129 | A Step by Step Guide to Starting and Growing a Coaching Business

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Welcome to Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I am Jo Lott, a business coach and ICF

accredited mentor who helps coaches

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get clients with honesty not hype.

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Over the summer, I'm resharing a few of my

most practical and listened to episodes.

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And this one is especially helpful

if you are in the early stages of

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your business or want to revisit

the foundations with fresh eyes.

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In this episode, I will walk you

through the exact steps I took when

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I started my own coaching business,

from building confidence and clarity

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to setting up all of the essentials

to finding your first clients.

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this episode is also

my top rated blog post.

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It has had so much good feedback.

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so if you are someone who likes clear

Action Steps and Honest Insight, I

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think you'll find this one reassuring

and useful in equal measure.

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So let's get started.

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Today, I'm breaking down the big picture

and a step-by-step guide to starting

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and growing a coaching business.

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This is relevant, whether you

already have a business or

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whether you are starting out.

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I think underestimating the

foundational basic steps is a

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huge mistake and I revisit these

foundational steps every single day..

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So I hope this is super helpful for you.

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Because I have realized that many

people train to become a coach,

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but very few people go on to build

a successful coaching business.

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I find this extremely sad, especially

the self-doubt women in particular

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often feel, but men definitely too.

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When they start their journey and

you see everyone else on social media

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thinking they have it all sussed and

you feel like you are the only one.

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So, if you are feeling any of that right

now, just know that it is not true.

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And what you see on social

media is just the highlights.

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And usually behind closed doors.

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It's very, very different.

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And that's why I love my community

because you soon start to feel at home.

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Because you know that if they

are celebrating a win, that

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that's a big deal for them.

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It's not like it just happens every day.

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So in this episode, I will share

my personal experience of becoming

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a coach And initially building an

executive and career coaching business.

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So I left my job in 2019 and

trained as an executive coach.

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It was a hugely rocky journey,

I guess, of losing my identity

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and feeling like I was nothing.

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you go to a party and you know, you

can easily answer that question.

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What do you do?

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Whereas when that was all gone, It was

a really, really hard time in my life.

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I also compared a lot, in my coach

training, everyone was like head

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teachers of secondary schools

or felt like they were really

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senior and so much better than me.

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So there was a lot of comparison

and it was an exhausting journey.

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but my confidence increased

rapidly in around a year.

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So I don't know if that's rapid or not,

but somebody wrote to me in: 2020

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said, Like your confidence in comparison

to where you were in: 2019

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Can you share, what's made

the difference for you.

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So luckily I have an email to this person.

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So this is what I wrote in 2020.

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Morning, affirmations again,

something I had never done before.

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Daily meditation.

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I did the Deepak Chopra 30 day

meditation challenge, I think.

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And that really helped Tune in

to me and stop being so stressed.

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I had a few good wins in coaching,

especially in group coaching and training,

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which I had a huge limiting belief about

thinking that I could never do training.

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And lo and behold, I can do

training and group coaching.

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And now I do it every single

week, fortunately for me, a coach

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friend of mine Delphine at the

time had run a women's workshop.

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And I said, I would love to do

something like that, but, you know,

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I can't do training and I would never

be able to do something like that.

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So she challenged me to do it.

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I literally put out the advertisement

that day, you know, completely petrified

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about the entire experience, but it was

probably a, life-changing limiting belief

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busted because it's led me to be able

to have my own group coaching program.

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I know that I can do training.

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I was regularly caged

myself for the first time.

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So I think I just gained so much more

awareness of what was real and what were

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limiting beliefs, all of those things.

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I started a nightly gratitude

journal, which I'm still doing.

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And that has Changed my brain so much

to constantly be seeking out what I'm

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grateful for rather than focusing on.

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I'm not grateful for.

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I did a short confidence course,

which was a great reminder.

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Our thoughts affect our actions and

we can change those with practice.

