I want to share something that's just been heavy on my brain inside of today's episode. It's something that's stirring in the coaching industry and that I want you to be ahead of. And make sure you stay to the end because I am going to give you the opportunity to really be ahead of the rest of the coaching industry and join me for something amazing and new that I've been working on behind the scenes.
Heya, I'm Amanda, and welcome to the Best Damn Coach Podcast, where I will teach you how to coach yourself, how to coach your clients, and how to run your coaching business. The number one goal of this show, though, is to help you be the best damn coach you can be so your clients go out and tell the world about you. Let's do the damn thing. Welcome amazing coaches to another episode of the Best Damn Coach podcast. I hope you are amazing.
And we are talking about something that's been on my mind for months now. I'm literally seeing it unfold before my eyes. You have to stick around because I'm going to really drill down on a tangible way that you are going to want to implement after you hear this week's episode. the state of the coaching industry. And what I mean by that is some interesting things I've noticed at the end of 2024. And that is that I was having conversations with people that I feel like I...
I knew that appeared to be doing well in the coaching industry from an outside looking in. People that have been in the industry and newer coaches just basically saying, peace out. And it's still booming. There's so much growth projected to be something like $25 billion. But with that growth does come noise. There's more people doing what we're doing. There's more obviously competition.
There's a flood of opportunity to be super cookie cutter. There's lots of coaches out there trying to give really automated ways to grow your coaching business, which appears great on the surface. But I think what that can also do is leave you feeling kind of stuck and overwhelmed and uncertain. And the reality is the coaching industry is changing. that's okay. Because if you look at every business, every niche, every industry, that's How we're built is to change and evolve.
And in today's episode, I want to talk to you about like one of the biggest concerns, the biggest things that I think you should be aware of inside the industry. And I think that this is going to also impact. 2025 and beyond. But what I also want to make sure I'm really clear of upfront is like, this isn't a problem for any of us. The benefit to why you're here is we're talking about it right now and we're taking action and making moves.
to accommodate the shifts instead of just staying stagnant and saying like, oh, I've always done this. It's always worked because it's true. It maybe has, but maybe it won't. And if it has, then double down on that. Teach people all the things. I do believe that the old ways of marketing are different. They're not working, I think.
You used to get away with posting generic content and that was okay. And you could kind of hope that, you know, there's enough of that generic stuff that maybe you'll get some clients come knocking in. I just don't believe those things are working anywhere more and people are smarter and savvier. Here's the kicker. They are more.
skeptical than ever. And this part is what makes me super sad. I'm so bummed about it because here's what I think we're experiencing in the coaching industry. And that is a trust recession. And this is the title of the episode. How are you going to overcome and rise above what I'm going to say is a trust recession? It makes me sad, but it also makes me freaking motivated to be at the head of the game. when it comes to this. And so... What do I mean exactly? Well, your client...
Maybe even you, which is me too. This has happened to me. You've been taken advantage of. You've maybe bought into a program or they've bought into a program and you get inside there and there's. totally, it's not what you signed up for. There's a massive under delivery. It feels like all these things were included, which really fall short. Maybe those programs leave you feeling super hopeless.
I think the other issue that is existing as far as that skepticism is also just the word coach. There are a lot of... Try to watch my generalizations here. There are many people that have clung on to this word coach out of context from my perspective. When instead of really being a coach, what they've been is like a product, they sell products.
Or they sell services that don't necessarily define coaching. And a lot of that skepticism for me with that title comes from many of the direct marketing services I've been. marketed to in that way. And really, it feels not in alignment with what I think to be true coaching.
Um, I've also experienced like gaslighting for mentors who have left me hanging, who've maybe left you hanging and people have investment PTSD. I mean, that's the truth. I don't know how to sugarcoat it because it just, there is some. some stress from investing in some stuff that just did not deliver or the people didn't deliver. And so they've got this bit of like sour taste in their mouth.
And so we can just sit with that and be like, okay, whatever. Or we can say, how do we rise above that? And that's what I really want to help you do inside of this episode. I want to define the word recession. Also, I went to the dictionary to pull this for us, but recession means this, a significant decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months.
And so it's kind of interesting because I'm using the word recession, but the coaching industry is booming. But I can't speak to exactly how that growth metric exists. What I can do is just tangibly share what my experience is. And so I think that this is a massive opportunity for us to ask, how are we showing up in this ever? changing landscape inside the coaching industry. And so how do we make changes in our own business so that we can still stand out?
above the noise, be relevant and deliver the heck out of the results that we provide for our clients. So I want to share a story about something that happened to me just to make this super personal. I invested, I've shared this story before, but I'll just go into a little greater detail this time.
