Getting Clients: Going From Clueless To Competent As Coaches

Angie: 00:00:00

John,

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John: Angie,

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Angie: hello again, my friend.

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John: it's always a pleasure

to be here with Angie.

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What's on your mind?

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Angie: You know, I always

have a ton on my mind.

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You know that like we talk

before our recording and

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everything comes out right and

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John: does.

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Angie: Do listen.

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You, do you consider us to

be experts at what we do?

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John: Somewhat, somewhat experts, but

not without challenges, not without

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problems or obstacles that we still get

in our business because that never ends.

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Right.

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Angie: exactly, and that's what I

wanted to kind of bring up today

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because I think there's this idea.

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That people think, you know, well

they're podcasting or they've got

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this, they must be, you know, like

sitting on some throne of knowledge.

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John: they must have all the answers.

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They're my GU and then no.

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Angie: So, so we're gonna kind of,

right, we're gonna kind of chop that

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down today in our session, right?

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John: Yes.

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Yeah.

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We want to be, we wanna be crystal

clear that yeah, we've, uh, we've

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been in the game a long time.

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We have had a lot of successes.

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We've had our ups and we've had our

dance, but that journey still goes on

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and, uh, it never ends for any of us.

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But this is the life of a

solopreneur, a business owner.

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It's just what you gotta expect, right?

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Angie: honestly, even, especially in the

coaching field, right, in this, in this

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field, because we've been talking about.

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Over, you know, the last several

conversations we've been having

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in our recordings about how it's

so much more challenging now.

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There's a lot more competition.

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And what does that bring us back to?

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Like, what is your number one

job as a entre slash solopreneur?

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Honestly, what's the job

that never goes away.

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John: Feed the beast.

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Get the clients.

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Angie: Get the clients right.

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It is

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John: hundred percent.

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Angie: It's, it's always, it's the

thing you can never stop doing and

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will always be your greatest challenge,

even if you're able to, you know,

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fill a pipeline here and there.

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I, I have yet to meet the person

who has stopped seeking out new.

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John: Let me ask you

this though, because, um.

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Is the problem that coaches have

when they start their business.

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And it can be an ongoing issue,

this whole thing of like, how

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do we keep getting challenges?

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Right.

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Um, what, what has the

experience been like for you?

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I mean, what, what sort of,

what's the road to getting clients

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filling your pipeline, so to speak?

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that journey been like for you?

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Angie: you know something.

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It.

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I look back right, if I look back on

all the years when I intentionally

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began coaching, like started a

business and you know, before that I

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was coaching unintentionally, had no

idea I was a coach, but I was Right.

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Didn't know.

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But I think initially it, there was

so many, there were so many obstacles

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and I think I was very shortsighted.

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Right.

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So my mentality was, well, if I

can, this is my business plan.

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This is how much money I wanna

make, and if I can get this many

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clients to buy this program or

this product, everything is solved.

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So that was my first big mistake.

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Huge mistake.

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Look at you laughing at me right now.

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John: I'm not laughing honestly.

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Not laughing at you, Angie.

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It is, uh, more laughing with you

because my, my own experience of

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starting up was, was an effing nightmare.

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Uh, I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

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Uh, and I'm, I'm gonna be

gonna be honest about that.

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It's like.

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I, I definitely was one of the, I

I, I feel like sometimes I criticize

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coaches for coming into this industry

and not having a clue what they're

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doing, but that's what I did is

like, uh, still, still around.

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Still had to figure out a little stuff.

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You know, I was, I was even writing the

other day about how I think I was even

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like very much had that sort of savior

complex thing going on when I started,

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and that was part of the motivation.

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I got very quickly disabused of that.

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It's like, oh no, this is

not the way to go forward.

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This is disempowering for people.

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And this should all be

about em, empowering people.

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You know, there there was a lot of

stuff that I got so badly wrong and

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had to figure out along the way.

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So if you think, oh, well, they're,

they, they've got it all figured out.

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I was like, I, by trial and error,

more than, more than anything else.

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I, I was clueless, honestly.

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Clueless.

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And we didn't have all the

resources that we have now.

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In fact, every, every other

ad on Facebook, if you, I

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guess this is the algorithm.

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But, uh, every other ad on Facebook

for me or, or Instagram or whatever is

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about, I could help you get more clients.

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I, I, all of this sort of stuff.

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And it's like, well, can you all do that?

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Is, is this all, you know,

the, who's the bro marketers?

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Who can you trust?

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Who's actually,

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Angie: Oh

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John: works?

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But they're all still hitting

that key problem, right?

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That's the key thing that co coaches need.

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Angie: Do you feel like that?

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So this is the thing.

