Show Me the Clients
I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Sky’s the Limit Radio by coach Wendi Hatton. She asked me to share how to attract more clients with her listeners. I invite you to read, listen, and “Speak Your Mind” in the comment box below. Thank you and bless you!
CLICK HERE to listen to the entire interview.
CLICK HERE to read and download the complete transcript.
Interview Highlights
Wendi: On today’s show, we’ll be talking about solopreneurs who have not enough clients, not enough income, not enough encouragement and support, not enough clarity and too much despair, overwhelm, fear and isolation.
[. . .]
Well, let me ask you, what struggles do most new entrepreneurs grapple with besides that, like around client attraction? Just like we were mentioning, maybe they just didn’t realize how important it is so they weren’t really paying attention to it. Is there anything else that they might struggle with?
Jory: Yes. Well, I mean, some people probably do have a little bit of what I had. I think it’s also related to not being super clear on your calling and super clear on your purpose. Even if you do have that clarity of calling and clarity of purpose, there’s always the chance that the group that you’re most called to work with is not a group that can afford to pay you.
For example, as a public defender, a legal aid attorney, and some of the other things I’ve done in my life, I’ve learned how to relate really well to incarcerated men and women. If I were to be coaching them, unless I were to get some amazing grant from the state, which is unlikely, I would not be earning much money, right? One of the problems that I have found is that people are called to, let’s just say, life coaching, and they believe it’s a ministry that they think, or at least they’ve persuaded their spouses to believe, that they can also make money from it, but they might not have an ideal client, a niche, that really is profitable.
You have to really look at what is your niche and relate that to, is it business? Is it ministry? Is it nonprofit? Because coaches in particular, you can coach anybody on anything. You can be a fantastic and certified (of course) life coach and help top executives. You can help people in prison, you can help people at your church, you can help people in your community. You need to find out, you need to ascertain, you need to discern, are you in it to help bring an income to the family? Are you in it to be able to make a difference in the world, but not financially. Right?
[. . .]
Wendi: Interesting. How is it that you help your clients? What is it that you actually do for them? We were talking before the show started that you work mostly in a local area, in the Baltimore area, and how does that all work together?
Jory: Okay, and I do want to draw a distinction. I don’t know that I do anything for people. I know that sounds funny, but I come alongside and encourage. I also teach, sure, but people have to do the work themselves. That was a lesson I learned early on. Maybe I’d been a coach for about three years, and I joined a very expensive, well, for me, I considered it very expensive because I wasn’t bringing in much money, but a very expensive mastermind group that met for an entire year.
They taught me really, really good material, strategies, and success tips, and all of that. Wonderful coaches, but I didn’t do the work as they wanted me to do, and so I didn’t make the income that I needed to make as a result — or should be making if I’m going to be paying that kind of money for a mastermind group. You really need to look at that. What I do, I do lead a mastermind group, yes, and I encourage people, support them, help keep them focused. I teach them what they need to learn in order to have a very strong firm foundation to build a very strong, firm, profitable business and they have to do the work. I just wanted to make that distinction.
[. . .]
Jory: My mastermind program does help people get clear on their niche. My mastermind program also helps them to decide which client attraction methods are the most important for them, are going to be the best match for them, because not everybody likes to get out there and speak, not everybody likes to write a book, for example. Which client attraction methods are good for you? Which moneymaking methods are good for you? Do you want to do one-on-one coaching, group coaching? Perhaps it’s better for you to have a franchise, a licensing agreement. What money-making models are good for you?
If you are going to have a website, and I’m not a huge proponent of having to do everything online, but you still need to have an ‘online business card’ to be considered, to be taken seriously these days, right? If you are going to have a website, we encourage you to do so at the right stage. Not what I did, I mean, I put the cart before the horse, I was like, “Okay. I’m in a coaching program to be a life coach. Gee, I better get my website up.” No, a little too early.
When you are ready to have a website, what do you need to have on that website? That would be an example. When you are ready to start speaking, how do you put together your sales story? How do you get speaking gigs? These are the kinds of things that I teach in my mastermind group; and in the mastermind group, we’re all about helping people focus, helping people feel supported, and helping people know that they are going to be held accountable. When you come to each meeting, “Okay, these are the commitments you made last month. Do we encourage you to do a little bit better this time or should we applaud you because you can cross this one off the list?”
[Please click here to listen to the interview and here to read and download the complete transcript. Thank you!]
Transcription by Alma Noefe
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