Ep #33: What It Takes to Grow a Successful Coaching Practice

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast, Episode number 33.

Welcome to The Life Coach Business Podcast, a show for coaches who are ready to up-level their business and take their impact, leadership, and results to a whole new level. If you’re ready to start taking powerful action and become the leader your business needs in order to grow and thrive, this show is for you. I’m your host, Amanda Karlstad, certified life and business coach, and entrepreneurial leadership expert. Now, let’s get down to business.

Hello and welcome everyone. I hope you’re doing amazing. I’m glad to have you tune in today. I hope that you are continuing to stay healthy and your loved ones are staying healthy.

We are starting to get some warm weather here in Minnesota, and we’ve officially opened our pool, even though we haven’t swam in it yet. But there’s something about just being able to look at it, seeing it open with the winter cover off. There’s something about that. Even though it hasn’t been warm enough here yet to swim, I just love being able to look at it.

I am a water person, so I love to be able to be by the water. I love having a pool and I know we’re all looking forward to being able to dive in very soon. Alright, so over the last eight weeks, I’ve dedicated this show to helping you navigate the current crisis.

And my intention with these last eight episodes was to offer you some key strategies and some key tools and just overall inspiration to help you move through and ultimately come out of this crisis well-positioned and stronger than you maybe were before.

And so I’ve talked a lot over the last eight weeks about some different strategies, some tools, and some really important mindset shifts that I believe are more important now, more than ever, to not only weather the storm that we’re in, but allow you, like I said, to come out of this even stronger than before.

So my hope is that you’ve been able to implement the strategies, the tools, and the things that I’ve been sharing in these last couple of months, not only in your business but also in your life. And my goal for you is that you’re ultimately able to manage your emotions and manage your business during this time in a much more powerful way.

Because let’s be real, emotional resiliency, like I talked about in last week’s episode is really, really important. I don’t know about you, but I know for me, some days, let’s just say it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. And I believe that emotional resiliency not just now but at all times is one of the most important skills we can ever learn.

And so everything that I’ve been sharing over the past two months, I hope they’ve helped you weather these last couple of months in a more centered way and help you manage your business in a more centered way. And so even though we’re not “out of the weeds” yet with all of this, I hope they continue to help you.

And like I said, help you emerge from this crisis in a stronger and more powerful way. And I do believe that overall, this time is a gift. It’s a collective reset. And it’s a time for all of us to pause and recalibrate and reprioritize what is most important to us, whether that is in our business or in our life.

And at the same time, I think it’s also extremely important to consider how we can best utilize this time and put things in place that will ultimately help us thrive in the long-term. So because of that, I’ve decided that today and going forward, I am turning the page, if you will, and I’m going to be shifting the conversation towards the future, towards where you want to go with your business.

And so I want to talk with you all today about what it really takes behind the scenes to grow a highly successful coaching practice. So as I was thinking about what I wanted to share with you all today, I thought about the fact that building a successful business, there really is an art to it. When I say the art, I’m talking about the art of your mindset, the art of how you manage and how you show up as a business owner.

And I firmly believe that the level of results you have in your business is in direct correlation to who you are being as a business owner. And so I’m talking about your psychology, your mindset, and how well you’re able to regulate your own emotions.

But I also want to talk about the other side to this and this side is what I would call the science or the actual strategy behind growing a highly successful business. And there is a definite strategy to it. And so I’ve really devoted the past couple of years in my own business to learning and now teaching this to my clients, along with the psychology and all of the cognitive tools and strategies that are required to grow a business.

It’s also about the types of strategy that we’re going to talk about here today. And so what I want to do is spend some time talking about what those are, and I want to talk about the – it’s really the actual anatomy of building a highly successful practice.

And so I want to share with you some things from the lens of my own experience and also from the lens of the most successful businesses within the industry today. Now, before we get into what that actual anatomy is, I want to just talk about what highly successful means for a moment.

And I think it’s important to recognize that highly successful is actually a relative term, and here’s why. I know for some of you, depending on where you’re at right now in your journey of building your business, I know that highly successful might mean different things to each of you.

So for some of you, that might mean generating your first $100,000 in revenue in your business. For others of you, it might mean generating a revenue of a million dollars in your business. So the truth is it doesn’t really matter what highly successful means to you right now and in this moment.