I was looking for a course that would help me build funnels in my business. I was new to funnel making years ago and felt like I really wanted my hand held through a program that I could really understand, like, how am I going to make this work? And so I stumbled upon someone. and began listening to their podcast, attended a live training, reached out, and booked a sales call to learn more about their program. I learned that the investment would be about $25,000 for the year.
which it didn't, I mean, that's a big investment for sure. I'd made a few of those big, huge investments in my business and self before. So I wasn't super scared about it, but I'd also learned a few questions to ask. A red flag came up super clearly. They had told me it was $25,000. And then when I went to pay, they're like, oh my gosh, we misspoke. Actually, the cost is X. And so it was a bit higher. And so we went back and forth and they were like, I'm so sorry, this is the cost.
And I probably in hindsight should have known right then and there that they didn't honor their good words. So in my company. If we misspoke, we would like honor the mistake and give that person the investment. And so I was like, oh, I don't know. And I sat with it. And in the end, I decided, okay, I'm going to do it anywhere. I'm going to give them grace, whatever the case is.
When I got in there, what I realized is it was kind of like a DIY manual. It wasn't necessarily exactly as what was portrayed. As soon as they got in there, the coaching calls that were promised were taken away. And at one point, this was the kicker for me, it was pretty devastated, is I'd asked a question in the Facebook community about getting some feedback on something. And they said, due to the nature of this program and the time capacity we have, we cannot give you any feedback.
And they turned off the comments so that I could not comment back. And I was like, This is what pisses people off. This is like, this sucks. to make such a huge investment. And at the end of the day, what I actually felt like was I wasn't cared for, that my results didn't actually matter. And so I could have sulked and I could have been pissed. I could have done all these things. And what I had to reframe it around is like, I don't want to ever be that person. I don't want like...
People at the end of the day are not going to remember what you wore, what your branding was, what your website looked like, what your house looked like. They're going to remember how you made them feel. And even though people will come through my programs and have different experiences, my hope is that at the end of the day, the love I have for people and the opportunity to serve them is the thing that is definitely leading the forefront.
And so I think that this is also your opportunity is I believe the coaches who will rise above the noise, the ones who thrive are the ones not chasing the trends or outdated strategies. They're the ones. who are going to do some of the things that I'm going to mention today to rise above the trust recession. I mean, the cool thing for us and other amazing businesses is that word of mouth is still the number one way we get clients.
focusing in on that, like all the other stuff actually doesn't matter, right? Is if people are giving other people a direct suggestion to go work with you, it bypasses the need to build a huge runway of trust. And so here are really what I'm going to talk about. are three key things that are going to help you move through and rise above the trust recession. I really want you to wear the hat for yourself on this episode and ask yourself, am I doing these things?
Can I do them better? How do I need support in order to make them even better or work better for me? So number one is... that you run your business with authenticity and integrity. Today, as I'm recording, this has been a batch podcasting day for me. So this is my seventh episode I've recorded. I saved the one I was like most freaking fired up about.
to record for last so that my energy would be high. And the thing that was so cool that came from a couple of the episodes was like, Friends, the way you get the clients you want is by being you, not holding back a passion or facing or forcing a passion or pretending. It's owning the things that matter to you and talking about them so that you repel the people that don't care about them and you bring in the people that care.
That's why before I started recording, I was catching up on some Voxer messages and I got this amazing message from a client that was like, hey, it's been a week. I miss you. I cannot wait to be on a call with you. I was like, those are the kind of clients that I want in my world. And I was so pumped to reciprocate that.
And that's because I'm me. That's because I lead with love. I tell you the stuff that you need to hear and don't want to hear. I have some passion about things. And if it's not a match for you, that's okay. There's a coach out there for you. But what's happening, I think, more than ever is people can sniff that stuff out. They sniff you out if you are not authentic. They can sniff you out if you're BSing them. And that's because there's a lot of people doing the BSing thing.
Right. Or they fill you on a video. I was working with a client who's working on a funnel himself and he sent me his video that he was building. And I was like, look. I have to be really honest. This is not you. This video is... very bro marketing. You are not bro marketing. You are soft and sensitive. You're trying to be something that you think your people want, but what's going to happen is they're going to start coaching with you and they're going to find out you are nothing like the video.
And then what's going to happen is people are going to want to leave your coaching and you're just going to have this overall experience of ick. You have to hold true to your values, whatever that looks like, and the way you talk on social media and the way you organize your week and the way you talk on a podcast. You're going to have to hold true to those more than ever because there's a lot of people sacrificing them to make a dollar.
