Welcome to a live coaching episode. I am bringing on a coach who is facing a struggle in her business that I think you're very much going to relate to, and that is how to fill up her client roster. She's fairly new, has some clients under her belt, but is ready to, in 2025, fill up her roster by May.
And so we talk about a direct, customized, personalized way that she can do this in her business. And of course, I make it also applicable to whoever you are coaching and what it might look like for your business to do the same. And stick around to the end because I'm going to really hit the one key thing that I've been talking about consistently that's going to bring in clients that are just perfectly suited for you and is going to change your business tremendously. Enjoy.
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. Hi, my name is Sally Visby. I am a mom life simplification coach for overwhelmed moms. I absolutely love listening to Amanda's podcast, The Best Damn Coach.
One of my favorite episodes that she recently did was called How to Get Clients in 2025. She gives such easy, concrete ideas. of ways you can actually start bringing more clients into your world. And who doesn't want that? I love that Amanda is real. She's amazing at what she does. And she shares such helpful. Just helpful things that you can implement in your world right away into your business. It's just so great. No matter how many times I listen to her, I...
learn something new each time or something that applies to where I am at in business right now, which is so helpful. If you are a coach, I would highly recommend jumping into Amanda's world any way you can. Jump on one of her amazing workshops. Listen to her podcast, follow her on social media. Once you start listening, you'll definitely want more. Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
This is one of my favorite monthly episodes. In all transparency, actually, we haven't had an episode like this in a couple months because we've been doing other promotions. personally invited Mel onto the show this week because today is a live coaching episode. We're going to just dive into some coaching. And I think when you hear her struggles and where she's at, it's going to serve so many of you. And this just gives you a taste of what it's like to come into.
our world. In the BDC, we do these kind of live sessions twice a month. We call them office hours. And any of the ladies inside the BDC can bring any question, just like Mel's going to share in just a little bit. And we get the opportunity to coach and support. And it's one of my favorite things. And so if you're listening to this episode, it's the first time you can apply, just like Mel, to be one of the live coaching episodes.
And I'm going to drop that link inside the show notes as well, because I'd love to have you as well. So Mel, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Amanda. So before we dive into coaching, tell the listeners a little bit about who you're coaching, what your vision is for your business, anything that you feel like is exciting that you want to share.
Yeah, so I am just starting my coaching business and just launching it. And so I met Amanda through the FBL, which was wonderful and helping me build a lot of confidence to move forward in this new venture. But I really work with executives and leaders that are feeling stuck. imbalanced, at a crossroads in their career or in their life. And I work with them to overcome that and to break through so they stop wasting time and energy and really start living a life that they want.
and without any regrets. So that's where I am launching my business as my niece. Amazing. Can you, I mean, just so the listeners have some context, like what did you do before this that made you want to pivot into coaching? Yeah, so I spent almost 25 years in corporate America and HR and change management and organization development. And my most recent role, I was an HR executive at a Fortune 100 company. I loved what I did. And I also was...
the person that I would need a coach for, that I would be a coach for. So I was, you know, feeling at a crossroads like I had achieved everything I had wanted. in my career, and I was really happy about that and proud of those achievements. But I was ready for something different. And I didn't know what that was for a while. And I actually hired a coach. that helped me think a lot about that and weigh my options and talk about and think about what I'm good at and what really gives me joy.
And honestly, I found in all my years in HR and the experiences that I had, what I really genuinely loved was spending one-on-one time with leaders and working through the challenges that they faced every day. And so that's what really got me started down this road of coaching. And I haven't looked back. It's every step has felt. Like this is what I'm meant to do and this is my next step. So I'm very excited to be here.
I love hearing that. And I think that's so relatable. So many coaches step out of more of an expert role, have an expertise. I mean, that's all of us, really. We have an expertise in something else. And it feels like a very aligned shift to now support people directly in that. So and like many of us, you are your ideal client or have some variant degree of that, which adds also this element of.
of empathy and understanding and relatability that I think is also, you know, a kind of like a superpower that you can bring to the So let's dive into coaching. You filled out an intake form beforehand so I could kind of get into your brain a little bit to see where we want to spend our time and energy. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what would be... the best use of time would be to really look at, I'm going to use your words, like how to ramp up the business.
