Explore every episode of the podcast Prosperous Coach Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
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| 318: How Can You Scale Up Your Coaching Business? | 21 Jan 2025 | 00:12:40 | |
Find the full transcript for this episode plus other resources for coaches at ProsperousCoach.com/318. It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? There are so many marketers claiming to earn 7 figures while they sleep in these business models and they would love to teach YOU how they do it. Years into my business, I bought into that tactic and thought I would just put up a few online courses, make a bunch of passive income and that would leave me more time to coach. While it’s true that the bulk of content creation is done up front, there are significant other costs to sell online programs or group coaching. The rule of thumb is: The more people that you’d like to buy your online program the more marketing you’ll have to do. It is NOT a build it and they will come scenario. Let’s uncover the real-world costs of selling online courses, membership programs and group coaching and talk about a much more sustainable and savory way to increase your income as a coach. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 317: Can Coaches Succeed Financially Without a Niche? | 14 Jan 2025 | 00:07:53 | |
Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources at ProsperousCoach.com/317. Niching is a strategic choice that helps you stand out in the crowd, become known more quickly, and earn more. In my Nail Your Niche strategy session, coaches often start by saying something like this: “I’ve been struggling to choose a coaching niche for so long because I haven’t found the RIGHT niche.” Then, we dig deeper to uncover what’s really keeping them from make a choice. · “I don’t want to exclude anyone”. · “I’m afraid what people will think if I choose the niche that excites me the most.” · “I don’t have enough credentials to pull off that specialty.” If you’re in this camp, these doubts are natural. YOU CAN break through these limiting mindsets and choose a niche wisely. It’s a HUGE opportunity for you to step into courage and be bold. Something all business owners do. Let’s talk about why it’s worth it to niche and one good reason not to. See what speaks loudest to you. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 308: 5 Aha's About Coaching Niches So You Can Finally Get Unstuck | 05 Nov 2024 | 00:11:38 | |
Let’s talk about the 5 secrets of a profitable coaching niche. Find the transcript and get my FREE GUIDE to help you choose a niche you’ll love. Where are the clients who value coaching enough to invest in it? A better question is … how many people know you exist? And, are you positioned to capture their attention in a professional way? That’s why it’s smart to niche. Look, I get it. This coaching niche thing can feel like torture. You've had ideas that sparked your passion once, but they didn’t pay off But neither has trying to sell coaching around a certain topic or to a broad group. It's time to create a niche that helps you stand out in the crowd. It’s centered around a very specific group of people and their unique problems in the way of something they want urgently. That’s how you become a coach in high demand and command prices that pay you well. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 218: Is People Pleasing Keeping You Overwhelmed and Unsatisfied in Your Coaching Business? | 14 Feb 2023 | 00:08:22 | |
It’s not unusual when coaches first start their business to bend over backwards to enroll a client. But people pleasing can become a reliable method of self-sabotage. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 217: 5 Changes I Made That Positively Affected Discovery Call Results | 07 Feb 2023 | 00:08:17 | |
You’ve spent money and time to train as a coach. You’ve chosen a narrow and viable niche (at least I hope you have!) You’ve branded, put up a website and faithfully posted on social media … so MANY times! And now you’ve got a Discovery Call scheduled. You want to enroll this client! You need to enroll this client! But already, before the call, you can feel imposter syndrome creeping in. You don’t like to sell. You don’t want to have to sell yourself but YOU THINK that’s what this call is all about. You must convince this person that you are their best resource right now so they can be more and accomplish more. It’s too much pressure. Stop pressuring yourself! Instead prepare yourself for your call in a more peaceful and client-centered way. Take the spotlight off of you. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 216: 5 Secrets of Selling for Coaches | 31 Jan 2023 | 00:08:20 | |
I can hear you thinking … “I’m not good at selling!” Not true. It’s all about mindset. Yes, mindset AGAIN! Coaches are masters at helping others shift their mindset – to get out of their own way. Guess who else needs mindset shifting? Old stories about marketing, selling and rejection have crystallized in your mind. Let’s dissolve them now. There’s an authentic, caring and detached way to sell that I will teach you in this episode. So first, in this episode we will distinguish selling from marketing then I'll talk about how to stop feeling rejected and ace selling with 5 smart moves. Find the full transcript and other resources for new coaches at prosperouscoach.com/216 I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 215: 4 Ways to Stop Feeling Lonely in Your Coaching Business | 24 Jan 2023 | 00:08:04 | |
The biggest downside to being a solopreneur coach is that you are ... SOLO! Unless you do something strategic about that to reduce isolation, which is a contracting force that could make you want to quit your coaching business. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 214: Is Your Lead Magnet Too 'Coachey'? - Listener's Choice | 17 Jan 2023 | 00:09:31 | |
On too many new coach's websites, I’m seeing either: 1. No lead magnet but instead an offer for a free call high up on the website. Truly, offering a free call as a first offer is like asking a first date to meet your parents. It’s too much too soon. There’s a better way. 2. Or a lead magnet that with a Google search for the topic would turn up hundreds of thousands of articles on the same concept. So not unique enough. And that’s what this episode is about – what I call coachey lead magnets that won’t build the kind of trust you need to attract ideal paying clients. Find the full transcript and other resources at prosperouscoach.com/214. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 213: Tradeoffs of the 3 Popular Coaching Formats | 10 Jan 2023 | 00:11:23 | |
Have you decided what format you’ll use for your coaching? It’s simple but important. There are tradeoffs to all 3 real time methods — in person, on web cam, or simply by phone. (For the sake of this episode, I’m not going to talk about coaching online through writing. While I have coached some through writing it’s my belief that real coaching is done in real time, where you and your client can hear each other and respond. Also mentioned in this episode are: I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 212: 4 Mistakes I Made in Coaching Business Startup That You Don't Have To | 03 Jan 2023 | 00:11:37 | |
I made 4 big mistakes during the start-up of my coaching business and lived to tell the tale. But I've also experienced multiple magical turning points in my business as well. Wonderful things will come to your coaching business if you don’t let mistakes stop you. I’ll dish the dirt about my 4 big mistakes in coaching business startup guessing that you'll recognize yourself in some or all of them. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/212. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 211: Pick Branding Designed to Attract Coaching Clients | 27 Dec 2022 | 00:12:23 | |