And that might work for a short time, but it will not work for the long run. But I think you have to ask yourself to like hold on to that integrity and authenticity of like, where do you shine? Where is the beautiful place that you're going to stand in the most beautiful light in your strengths and in your brilliance? And then you have to move into that place more and more. And so that could be that you are really great at teaching on webinars, then like move through that, move into that.
It could be that you're really great at social media, then like move into that. If that's where you shine, then the more you do that, the more obvious your authenticity will be and the more in integrity you will be in your own business. It's funny. Another quick story is I was on a call in this amazing mastermind I'm a part of, and we were kind of like, hey, what's working? Like what's working for everybody?
And it's like just customizing, like just customizing what people want. Like back away, we're moving away from the days of just generic stuff. And it's like, what do you need? How do I serve you? Because the crazy thing is that doesn't exist unless you create it for someone. Okay. Number two, the way you overcome the trust recession is getting people results. I mean, this is not sexy. But this is 100% where your energy should be focused. This is why we created the Framework Builder Lab.
It's because I don't want to be a part of the noisy certification space. I think that's great. It's great for some people, but I don't think another certification is the answer. It's building a process that you know gets consistent results and sets you apart from everyone else. results are the key. They are the highway to what I call the four R's in your business. raving testimonials, renewals, referrals, and all those things lead to revenue.
Think of it like the answer is results. If your people are getting results, they either go out and talk about you when you're not even in the room. They want more of you. They send people to you and all of that bridges to profit. And none of that actually has to do with anything. and marketing, right? One client, which was my experience, can turn into 20 very quickly when you deliver results.
But the other thing about getting results is that it creates social proof. So what this will allow is when results are had, right, people are going to tell you about it. Your clients are going to be like, this is amazing. Guess what happened? Right. They're going to send you messages. They're going to send you emails. They're going to tell you on a coaching call. And you get to collect all those things and repurpose them.
on podcasts, right? Which is why I invite some of my amazing clients to come in and talk about the results because I want you to hear how awesome it is when you come inside my world and how much I love being able to serve them. But you can put them on sales pages, landing pages, websites. You can build out an entire page of just raving testimonials that are going to be that social proof, right? Again, always going back to the same example.
When you want to buy something from Amazon, the first thing you do is go to the reviews. And that is a fast tractor. So if we're in a trust recession, the answer is building trust. And that comes from saying, hey, when you work with Amanda, these are the results you get. She is who she says she's going to be. When you go through her framework and her processes, you're going to walk away with X, Y, Z.
And what that does is the counter of it, it builds confidence in us. We're like, dang, I'm good at this. Dang, like I can build a business off this. And so I believe coaches that are rising above the trust recession are ones that have built. creates consistent leads. And if you are not a student in the Framework Builder Lab, then this is what we do. I really encourage you to go check it out. It's like the best money you're ever going to spend.
It's a low price point so that you can like have amazing ROI. You can find the lab at amanda-walker.com forward slash lab. Shameless plug. Okay, so let's get into the third one, which is where I'm spending a ton of energy helping clients right now. And that is building an offer in your business that is a fast track to trust. I call it the small buy offer. And this is so key because it's going to be basically a taste test. Think of it as...
If I walk into an ice cream shop and I see all of these ice cream flavors, And I'm interested in like, should I buy one or should I not? Like, this is why they have little tiny taste test spoons. I get to sample the flavor. I get to try it out. I get to make a decision like, do I want to spend the five bucks or whatever to get a scoop?
That same analogy can be really thought of in so many different businesses. And yet when it comes to coaching, there's so many people teaching like, just have a high ticket offer. High ticket is the way to go, which on paper, maybe high ticket seems great. five clients, 25,000, boom, I'm at 100K. But the problem with that, it's a massive, long runway. It's a long runway to build trust before people are going to want to spend that $25,000.
And so you spend a great deal of energy focusing on these few clients. And also you'd get to make little impact. Only serving four clients a year is great for some people. For me, it's not. I want to have way more impact in my coaching business. And so I think it looks good on paper, but what I still think they're missing is building that small bite offer.
That small buy offer is basically that taste test. And what we want to do is customize it for your business. I did this intuitively in my business since the beginning. I didn't even realize that's what I was doing. I just want to share a statistic with you. We're going on 72 consecutive months of five-figure income. And I am super pumped about that. I love that even more than our total earnings over time.
Because what it says is, I build a consistent business and I want that for you too. I don't want feast and famine. I want to know that at minimum, it's five figures coming in and I'm working towards six consistently. And so one of the reasons we've had that consistency is because we've always had that small buy offer in place.
