You're listening to Life Coaching Secrets Podcast, episode 188. Did you know that life coaches are needed now more than ever? I'm Frank Macri, founder of Thriving Coach Academy. I've trained over a thousand coaches and helped them launch their own successful coaching businesses. If you want to make an incredible income and impact as a coach, and have a lot of fun doing it i'll show you exactly how to get it done this is life coaching secrets
What's up coaches in this episode, I'm going to share the top five ways to attract clients. Now I have seen other programs put out all these wild lists where they'll share the top 20 ways, 30 ways, 50 ways to attract clients. It is really not that complicated at all. I'm going to share with you the five best and all of these five strategies are ones that we go into great depth inside Thriving Coach Academy. Now, there's a myth.
that you may have heard that you should be doing all of these strategies you should be marketing yourself in as many places as possible and this is not true the truth is all you need to do is dial in on one of these strategies as you're making your first million as a coach. So think of the one, one, one principle. What that means is one offer, one marketing strategy, one million.
That's it. Just focus on one. It's also not true that you need to be very pushy and aggressive when you're marketing yourself as a coach. You don't need to do any kind of intrusive. aggressive marketing tactics that persuade or convince or manipulate people to work with you against their best interest. This is not what marketing is about at all. It doesn't need to be this way at all. It's not how we teach it in Thriving Coach Academy.
more old school approach where you need to push your marketing onto others. How we teach it is about attraction. So attracting clients, you can find clients by attracting them. That's what I'm going to go over the five best ways to.
Not just find clients, but really attract them. I like the way the attract sounds more than find or getting clients, okay? So attracting is when you're creating an environment where people are actually drawn to you. They're drawn to your services because they see the value in what you offer.
They're the ones that are reaching out, that are asking to work with you. And this is how I've built my own coaching business. And this is how we teach our students how to do it as well. So let me go over the five and then I'll share with you some tips for... each of these five strategies. The top five strategies are networking events. That's one strategy. Speaking is another strategy. Social media is the third. Podcasting and referrals. Those are the top five strategies for attracting clients.
So I want to talk about networking. Now, a lot of people, when they hear about networking, they assume that it's just formal networking events. And you probably dread going to those because, you know, they've been very uncomfortable for you in the past. Or maybe you felt like everyone's just really. out there for themselves when they go to networking events.
I want you to see networking as more than just a formal event. It's about building a relationship and expanding who you know. And this can happen anywhere, whether you're at a coffee shop, whether you are on an airplane, whether you're in line at the grocery store. Networking is just simply connecting with others and being open to opportunities wherever you are. You might go to parties or various social gatherings.
And there's opportunities to connect with people at those events. So therefore, there's opportunities to network. So one of the ways that you want to understand. networking is really embracing the truth that clients are everywhere. So you don't have to wait for a formal networking event to meet potential clients.
As long as you're open for connection and you're mindful of opportunities in your day-to-day life to introduce yourself to people or spark a conversation, then you will truly find that clients really are everywhere. And some of you may have known from this podcast that I am in the process of finishing up my first book. I'm very excited about that. And I'll be announcing when it's officially done. It's going to be all about how to.
grow your own successful coaching business. And I'm going to have one of the most insane stories in that book for how I attracted a $15,000 client. So that's going to be in the book. Little teaser for you. Okay, so that's one concept to understand with networking is that clients are everywhere and to embrace the awkwardness. So networking can feel really uncomfortable at first.
But the awkwardness of an initial few exchanges with somebody new, it's normal for that to feel a little weird at first, but it's temporary. So one of the... One of the rules of thumb to go by is thinking about how your success in life, it really can be measured by the uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have. I think that's a quote by Tim Ferriss. So your success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have.
So just allow there to be some discomfort whenever you're meeting someone new. Don't let your parts of you that say, oh, I'm just socially awkward or I'm just introverted. I don't like connecting with people. You really don't want to hold that against yourself. I'm going to make a podcast eventually on the power of introversion. And because I'm an introvert myself, you don't have to be this really outgoing.
a gregarious extroverted person in order to be successful as a coach okay it's just about allowing those awkward moments to to be there knowing that they dissolve within a few seconds And whenever you go around, another thing to understand when it comes to networking is to show up to places as if you belong there because you do. For so many years of my life, I felt like I just didn't belong in different settings. I want you to walk into a room and just know that you belong there.