Branding may be the first thing people will see on your website. Is your brand/company name relevant to your coaching audience? After all if your website is (your name) Coaching, how will a client know they have come to a place where they will feel served and understood? I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 210: What's Your Zone of Genius As a Coach? | 20 Dec 2022 | 00:10:55 | |
What’s a unique and innate talent that only you possess that’s also a glowing clue to your coaching niche? Something that's effortless for you but difficult for others. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 209: How Will Your Ideal Coaching Clients Find You? | 13 Dec 2022 | 00:10:31 | |
After choosing a niche, the #1 problem coaches face is attracting enough clients who are able and ready to hire them. Some days you feel like you’re working so hard and there’s this sense that no one is out there noticing. It’s de-motivating to say the least. I thought you might need a pep talk because there are so many surprising and wonderful ways that clients can find you IF you are strategic, consistent and speak the language of your audience. And it’s important to know that when you market or create content you are not just building relationships with potential clients for today but also with people who will hire you later. With every smart action you are securing your future in your coaching business. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/209 I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 307: Is Succeeding in Your Coaching Business a Priority for You? | 29 Oct 2024 | 00:07:03 | |
Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for coaches at ProsperousCoach.com/307. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 208: Coaching Your Clients Past the Stuck and Overwhelmed Place | 06 Dec 2022 | 00:08:39 | |
Doesn’t it seem lately like everyone is feeling overwhelm these days in higher proportions than before? I’ve been feeling it myself and I know some of it is not mine but rather the collective. And, I think overwhelm can become a habitual state that needs an intervention before it becomes anxiety and depression. What can you do to help your clients release overwhelm, get unstuck and move forward again on their big goals? This 208th episode of Prosperous Coach Podcast has an approach that might work for you and your coaching clients. Find the full transcript here. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 207: When and How to Stop Coaching for Free or Too Little - Listener's Choice | 29 Nov 2022 | 00:10:38 | |
If you incrementally charge higher fees you’ll become more confident and also become a much better coach. It worked for me and I’ve seen it work for my clients as well. Setting fees that pay you well is one of the 3 big thresholds that holds coaches back. And it’s always about limiting beliefs. This episode is part of the Money Mastery series and it’s a Listener’s Choice episode, which means a lot of other coaches have already listened to this and found value in it. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/207. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 206: Is it Okay for Coaches to Teach Their Clients? | 22 Nov 2022 | 00:07:49 | |
Have you ever wanted to teach your clients what you know to help them take leaps in mindset and action? This episode covers concerns related to that idea and smart ways to include training in your coaching business so you can earn more. It’s also a follow up to Episode 175 called Should Coaches Know More Than Their Clients? That episode is a different angle about this topic. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 205: 10 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Own Coaching Services | 15 Nov 2022 | 00:06:15 | |
Hey Coaches! A favorite question I like to ask coaches is: Would you buy what you’re selling? And, if so, what amount would you be willing invest? Your answer is telling and it might have you re-evaluate your offer, your pricing, your messaging, website and more. This episode is short and has 10 powerful questions to ask yourself that will help you know if you’re on the right track. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/205. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 204: How One Coach Niched and Found Her Voice | 08 Nov 2022 | 00:18:42 | |
I am so excited to share with you a human being who I had the privilege of working with in my 5-month VIP Coaching Business Breakthrough program earlier this year, and I'm so excited to introduce her. ... Her name is Elana Israel. She has a business called — and also a podcast called the same thing — Partnership Aligned. She is a relationship and intimacy coach, helping moms with little kids reach greater happiness with their life partner through self-empowerment, better communication, and deeper intimacy. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 203: How Do Coaches Make Money? | 01 Nov 2022 | 00:13:26 | |
You are more business savvy by far than I was! And still, you might not have thought much about this aspect of your business that I’m about to share. It’s an eye opener. Find the full transcript for this episode plus resources for new coaches at prosperouscoach.com/203. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 202: The Best Coaching Tool to Help Your Clients Release Drama | 25 Oct 2022 | 00:08:46 | |
Coaching is really a collection of tools and techniques that you take out and employ when the moment is right. The more you coach, the more savvy you become about when and how to use those tools and techniques. It helps you create a style. Today, I will share with you my absolute favorite coaching tool to help clients release drama. Find the full transcript with the details of this tool at prosperouscoach.com/202.
I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 201: 7 Challenges New Coaches Face and How to Solve Them | 18 Oct 2022 | 00:12:02 | |
New coaches reach out to me every week with the same set of 7 challenges related to getting traction in their coaching business. All of these challenges have root causes in perspective and the solutions have a similar thread. Read about the root causes and solutions here. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 200: Attract Motivated Coaching Clients Who Will Invest - Listeners Choice | 11 Oct 2022 | 00:12:23 | |
2. Grab a single Strategy Session with Rhonda Hess, International Business Coach for Coaches to strategize something specific about your coaching business solved such as choosing a viable audience of seekers and a smart coaching niche! 3. The simplest coaching business model. Low labor, high profit! 5. Be sure that your program solves your audience's BIG problem on the way to a BIG goal. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 199: 7 Things You Can Do to Tip a Maybe Over to Yes | 04 Oct 2022 | 00:11:03 | |
I thought long and hard about what, over the years, clients have told me tipped them over from 'maybe' to 'YES'. It's powerful! This episode gives you 6 simple things plus 1 strategic action that you can do now to help your coaching prospects shift from just considering your services to clicking onto the certainty button and committing. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/199. Other Episodes Mentioned - Episode 137 is a good one to listen to after this episode. It’s called Your Future Coaching Clients Might Be Turned Off By Automation. - Episode 141 has 5 Questions to Test Your Coaching Business Integrity. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 306: 7 Things That Inspire a Prospect to Become Your Coaching Client | 22 Oct 2024 | 00:10:52 | |
Find the full transcript for this episode and lots more resources for coaches here.
