102 | 5 Years of (Brutally) Honest Business Experience in 15 Minutes

Jo Lott: 00:00:58

Hello and welcome to Women in the Coaching arena podcast.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor and ICF accredited coach and I help coaches to build brilliant businesses.

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I know that when you prepare to enter the arena there is fear, self doubt, comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

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You can tend to armour up and protect yourself from vulnerability.

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In this podcast I'll be sharing honest, not hype, practical and emotional tools to support you to make the difference that you're here for DARE greatly you belong in this arena.

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Hello, welcome to episode 102 of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I am so glad you are here today.

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I'm condensing five years of honest, hard earned business lessons into actionable advice for you.

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It might sting a bit because it's not what you want to hear, but I profess to marketing with honesty, not hype.

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So I will give you the honest truth of five years of business building in the next 15 minutes.

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This is for you if you are a coach or coach in training and you wanting to attract more clients and make more consistent income.

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So grab a notebook or just go for your walk and let this sink in.

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Lesson one.

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You're not doing enough volume as a mum with a four hour work day.

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I know.

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Also, I don't want to hear this, so you won't either.

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But this is the difference between you succeeding and failing.

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So not enough outreach, not enough content creation, not enough workshops, not enough networking, not enough client conversations.

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It's easy to think we are putting in so much work, but the story that springs to mind with this one is when Alex Hormozi was trying to promote his gym and he signed up for a mentor and the mentor said, you need to get out there and leaflet.

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So he printed off a thousand leaflets, spent eight hours leafleting the neighborhood.

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He got one reply back which was, why are you putting this on my window screen?

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You've damaged my car.

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And so he went to his mentor complaining, this is ridiculous.

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You've completely wasted my time.

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It doesn't work.

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The mentor says, how many leaflets did you put out?

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And he says, a thousand.

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Took me eight hours.

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And his mentor says, I put out 5,000 a day and that's just for testing.

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So he soon realized that the bar was so much higher than he had it.

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And he lives this out now in everything he does, because he raised the bar and realized that his strolling around the neighborhood was not quick enough, not sharp enough, not good enough.

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My own example of this is lately because I work a four hour day, which obviously by the time I've had say two calls and done the washing up and all the other things I need to do with my life, then the day is over.

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So I'm often complaining that I'm just never going to be able to get time to do this podcast, to do my marketing, to hold all the events I want to hold, to keep reviewing my clients support and all the things that I need to do in my working day.

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But recently I signed up to a group program and there are calls five days a week for this group program and the calls are from 4 till 5pm, which anyone with kids will know is highly inconvenient because usually you are running around taking them to football, to ballet, to gymnastics, whatever the club may be.

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And what I find really interesting is that somehow I have managed to prioritize making this commitment.

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So five days a week, including Friday nights, I am there.

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I have not missed one call.

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On top of this, there's obviously the work resulting from the calls.

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There's also two and a half hours a week of recorded content.

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And it's just amazing really that I have managed to do it.

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And it makes me think, my gosh, like I've managed to find another 10 hours in my working week for this additional work that I wasn't doing before.

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Wow.

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So me thinking I have no time to batch the podcast is just excuses because I've magiced up 10 hours a week.

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So where can you think about getting that extra time?

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Or being quicker, making decisions quicker so you can up the volume?

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Because that is the most important thing, Especially when you start your business.

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Putting out one post a week or one monthly email to your list is just not enough.

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If someone misses that, they're not going to hear from you for two months.

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So if you want to succeed in business, you have to put in the reps.

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Lesson two is clarity over complexity.

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Stop over complicating your niche, your offer, your messaging.

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Say it simply and move on.

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You do not need to tell yourself the story that you're confused about your niche or your offer.

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Offer.

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I still amend my offer pretty much every single week, but I've still consistently sold it for five years.

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So whatever you have is probably good enough to get started.

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And then yes, there is mastery, there is refinement.

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That is what you will need to do to succeed in business.

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But staying stuck not talking to anyone and redrafting Your niche statement 50 times is not going to bring you closer to paying clients.

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So say it out loud rather than writing it down.

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Explain what you do in one sentence, as simple as possible.