You have a goal of getting 10 paying clients under your belt by May. And so the goal for us, or as you say, to walk away with some tangible strategies to do that. And also you said something in here I just loved is to also talk about managing the loneliness of what like you're used to being in this corporate environment with all these people. And now it's like.
ping, you can hear a pin drop sometimes when you're working at home. So I want to also speak to that because both of those are really important in the long run. So does that sound like a game plan? That sounds great. So 10 paying clients. Tell me a couple of things that are important around this. Have you been interacting with clients? What's working for you up to this point? So share a little bit about that.
Yeah, that's a great question. I think a lot of what I've been doing up to this point has been focused on building clients through word of mouth. And I'm just now starting to post more on social media so that I start drawing in more people or a broader audience in my network. And so I've been trying to start a little bit slow because I'm still in my coaching program, which is a pretty big time commitment. But I wanted to slowly ramp that up so that when I am ready to go full.
full into it that I'm ready to go get those 10 clients. And right now I'm considering 10 clients to be my full load at this point. So that's what I'm going after. Awesome. You know it's business when I bring out my pen and my sticky notes so that I can jot down things here as we go. So we're in serious mode. Okay. So what's working potentially is word of mouth.
You're just telling people that are already in your network. I want to ask more questions about that. Are you telling people in your old corporate network and your personal network? Are you speaking to both right now? Yes, to both. And both have brought clients my way. Okay. So we've got some clients under our belt from that already. Yay. That's a big win. Really big win. First paying client. You will always remember that. Shout out to Vanessa. She was my first paying client.
I'm going to keep asking some more questions. So when somebody connects you, tell me more about the process. Do you hop on a sales call? What does all that look like? Yeah, so my process is essentially a discovery call first. So about 30 minutes just for them to get to know me a little bit, me to get to know a little bit more about them, see if we might be a good fit for one another.
And from there, if they aren't convinced or, you know, but they seem serious about it, they really do seem like they want to do this, I'd offer them a complimentary one-on-one coaching session, a more full conversation that we can have. to get the experience of working with me and see if it would be a fit for them. And then after that, hopefully between one of those two, the sale takes place.
I'm not going to go through the sales. I think there's some tweaks you could make in the sales process, but that's a whole other conversation. I want to just focus on client acquisition, client attraction right now because I think your sales process will work itself out. over time or come back. We'll find, we'll find to get, come back into the BDC, of course. My shameless plug, but what I want to.
to say from that session, you have an offer. What's your coaching container offer? Like, is it three months, six months? What are you bringing people into right now? Right now I'm doing three months. That's what I've started with. Three months, 10 sessions. Okay. I love that, by the way. It's just to say I love a good like 90 day.
intro session. It gives you the space in the beginning to ask yourself, is this working? Is it not working? Do I need to extend that? So I love you're doing lots of great things. So kudos to you. that I want to start asking us together is how do we get more people in the door? And so I have lots of ideas that are churning in my brain. And one thing that as we go into, I think.
There's an important highlight here of coaching can go one of two ways or both. Coaching can remain in the private sector where you are working directly B2C, your business to client. And also, coaching can go into the – I'm sorry. That's private. Public. Private would be B2B, which would be business and corporate. I don't know what that looks like, but I just feel like you have a tremendous opportunity to sign corporate contracts because you have such a...
well-versed, grandioso experience in the corporate world. I don't exactly know how that would lace in, but I think there's definitely... corporations, or have you played with this yet? I started playing around with it, but I haven't like taken the step yet. Okay, cool. I would encourage you after our session to go back. I recorded an episode of if you haven't listened to it about.
corporate versus one-to-one work and what are the differences. But something that I would really encourage you to do is take that next step. And here's the important element of corporate is at the end of the day, corporations want to bring in people like us because they're going to move the needle in the important places, which is revenue.
and overall well-being and happiness because those direct three things impact the bottom line. And so what I would start thinking about in my brain is how does my coaching directly impact? the bottom line of those three things. I mean, if people are happier, they don't leave jobs. If people are happier, it's less cost for turnover, right? All of those things. So when I present corporate pitches, I'm thinking directly about How does my work impact those things?