It’s something surprising. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 198: The Secret to Answering Potential Coaching Clients' Objections | 27 Sep 2022 | 00:07:18 | |
This episode is a mindset shift and hack for that moment when your coaching prospect starts to question you or object about your program as you are trying to enroll them. Find the full transcript with notes you’ll want to refer back to at prosperouscoach.com/198. There you are in a Discovery Call to enroll a new coaching client into your Signature Program. You are connecting, enjoying each other, engaging with curiosity. You’ve learned some things about them and they have about you too because of the way you are showing up. Then, the moment comes for you to invite them to enroll. Suddenly your energy, your pace, and maybe even your tone of voice, shifts. You go shaky inside. Imposter Syndrome jumps in. Fear takes over. And, you’ve stopped using coaching skills in the conversation. · Now you’re performing when before you were connecting. · Now you feel attached to outcome when before you were present and detached. · Now it feels like it’s all about you when before it was all about them. But in fact, nothing had to change. The conversation is still about them even if you are sharing the details of your program and inviting them to enroll. And, you still have all those powerful skills at the ready – messaging, reframing, asking powerful questions, listening, intuiting, using perspective to help the person see things a new way. It helps to remember that marketing, enrolling and selling are ALL in service to your prospective clients. You do those things as part of your service because without those things your coaching clients won’t get the value of your support. The Big Scary Objection Questions When you enroll clients use all the same skills that you do for coaching. Move into your invitation seamlessly. Connect rather than perform. Stay detached. Listen closely even if they ask you “big scary” questions like these … · What makes you qualified to do this? · How do I know you can help me? · Do you have references? · Are you certified? · What results have your other clients had? · What experience do you have in helping people like me? · Why do you charge so much? · How will I afford this? If you need help acing the enrollment process, it’s one my superpowers so grab a Strategy Session with me at prosperouscoach.com/strategy. And to learn the secret about answering prospect's objections read more here. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 197: 4 Scheduling Tips From a Pro Coach | 20 Sep 2022 | 00:10:47 | |
Okay, so this episode might seem like a good one to skip. But DON’T! You’ll be thanking me someday if you listen and pick up the 4 coaching business logistical tips I have for you. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/197. Here’s the new coach scenario … you get out of coach training and set up your potential client times on your calendar. If you’ve quit a job to start your coaching business you might think, well my clients have jobs and won’t be able to meet until evening and I should also offer a weekend day too. Or maybe you still have a full-time job and you’re trying to build your coaching business as a side hustle and, in that case, nights and weekends may be all you have to offer. Or, when you enrolled your first client, you just asked your new client what time is best for them and rearranged your life to make that work. With any of these scenarios, you might regret the decision to do what’s convenient for your client. Scheduling Tip #1: Don’t Pander to Your Coaching Client’s Preferences I understand the impulse. You want to get clients so you’ll bend over backwards to make things easy for your prospects. Strangely, this is not a good practice if you want to stay in your coaching business for more than a few months. I’m guessing that part of the reason you want to be a coach is to work for yourself. To make your own decisions and do things your way. So do that from day one and make it your practice even if you haven’t enrolled a single client yet! Here’s a secret … when people hire professionals, they expect to fit into the openings that are left. But more importantly, if you don’t set boundaries on your business from the beginning when you don’t have any clients, you won’t like your life when you do have clients I’m embarrassed to say it took me years to figure this out for myself. There’s a smart mindset here … ACT AS IF you are a coach in high demand right now. Make decisions for your business from that personally powerful place and not from the newbie mindset. Think about it this way, if you are a coach in high demand and a new client comes along you will only have maybe one or two potential time slots available on your calendar. And guess what … the new client will happily take what they can get! I know this hard to imagine this at the start because you are so eager to please. But if you’re eager to please what does that signal to prospects? That you are inexperienced, lack confidence and maybe even that you are desperate. That might sound harsh. It’s just something I’ve realized over time. Successful entrepreneurs value their time in every way. And isn’t it better to model the behavior you want to grow into? By the way, this is the same savvy mindset that will guide you to charge fees for a sustainable business AND life! So, set up your availability to suit your lifestyle. Do you go to Pilates on Tuesday and Thursday mornings? Great, don’t work until noon that day. Do you want to pick up your kids from school every day. Block out afte I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 196: 8 Smart Moves to Become a Coach in High Demand | 13 Sep 2022 | 00:11:14 | |
Hey Coach, A coach once asked me a shocking question in a Strategy Session. She said: “When will I know that I’ve failed at this and should just go get a job?” All sorts of thoughts and feelings went through my mind – mostly sadness because it felt like she’d given up on herself before she had even launched her coaching business. But I understood where she was coming from. We went on to have an excellent coaching conversation. And her takeaway is really important for all coaches in the first 3 years of their coaching business … Success is not an all or nothing proposition. No one reaches their full potential and ultimate success in one step or even 10 steps or even 100 steps. If we did, we’d all be miserable, arrogant louts who would spend the rest of our days doing nothing because … what’s the point? Everyone, including the most famous successful people in the world found the success you know about by: 1. Trying something 2. Making mistakes 3. Getting frustrated 4. Trying something with a better mindset or approach 5. Having incremental wins and failures. Success is staying the course, marshaling your mindset and finetuning your approach. And here’s something else you might know deep down but have forgotten. A business owner doesn’t reach the pinnacle and stay there. You reach a pinnacle and might be able to coast for a while, and then you are asked to innovate and make new shifts to find your growth cycle. By telling you this, what I’m hoping is that you’ll stop comparing yourself to others, raise awareness of where you are appropriately on the developmental path and be patient with the process while also having unstoppable determination. And that’s the first of the eight smart moves to become a coach in high demand: #1 Ask Yourself Repeatedly for Patience and Determination Anything worth doing takes time. Look, this is YOUR time, your gig. You are privileged to be able to launch your own business and to help other people do their hard but worthwhile thing. Prove to yourself that you can stay the course even during times when there’s no proof that anything is happening. Be honest … · You are DONE with working for someone else! · Tell yourself you WILL I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 195: Can You Market Coaching Services Without Selling Yourself? | 06 Sep 2022 | 00:07:10 | |