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This is what comes to mind for me.

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First of all, I think expectation versus

reality are two totally different things.

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Even if you anticipate, if you're

somebody who has never coached or had

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a business like that before, you might

think, oh my God, think of all the

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people I know, and that's great, right?

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That'll probably feed

you for a little while.

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Nothing is forever your clients.

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Inevitably, like, let's be realistic.

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Even your long-term clients, which John

and I have talked about like very early

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on in our, in our recordings about, you

know, how do we keep them coming back

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for more, but we still doesn't, even

if you get a full plate, you need to

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still keep ideas flowing on how to keep

that, you know, that pipeline full.

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But here's the thing that, that I

wanted to expand on that you just said.

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It's like we come up with

these expectations and the

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realities are different.

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You and I, I think it's kind

of, it's a little stinky.

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Um, we had less competition,

but we also had less resources.

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Now you fast forward to today, right?

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My first actual coaching business

that I incorporated was in: 2006

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It was a long time ago.

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Back then, I was like,

oh, yay, I'm incorporated.

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I did all the right things.

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I had somebody build me a website for

a bazillion dollars, and it was a very.

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It was.

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It was great 'cause I wasn't really

competing with so many people.

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Now you have all these

resources and you are competing.

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Is it better?

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And you have, so you could get a

little bit more of a blueprint, right?

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John and I have been joking about

creating one for a year, probably.

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I don't know, maybe we

really need to do this.

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Keep saying that, but, but now, even

if you don't know necessarily who

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to trust, you could actually ask ai,

how do I start a coaching business?

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You know, you have more

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John: A hundred percent.

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Angie: so you may not know which path

to go, you don't know who to trust.

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You might make mistakes and still make.

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I, I don't wanna say poor decisions

'cause you're making decisions based

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on what's being presented to you.

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And you might go, Ooh, that really

was, that was, that was bad.

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And that could cost you time.

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But it's a very different landscape.

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There's plus and minuses

to both of those spaces.

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We didn't have competition,

but we were clueless.

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I.

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John: he is.

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here's how I think about it, is, um,

yeah, there's a lot of competition

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out there, but there's a lot of

clueless people out there as well.

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And, uh, the, the majority of it is, is

that, um, just, just being realistic.

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Most people don't have a

clue what they're doing.

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Angie: Mm-hmm.

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John: That's, that's life.

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That's business.

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You're going into it.

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You know, all these big companies

and corporations that everyone

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must know what they're doing.

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I can promise you there are people there

who were terrified of being discovered.

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There's little dead little secret

that they haven't really got

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a clue what they're doing or.

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What they're really supposed to

be doing or where to move forward

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or all those kinds of things.

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Business owners have that even more,

especially when we're working remotely

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most of the time and we're often not,

um, not really connecting with the

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people who we could get that development

with or feedback or growth with.

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You know, we are, we're not even, you

know, don't necessarily have the right.

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Coaching or, uh, mentorship to be

able to help us along that path.

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So you, it's fair to assume that a lot

of the competition that's out there

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isn't up to scratch anyway and is not

gonna stick around in the long term.

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Angie: Well, I think it's an opportunity

not to, like, I think everybody does the

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comparison, you know, like, oh, um, like

I don't look at Tony Robbins for example.

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I'm just bringing up the name.

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Because even Tony Robbins is

still out there shifting his game.

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You know, he went from talking about, or

he, he, his entry point a million years

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ago in coaching and speaking, by the

way, was from really like one, one space.

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And now, I mean, he'll talk to

you about everything from health.

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And wellness to financing, to now his

big promotion is about, Hey, don't

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get let, don't be left behind with ai.

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And obviously he's got resources

that most newer coaches don't have.

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Right?

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He's, he's, he's in a different,

he's in a different observation deck.

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John: a hundred percent.

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But you, I mean, you, you know, I'm

not personally not a fan of, of Tony

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Robbins, but I, I do at least appreciate

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Angie: at us.

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John: But I, but I do at least appreciate

what he's achieved and that he is at

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that level of status in the industry

or in general where he can just

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sort of switch between those things.

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Because that status, that, um, what

we call it, that credibility, the

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credibility carries over into all

those different areas, even the areas

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that he probably isn't an expert in.

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And so, yeah,

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Angie: opportunity to hire the

experts that'll say, Hey, let's have

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this conversation and let's create

some type of a format around it.

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I would say this, I mean, I don't wanna

put anybody down or, or dissuade anybody

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in any way, because I believe that in

order for something to be achieved,

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you have to create a vision around it.

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I don't think I would come out of the

gate, even today, if I was a new coach

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today and had access to all of these

resources and people and how they're doing

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things and social media, I don't think

that my aspiration would be like, oh, in

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a year I wanna be the next Tony Robbins.