What we’re going to talk about applies to every revenue level within your business. And so for some of you, yes, this may mean helping you to generate your first six figures, and for others of you who maybe have reached that milestone or are close to that, you may be in a position where you’re now looking to scale your business and your long-term goal or maybe that next big goal might be a million dollars.

And so again, it doesn’t really matter what that goal is. Just know that what we’re talking about is going to apply to any scenario. So I want to start out by saying that building your business to whatever that successful level is for you is going to require extreme focus and extreme commitment.

And it’s also going to require a high level of emotional resiliency, emotional regulation, as I talked about last week. It will require that you level up your psychology and your self-leadership as a business owner. And I’ve talked in depth about all of these topics in previous shows.

But I want to spend some time talking today about the actual strategy around this because it’s also important to understand that it does require a very clear strategy as well. So let’s dive into this a little bit deeper.

So typically, when I see newer coaches that are starting out in the industry, whether they’ve been through a certification program or not, the bottom line is that they probably have gotten into coaching because they want to help others. And in most cases, they’ve been a client and they’ve experienced the power of coaching in their own lives, and what I find is that in most cases, what’s really the catalyst for them getting involved in coaching in a deeper way.

And I will say that when you come out of a coaching program, in most cases, there are, I’m sure, rare exceptions to this, you’re going to come out with some great tools. And what I mean by that is you’re going to have some really great tools to help all different types of clients.

And that’s one of the great things about coaching is that when you go through a solid or a reputable program, it’s going to give you the tools that literally you could probably help anyone. And so that’s one of the things that I love most about this profession.

But the problem with that and the problem that I see a lot of newer coaches struggle with is that they fall into what we call niche drama. And what this means is because they’ve been so immersed in, let’s say, the certification process as an example, and they have such a strong desire to help, in so many cases, they’re then struggling with what we call choosing their niche, which is essentially who they specialize in helping and how they specialize in helping them.

And I’m sure some of you can relate to this, or maybe some of you are experiencing this right now in your business, and here’s what I want to say to you about this. When you are first starting out, it is important to coach as many people as possible.

In fact, when I first started out, I coached around 20 clients for free when I was first starting out, and I think that’s really important. And I’m not saying that you necessarily – for you to coach for free. I chose to. I don’t think you need to. But the point is that it’s important for you to get as much coaching under your belt as possible when you’re first starting out so that you can gain that experience and start building your confidence level as a coach.

And sometimes that does mean coaching people who don’t fall within your “niche.” And in my own experience, when I was starting out, most clients I coached for free did happen to fall into my niche. But there were also some that didn’t. And I just think it’s important to know that when you’re in this phase, the important thing for you is to just be coaching.

So even if not everyone fits perfectly into your niche, it’s just as important for you to gain the experience in coaching them, especially when you’re first starting out so that you can get closer to knowing who you do want to coach. So that being said, it’s really important that when you’re starting to build your business and you’re gaining your experience, that you do start to identify who it is you most want to serve through your coaching.

And equally important is to know and to understand the problem that you’re solving. And so this is where you’ve heard the term niching down or choosing a niche as we refer to it comes into play. And it’s really, really important, and here’s why.

Because once you’ve gained that initial experience and you’re in a position where you’re ready to build your business, for most of you, one of the reasons you’ve likely gotten into this profession is so that you can be your own boss, so that you can have the flexibility and the freedom you want in your life versus being tied down to, let’s just say, a nine to five job.

And so the fact that you can make the level of income you want to make and not have to rely on someone else is really, really great. And I totally get that. In fact, that was part of my own motivation for starting my own practice.

But what I want you to all understand is that in order to build a highly successful practice, to whatever that looks like for you, there is going to be a real strategy that you’re going to need to implement in addition to the art, in addition to the mindset of this.

And so the first part of that strategy is first identifying who you serve and what problem you’re solving for people. So even if you can’t help everyone, it’s important to know who and what you specialize in so that you can market your business effectively.

And this is another reason that I believe it’s so important to coach as many people as possible in the beginning because once you start coaching others, you’re going to see very quickly what types of clients you most want to help, what types of clients you enjoy working with the most, and honestly, what type of coaching you like the most.