So what that does is it gives them a low price point way to test drive you. So it lets them in, it gives them a taste. And then what naturally happens is they want to move in to the next thing if you've done a really good job of delivering it. And a few key things about that are it needs to be relative to who you serve. When I was in health and nutrition, my small bite offers were geared towards an audit, a nutrition audit.
So the pain point they experienced was like, they don't know what they're doing wrong. And in a very short amount of time, I could point to the fact that they were over consuming calories, under consuming protein. And then they were like, so delighted by that. You're like, okay, can you help me create the success? We have other examples of clients who, you know, we have an SLP. Her small by offer is actually, she has a language coaching program for toddlers to help them speak.
who are having delayed milestones, but her small bite is first teaching them sign language. So she actually has a course and it's more of a passive format. My small by offers are the Framework Builder Lab. It's a short, concise way to work with me. And now our newest offer, which I want to invite you into, is our small by offer intensive. And so what I do in both these offers is I teach something that's very specific.
I get my clients an immediate win. And then they love the work so much. They're like, okay, I can see that Amanda can help me. I want to move into that next offer. And sometimes that's immediate. And sometimes it's also, you know, takes more time for that to happen. happen six months down the road or a year down the road. But when they come to be ready to invest, I am top of mind. And so I want to speak a little bit more to the Small Byte offer because it's so instrumental.
taught this in the BDC and I had so many students go, coaches out there go in and implement it and have immediate results. I was like, this is the number one problem, right? You don't know how to get clients. And so when you don't know how to get clients, then we struggle to figure out. how, how to build everything else. So what I want to first tell you about is a free workshop I'm hosting. This is happening on the 19th of February.
I'm going to be teaching you how to get clients in 2025. I'm going to go deeper into the specific strategies that exist in 2025 that are going to help you move the needle. The small by offer is one of them. And so starting after that, I'm opening the doors for the first time ever to our small by offer intensive.
And an intensive is simply just a very short amount of time that I'm going to be teaching this so you can implement away. And so inside the small bite offer intensive, I'm going to walk you through the exact method I've used. to create 71 months of consistent revenue, and to take honestly a product, a program that was $79 and turn it into a six-figure revenue stream, all based on the notion of building trust. and creating an immediate and quick win for my clients so that they want more.
And I'm going to walk you through the exact steps in two basically days, March 4th and March 11th. And in that two week period, you're going to leave with having a customized small by offer for your business. You're going to know the problem it solves. You're going to know how to market it. We're going to talk about ways to get it in your client's hand. I'm going to teach you how to price it so it sells.
And you're going to have this very tangible thing that's going to help you get clients in 2025 and beyond. I can't wait for you to do this because... You're going to hear a couple of stories coming up on future episodes of the podcast that this has just been so instrumental that it's created like a business model for somebody that is now moving into that six-figure range.
And so I would love to have you in the intensive. I'm going to drop the link in the show notes, but to sign up now, it's amanda-walker.com forward slash small bite. And that is going to bring you right to the checkout page. We're also offering a super bonus right now because this is the first time we've done it live. If you sign up by the 2nd of March.
We are offering an opportunity to get 50% off if you participate in a case study program because we want to learn, like, how does this work for you? Get some feedback and really make this an amazing experience so that we can repeat it in the future. So I'd love to help you build your small by offer because I know how impactful it is inside of my business and it will be inside of yours.
So again, if there's a trust recession, the way we combat it is by creating ways in our business that build trust. And the faster we can do that, the faster we're going to bring clients into our world. And I've just seen firsthand how instrumental this can be inside of your business. And it's going to help you rise up above the rest of the people that are struggling to really be known.
So again, all the links for both offers coming up. Join me in the free workshop on the 19th. Come jump into the Small By Offer Intensive. It's going to rock your world. It's taught in real time by me. You'll download the workbook that's going to guide you. I have some amazing bonuses that are included. And I'm just so pumped to support you because this is your time. This is your year. This is the time where you're like saying yes. This is the time where you get down, you drill down and focus.
And I would love to be a part of that. Kudos to joining me. If this episode speaks to you, you're like, dang, she's spot on. I'd love for you to share it with someone else. Drop them a link. Share it in your stories. That's how more people discover this work that I am so passionate about.
And just send me a message. You have a question about the workshop. You have a question about the intensive. Then I would love to answer those questions for you in my Instagram DM. So hit me up there at awalkmyway. And until next time, go coach them up. One of the most important things you will ever do as a coach is ask questions. So I've put together a simple go-to resource that you can have in your back pocket as a coach.