15 | The 3 Biggest Mistakes Stopping Your Growth

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Hello and welcome to Women in the Coaching Arena podcast.

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I'm so glad you are here.

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I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor and ICF accredited coach, and I'm on a

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mission to help brilliant coaches build brilliant coaching businesses.

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In this podcast, I'll be sharing honest, not hype, practical and

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emotional tools to support you to make the difference that you are here for.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone): Hello, welcome to the 15th episode,

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a women in the coaching arena.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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I'm your host, Joanna a Lott.

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And today we have a powerful episode lined up for you.

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So I'm going to be talking about the three biggest mistakes

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that can hinder your growth.

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So listen in and see if you are making any of these.

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They are super easy to make.

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So the first one is shiny object syndrome.

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So one of the most common mistakes I see amongst coaches is wanting to do all

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the things all at once, especially when they're first starting out, you want to

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have a low cost membership and an online course and a group program and one-to-one

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and retreats and all of the things.

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And it's really, really hard to do all of those things at once.

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But you only really know that.

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I think when you've tried to do it and you start to learn how much marketing

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is involved in each and every one of those things, hence why now I

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have one thing that I sell, which is my business of coaching program.

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Whereas when I started out, I did the same.

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All of the online courses, all of the different things, the talks that this,

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that the group program, the one-to-one like wanting to give all of these

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different solutions because then maybe they could find that perfect thing.

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But what I failed to realise is that each one of those things

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takes a lot of marketing.

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So you can't market all of those at once.

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For example, You would want to do a campaign.

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So for example, if you're running a webinar, You basically

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have to promote that webinar every single day for two weeks.

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So then you can't sell maybe your high ticket program or anything

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else that you're trying to sell.

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So in the end, you start to realise that less is more and less is what

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creates a super successful business.

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What Shiny objects syn -drome can also do is make you jump

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from one strategy to another.

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Without really giving enough time to see real results.

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So for example, if you decide that webinars are going to be your way of

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bringing people closer into your world.

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You might hold one webinar and then think, okay, I've done that.

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Now.

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I'm going to try something else.

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Rather than hold that same webinar five times over a six month period or so.

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To really see if you can get more people to attend, if you can make

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it higher converting, how can you make it more engaging and really,

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really work on making that one lead generation strategy really, really good.

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So that's another way you can do this and you will notice any top performing coach

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doing the same thing again and again.

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And they may have a huge team, but they will still run the same webinar.

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Week in, week out, they're doing exact same thing because even with all of those

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resources, you still don't have the.

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Energy or resources to do more than two to three strategies at once.

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So, what can you do instead?

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I would encourage focus and consistency, choose one or two

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marketing channels that really resonate with you and your target audience.

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If that's social media, maybe go all in on one platform, you could possibly

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schedule to another platform, but you just cannot be everywhere and engaging and

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giving it your all in all of the places.

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So I would highly recommend picking one person to sell to one

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thing that you're selling a one platform that you're selling on.

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Especially when you first start out before you have maybe an assistant

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or other people helping you.

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But even when you do have an assistant and other people helping you, this

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is a really, really solid strategy.

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Maybe for you it's networking.

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So you can make a decision as to I'm going all in on networking.

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And here are the appropriate places that I'm going to show up at regularly.

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Success comes from depth, not breadth.

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Especially when you don't have that huge team of finance people and marketing

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people and social media managers and all of the things that you really need.

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To be able to run a seven figure business, which is what you end up often

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comparing yourself to when you start.

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Realizing that when they started, they didn't have all those resources either.

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And they probably just started just the same as you slowly, slowly

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building up that audience and building up the growth that you

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can achieve as your business grows.

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So the next mistake I often see is not mastering one thing.

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Having a clear and compelling coaching offer.

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Signature program, which I talk about often, which showcases your expertise

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and delivers outstanding value to your clients is a really great way

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of standing out in the marketplace and gaining expert status quickly.

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However most coaches make the mistake of not committing to

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one specific coaching offer.

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They do a little bit of everything.

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Just like we talked about earlier.

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Trying to cater for everyone's needs.

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And this approach dilutes your brand, but it also confuses potential clients.

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So I run a program called offer to market three times a year.

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And if you want to do that program, the next one is in September.

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But essentially what we do is we choose one thing.

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And we create an entire campaign around selling that one thing, because it does

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take a psychological approach and a step-by-step here is the buyer journey and

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here is how they're going to buy my thing to really effectively sell your thing.

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So I would challenge you to create one signature coaching offer.

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If you want my help doing that.

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That's exactly what I do in my program.

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The business of coaching.

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We really nail your niche really effectively.