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I did the positive intelligence

course, which was amazing.

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They often do free programs for

coaches, but I signed up as a pioneer.

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So I offer that to my clients

when they joined my program.

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I feel like honestly does

rewire your brain If you can

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keep up with the practice.

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I also did Helen Pritchard's five

day LinkedIn challenge, which

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helped me to actually think about

putting out my first post, which

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at the time just felt impossible.

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But just shows now I post all the time

on LinkedIn and it's like my new home.

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So how much progress you

can make with small actions?

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I also wanted to share that I only

had two days a week when my son was in

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childcare and I had three jobs as well at

the time and a one and a three-year-old,

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which was obviously pretty exhausting.

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So if you are making excuses for yourself

that you don't have time just know that.

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The less time you have the more effective

sometimes you can be like, I had no

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choice, but to be super effective.

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Whereas now I have five days a

week, although they are school

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days, which are ridiculously short.

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I probably don't get half as much

done as I used to do in those two

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days when I was like superwoman.

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Nailing everything I needed

to do really really well.

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I do think more time is helpful

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and certainly if your stress levels but

you can start with the limited resources

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that you have and build from there.

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So the first step, I would say that

it's essential is overcoming the fear.

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False evidence appearing real

is how I like to think of fear.

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If you haven't read the book mindset by

Carol Dweck, I would highly recommend it.

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That really helped me too see

that, yeah, fine I probably was

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rubbish arts, marketing, speaking,

coaching, all the things at the time.

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But I loved the idea that I gained

from that book of the power of yet.

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I'm not that great at it yet, but

I can practice and become better.

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Before reading this book, I

was definitely a that's the

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way it is type of person with.

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I'm not good at that.

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That's all there is to it.

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there was no gray for me, so it was

a really great learning to see that

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there was loads that I could do and

build upon and it's just all skills.

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Next up your vision, mission and values.

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Have that powerful vision.

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I was lucky to go to a workshop at the

time when I started my business and I

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still have it painted on my wall here

of the difference that I wanted to make.

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Just know that you can make a

massive difference, even if it is

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just in your free marketing and

you feel like nothing's working.

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The more value you offer,

the more eventually the

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value will come back to you.

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So trust in that.

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Setting financial goals was my next step.

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I soon saw that it was actually

impossible to reach my financial goal,

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which is what helped me to go into

businesses, gain bigger contracts.

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Do public speaking, do different

things as well as coaching, to be

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able to reach that financial goal.

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Next up was decides on a business format

and set up a business bank account.

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The difference between a sole trader and

limited company, you can Google that.

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I am not an advisor, I signed up as a

sole trader and it worked super well

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for me because you can do it quickly.

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You don't have to spend

out a lot of money.

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You don't have to have

an expensive accountant.

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You can literally register

on the UK government website.

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Obviously, if you're in different

parts of the world, This

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may be completely different.

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But you can register

instantly and start trading.

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That was a really nice, quick, easy way

to start, which didn't have me spending

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money and going down a big rabbit

hole, but There are legal reasons where

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you may want to be a limited company.

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That's up to you to have a look into

what will be most suitable for you.

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Next up Is set up professional indemnity

insurance, I used Hiscox, which was great.

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At the time it was

around 10 pound a month.

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It is now way more expensive

because it does go up depending

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on how much you're earning.

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Next up, identify your niche.

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So I've done lots and

lots of episodes on this.

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I won't go into it extensively

here because we have loads

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of other things to cover.

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But I have episode 63, which was about

niching and episode 14, which was

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five steps to find a profitable niche.

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That's probably the most

comprehensive one I have on niching.

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To market your business it's

really hard to sell coaching.

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So you need to create this

switch in your mind that you are

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solving people's problems because

people pay to solve problems.

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So get super clear on

who you help and how.

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Next up is get to know your ideal clients.

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don't spend too long in a room on your own

going round and round this niching circle.