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And also know that you can add to that, you can add several more offers, you can help more people, but you are never going to be able to sell multiple offers to multiple people.

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So really start from scratch with one person, one problem and one platform.

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Lesson three is consistency beats motivation.

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Motivation is unreliable.

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So we have to show up even on the days when we don't feel like it.

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Because if we don't, that is where the habit really, really drops.

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If, for example, I missed a podcast episode, which I never have yet in two years, I know that I would really resist actually coming back the following week.

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So even if it feels hard in the moment sneaking in here to record this episode, I know that it will be doubly as hard if I skip the episode.

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And then I think, oh my God, I'm disappointed in myself.

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And then I have to come back and record again the following week.

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So what are your non negotiables?

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Things that you will do day in, day out no matter what happens.

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Is that put out a social post, Is that send three direct messages?

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What is your baseline?

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Non negotiable which will probably take you less than half an hour but will keep you in the game of your business.

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Consistency compounds.

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It's not glamorous, but it works.

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Lesson four is selling is serving.

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If you hate selling, then you are probably looking at it the wrong way.

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Selling is about helping someone with their problem.

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You will be able to help people way more if they are paying you to help them.

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Because as we all know, when we pay, we pay attention.

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I certainly would not be putting the work in I'm doing in this program I'm in if I hadn't paid a lot of money for the programme.

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And that for me is what makes me show up and put the work in and get the result that I commit to receiving from that program.

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Just joining the program is never going to give you the result.

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So shift your mindset to selling is serving and every single no will bring you closer to that.

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Yes.

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Lesson five is success loves speed.

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So stop waiting for everything to be perfect.

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The logo, the website, having a month's content mapped out for you.

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It really doesn't matter as much as you think.

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What matters is taking action today, messy or otherwise.

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Yesterday I had a brainwave about a new monthly co coaching event I wanted to launch.

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I was thinking, ah, it's the end of January next week, there's not enough time to tell people about it, to design the sign up page and the emails and all of the things I need to do to actually make it happen.

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Also finding time in my diary which is literally jam packed and I didn't have an ounce of space but I managed to move something so I could find an hour and 15 minutes this Thursday morning to host a monthly reflection co coaching session.

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So for this one, think about the law of diminishing intent.

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The longer you wait to action something, the less likely it will ever happen at all.

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Every single hour that goes by shows that you are less likely to implement intelligence.

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So if you do something in 24 hours, you've got a chance.

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If it goes longer than 48 to 72 hours, it's highly unlikely to ever happen.

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So that is why I did not want to wait for the end of February to launch my co coaching event because that spark will have fizzled out and I will probably never then bring that event to the market.

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So imperfect action beats that perfect action every single time.

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Just start and the feedback from others will guide you.

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So let me summarise today's points.

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First one is do more volume.

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Second, simplify your messaging and know that it's good enough.

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Third up is stay consistent.

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Fourth is sell with confidence.

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And five is take messy, quick action.

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These lessons aren't revolutionary, but applying them is.

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And that is the difference between a coach who has a successful coaching business and and one who really struggles and stays stuck.

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If I reflect back on all of my successful clients, they all have these traits.

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They make a decision, they try it, they take action and then they refine from there.

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So yes, mastery is important, but how you get mastery is by putting in the reps.

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So I hope today's episode was insightful for you and has inspired you to go out there and take big, big action towards your dreams.

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If you want my help with the structure, the accountability, the direct feedback, being in a environment where people are encouraged to take action every single week.

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And that is what I do in my mentorship program, the Business of Coaching.

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I had a great case study conversation on Friday which will be coming out here soon, which talked about eight years in business prior to joining the business of coaching and then really thriving due to the systems and the accountability and the support in place that made her prioritize it just as I am prioritizing things in the program that I am in.

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You will find the link to the program in the show notes.

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And like I say at the end of every episode, trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

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Thank you so much for listening to this episode.

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Of women in the coaching arena.

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I have a mass of free resources on my website websites.

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Joannalotcoaching.com that's Joanna with an A and Lot with two Ts.

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Joannalotcoaching dot com and I'll also put links in the show notes below.

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Let me know if you found this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and leave me a review and I will personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena, dare greatly and try.