Because you are there. And just by having that energy, that confidence, it's going to keep you open to connecting with others. And people will gravitate towards you. just by you having that presence so it's not even just of what you're saying it's really how you're showing up and knowing that you belong wherever you go you belong wherever you are another thing people often wonder about networking
as a coach is like, what if you are at an event and people are already talking and is it rude to intrude and insert yourself into the conversation? And the answer is no. People are actually secretly wanting. someone else to spark something in the conversation because at a lot of networking events, people are kind of bored and they don't know how to leave the conversation politely. So people will appreciate the fresh energy that you bring by.
introducing yourself and inserting yourself into a conversation. This is not rude. You can simply go up to a group of people and say, hey, I just wanted to insert myself and say hello. I wanted to introduce myself and see what you all were talking about. A lot of people will actually be really... they will admire the confidence it takes to do that. So don't feel like you have to wait your permission to meet people. The reason why people go to networking events.
is to meet others. The reason why people go to any kind of social gathering is to connect with other people. It would be weird if people were uncomfortable with that because that's the function of gathering together for a networking event or a social event. Okay, so be willing to insert yourself into conversations.
And when you're meeting people, you want to make sure you're actually introducing yourself as a coach. And it's going to feel awkward at first. So you'll just practice. And over time, it's just going to roll off the tongue smoothly, making sure people know that you are a coach or that you have a coaching program.
And as you continue to share that more and more, it's going to be as natural as you saying your phone number. Okay. So know that just because it feels awkward right now to call yourself a coach, it's not going to always feel that way. Eventually it's just going to click. And it will just become a natural way that you introduce yourself to others. And there is a way for you to network and actual things you can say, whether you.
have a niche or if you don't have a coaching niche or specialty. And we show you how to network whether you have a niche or if you don't, we give you templates to know. ways that you can have very genuine, heartfelt, inspiring conversations. We give those to our students in the academy. So that's one way to grow your business through networking. The second best way to attract clients is through speaking.
So there's various ways that you could speak. You could speak at a speaking gig, which is when you are invited to present to someone else's group. And typically with that, there's some restrictions. You might be given a certain amount of time that you can speak. You might not be allowed to really talk about your coaching services. But the best recommendation I have whenever you are doing a speaking gig is to see what opportunities you have to stay connected with your audience. So it might be.
having them fill out a form at the end of the gig where they can provide with, with their permission, they're giving you their contact information. So you could stay in touch with them, put them on your email list and let them know about other. resources or events that you have. So really the speaking gig is the greatest way to use it is to get people to come to your own stage.
Okay. So it's way more powerful when you're on your own stage versus being on someone else's stage. And that's where the other half of public speaking really comes in. And that's by having your own workshops or webinars. Okay. Workshop is an in-person. event that you put together where you're providing value to people. And at the end of those events, you can invite people to book a consultation with you or directly enroll in your coaching program.
A webinar is the same thing as a workshop, except it is offered virtually. So from the comfort of your home, you can, you could provide a transformational webinar to people that are looking to receive value. And we give all of our students in the Academy done for you templates for how you can navigate and organize the content for your workshops and your webinars. So that way they're transformational. They're a lot of fun and they bring people in.
So you gather people for your workshop or your webinar, you give them value and you invite them to hire you. This is how I actually ran my business for a couple of years before I was training coaches. This was the lane that I stayed in.
I found it really empowering to do this because I would have a lot of fun. It felt like I was always creating a party. That's the energy and mindset I had around it. Like I'm bringing people together. We're going to have fun. It's going to be like this really cool party or event. And because I'm more introverted, I actually preferred to have more intimate gatherings. So I didn't want to have a big room with like 50, 60, 100 people. I wanted my workshops to be like 10, 15.
20 people max. And I was able to have very intimate workshops that I would offer throughout the year. And I had several six figure years just by having workshops that I provided in-person workshops. So there's absolutely a lot of possibility there for you. And remember, you have the flexibility no matter where you live. So if you're like, I don't live in a big city, I don't live in a space where there would be a lot of people that might have interest.