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Keep listening wherever you go people

will always tell you about their problems.

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Keep listening To that market research

to really see if this is something

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that people are prepared to pay for.

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Identify your offer comes next.

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Rather than selling six sessions

of coaching, it works really

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well to create a tangible offer.

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I do this in my program.

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I call it my intangible

to tangible process.

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So we take the intangible,

which is coaching.

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And turn it into something that

people understand enough to pay for.

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Next up for me was linked in.

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So how can you get out there and tell

as many people as possible, what you

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do and growing your audience is the

biggest thing I have ever learned.

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And the most powerful.

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So ensure that you aren't stagnant, just

sharing posts with the same old people.

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You need to have a way of growing that

audience every single month to be able

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to grow your business every single month.

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Next up is website and email address.

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This comes a lot later than most people

realize, because in the beginning you

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have so little clarity about who you're

helping and how you're helping them.

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So it's usually best to do your website.

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Once you have that clarity.

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By now you may have some clients.

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Congratulations.

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So now it's about having

a great onboarding system.

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I have a onboarding guide you

can buy for seven pounds, which

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I'll link in the show notes.

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Which covers the full onboarding

process so you create a powerful

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experience for your new client.

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So, let me summarize today's episode.

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I know that this was a whistle-stop tour.

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So firstly overcoming these fears

and building your confidence.

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Next up is your vision,

mission and values.

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Then your financial goals to ensure

that what you're aiming for is possible

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with the services you're providing.

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Next up is decide on a business format

and set up a business bank account.

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I recommend Starling and Monzo

as two great bank accounts.

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Set up professional indemnity insurance

for coaching, training, and education.

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Next up, identify your niche,

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then get to know your ideal clients.

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Create a amazing offer and tell as many

people as you can about that offer.

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Finally create a great website and a

great onboarding process and contracts

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so you build a solid brand and create

a great impact on your future clients.

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I wanted to add a caveat here

that there are so many nuances.

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So I don't want to give you the impression

that you can just tick off these things

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off the list and then become successful.

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It's a skill that you

master just like coaching.

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So the more you can think about

marketing and sales has a skill

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that is going to take years and

hundreds of hours to practice.

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Just like your coaching has, then you

will be successful, but just know that

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you can't be great when you start,

you are going to have to practice.

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You're going to have to lean into things.

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You're going to have to learn so much.

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I have probably spent.

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70,000.

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I dread to think learning all of this

business stuff, but I know now, and

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thousands and thousands of hours,

continuously refining, perfecting,

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learning new things, keeping up

with how things change once you

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finally got to grips with something.

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So it's something you want to

invest your time into invest money

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into learning all of these skills.

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It's this, that is going to create

a successful coaching business.

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Sadly, not your amazing coaching skills,

because if we can't get anyone in the

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door, you're not going to be able to

practice those amazing coaching skills.

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So, yeah.

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Think about this as a priority.

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If you want to make a difference with

your skills, which I know you do,

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then decide that you are going to a

hundred percent go all in and then

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marketing and sales for your business.

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So you do create a massive

impact in the world.

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If you would like my

help, this is what I do.

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So I will share the links, my

mentorship program, the business

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of coaching in the show notes.

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I have a special offer in June of a

12 month payment plan, even though

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it's a six month mentorship program.

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So you can start today for 270 a month.

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And think about your return on investment.

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How much time are you

wasting staying stuck?

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When you could have real support from

someone who actually cares about you and

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actually wants you to become successful.

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This is a mission for me,

rather than a business.

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Anyone will know that.

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My children know that.

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So I I'm super keen to help more

qualified coaches make the difference

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that they are here for a, not

have to go back to their day job.

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So wherever you are in your

coaching journey, go for it.

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Commit to going all in.

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And like I say, at the end of every

episode, trust yourself, believe

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in yourself and be the wise Gardner

who keeps on watering the seed.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

Thank you so much for listening to this

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episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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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

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.