There's statistics I usually find that tie in. But I definitely think your work, if you're working with a C-suite or so exec and they're at this place where they're thinking of leaving. And what you're able to help them see is like, okay, that grass isn't greener necessarily. It's actually some things that we can do here and now. And correct me if I'm wrong. I think this is kind of the coaching that you would do with them, right?
is like, hey, like, yeah, a career transition might be the thing, but actually it's like, are you taking care of yourself? What are your, what's your thinking look like? Like, you know, all those elements, I directly think that you could make some really.
Yeah, that really resonates with me. I think I spent so much time in the corporate world, too, that I have a good sense, a good handle on what's important in those settings. But I think that's really great advice because... I do think the type of coaching that I do would would translate to retention, more engagement and more satisfaction with life and career overall. Yeah, I forget this exact statistic. So listeners, don't hold me to it.
But there's a statistic I pulled for one of my corporate pitches, and it was like 72% of people who said they were satisfied with the people they work with and their environment said they would never leave their job. And so that's huge. And that's not everybody else. That's also me being tolerant of people and understanding people and leadership and all those things. So anyways, I just really feel...
But this is a great potential avenue. And I think for all of our listeners, a lot of you are overlooking this because most people are in the public. sector going B to C instead of B to B. I mean, I'm in public and I go B to B because I'm working with business owners. But man, corporate is such an amazing opportunity. And there's usually money that's allocated for things like this. I think that the next thing that comes up for me is actually whether or not you do both.
is I feel for everybody, the thing, Mel, you mentioned you're posting on social, great. It's just that that's not my favorite thing because it doesn't build. that trust and rapport. I think it's there as a nurturing tool. Once people discover who you are, there's a professional presence and a brand awareness that comes with those. They're all beautiful things. But I think especially in the beginning days, it's like the grassroots, like how do I get out and just serve people?
How do I get out and teach people? And so you want to add in that value level into your business, which again, many coaches miss. They want to go from social into a paid offer. And it's not that it doesn't happen. It's that we want to put something in between, whether it's a free training. But for you, what I'm thinking is... Wouldn't it be so amazing if you started and part of your weekly strategy was reaching out to corporate? Big, small, anywhere in between.
and just offer to come in and do some sort of training on employee satisfaction. or employee, you know, something that's going to showcase your expertise and then give you the next step into either pitching right directly to the corporation or pitching directly to the consumer. Yeah, that really resonates. Yeah, no, I think those are wonderful suggestions, like great, great things that I think they'll be hard, but I think easy enough to start trying and experimenting with.
Yeah, I think all it takes is like one signature talk. You know, if you think about it, obviously you mentioned already you were a student in the Framework Builder Lab. You spent time identifying, you know, the buckets of what you want to create. It's like now. the cool thing about the framework right is now we pluck one of the pillars out
the one that you feel like you can get the fastest ROI and can be the most passionate and potent with and presenting it. And you break that down into like one signature talk, right? And now you can take that one signature talk on the road and just even imagine what if your goal was to land one of those each month this year?
You know, by the end of the year, I mean, I know we're already kind of through the first, but we could still catch up, right? 12 or 13. But that reach would be massive. And for me, one feels doable. That might mean it takes 10 reach out. 10 scheduling of coffees, 10 reach outs to your network or whatever that looks like per month in order to secure the one. But once you can get in front of the one and then you bring somebody along that can take like video footage of you.
grab people that can pull testimonials and start building the portfolio of credibility of other corporations you've spoke to, then this could be like a huge... snowball for you. Yeah, absolutely. And that sounds fun, too. When you say that, it sounds really engaging and fun to do. So let's pause here. Questions, thoughts, like what's coming up for you? Other than yay. Yes, like yay. Absolutely yay. I'm feeling excited about that.