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Right?

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Like, sorry, I'm gonna be 57.

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I'm not flying to the moon.

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I'm not, but that doesn't mean it can't.

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So, again, I hate to sound like that

because it's very not coachy to say you,

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you know, don't have that expectation.

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But I think that, you know, for, even

for people, I've been coaching a lot

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of coaches, I don't know about you,

and one of the challenges that they

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bring to me is that even if they had

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a a I air quote this a brand.

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Right.

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Which I think is a great idea.

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Nowadays, you don't wanna try

and be all things being a an,

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oh, I'm just a life coach.

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People are kind of shying away from that.

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They want it to be more specific.

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Right.

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What is your area of expertise?

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I don't want a general surgeon.

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I want a brain

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John: A specialist.

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Yeah.

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Angie: Right?

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We want that so.

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But some people are losing their way.

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They are getting these coaches that

I'm coaching, they're even getting

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distracted because they've been in

the game long enough where they're

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kind of like, well wait, should

I be doing something different?

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And they start creating and they

almost make themselves new again.

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And they fumble, right?

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They're tripping and falling

and costing themselves.

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Time in their businesses.

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So I'm seeing that with some

of the coaches that I coach.

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Several actually.

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John: Yeah, no, I, I see it with

coaches and speakers who I, who I

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coach, and it was most of my private

clients are in the speaking world.

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They're certainly coaching,

gets involved in that as well.

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But, but the same, you know,

people, people that have been

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getting a, a bit lost with that.

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Um, but the mechanisms, the mechanisms

for success haven't changed that much.

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And what has perhaps changed

is just the amount of noise.

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In the industry, uh, and you see,

we see all the people doing all

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the things and it's like, well,

we don't really need to do that.

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We really do need to focus in.

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And I think it's the hardest thing

to do because you feel like, um,

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when you're not at the level that

you perhaps want to be at yet, or

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where you don't feel the security of

right, things are going really well.

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Um, if you're not in that place, you feel

like you have to try every door, pull

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every lever, do all the things, throw

the spaghetti at the wall instead of.

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Putting it on the plate

and adding the nice sauce.

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You know, this is, this is trying

to do everything all at once

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and, um, it's unsustainable.

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Uh, and it's a recipe for burnout, as

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Angie: You know, I think that's something

that I'd like to talk about next time.

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I think it's something like

we're not quite done, but

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this is a great segue into.

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Like you talk about when

you're, when you're, um, you're

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coaching speakers, right?

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You're kind of saying,

well, what's your message?

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Right?

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Who do you wanna be?

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What is a, and again, I hate to say

the word brand because everybody

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likes to talk about the brand,

but it's still very important.

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I would like to carry this on into

our next recording because I think

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it's important that you know who

you, if you wanna create success.

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Before you start thinking about

the journey, you actually have

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to be, you have to start thinking

about the starting point.

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What is it that you really wanna do?

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And I'm gonna tell you when, when

John and I talk about people who are

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really not great at what they do,

they can, you know, they can tell

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you that, that I am this certified.

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I'm not certified, I'm a coach of this,

I'm a coach of that, whatever it is.

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Um, most of the time.

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Unless there is that, that

experience behind them.

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There are a lot of, there's

a lot of fluff out there.

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So I think because some people are coming

into it out of need, I lost my job, now

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I'm gonna be a coach and a consultant.

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But they don't really have the passion

and the heart that makes a great coach.

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So, do you know what I mean?

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Like that's,

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John: I do.

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Um, look, I, I think we can always get

better at what we do anyway, people that

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don't have the, the skills or knowledge.

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Those things could be gained.

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Um, but if you don't know why you're doing

it in the first place, if you don't have

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a clear objective of where you're heading

to or, or what success looks like for

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you, if you can't, if you can't really

define who you need to become in order or

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what you need to do in order to achieve

those things, the journey is gonna be,

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um, unpleasant and probably unsuccessful.

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So, so these are really

important elements to get.

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Angie: It's like starting a hike barefoot.

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at your face.

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But you know what that feels like?

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Like think about it.

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You know, I'm all about getting

my toes into the sand or the grass

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or something, but you know, try

walking on rocks for a little while.

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It's painful and it makes you

then all that hill look, even

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that much art, more arduous.

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Like who wants to do that?

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So, yeah.

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John: yeah, yeah, yeah.

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like standing on, stepping

on a Lego brick right.

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Is, uh, not nice.

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Um.

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: 00:15:37

Angie: Right,

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John: let's con, let's continue

the, let's continue the

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: 00:15:40

conversation next time, Angie.