You don't need to. It doesn't matter where you are physically. As long as you have access to the internet, which you do because you're listening to this podcast, you will be able to offer workshops or webinars. And this is a great way for you to grow your business. And remember, no matter if you're extroverted or introverted, there's ways that you can make sure that your workshop appeals to your
personality appeals to the way that you like to connect with people. So that's the second best way to find clients through public speaking opportunities. The third way is through social media. Okay. So you might see other coaches out there that put themselves out there in social media, and maybe you have an aversion to this because you don't want to do it. And remember, as I shared in the beginning, you only have to pick one of these strategies, the one, one, one.
approach to your business. The one, one, one principle, one offer, one marketing strategy, 1 million. Okay. So if you're hearing some of these and you're thinking, I don't want to do that, but I don't want to do that. Just focus on the one that you are drawn to the one that you're curious about. All right. So social media, this is where you share value.
and you share stories you share frameworks with people on social media platforms now the key here is to pick one platform so you don't need to be on tick tock on linkedin on facebook on twitter on everything you don't have to be on every single platform Just pick one and stay to that lane. There's no one platform that's better than another.
The other thing to remember here is when you're posting and sharing content on social media, do not obsess with the vanity metrics. What I mean by that is obsessing over how many likes are getting, how many comments are getting, how many shares you're getting. Okay, this is really not important. Most of your clients that you will attract from social media are silently admiring your work that you're putting out there.
And think about it as well. When you use social media, are you clicking like on every single thing that you actually like? Are you commenting on every single post that provokes a response for you? Are you actually commenting on everything? The answer is likely no, like only a very small portion.
of people are actually gonna be liking everything or commenting on everything. It's just not how most people use social media. So do not be concerned if you are not getting likes and comments and shares. You just wanna continue offering value. So every post is a way for you to offer value. It could be a story. It could be a little.
It can be a little framework that you teach. It's all just about providing little ways to encourage people or educate them on whatever topic it is that you provide coaching on. And over time, you build a relationship with somebody. If you prefer... to be more elaborate and thorough, then you want to focus on doing long form content. So meaning longer, perhaps longer videos, longer posts. If you're someone that prefers to be more succinct, then you're going to provide short form content.
And this is where you'll provide like bite-sized content. It might be a short video under two minutes. So there's really either of those approaches will work. You just figure out which aligns with your communication style. If you are more into long form, you'd like to elaborate, then you might be someone that is drawn to posting videos on YouTube. If you're someone that prefers being more succinct and direct, then you might prefer to make like short-term videos on TikTok or Instagram.
So you just figure out what is your way of communicating and you focus on that. That's the third way that you can attract clients to your business through social media. All right, let's talk about the last two. Number four is through podcasting. And, you know, I'm partial here. I love podcasting. I've had several podcasts so far in my life. And this is a really amazing way for you to attract clients to your business. What's really awesome about podcasting is that people generally.
look into podcasts because they want to learn they want to grow in an area so they're already investing time there you know when people are on a podcast they're looking to like listen about a topic for a considerable amount of time. So you're able to have a very intimate connection with somebody through podcasting. I mean, you're literally in their ear and they're listening directly to you.
We have a podcast launcher, which is a course we have inside of Thriving Coach Academy. It's included with our tuition and it's inspired many of our own coaches to launch their own podcast. We've had some of our coaches have top ranked podcasts and they've been able to. attract clients simply through podcasting. Now you could be a guest on other people's podcasts and that's great. That's a way for you to be exposed to someone else's audience.
If you are a guest on someone's podcast, kind of similar to the approach you'd want to take with doing speaking gigs is you want to invite the people listening to come to your territory, come over to your podcast to get more support. All right. So make sure that. If you are a guest on other people's podcasts, you're inviting them if they want more to go to your podcast where they can subscribe and learn more about the topic and learn more about your particular offer that you have.
Podcasting is amazing. It's so convenient nowadays. You're able to record from the comfort of your home. You don't need lots of fancy equipment. Not really much you need besides a microphone. So there's a lot of opportunity for you to podcast. And this is a great way for you to attract clients to your business. That's number four. And then number five is through referrals. Now, I think they should be.
required, no matter which of the other approaches you take, make sure that referrals are definitely embedded into your business. You can have referrals from three different sources. You can have them come from your current and previous clients. from your network and from what I call your dream 15.
And I'll explain what all those are. So your current and previous clients, right? When your clients have received value from working with you, it's very natural, right? When someone receives value that they'll want to help others also receive that value or that they will want to...
provide you with other people that could become a good fit for your coaching. But a lot of coaches assume that people should just naturally refer people to you. This is not true. It is important that you directly ask your clients. when they receive value to send others your way. And this is a nice way for you to unlock a gold mine in your business when you're able to invite your potential, your current clients and your past clients to refer others to you.