I'm also immediately going into how do I make that happen? I'm already action planning in my head because it makes a lot of sense to me. And I think I can add a lot of value in doing that. And I think the framework builder lab like helped me kind of build the foundation of. to your point, where I can pull these things from to support me.
in doing this. So I'm immediately, my head is going right to, okay, like, how do I make this happen? Okay, cool. I mean, to vet out the action steps too, I think. What I would do from our conversation here is create kind of a dream list of people. I would say two lists. One of who's already in your network that you could go and teach to.
right? Or in your neighborhood, in your network, all the things. And I think you're going to be surprised if you really look at that, what that warm potential list could be. And then you create kind of like that dream list because I think it's really important that we stay expansive and think way beyond where we're at because that keeps us moving forward towards the possibilities.
So step one is create the list. Step two is figure out how you're going to make the pitch. And that's going to look different for every person. If your best friend is a candidate. then it's going to look a lot different. That's going to be like a quick phone call. Hey, I was thinking, could I come in? If it's somebody you worked for, then maybe you set up a coffee converse, like you go meet them for coffee or take them to Lund.
If it's more of a cold reach out, you could ask people to introduce you potentially. And then the cold email would be my last suggestion. So I think that's where I would take my next steps. What's the list? And then what does that quote unquote pitch really look like?
I would work on those things before I even work about what I'm going to say. I mean, you can lock in the title, but I don't think you have to have your talk completely ironed out. I think because of the work you've done in the lab, you know, for the most part, what that kind of signature. talk could be, or maybe you give them a couple options on two things that you would be willing to talk about, A or B, and let them make a selection. Yeah, absolutely. Makes a lot of sense.
Okay. So first off is this value piece, which I think is key. And honestly, the thing too, as we're talking about this, it's just such a great example of how everybody's business model can look so different. I think of you and how potentially if this model – I believe this model will work for you. Great. is that means that maybe you might be somebody in the future that doesn't necessarily ever really host a webinar because you don't need to, right?
Or you might be a person who in the future never really posts much on social media because you don't need to. Whereas, you know, I have other students that rely heavily on social media because it's their favorite thing. And then, you know, their models built around it and it leads to a training. Or I have other students who we figured out. The neighborhood referrals, for instance, one of my clients who is a...
She has a couple of pediatricians and a couple of pediatric chiropractors, and all they do is feed her business because they have this relationship. So it's such a great example, you guys. as we talk through this, of how do you get outside the box? How do you look at who you're serving and your experience and really customize the business model that makes the most sense for you? And to your point, Mel, gets you the most excited. Yeah, absolutely.
One other thing, though, I do have to say around this is if I were you, the place I would hang out for social media is LinkedIn. Is that where you're at? That's where I'm at. Yep. Yeah. I wouldn't really even. toy with the idea of needing to be an Instagram or threads or X or anything like LinkedIn are your people. And this is the thing, you know, when we're talking about how do I get clients?
go to where your clients are and you're not known, right? It's like you have to be among them. If they're moms, then you need to go to where moms hang out at the gyms and mom group. You know, it playdates. If you are a woman seeking corporate clients, then you need to be in the corporate environment. So you guys think strategically around where your people are and spending time with them specifically. No, I, um,
I think this is exciting. I think the business to business has been sort of a stream I have been. thinking about and trying to research and look into. But this really, I think, packed it down into some actionable steps that can help me move forward in this space. So it's been helpful. It's funny because... I've had one of my corporate clients for about five years now. And it started, it's a personal friend who knew what I was doing and over dinner and drinks as like multiple couples hanging out.
It became a business conversation of like, hey, can you come in and essentially life coach a handful of ladies that are inside my organization? I think they really need this support. It's turned into now multiple corporate client referrals from that one person, which is my capacity. a few corporate clients at once because it is a bit more rigorous in my commitment and schedule to them, can be so powerful. And when I was starting to do it, I went to the Google and I was like...