When coaches reach out to work with me, they almost always say that their biggest fear is marketing. They say: “I’m not good at selling myself.” Then I say, “Well, that’s okay because you don’t have to sell yourself to be a prosperous coach.” And I mean it. This episode will be a huge relief. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/195. Selling is Not the Same as Marketing So, first, let’s distinguish between marketing and selling because they often get lumped in together. Marketing is a part of your service. You relate to your ideal clients and let them know that you are here for them. You create a customer journey to attract the people you most want to work with. It’s an ongoing process for anyone who has a business. And it’s not at all unsavory. In fact, it’s an authentic act of caring because you are a genuine human being with real value to offer. Whereas, selling is transactional. It happens at a moment in time where you invite an interested prospect to become your client in exchange for fees. It’s a professional necessity to enroll clients this way but you don’t have to be blatantly self-promotional to complete this transaction. Blatant Self Promotion Isn’t Fun or Attractive What does blatant self-promotion sound like coming from a new coach? I see this kind of thing on new coaches’ websites … “I’ve trained and certified as a life coach and I’m ready to help you create the life of your dreams. I listen closely to you and without judgment. Then, through powerful questions I help you make mindset shifts and take powerful actions.” It’s as if the coach is trying to write a resume and they aren’t really sure what to say yet because they are new to coaching. I did this on my first coaching website too because I didn’t know any better and it wasn’t at all effective. What’s missing in promotional statements like these? Any relevance to the person who reads it. Think about this. Did anyone wake up today wanting to hire a life coach to help them create the life of their dreams? Highly unlikely. People are truly not that impractical. They don’t think in terms of abstract concepts like permanent utter happiness. They want to solve a specific big problem that has been dogging them. They want something very specific and if they want it urgently enough, they seek that solution. A Better Way for Coaches to Attract Clients Read about how to market without selling yourself and feeling like you're selling your soul. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 194: The 4 Essential Parts of Your Coaching Intake Packet | 30 Aug 2022 | 00:08:18 | |
I think every coach knows that before they work with a client there are two crucial things to do. One is to receive the client’s payment and the other is to help the onboarding process with a smart intake packet. That’s when the co-creative relationship becomes official and professional. Find the full transcript for this episode with helpful links at prosperouscoach.com/194 When I first started as a coach, I didn’t have a smart intake packet. I had copied another coach’s documents with their permission, and honestly, with so many other things to learn, I didn’t give it a lot of thought. That way until I was asked to develop certification curriculum for Coach Training Alliance and I buttoned up a lot of my practices. CTA still uses my finessed intake packet and the curriculum 21+ years later and I’m honored. By the way, that’s one of the benefits of stepping into a leadership role — you rise to the occasion. Think of your coaching business as a leadership role and you’ll be inspired to higher degrees of professionalism. It’s for you as much as it is for your clients. So why is an intake packet important? I’ve never been more certain of an intake packet’s value for the client than after hiring a social media coach who had a minimal onboarding process. She asked me to set up our first session and that was all the due diligence there was — no questions about me, my background or anything more than getting my payment. I ended up asking for a prorated refund after one session because we weren’t a good fit and she wasn’t modeling good coaching practices in her services. I did not feel seen or safe, which are critical in coaching. Onboard Your Coaching Client with Care A critical benefit of a good intake packet is to help your client onboard smoothly into your services. Show them you care about them and want to understand who they are. It helps them feel seen and safe. Episode 186 is called 4 Ways to Help Your Coaching Clients Feel Safe. It’s a good listen, if you haven’t heard it already. People feel safe when you take time to understand them. But that’s not the only value of a smart intake packet. Here are 4 other reasons to show you care with your intake packet: · Gather important data about the client · Convey policies and procedures · Make clear your role and their role · Learn what makes them tick Let’s go through each of these … Get a Profile of Your Coaching Client One of the 3 documents in my intake packet is a simple Word document with fillable spaces to capture their: · Name · Email address · Phone number · Time zone · Physical address · Website · When they finished coach training (which is germane to my niche) · Their partner’s and and kids names & ages I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 193: How to Avoid and Fix Aimless Coaching Sessions - with Laurie Cameron | 23 Aug 2022 | 00:13:28 | |
Rhonda Hess: Hey coaches, I've got something special for you today. Find the full transcript plus helpful links and specific words to say in coaching sessions at prosperouscoach.com/193. Also, there’s a link to a free downloadable infographic that you’ll want to click to on that page. I don't know if you got to listen to the previous session that I did with my good friend and amazing coach, Laurie Cameron, where we talked about Powerful Questions (Episode 139 – The Art of Crafting Powerful Coaching Questions.) If you have not heard that one, go get it because it's really, really good. And this one's also going to be really, really good. We are going to talk about something different having to do with coaching skills today. So let me first introduce you to Laurie. The world that Laurie Cameron wants to leave our children is one where we feel safe, valued, and connected because that's when we can accomplish meaningful work together. Her part in creating that world is to help people communicate with kindness, respect, and compassion. Laurie's been coaching and training since 1998 and her company WAKE UP! Enterprises helps leaders integrate the coaching mindset and heart into their everyday communications in order to build a sustainable coaching culture from the inside out. She's also a senior faculty member of one of the oldest coach training organizations in the world — that's Coach Training Alliance, and she has trained over 1200 coaches through CTA. Laurie also works with coaches applying for their ACC credential with the ICF to get their 10 hours of mentor coaching. Visit her at wakeupenterprises.com or ACCmentorcoach.com. Laurie, thank you so much for doing this again, and it's always so fun to collaborate with you on anything. Laurie Cameron: Oh, I feel exactly the same. I'm really thrilled. Thank you so much for inviting me. Rhonda Hess: My absolute pleasure. And so, we are going to talk today about aimless coaching sessions. Everybody's had one, probably everybody's experienced one. We are going to take a look at it from all angles and uncover the best way to recover from <laugh> an aimless coaching session as a coach. So first let's just start with this. I thought about this: bWhat do you think, Laurie, is a single word that describes the best coaching sessions with clients? Laurie Cameron: I think FOCUSED is a good word — because you know … there's purpose, there's meaning, there's safety — all of that. And yet, if I were to pick one, it would be focused — not just focused on what the client wants to take away, but really focused on the client. Fully focused on the client for the entire session because coaching is client-driven. Rhonda Hess: It also means that it has an aim. So I really like that one. I think that's really good. What does an aimless coach I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 192: When to DIY or Delegate Tasks in Your Coaching Business | 16 Aug 2022 | 00:10:05 | |
