Annie Braendle on Health and Wellness Coaching with Athletes, an Integrative Clinic and Better Up

Are you wondering if it’s possible to work full time as a coach and earn the income you want? Are you interested in what a portfolio coaching career looks like? Are you interested in coaching athletes? Today’s interview with Annie Braendle answers these questions and many more. Annie’s working with clients in a face to face and global online capacity, leveraging partnerships, platforms and her own networks. This is the third in the season about business and revenue growth.

In this episode, we’ll cover: 
* Annie’s Journey to Professional Coaching
* Running her Own Business
* Working in Integrative Medicine and with BetterUp
* Coaching as a Lifestyle Profession

Background

A lot of coaches think it’s not possible to earn a decent income as a coach. There are actually a lot of options available, and when you understand those options, it’s much easier to see the ‘how’ behind your what and why.

It’s clear to see Annie’s journey unfold – from pursuing a niche in her own business that aligned with her personal life circumstances to working with a similar demographic at the Change Room, before moving into an Integrative Medical practice and the BetterUp platform. The latter opportunities have reduced Annie’s time spent on marketing and given her a regular stream of clients.

This interview shows that coaching CAN be a lifestyle profession, that it is possible to create a viable career, that you can find ways to get variety in your work, that you don’t have to do it alone, and that marketing can be easier when you make the right connections.

Summary

Annie Braendle is a coach to watch. She is using her skills and strengths, such as her natural competitiveness, to set and achieve goals for herself and build a career that is rewarding, satisfying and allows room for both personal and professional growth.

You can learn more about Annie here: https://sparkcourage.com.au/

You can learn more about BetterUp here: https://www.betterup.com/

https://anchor.fm/dashboard https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/habitology-success-habits-made-easy/id1449277541

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More