How do I do this corporate coaching thing? And I found nothing about it. And then I honestly, I don't know a lot of people that even do corporate coaching work. I mean, I should say more in the performance coaching world, but I think it's just a huge opportunity for you. Yeah, sure. One last little plugin that I want to add in, and then we're going to talk about that loneliness element too is.
The other thing that I would like to like put into your future, which we are about, I've been talking about it on the podcast. I'm going to plug it again. One of the things I've been talking about is, you know. something that has worked for us. And I did this intuitively since the beginning, not necessarily... seeing the strategy behind it is also having that front end small bite offer. I'll call it, this is what I call it, the small bite offer, but it's more like this taste test.
So it's a litmus test for them to kind of be like, ooh, is Mel awesome? So it's a way that it's still paying. So like when I look at your model. You know, something that could change over time is that one-to-one session could become your SBO, your small buy offer, where you charge a low price point, but it causes them to have some skin in the game and you get the chance to over-deliver the heck out of it. And then it honestly just leads them into the next.
step, which is your 90-day offering or whatever that unfolds to be because our coaching offers are kind of fluid in a lot of ways. I did this when I was in health and nutrition coaching. I used to do it. It was called the Live Aware 30-Day Offer. But it was basically me getting to audit their nutrition and habits for 30 days. And I created a game plan for them. And it's so organically then sold them into a six month coaching container after.
And I think the problem I'm seeing and why I'm so passionate about this, you guys are listening, you're like, Amanda, I've heard you talk about this a million times. We have a trust recession in the coaching industry. People are like, is Mel really who she says she is? And how do we know? I like her, but man, I wish there was a way I could just make sure without spending thousands of dollars for it.
And so I think that it's critical that every great coaching business has that small buy offer and then the signature offer. In theory, it's like your 90 day right now because we want to think long term. We want to think about scalability. We want to think about revenue streams. And so that would be my only other suggestion about thinking about this.
It's not always great to just make it a one-to-one coaching call. What makes it even better is when we can take that small by offer and let it solve a really micro problem. Like you were in my small buy offer, the Framework Builder Lab. It solves a specific problem. Coaches build out their signature methodology. It leads into our signature program, The Best Damn Coach, right?
I don't really sell outwardly, honestly, the BDC that often because it's filled through the other programs. And so that would be the only thing that I would want you to think about and bring into your world and consider as well. especially if you're going to speak to a room full of you know, 50 corporate clients and the corporation gives you the opportunity to soft sell from stage. And you can say, Hey, I have this thing. It's this.
$90 thing. It's this $200 thing. And you can close at least 10 of those people and pull in a couple thousand dollars from speaking without being paid to speak. That's magic in the end. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And you guys, this is why I'm so passionate about this because I see it work in everyone's business. This is why we're launching the Small Bite Intensive because I want to teach you this strategy. So more to come on that.
I think the next episode, we dive deeper into what that is. But Mel's business is such a perfect example of why that could be so awesome. And then maybe, Mel, in the future, let's dream a little bit. Maybe that becomes completely passive. Right. Maybe it's when you're speaking, it's a QR code to a $97 offer. They can buy a training or a PDF or something and you don't even have to deliver on it eventually once you've made it well oiled and you feel confident about.
Okay, let's hit the final thing, which tugs at my heart around just managing kind of being alone in this and being a solo business owner, having been from that large kind of collaborative corporate environment. What are you doing now or if anything to kind of solve that?
Yeah, I think, you know, I have networked a lot and met a lot of other coaches to build into my network through my coaching program. I've met a lot of coaches that are in my network. And so that's that has helped a lot just to have other. peers or folks that are more experienced in this than me to run ideas by and collaborate with a bit. I've also... I think, really been trying to connect. Social media has been a big place I've been trying to connect as well. Just to...
connect with people and have virtual coffee or meet for coffee in person and catch up. And that has been what I have been doing for the most part. Of course, I have my clients who, you know, I love serving. Right. And I love helping and partnering with them. But that is all about them. Right. Like it's. Absolutely, I'm there to serve them. And so I'm trying to find these ways to feel the connection for myself too.