When it comes to what you delegate and what you do yourself, it’s a question of workstyle preferences. But that’s not the whole story. I’ll share 4 criteria to help you make strategic decisions about delegating. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/192. When I first started my coaching business, my motto was don’t be cheap with your coaching business. This meant that I hired out a lot. I spent money on experts of all sorts and hired a full time VA to do all the little things I couldn’t be bothered with. I believe my time is highly valuable — good mindset there — so I didn’t want to do anything except what I started this business for … to coach. That was a bit short sighted. I went too far to the delegating side of the continuum, which cost me in 3 ways: 1. Low profits because my expenses were high 2. Not learning things that I should have learned 3. Time because managing others wasn’t my forte (and it took far more time to manage their work product than if I had done those things myself.) I made rash decisions because I didn’t really know my business model, what I bring to the table and the holes in my competencies. I didn’t think through what energizes and drains me. I clearly needed a business coach! Mostly, I was blindly following what other coaches were doing. I fell in with a crowd of high rollers. It wasn’t as seedy as it sounds but it wasn’t good for me either. Sure, business by trial and error is a time-honored tradition. Making lots of mistakes and learning from them has its upsides! Still, wouldn’t it have been smarter for me to strategize as much as I could from day one in my business? So, I offer you that better way ... strategize as much as you can from the get go then also be willing to make mistakes and learn from them. What are Your Long-Term Goals for Your Coaching Business? This is the first of 4 criteria for knowing when to delegate. 20 years into my business I’m delegating far less and that’s strategic because my goal now is to: · work a 35-hour week · earn high profits for the time I do work · deliver high value and work with fewer people because that means less enrolling effort · keep a simple business model · do marketing that’s pinpointed, authentic and showcases my genius For me, offering a 1:1 Signature Program is working far better than other business models I tried and it’s why I teach this to other coaches. What about you? 1. How many hours would you like to work each week? I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 191: Low Pricing Could Kill Your Coaching Business | 09 Aug 2022 | 00:10:36 | |
In this episode I’m going to give some tough love to those of you that are charging low prices because you figure you’re a relatively new coach and that’s what you should do until you have more experience. Find the full transcript of this episode at prosperouscoach.com/191 The reality about charging low prices at the start of your business is that it could stop your business from getting off the ground. It can even be a form of self-sabotage. I get it. There’s fear of rejection. There’s not believing that you’re worth it. Usually that’s an unconscious belief that’s driving your actions. I’ve been there too. But I’ve learned a strange secret and that’s this … the sooner you ask for higher prices the sooner you’ll get them. And you must earn well to survive in your business. Think of it this way you’ve already done your apprenticeship in your coach training program. It’s time to graduate to being a business owner and pricing for profit. Profit isn’t a bad word. It’s net income. It’s the wages you give yourself minus expenses. If you aren’t profitable, your business can’t survive much less thrive. Sounds ridiculously simple doesn’t it? It’s true. And what’s more is that the sooner you charge more for your coaching services and get it the quicker those worries about rejection and not being worthy will melt away. So you help yourself to cross that threshold sooner. Look … you KNOW what’s too low. You know when you’re shorting yourself. It’s a smart strategy to have an introductory rate for your first 5 clients. But don’t make it too low or you start to build expectation within yourself and the marketplace that you’re not up to the task. And women coaches … hear this … I rarely see men charging low prices as a new coach. You have the control to boost your earning power in your own coaching business. And let me assure you … you charging prices that will sustain you will not hurt anyone. In fact, when your clients invest in themselves with your coaching they win too because they have given a big YES to themselves. So, let’s look at one dynamic and smart action you could take to immediately shift your approach and stop sabotaging your success with too low pricing. Stop Charging By the Coaching Session Raise your hand if you’ve ever priced your coaching by the session or by the hour. You’re not alone in that. I raised my hand too. I used to only sell coaching by the session in packages. That kept me spending more than I earned. Now the only time I charge by the session is for my one off 90-minute Strategy Session. It’s where a coach can hire my expertise to help them choose a smart target audience and coaching niche that leverages their experience and talents. Let me demonstrate why this is strategic on my part … Read the better way to pricing here. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 190: How to Quickly Gain Expertise in Your Coaching Niche | 02 Aug 2022 | 00:11:12 | |
Perception is a huge factor in early coaching business success. The way that your target audience perceives you makes all the difference in how easily you attract clients, how many clients you enroll and how well you earn. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/190. So where does that leave you if you’re a new coach? Isn’t this a Catch 22? Well, no, because a new coach can show expertise from day one. Look I’m not talking about being an expert coach … although if you already have years of coaching under your belt and have coached hundreds of clients – that’s a certain kind of expertise that’s marketable. But a new coach wouldn’t have that yet. Your Experience Could Be a Primer for Expertise Let’s get a more fluid definition of expertise here.: What do you bring to the table Sure, you might be new to coaching and/or new to running a business but you’re not new to life, are you? If you’re willing to go there and have amassed experience in a field, industry, role, a topic or even a certain stage of life it’s possible to leverage that when you choose a target audience and niche. So this is a big part of how I help coaches choose a profitable niche. I’m looking for what — in their personal story, life or work experience — is a clue to a great niche for them because I know how powerful preceived credibility is for people that are considering hiring you. Check out episode 85 – How Can New Coaches Be Perceived as Credible? Sometimes new coaches tell me they want to focus on a specific target audience and niche because they think that’s where the money is. For example, one coach, who had never worked a corporate job, wanted to become a corporate coach. Another who never had any business experience wanted to be a business coach. Well, that’s not going to fly, right? I mean what possible reason would those audiences have to work with those coaches? No reason I can think of. That will make enrolling clients nearly impossible. So, when you choose a target audience and niche it’s rarely a good idea to choose completely arbitrarily. By the way, while it may be true that there can be increased income potential in corporate or business coaching, the competition is fierce there. Every coach needs to find a way to STAND OUT! Before you decide to put a stake in the ground for a specific target audience and niche ask yourself: Why would they listen to me? Now I know that coaches can coach around any topic and they can coach any audience. But I’m not talking about who you could coach. I’m talking about who would HIRE YOU! When I help coaches choose their target audience and develop their coaching niche I encourage them to I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 189: How the Enneagram Can Help You Feel Confident About Coaching | 26 Jul 2022 | 00:22:42 | |
This episode is special because my closest friend, Susan DeGenring, is with me today. We're going to talk about the Enneagram in coaching. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/189. Before I introduce her, let me explain two things that inspired this episode. First, some of my recent clients learned as part of their coach training, how to use a scientifically rigorous assessment tool with their clients. And I noticed that those coaches felt more confident about coaching and charging higher prices, and they have thrived in their businesses. The other thing that inspired this episode is that I recently had a chance to be on the receiving side of coaching with the Enneagram. I was going through a tough time. Yeah. Even coaches with 20 years of experience of those. And I had lost my joy for life and went into a bit of a depression. So I reached out to my closest friend, Susan, who is a brilliant coach, and she studied the Enneagram deeply in a few sessions with her. I felt lifted out of my funk with a much more positive outlook. So let me tell you about Susan. Susan DeGenring is the founder of Still Mind Coaching Solutions and is a leadership development coach and strategist. She delivers goal-based yet transformative coaching using the latest neuroscience and mindfulness approaches. And Susan's mission is to create better workplaces by guiding leaders to exercise the privilege of power responsibly with more clarity, humanity, and strategic intent. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Most recently she has certified to become a mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher, employing mindfulness practices paired with two decades of leadership development experience to help clients recover from burnout and build resilience as organizational leaders. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 305: 3 Mindsets That Could Sabotage Your Career as a Coach | 15 Oct 2024 | 00:08:46 | |
Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for coaches here. I’m privileged by my long-term experience and my long-range view of this industry and entrepreneurship. Because I have the honored role of mentoring other coaches to build their coaching business, I get to somewhat re-live those early years over and over. I know what you’re going through. And I also know the high potential ahead of you if you stay the course. You know the power of mindset in working with your clients. What a person believes can make or break their opportunities. These 3 mindsets could kill your coaching business because until they are shifted in your mind, they will run you ragged. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 188: How to Market Just Like You Coach | 19 Jul 2022 | 00:11:11 | |
If you want to thrive in your coaching business, it’s time to change your perception about marketing. Let’s bust some myths about marketing and look at it from a different point of view. Find the show notes for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/188. First, I wanted to share a win with you because YOU helped to make it possible and I’m grateful ... Prosperous Coach Podcast recently hit 150,000 downloads. That’s momentous. My latest 5 start review said: “A well appreciated podcast! Rhonda tackles issues that any coach could face and provides useful tips on how to deal with them in a profitable way.” Sweet! I wanted to share that news with you because I market through my podcast. That’s called generosity marketing, which is about giving away value to attract ideal clients. It’s one of the non-salesy approaches. So … when you think of marketing, do you cringe? Are you thinking: · Marketing is going to feel sleazy no matter how I do it. · I have to become good at selling myself. · I don’t know how to market effectively! Only that last is true. You don’t know how to market effectively … YET. And there’s a natural fear of the unknown. I cringed about marketing too until I learned a more conscious and transparent way of attracting clients. Up until then I thought of marketing as this necessary evil. That’s a reaction to high-pressure marketing tactics, which are old fashioned and a low integrity approach that ruins marketing for everyone. So, toss out that approach completely. You do NOT have to barrage people with marketing that tries to fool or shame people into buying what you’re selling. And forget the idea that you have to sell yourself too. You don’t have to sell your soul to market effectively. But here’s the truth … if you want to earn well as a coach and stay in business you do have to find a way to attract your ideal clients. The reality is, unless you already have a network of people who know, like and trust you and would love to work with you, you will need to create a community of potential clients and build relationships with those people. Otherwise, you’ll be another coach who is a best kept secret. And there are lots of coaches who are. Becoming known by your audience is half way to becoming a coach in high demand. Being known doesn’t mean you have to talk about yourself all the time and toot your own horn. There’s a better way. I started building my community from scratch. That’s not a heartbreaking task. It’s a heart-warming task if you do it in a conscious way. And you don’t have to be known by tens of thousands of people either if you target a narrow and unique audience and craft a niche that’s meaningful to them. There are a multitude of reasons why choosing a viable I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 187: Why and How to Create an Avatar for Your Ideal Coaching Client | 12 Jul 2022 | 00:12:28 | |
This episode is inspired by conversations with two of my VIP clients – both are coaches working with a professional audience. I will share details about why it’s smart to create an Avatar for your target coaching audience, how to do it and use it effectively for everything in your coaching business. By the way … I’m not talking about those cute little characters that represent YOU on social media. This is about your ideal client. Find the full transcript with the list of questions to develop your Avatar at prosperouscoach.com/187. So here is what was going on with my two VIP clients that inspired me to create an episode for you about this. Both, independently, were having trouble with their messaging. Connect Don’t Perform with Your Coaching Prospects One was not getting engagements from her posts or enough downloads of her podcast. As a result, not enough people in her audience were going to her website and taking actions to get on her list, fill out her application and grab a Discovery Call. So, she didn’t have enough enrollment opportunities and didn’t have enough clients. The other hadn’t launched yet but was struggling to write blog articles. Though he had excellent writing skills and tremendous expertise his blogs were coming off stiff. They were full of cliché topics and thoughts that could easily be found with a Google search. He was writing to a generic audience even though he had targeted a narrower group. Neither of these coaches were relating enough to their audience and that’s essential in today’s marketplace. I realized that both of these coaches were not enough in touch with their specific target audience. They were talking like a coach, which was coming off bland. It’s really important not to be coachey with your messaging. Connect don’t perform. It’s the best lesson I ever learned. Your Avatar Helps You Attract Your ideal Coaching Client So, I showed them how to create an Avatar and develop their blogs and podcast episodes, their social posts and presentations, by stepping into the shoes and mindset of their unique target audience. I’ll explain how in a moment. Remember the blockbuster film Avatar from 2009? If you haven’t seen it, grab some friends and delicious snacks and settle in for a fantastic journey into a beautiful planet called Pandora, that is overrun by humans wanting to mine the native’s resources no matter the cost. Yes, it’s an age-old story but uniquely told. In the movie, scientists from Earth manufacture a few bodies that look and respond like the bodies of the Na’vi, the indigenous, highly evolved planet-centered people of Pandora. The consciousness of the scientists could then be downloaded into those bodies so they can move about in the culture, interacting with the Na’vi in the most relational wa I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 186: 4 Ways to Help Your Coaching Clients Feel Safe | 05 Jul 2022 | 00:09:43 | |
This episode is about strategizing ways to help your clients feel safe in their professional relationship with you. Safe feelings will help your clients have a better experience in your coaching program. That in turn translates into longer term and return clients, more referrals and great testimonials. This episode is also a Listener’s Choice episode, which means it’s a favorite of coaches who have listened before you. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/186. Do you ever feel nervous with your clients or have performance anxiety during sessions? If you’re a new coach, that’s totally normal. And you want to be sure that feeling diminishes with each client you serve. In my early days, I was so anxious about delivering value that I lost my personal power by inflating my role by over-delivering and people pleasing. And I ended up feeling drained instead of energized by sessions. Do you know what I mean? I’ll talk all about this challenge in another episode soon. You might not realize that your new clients also will have some anxiety about coaching too, so it’s important to help them feel safe. Clients who feel safe will be more candid and get more from your coaching. Here are 4 ways to help them feel safe: Cultivate Happy Coaching Clients Before During and After You don’t have to hard sell. You don’t have to convince anyone. Make your marketing process a natural selection process. And don’t worry about the people who don’t hire you. If your social media posts, blogs, podcasts, videos, website – everything – show that you are fully informed about what’s important to your audience they can feel that. You want your audience to feel seen, heard and understood by you. If they do, they’ll follow you and share your content with others in your audience. They’ll also get curious about what you offer because you’re speaking about what they desire and what’s in the way of that. Once they do hire you, you’ll be able to help them feel safe in other ways. Set Boundaries and Provide Structure to Coaching Clients If so, it’s understandable because coaching skills themselves are so open. Open-ended questions, deep levels of listening, open-mindedness about differences – all of those things will be enhanced when you put boundaries and structures in place for your clients. People THRIVE with a sense of structure and will respect boundaries if you set them up thoughtfully and communicate them well. Before your first session: 1. Provide clear terms and agreements about your coaching program in your intake packet. 2. Clearly describe your policies about showing up for ses I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 185: Have You Found the Sweet Spot in Your Coaching Business? | 28 Jun 2022 | 00:08:35 | |
Today’s episode is about the intersection of 3 things that could raise your coaching business above the competition for clients. When you know what that intersection is and organize your business around it everything gets easier. Have you ever heard of the sweet spot? In your coaching business, your sweet spot is that place where you are reliably earning well for a unique service you provide that’s in high demand. You get a lot of satisfaction from helping others through your sweet spot. It makes your heart sing! Now, your sweet spot is not coaching. It’s a lot more specific than that. It’s not your target audience or coaching niche either, although knowing and targeting those will help you get closer to your sweet spot so figure those out first. Your sweet spot is the overlap between 3 things: 1. What you are best at that makes you STAND OUT in the crowd 2. That you also enjoy doing repetitively and can grow expertise in 3. And that your audience highly desires and will readily invest in All businesses, from solo businesses all the way up to big corporations, are trying to find their sweet spot in this crowded marketplace and make that part of their brand. You’ll see companies rebrand, change in dramatic ways and often narrow their focus to their sweet spot when they’ve found it. This is niching at its best. The Treasure Hunt for Greatness Your sweet spot is generally not obvious from the start. It’s something you grow into. In the early 2000’s I was struggling to attract enough coaching clients to sustain my business. Most coaches are intimately familiar with that struggle at some point. I think that’s because most coaches start too broad and try to sell coaching as if that in itself is something people want. I was searching for answers in all the wrong places – purchasing training programs and enrolling in masterminds hoping to find what one of my clients calls his True North. I remember attending a seminar for coaches that was about finding that sweet spot. I left as frustrated as I started. The presenter kept pushing the idea of passion. What’s your passion? What do you feel passionate about? What’s your purpose? I didn’t KNOW! I felt so lost and ashamed that I couldn’t answer that question. Years later I realized that was the wrong question for me. For some that language isn’t a good fit. Remember that when you’re coaching. Your client may need a different question or approach altogether than your previous clients. Not everyone identifies with purpose and passion. But it might be I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 184: How to Charge More for Your Coaching | 21 Jun 2022 | 00:09:16 | |
If you’ve never run a business before it can feel scary to charge enough to sustain you and also open yourself up to bigger opportunities. There are 4 mindset shifts to make. You can do this! Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/184. Fear of charging enough is one of the reasons why so many coaches close up their businesses before they gain traction. In other words … even as a new coach it’s critical that you learn to charge well for your services. Mindset Shift #1 — Investing is Empowering After 23 years of working with clients, I believe with all my heart that when you charge well for your services, everyone wins. It comes down to this … when people invest in themselves they get more out of the experience. When you charge prices that feel like an investment to your clients they will invest energetically into their own growth. It’s a win - win. Whereas charging low fees is a lose - lose. Don’t get me wrong … there is never a need to gouge people or be a mercenary. Simply honor yourself. Do what is right for you. Then you will embody your own vision of success. Realize that if your business doesn’t make it, you won’t be able to help others through coaching. Think of times when you’ve invested in yourself from your own pocket. You were, in that moment, at the cause of your life rather than the effect. And the more you focused on receiving the benefits from your investment, the more you evolved. It’s empowering in a life changing way. The reverse is also true. When you pay for something that isn’t at least a bit of a stretch there’s less intention behind the action and less attention to squeezing all the value out of that thing. You also become empowered by earning. And I’m not talking about driving yourself towards a business that steals life away from you. I’m talking about feeling fulfilled while you ensure that you can stay in business. When you realize that you can earn well you step more fully into your personal power — it is part of self-actualization. Hear this … earning your livelihood as a coach takes nothing away from someone else, especially if you make sure that you and your offer stands out in the crowd. Niche down. Target a unique audience. Offer a Signature Program. Things I teach my clients and more. Mindset Shift #2 – Own Your Right I’ve met new coaches who question their right to have a business. If you haven’t already, start owning that right to: · Be in business for yourself · Earn well · Create, innovate and lead Take your place in the world! Being a business owner gives you a unique opportunity to do things your way, work with the best clients, do what you really want to do. Yes, YOU can have this thriving business serving people. Mindset Shift #3 – Factor In the Costs I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 183: Do This 2x Each Week to Enroll More Coaching Clients | 14 Jun 2022 | 00:08:48 | |
This episode is about how to focus your mind and prioritize your time in your coaching business so you can attract a constant stream of new clients and earn well. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/183 plus get my free download to help you ace your enrollment conversations. When you’re in your first few years of your coaching business you are learning so many things. There’s the coaching process with clients, basics of running a business and all the marketing pieces plus client management. It is challenging to keep your focus on the most effective things to bring the results you want. That’s often why results come slowly for anyone in startup. Once you begin to get comfortable with most tasks – creating content, social posts, finding your audience and connecting in a more high-touch way – it’s time to turn your attention to the most strategic things you can do to earn well as a coach. Do Everything in Your Coaching Business with the Desired End in Mind For too many years in my own business, I simply focused on crossing tasks off the list – doing what I thought I should be doing day to day and week to week. I was just hoping I would get some traction! Then, a more experienced coach and business owner told me to do everything with the end in mind. That was a big AHA and I felt a bit foolish that I hadn’t been thinking that way all along. The desired end goal for me was attracting a steady stream of ideal clients that would pay me well. Isn’t that a goal for you as well? So, I thought … what’s the metric that I should be paying attention to now that will help me most? When you’re in a service business every enrolled client requires an enrollment opportunity. So, getting prospects into Discovery Calls is the metric to focus the most on. And not just a Discovery Call with anyone but someone who is ready for it. 2 Mistakes Related to Discovery Calls That Coaches Make There’s an ineffective and a much more effective way to have a free call with prospects. Most coaches I meet are doing what I did – the wrong approach and way too soon. These are the 2 mistakes: 1. Putting a button or link on your website for visitors to sign up for a Discovery Session or Call with you. Have you done this? Look, I get the impulse. You think “Time with me is my valuable free offer!” That’s too much too soon! Timing your offers is important. And who besides coaches will know what a Discovery Call is or that they want it? So it’s not a good idea to wave that phrase around at this point. A strategic lead magnet is a better free offer. Check out episode 124 called Does a Coach Need a Lead Magnet? I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 182: Coaches Attract More Clients When They Stop Selling Coaching Packages | 07 Jun 2022 | 00:11:30 | |
