In this post: Are you staying to surface level in your coaching biz right now?
Establishing your online presence can have you running in circles trying to figure things out like:
Do I need a logo and brand colours?
What should go on my website?
Should I book a photoshoot?
Should I hire a designer?
BUT here’s the thing… none of these branding-related questions actually affect whether you land that first (or next) client!
Watch this post by clicking the image below or keep scrolling to read.
(This video is hosted in the Healthy Wealthy Society, a free group for health coaches & wellness entrepreneurs. If you have trouble accessing this video, you may need to join the group first.)
Need Clients? Ditch Branding and Focus on This Instead!
How are you today? What I wanted to talk about today was a consideration of whether you might be staying surface level in your coaching business right now. Let me explain where my mind is at today.
Branding is absolutely one of the most exciting aspects of running an online wellness business. Do you agree? And establishing our online presence can initially find us running around in circles, trying to figure out things like:
Do I need a logo?
What will my brand colours be?
Should I build a website?
Should I book a photoshoot?
Should I hire a designer?
But here’s the thing – none of these branding-related questions actually affect in any way, whether you land your first or next client. That's what those things are though – they are branding.
When you are getting started, and still trying to book consistent clients and bring in consistent income, branding is not your priority.
In fact, I don't recommend spending a lot of time in branding at all until you're really, really solid in what your brand voice is, your brand message and your presence as a coach. And that takes time. Rebranding when you've already branded once and you find yourself as you stop putting your business is pricey and time-consuming. And it's much better to know who you are as a coach, before pouring all of your energy into that.
Instead, I want your focus to be a hundred per cent on client attraction.
Your online presence is just the tip of the iceberg. Something you might've seen in masterclasses that I often teach or in my UPswing Mastermind is the Iceberg Method.
At the top of the iceberg, the part out of the water, the bit that other people can see – when you see other people's shiny social media, you see their logos, you see their websites, you see their branding, that is what's above the surface, but that has nothing to do with what is actually getting clients.
What's most important is what's below the surface of the iceberg. There are four steps. In fact, I just got off a discovery session this morning with a lady who said, she's been doing all the social media and branding and isn't getting clients. But then when I reviewed these four points, she didn't have these in place. So let's look at what they are, the most important things below the water level that make up the key iceberg.
1. Knowing your target market and what they need.
In other words, who is your ideal client and what specifically do they need. If you're not sure, this is the kind of thing that I do teach on exactly how to figure this out.
2. Clearly communicating what you do and sell.
This is your magnetic marketing messaging or clear messaging. And that has to come from step one, knowing what your target market needs. This is the main focus of your coaching. It's the doorway to other deeper work you do as well. So you can confidently describe in your messages, what you actually do.
The woman I spoke to this morning said one of the things she was struggling with the most was when people say, “What do you actually do as a health coach?” And she didn't know how to answer.
3. Offering a coaching package that people understand.
This is going to help them from a pain point to a solution. And therefore that they're going to be eager to buy. I call this a purposeful package. In fact, a couple of times a year, if you're used to being here in the Healthy Wealthy Society Facebook group, you know that I will run a Purposeful Packages Coaching Challenge.
Again, talking to the lady this morning, she had a generic six-month package that a coaching school had taught her. And she really was finding that wasn't resonating. And we talked about probably making a three or four-month purposeful package that is going to be much more effective because people will understand what they're buying. And then they're going to understand and everything she was promoting to, right?
4. Having the right skills and systems in place.
The fourth step under the iceberg is having the skills and systems in place to take on new clients and actually get great results. So this is about having clear onboarding, scheduling, pricing, and payment systems. In other words, all the backend parts of your business are set up, and you don't have to scramble each time someone shows interest in signing up for you.
Those are, unfortunately, some really common areas that health coaches and wellness entrepreneurs skip and are all in focus on, looking at the glossy branding, the glossy designed things above the iceberg that we often see. And we don't understand that successful health coaching businesses actually have these foundations under the surface that we can't copy from others.
No matter what your online presence looks like, you need to have solid messaging, a clear offer that you can articulate clearly, you need to be regularly asking for the dance, in other words, asking people to work with you. These foundational pieces are so much more important than a website or a brand or a logo. In fact, I believe they are the only ways that you will attract clients to work with you.
So instead of spending months, thousands of dollars, figuring out your branding, creating a website, I ask you to focus on what's beneath the surface of the iceberg instead and find out what it really takes to book consistent clients.
Inside UPswing Mastermind, we help each other discover our deeper foundations and how each of us can reach the people that we can help the most.
I just want to shout out to some of my UPswing clients right now, I'm very proud of you all. Many of them are getting clear on your messaging, these foundations, the pieces under the iceberg.
I actually did just grab one message that I got earlier this week that I wanted to share with you from a woman named Sharon, who was recently in our program. And she shared:
“Before I joined the program, I was randomly spiralling off in all different directions, without any clarity. I didn't know who my target market was and felt vague in what I was promoting. Working through the UPswing Mastermind program in a systematic way has thankfully put an end to this, giving me a clear, focus on how to move my business forward, reach my ideal client in a way that feels authentic to me.”
So it was a beautiful piece that we received from Sharon in 30 days. In our challenge, she booked four discovery sessions, sold three blueprints, which is something I teach, as well as two purposeful packages. So are these the kind of results that you want to be seeing in your business? Because what we focus on is what is going to get us there.
Once you know who you are as a coach, and you're really comfortable showing that off to the world, then you go deeper and help people than you thought possible. At that point, we could look at branding, but you need to be willing to go deeper than the surface level tasks.
We can often get stuck in thinking we're building a business when doing logos and colour schemes and websites, but the truth is the surface stuff is a safe distraction.
We could spend all day playing with templates on Canva and tinkering with Squarespace websites. It's a great way to hide and procrastinate, but if you really want to put yourself out there, there are other things to focus on.
Who's going to make your commitment? No more to focusing above the iceberg, let's commit to building a real business so we can have a real impact in the world.
If you'd like to get clarity on your message, create your purposeful package, learn how to sell it for consistent 5k months or beyond, I invite you at any time to explore applying for the UPswing Mastermind. After you do apply, we will allow you to book a call with me or one of my top coaches. And we can help You get clear on which step in the iceberg might need work, might be missing for you so we can get clarity on your plan for getting consistent clients. So at any time, check out upswingmastermind.com. That's there if you would like to explore.
So I would love to hear how this is resonating with you. And I would love to hear any different actions that you might be taking in your coaching business this week. Anything you're going to stop and anything you're going to start, leave me what you're gonna do in the comments.
Take care, have a good day!
Love,
Amanda xx
PS. Ready to create a purposeful package in your coaching business - and learn how to charge in a way that gets clients booked in with ease? Click this link to get instant access to the FREE training >> https://training.amandajdaley.com/packages
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