And this is going to help you hone in on your niche and hone in on it much quicker. And so this leads me to the second point, which is marketing, and what I mean by marketing is how you essentially reach and connect with potential clients and ultimately engage them in your coaching programs.

So your marketing system, your marketing strategy will be one of the most important elements to the overall success of your business. It’s truly one of the foundational elements of your business. I want you all to think about this for a minute.

I want you to think about, for a minute, just the restaurants, all of the non-essential retail stores about you that over the last couple of months have been hit extremely hard due to the COVID crisis. Think about all of the restaurants and the stores who essentially had to close their doors overnight, who no longer had customers coming through their front doors.

What I want you to see is that this is essentially the same for your business. And what I mean by that is unless you have a system, a strategy that engages and attracts clients into your business, unless you’re able to communicate your services and let potential clients know that you can help them, you’re likely feeling a bit like the restaurants and the retail stores lately.

You might have a client that trickles in here or there, but no real system or strategy that consistently gets them through your front door, so to speak. So this is why for any business that exists, it doesn’t matter if we’re talking a coaching business or any other type of business, your marketing is your life blood. Period. And especially if you want to grow your business to a high level, it’s going to be more and more important as you grow your business.

So for any of you that have aspirations to grow your business to a high level, and by that I would mean a multiple six and seven, even eight-figure level, it’s going to be really, really important for you to have a marketing strategy, a marketing system in place for your business.

And my recommendation on this is you start sooner rather than later. I highly recommend that you start implementing this in your business sooner rather than later. And I will make a point that this is something that I work extremely hard on with all of my clients in teaching them and implementing a proven and cohesive marketing strategy in their own business so that they have the ability to grow and scale their business. It’s super, super important.

So the next piece of all of this, the next piece of the overall anatomy of a highly successful practice, once you’ve identified who you help and what problem you’re helping, and you’ve got a marketing strategy to get clients in your door is your offer or your program.

Now, there are a lot of different ways you can go about this. This is one of the beautiful things about this business is that you can be really, really creative in how you work with clients. But here’s what you need to know. If you want to grow your business to – let’s just use a million dollars as an example.

You really only need one solid offer, one solid program that you sell to your clients. That’s it. You don’t need to sell more than one offer. But here’s what you need to know about that. You’re not going to get to a million dollars in your business selling a mediocre offer.

So instead, what I really encourage you to do is focus on creating what I call an irresistible offer. And what I mean by that is once you know on a very deep level who you serve and what problem you solve, then it’s about delivering a program to your clients that helps them change their life in a dramatic way.

And what I want you to understand is that the larger problem you solve, the more valuable your program is. So let me give you an example. Let’s say that you are someone that helps people get significantly healthier in their life or perhaps you help them overcome a significant health challenge in their life. Something that changes their life in a very dramatic way.

That’s a very valuable result that you’re helping them achieve. Another example of this could be maybe you’re helping your clients save their marriage. That’s also a highly valuable result. Or maybe you’re helping your clients level up significantly in their careers. That’s also a high value result you’re providing.

So whatever that is for you, I think it’s really important to consider making your program irresistible and really thinking through how you can deliver it in a way so that it not only becomes necessary for your clients, but it’s also something they’re willing to pay you for.

And so I want to go back to my original point here on this. You only need one offer, one program to build your business to one million dollars. So I really want all of you to get this so that you’re not going down the path of thinking that you need to offer five different things in order to make a million dollars. It’s just not true.

And in fact, the opposite is true. The simpler your business structure is and the more effective, the more irresistible your program is, the higher revenues you will generate. And here’s why. As your business grows and as you’re working with more and more clients, and as your community and your following grows, as you start to implement strategies and systems in order to scale your business, your ability to focus, your ability to deliver your programs in a leveraged way and to facilitate massive results for your clients is going to require a level of mastery.

And the fact is that you can’t get to that level of mastery if you’re offering five different programs. You can only get to a level of mastery in your work by mastering one offer, and that offer being irresistible. And know that the better that you are at delivering that program, the more results your clients will get and the more you will start to become known as the master in that particular specialization.

So I want to be clear that this won’t happen if your energy and your focus is being fragmented, if it’s being split between different programs, trying to market those different programs and creating content for those programs and delivering those programs.