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Your signature coaching offer really effectively to really.

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Package your genius up into intellectual property, which helps you to stand

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out in the marketplace and then you learn how to effectively market it.

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And sell it.

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And create an amazing customer experience.

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So by committing to that one offer, you will position yourself

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as an expert in your field.

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And attract clients who are seeking your unique solution.

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Remembering that we buy to move away from pain or move towards pleasure.

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So we don't buy a nice to have we buy an essential thing that

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is causing us so much pain.

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Or we are so desperate for this solution that we decide

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to make a purchasing decision.

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The third mistake I often see is forgetting that

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relationships build your business.

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So a pitfall I see is neglecting the power of building those relationships.

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Dismissing how valuable people can be to you because they perhaps aren't

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in your niche and things like that.

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So you forget that actually building relationships with absolutely

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everyone you meet is a vital part of happiness in life, but it's also a

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vital part of attracting business.

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Because as coaches, our success relies heavily on the trust and

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rapport we establish with our clients.

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But it doesn't stop there.

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It's about everyone, you know, really supporting you and being clear on what

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you do so they can refer people your way.

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And this is a huge stumbling block.

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I see often for the people that I work with, I say, have

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you told people what you do.

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Yeah, but I kind of get a blank look.

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And then I think, yes, because you are perhaps saying.

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I'm a coach or I'm an executive coach or I'm a leadership coach and people

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are like, oh right, that's nice.

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But versus here's exactly how I can help these type of people.

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And then they know exactly how they can send those people your way.

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So I provide clear templates with exactly what you need to say to help

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people, not just swipe past your email or message and actually take action

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to help you to build your business.

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And I think also not being so attached to the outcome can really help.

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So often it's like, well, I don't want to waste my time going to a

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networking meeting and I hear you.

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I don't want to waste my time either.

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It's our most precious resource.

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But you are going to have to try lots of different approaches to see which one

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suits you and your personal strengths.

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So, yeah, you will waste a lot of time going to networking meetings

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and doing things for free when you first start, I did talks at

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universities and for businesses.

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And I met up with old colleagues.

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I hadn't seen in like 12 years for coffees and all of it felt like, oh my gosh,

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like I just need some paying clients.

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But to get paying clients, you need to build relationships.

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So it's really great to start to enjoy building those relationships.

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What I used to say to myself all the time is how can I leave this person better?

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Then before they came into contact with me.

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So I would always be wanting to make sure that they are uplifted.

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And I still want that with every interaction I have.

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So it's about your energy and how can you find them the most interesting

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person enough for them to actually want to ask you what you do?

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Relationships are the life blood of your business.

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So go all in, be as helpful as you can to everyone, you know?

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Send them articles, thoughtful things.

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What can you do to really show that you love and care all of the people

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around you, and then they will start to love and care for you back.

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And your business will grow as a result.

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So they are the three biggest mistakes stopping your growth.

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Let me summarise today's episode, so firstly, we talked

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about shiny object syndrome.

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I would suggest sticking to a couple of marketing strategies on repeat so you

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can really test and refine and hone them.

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So you are an expert and gain a repeatable lead generation system.

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Second become a master of one.

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Go all in on the thing that you want to be known for that one

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package before you try and start creating so many different things.

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Because mastering one package marketing it really well takes

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a lot of time and energy.

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So go all in a, be a master of one.

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And thirdly, focus on relationships.

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Be the most helpful, most kindest, most loving person you can be.

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And your kindness will come back to you.

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I encourage you to reflect on these three mistakes and

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take actions to overcome them.

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So, which ones are you making?

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If any, I would love to hear which ones resonate with you and what

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you're going to do differently as a result of listening to this podcast.

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So do drop me an email on joanna at Joanna Lott.

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coaching.com.

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Or send me a message on LinkedIn.

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I would love to hear which biggest mistakes you're making and what you're

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going to do differently as a result.

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And if you want my help guiding you step by step through your business

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building journey, that's exactly what I do in my high touch mentoring program.

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The business of coaching.

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You will get my eyes on your offer, your niche, your website, your

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LinkedIn profile, all of the things.

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As well as step-by-step training and the support and love and care that

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you need to build your business.

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You can find the details of the program in the show notes and see if it's what

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you need to grow your business right now.

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And like, I always say, trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise

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Gardner who keeps on watering the seed.

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Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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Please come and say hi to me on LinkedIn or Instagram and let me

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know how you are getting on in your coaching business and how you are

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gonna go for your dreams this year.

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My name on LinkedIn is Joanna Lott and on Instagram is at Joanna Lott Coaching, and

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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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Thank you so much for listening.