So make sure you are doing that. We give our coaches templates on how exactly to ask this and incentivize it with your clients. So we make it very simple. Your current network also could be a source of referrals. There could be...
your network your friends your family your extended extended network they might know people that would be a great fit for your coaching so making sure that you let them know that you are open to receiving referrals right again we don't want to assume that people just because we might share something about our
business online that they will naturally just send people to us. You want to directly let people know that you are taking on referrals. And then your dream 15. So your dream 15 are people out there that congregate your ideal client. So it might be people that have access or have a certain group that they are a leader of. It might be someone on social media that has a following of your ideal clients. Okay, these people.
You're going to make a list and you come up with 15 of them and that's called your dream 15. So you establish relationships with your dream 15 over time. You see what ways that you can create a win-win partnership and they will over time. When you have that relationship built and you're providing value to them as well, they may be willing to also share your coaching services with their network. Okay. So it's kind of like a business, like some people call it a joint venture.
Or like business friends with benefits. That's how I think about it. Basically other people that have an audience that would benefit from knowing about you. So that's your dream 15. So these are. the five best ways to attract clients. That's it. It's very simple. So think about these five. Remember, you don't have to do all of these as long as you can really focus on one.
one offer, one marketing strategy, that'll take you to your first million. We're going to keep it so simple for you. So if you're ready to grow the coaching business of your dreams, go on and head over to thrivingcoachacademy.com.
And get yourself access to our coaching one-on-one training. This is going to lay out for you exactly how you can create your coaching business. We're going to share with you the exact curriculum that has been proven for many years now in supporting coaches and having very successful businesses. And we'd love to see if we can help you out. Now, before you go, I'm going to leave this episode with a little snippet from a recording.
of an interview that I did with one of our coaches inside the academy so you can hear about their experience and also hear about their tips for how to be successful as a coach. So enjoy their story and I will see you in the next episode. I'm Joshua Wright. I am a student of the academy. And what led me to coaching was really sort of...
a feeling of unfulfillment in my current role. I'm very satisfied and happy with where I work. But, you know, there's always that feeling of something different, right? Maybe is the grass really green or somewhere else? But really, it just got to what do I like about my job and my prior jobs? And it related to people.
and how you work with people and for people. And it never got down to like the substance of my job. And so I thought maybe the right path for me would be taking on a role such as life coaching where you're actually working with people. You're not working in documents.
you're really helping them sort of push through their blocks. I've loved everything about the academy, but the thing that I've found most amazing was certainly the depth of the skills that you learn, right? There's not a session of practice coaching, not a session of math. coaching that doesn't, I don't pick up something from. There's certainly a ton of
hesitations when unrolling, right? It's the what ifs. What if it's not the right time? What if it's not going to be right for me? What if people don't like me or what if I don't like them? So really all of the what ifs were a dialogue in my own head. And ultimately, I think it just came down to, I'm never going to get rid of the what ifs.
If I look at a different role in a different way for still being a lawyer, but in-house or whatever, there's still going to be what ifs. There's never going to be a time when I'm going to be wholly 100% certain. So I might as well take the investment and transfer on myself. That feels right and feels exciting.
I think this win has certainly been recurring clients who between sessions are constantly texting me with their newest win for themselves, right? And being able to sort of identify with the client.
having busted through some wall or some thought that they were having and now celebrating their own success and then sharing that with me. I think that's the biggest one and fulfilling part about is when you can really see that growth or excitement that that person is going through and that keeps coming back.
to. I'm quitting my job. There's already a final end date and I'm starting my own life coaching practice. It's four months out before my end date, but I said, you know, I'm going. So professionally, I'm just so excited to take that path. And then personally, I'm going to be able to
Do all the things I think that make me tick and are exciting. The creativity of running your own business, social media, marketing yourself, talking to people. I mean, I'm so excited to talk to people about what I do, but also just have the free time that I want, right? I'm no longer at the beck and call of my clients as a lawyer.
I now get to set my own schedule. So any prospective student that's considering the academy, I'm going to steal Nike's trademarked copyrighted logo right now, but just do it, right? The idea of maybe something that is better out there is always going to be an idea that you're going to have. But whether or not... something's worth the investment on yourself, the answer is always yes. You'll learn our coach's secrets. I'll see you on the next one. inside.