Trust me, this will not work long-term. So this is also why getting crystal clear on your niche, on your ideal client, on your program in the beginning is so, so important. Because once you have that clarity, you can focus your efforts and then go out and enroll clients that you can actually help.

And for most of you, that’s likely going to come in the form of some type of online funnel. So let’s talk for a minute about the funnel. There are many different types of funnels and ways to approach your marketing. And personally, what I have learned and I believe wholeheartedly is that the simpler, the better.

And I believe this for a number of reasons. So when I step back and look at, again, my own business and the most successful businesses within the industry, when you really break it down and look at the funnels that are involved with these businesses, in most cases, they’re not complicated.

And so I really want you to understand that you don’t need a complicated funnel that has 15 different steps to it. What happens is that the more complicated your funnel gets, it becomes confusing to clients. But it’s also a lot more to build and manage for yourself and it’s especially more difficult when you’re in that building phase when you don’t have a VA yet or someone that you can delegate this to, when you’re trying to build this all yourself.

So for my clients, I always have them implement a very simple four-step funnel that builds their authority and allows their clients to really get to know, like, and trust them. And it’s really the most streamlined way to approach it and it’s the most effective.

And so when you’re starting out, it’s really important to understand that you’re going to have to exercise a level of constraint. And what I mean by this is it’s important to understand that you’re not jumping from strategy to strategy.

Because what happens is when you do that, again, your focus, your energy becomes very fragmented, and not to mention your resources, and so it becomes very difficult very quickly when you’re trying to implement or jumping around to several different strategies to do any of them well.

Because again, I want you to remember that this is all about the long game and reaching a level of mastery. And I want to just challenge you to think about this in terms of reaching a level of mastery, not only in your skills as a coach, but also as a business owner, and also in your marketing.

So to recap, if your goal, your intention is to build a highly successful coaching practice, I highly encourage you to, number one, start coaching. Coach as many people as possible when you’re starting out so you can gain valuable experience, so you can gain valuable perspective that will help you honestly move into deciding what your niche is much quicker.

And so that’s point number two is then being able to identify what that problem is that you solve and who you help. So who your ideal client is. Getting to know your ideal client as much as possible is one of the most important things you can do early on. Because the more you understand your ideal client, the more successful I promise you will be as a coach.

And thirdly, I want you to really make sure that you’re creating an irresistible program. So I think a good benchmark for this is to always ask yourself, “Would I pay for what I’m offering?” And what I would say to this is don’t be offering a program unless this is something you would pay for for yourself. I think that’s really, really important.

And from there, become a master at delivering your program. Become a master of working with these types of clients. Focus your efforts on delivering and building that one solid program and remember that that’s all you need to build your business to six and even seven figures.

And implement a solid marketing strategy that supports you, that positions you as an expert. And so for me, that means creating a high-value opt-in for your clients that allows them to get to know, like, and trust you. You want to be leading with value always and make sure it’s the right type of value that helps them take the next step in the process.

And lastly, I want to leave you with make sure that you remember that you’re playing the long game here. Remember that building a highly successful business doesn’t happen overnight. Know that it will take time. And in order to do that, just remember that your level of focus, your level of constraint in your business will determine how quickly that happens for you.

So it’s really important to not be what I call throwing spaghetti at the wall and jumping from strategy to strategy. Know that it’s important to follow one strategy and then tweak that strategy as you go. And once you do that, you’re going to have built a very solid foundation for yourself and your business and you’ll be able to iterate from there.

Alright my friends, I will talk to you all again next week. Have an amazing week. Take care. Bye-bye.

Hey, before you go, I have something amazing I want to share with you. To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m going to be giving away three free VIP Strategy Sessions where I’ll be diving deep into your business and helping you put a strategy in place for the next 90 days, so you have a real game plan on how to create results in your business, and finally gain momentum.

I’m going to be giving away one free VIP Strategy Session, the same VIP Strategy Session I offer to all of my highest-level clients, to three lucky listeners who subscribe, rate, and review this show on Apple Podcasts. Visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. I’ll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode. Thanks so much.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Life Coach Business Podcast. If you want to learn more about how to build, grow and scale your business and accelerate your results, visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com.