Getting Clients When You’re A New Coach

10-Minute Read | 15-Minute Podcast Episode

It’s hard to prove yourself to new clients when you’ve never had a client. It’s like the chicken and egg thing - which came first? Oftentimes coaching - for new coaches - can feel like applying for a job that requires experience you can only get from having the job!

Nonetheless - The Ratchet Sage™ is here to tell you that this is not true. You can get new coaching clients without ever having a client. All you need is to know what you’re doing and be able to showcase to new clients that you can give them what they ask for, want, and need.

What You Need To Be Seen As A Great Coach

But before we focus on what your potential clients need, let’s focus on what you need to be seen as a great coach when you’ve never had a client before.  Coaching is a healing modality. Every great coach specializes in healing humans in ways they healed themselves. At Authentic Distinction, we call this: coaching folks on your biggest, yet healed shame.

Your Biggest, Healed Shame

The best coaches work with their clients on what was their own biggest - yet healed - shame. We learned from Brené Brown that shame is what you feel when you aren’t proud of something you are or were. When coaches specialize in their own shame, they are able to coach humans with a depth, breadth, width, and length that no other coach can.

More than that - you are able to have compassion for your potential clients because you know what it was like to be them! You understand what they are going through and what the road ahead looks like. In this way, you can be their guide to dealing with what you have already conquered in your own life.

And this leads me to my next point: coaches help humans go from a self-defined Point A to a self-defined Point B.

Understanding Their Point A

Your potential clients will walk into your coaching world believing that they are in a certain state and space and will be seeking your help to get to a different state and space.  The state and space your potential client thinks they are in when they arrive in your coaching world are collectively their Self-Defined Point A.

It’s very important that you speak to potential clients from the perspective of who you were when you were starting on your healing journey. This is because this is where they are starting when they begin working with you.  When you fail to use language, scenarios, and stories that would matter and make sense to someone who is in the beginning stages of healing what you specialize your coaching on - you lose leads and followers and fail to get clients.

It’s equally important that you encourage potential clients to speak with you and engage with you from their own self-defined perspective of their current state and space. Quite often as coaches, we can see that a client is actually here but they think they are there. If you try to engage with them to coach them from here instead of there - you will lose this lead and they will never become a client.

Understanding Their Point B

Your potential clients will walk into your coaching world believing that they want to be and do in a certain state and space and will be seeking your help to get to that state and space.  The state and space your potential client thinks they want when they arrive in your coaching world are collectively their Self-Defined Point B.

It’s very important that you speak to potential clients from the perspective of who you wanted to become when you were starting on your healing journey. This is because this is the perspective that your potential clients will have as they engage with you. Is there a better way to understand their desires, requirements, and requests than to remember what you wanted, needed, and asked for?  When you fail to use language, plans, and outcomes that would matter and make sense to someone who wants to go deeper into the stages of healing that you specialize your coaching on - you lose leads and followers and fail to get clients.

It’s equally important that you encourage potential clients to speak with you and engage with you from their own self-defined perspective of their desired state and space. Quite often as coaches, we can see that a client would be better off (in our opinion) here but they think they want to go there. If you try to engage with them to coach them to here instead of there - you will lose this lead and they will never become a client.

And this brings me to my next point: it’s not that hard to get new clients as a new coach! #YupISaidIt

How To Get Play As A New Coach

Getting new clients even when you’ve never had a client is really all about developing resonance between you and the audience of your coaching message. Whether you deliver that coaching message through content and copy on your social media platforms, websites, learning management systems, or communities, you can tailor your message so that your audience feels like you get them! Let’s talk about how to do that…

Develop Resonance With Your Clients

The first step is to learn how to see and accept your leads for who they are without your coaching.  The idea is to communicate directly to who they are; which is who you were if you are coaching on your biggest healed shame. When you talk to potential clients as if they are someone they are not, you will lose them and their trust. And because you cannot possibly know what each potential client is like, it helps to be able to go back and remember who you were then so you can talk to them today.

The second step is to learn how to hold space for your leads despite their current space.  The idea here is you want to communicate that while their current situationship ain’t pretty, you aren’t judging their worth or ability to turn it all around in their favor. When you hold space for potential clients as if they aren’t worthy of your space and time, you will lose them. And worse - their perceived value in you as a coach will decrease or go away entirely.

The third step is to learn how to engage with your leads in ways that show them that you know, like, and trust them.  This is all about using your content and copy to communicate that despite their current space and state, you know, like, and trust them anyway - and quite frankly they and others should too! When you engage with potential clients as if they aren’t worthy of your attention, appreciation, and respect, you will lose them. And the most tragic part is - their perceived sense of safety with you as a coach will decrease or become non-existent.

Offer Trust, Value, and Safety

So if you are a new coach who wants to woo new clients, you want to offer trust, value, and safety to potential clients in a way that is clear for them!  Even if you have never had a client, you can have the clients you want in no time if you showcase, communicate, and demonstrate that you and your coaching business offer trust, value, and safety.

• People buy from coaches who speak directly to them, as if they can see them. This is what establishes TRUST.
• People buy from coaches who they believe can help them by holding space for them, despite their current space. This is what establishes VALUE.
• People buy from coaches who engage with them like they know, like, and trust them, despite their current state. This is what establishes SAFETY.

Why This Works

Don’t sleep on this framework, I’m breaking down here for new coaches! Just so that this is clear as a cool summer day: let me break down for you why this framework works.

You Prove You’re Worthy Of Trust With Resonance

When a potential client feels like you know them inside and out (because you speak to them as the old you because you were them), they trust you because of resonance.  It’s this resonance that is built on trust that makes them book a consultation with you. How you engage with them in that consultation can develop resonance that makes them invest in themselves by investing with you.

You Showcase Your Value With Resonance

When a potential client feels like you can help them (because you've told them how you fixed your biggest, healed shame as you did the work), they see your value because of resonance.  It’s this resonance that is built on their perceived value of your coaching that makes them invest with you without a consultation - right off your website or learning management system - straight from your provided link. Isn’t that what you want???

You Up-Level Your Safety Factor With Resonance

When a potential client feels like you know, like, and trust them despite their current state (because you learned to know, like, and trust you after you did the work), they feel safe with you because of resonance.  It’s this resonance that is built on their sense of safety with you as a coach and business owner that makes them invest with you without hesitation. When they do drop them coins, they will be clear and confident in their choice because of how safe they feel with you and in your coaching world.

You Want To Prove That You Can Help

You want to prove that you can help leads despite the fact that you have never had a client. The fastest, least painful way to do this is to follow the framework I laid out above.

If this was too long and you got lost, peep the next section or listen to the podcast for the TLDR.

What You Wanna Do

Expecting to get new clients when you can’t resonate with them doesn’t make sense.  #StopBeingAshy

1. Build your coaching business around the specialty that reflects your biggest, yet healed shame.
2. Communicate to leads that you know exactly who they are and aren’t judging them because of who they are so you can establish that you are to be trusted as a new coach.
3. Demonstrate to leads that you know exactly what they are going through and can guide them through it so you can establish your coaching value as a new coach.
4. Showcase to leads that you know, like, and trust them despite their current issues so you can establish how safe your coaching world is for them as a new coach.

I know you are struggling with this bullshit...

You deserve to have Actionable Safe Spaces™ no matter how much coaching experience you have. It would be a huge disrespect to your gifts, talents, and abilities if you never had a client. Our industry is a whole fucking mess today AND you can be a part of that mess or work alongside me to disrupt it!  Trust; you’ve got what it takes from your lived experience to stand with me and shine in this oversaturated industry!

All you need is clarity….and I am here.