For all the reasons you just said, like I was in a corporate setting for so long and people are everywhere. Networking is everywhere. There's always an event. There's, you know, always a conference. There's always things going on that bring people together.
And it does get a little lonely when you're, you know, it's just me in my home office on, you know, Zoom all day. I've got to get out and I've got to see people and connect with people to re-energize myself. And so that's what I've been doing so far. Awesome. I think it's an amazing start. I think you can acknowledge it. You're early enough in too. And I feel like, I mean, because I came into this world, like having left teaching, so around people, but also I had toddlers at home.
So I felt like doubly lonely in some ways because it was kind of like I was trying to manage like parenting toddlers while running a business plus leaving that corporate environment. I definitely relate to that struggle. And here's some things that I would add that have helped me and they may or may not benefit you. virtual, but I also really, yeah, for sure.
getting out of your house because it's very easy because everything is so accessible to us now. And this is how I've always run my business is virtual. Even way before COVID, it just made sense because I had little kids at home to do everything virtually. But I think like being intentional about that. But one thing that I absolutely is a non-negotiable for me is I.
assuming you have a laptop and you can be remote, if not, you should buy one, but is I love to go work remotely at different coffee shops. So now since I'm homeschooling our son, we do that together every week. So we pick a different coffee shop. Sometimes we go far away, sometimes close. And it gets us out around the hustle and bustle of people. And yeah, I'm still working independently, but just like conversations come up.
People talk to you. It feels like I'm a part of something. And honestly, it makes me really proud of my business because I'm like... dang, I have that freaking freedom to go do this whenever I want. And I found that that's been pretty instrumental for a lot of my clients in the BDC when people are like, oh, they're in a rut. I'm like, you got to change up the environment.
Like you have got to go somewhere else because sitting in front of the same screen in the same place over and over is monotonous for anyone. And it's more monotonous for us because at least in a corporate environment, you went to the lunchroom, you stepped into a coworker's office. Like none of that exists when we're at home. I mean, I guess you could go into the kitchen, but still to me, it's not. So that's one thing that works for me. The other thing that I would encourage you to do is...
If you've found somebody that you're really connecting with that's at a similar stage is yes, coffee chats with new people are great. But I would encourage you to have regular weekly or bi-monthly sessions with an accountability partner. I've done this for many years in my business.
And we meet, you know, every Monday or every Wednesday, whatever it was. And the first 30 minutes would typically be just like to chat, catch up, like share our heart. But then we would meet for 90 minutes. The last 90 minutes would be. you know, GSD time, like get the stuff done that I'm avoiding. And for you, that might be pitching yourself to speak at corporates because I'm guessing just based on experience.
This will be the thing you probably resist, right? Because it's going to bubble up imposter syndrome and like rejection and all those internal things that we all come up against when we're moving into bigness in our dreams. But I think that's also like a really great way to not be so lonely and to know like you got somebody in your court and there is both the connection but also the regular accountability of whatever. you know you should be doing, but are not doing or are resisting doing.
Yeah, and that connection is what's so important for all of us, right? I think we're humans. We're designed to operate that way. So having those connections are just so important. I think it's a great point. Yeah. Mel, you're amazing. I'm so grateful that you just volunteered. Well, I mean, I presented you the opportunity. You said yes.
and volunteered to be on here with us. I would love for you to, though, just let us know where we can find you. So if any listeners want to connect and like, hey, Mel, I want to be your accountability partner. Throw us your socials. Yeah, so I'm most active on LinkedIn, as we talked about. So you could find me, Melissa Sedato is my profile. It's public, so it should be pretty easy to find me on there.
Awesome. And will you spell your last name for us? Yes, it's Melissa, M-E-L-I-S-S-A, and the last name is C-I-D-A-D-O. Good. I figured we might slip into that S not knowing it was a C. Yeah, that's right. Thank you so much. I'm so pumped for you. I hope you keep updating me along your... pathway. And I love really leaning into kind of this corporate discussion as well. So amazing job. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Amanda. Always appreciate it. of 10 powerful questions, I believe.
go ahead and head on over to amanda-walker.com forward slash questions to grab your