Today’s episode is about earning more through a high-ticket coaching program that inspires enrollment. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/182. I’m going to say something that may shock you … selling coaching by the session may keep you from earning more than few thousand dollars each year. That was my sad story. So excited about coaching, after training I did what most coaches do, I started offering sample coaching sessions to anyone who would take one and enrolled a few short -erm clients at low fees. My first full year of being a professional coach I earned $3000. I kid you not. The second year was not much better. People said they appreciated the sessions and got value but they weren’t excited enough about having a coach long term. What was I doing wrong? I figured that out … later. 1. I called myself a life coach and was trying to coach everyone about anything. The lack of specialty was not confidence inspiring. 2. I was charging fees that were far too low, which conveyed a lack of credibility. 3. And most importantly, the idea of coaching itself was not inspiring to prospects. You see, most people don’t wake up and say to themselves “I need a coach!” And this is a big problem for coaches. It means that coaches have to convince people they want something they don’t already know they want. Coaching feels like a hard sell and it’s not a strong position to be in. If you’ve been listening to me for a while, you’ve heard me say this before. You know it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be a coach, doing coaching and have it be your main skillset for your business. It just means don’t sell coaching. There’s a better way. I made some changes to my approach, which made everything click into place: 1. I narrowed to a viable target audience and did research to find out what BIG problems were in the way of their big goals. 2. I created a Signature Program customized to exactly what my audience knows they want. 3. I raised my fees significantly because the Signature Program was worth it. Changing the perception is what made the difference. Perception is a powerful thing. No longer was I giving sample coaching sessions and trying to convince a person that coaching was what they want. Suddenly, I and my program were perceived as credible and I could command higher fees. Create a Customized Signature Program This is why I help coaches create a VIP Signature Program that’s long term and customized to their chosen target audience. It’s a process that makes everything in your business congruent and powerful. Coaches feel confident because they have something of value to offer that’s perceived as valuable to prospects. They learn to articulate what they do in meaningful terms and without the agony of trying to convince people to buy coaching. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 181: 8 Secrets to Attract Coaching Clients with Your Content | 31 May 2022 | 00:09:02 | |
This episode is inspired by all the coaches out there heartfully doing things every day to attract ideal coaching clients and help them transform. Find the full transcript for this 181st free episode of Prosperous Coach podcast at prosperouscoach.com/181 Last week, a coach asked me to review the content she was putting out to attract paying clients — her podcast episodes, social posts and presentations. Her business hadn’t reliably taken off yet and she wondered if she was on the right track. It’s smart to take a step back and look dispassionately at everything. I was super impressed by her discipline. It was clear to me that she was DOING all the right things – daily social posting, building her network on LinkedIn, publishing an episode every week and getting in front of her audience with presentations. Technically, everything was on track. She had all the processes down. She was taking all the right steps with admirable dedication. What’s Missing in Your Coaching Content? But there was something missing from most of her content … connection. You know … not just words but words that land. Not just topics but topics that are top-of-mind for her audience. And not just words and topics but relating to the audience. I want you to know this is a mistake a lot of coaches made. And, it took me a long time to figure out that just putting out content wouldn’t help me have a financially successful business. It’s time to develop yourself as a savvy and authentic marketer. I know, I know you don’t want to market. Who does? But marketing effectively is simply about connecting on a level that your audience responds to. Marketing Connects Your Ideal Coaching Client to You Marketing is not an evil thing. You don’t have to lie or manipulate to attract clients. It’s about connecting the dots between you and your ideal audience. Create a beautiful customer journey for the right people to find you and the right people to connect with you. Your ideal clients. Your people. What Seth Godin calls your tribe. Check out episode 69 to learn about creating a customer journey. The way that most coaches market is dry, soulless and lacks insight into their audience. And that’s only because the coach hasn’t put a focus on their audience. Let’s talk about the first 3 developmental stages of a successful coach for a minute … 1. First, there’s learning the skills and model of coaching. Some coaches stop here. 2. Then, there’s learning how to develop a solid foundation for your coaching business. This isn’t trivial. It’s what I do with my VIP clients in my 5 month mentoring p I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 180: Have You Found the Niche Within Your Coaching Niche? | 24 May 2022 | 00:08:08 | |
This episode is about the un-mined gold in your coaching business. It’s also a Listener’s Choice episode, which means it’s popular with coaches. I’ve updated it because, you know … continuous improvement. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/180 Because I’ve studied the strategic art of niching and coaching niches for so long I’ve noticed something that no one is talking about. There are niches within your niche that will serve you better than staying broad. There are layers. The surface is not the most exciting or lucrative layer. In fact, the most exciting and profitable niche is many layers deeper. The Layers of Your Coaching Niche When I work with my VIP clients we begin by discovering a niche ideal for them that’s a few layers down to something more strategic than where they started. Let me give you an example … I had the pleasure of doing business mentoring with Maria Napatov, who helps stepparents transform family chaos into meaningful and harmonious co-parenting. Her brand is Synergistic Stepparenting and she has a valuable podcast of the same name. If you’re a stepparent or know a stepparent point them in her direction! Let’s breakdown the layers of Maria’s niche: · First there’s the track — relationship coaching. · The layer beneath that is a more specific relationship — parenting. · Drilling that down further is the stepparenting relationship. You know those individuals have a whole set of challenges that other parents do not! · And then below that is the specific PROBLEM Maria helps stepparents solve — going from chaos to harmonious co-parenting. She’s created a dynamic Signature Program to help stepparents transform. Do you see how SPECIFIC Maria’s niche is and can you imagine why that’s an advantage to attracting clients? Doesn’t Niching Narrowly Mean You’ll Lose Opportunities? Many coaches are afraid to niche more tightly at first. If you niche narrowly your friends and family might question your wisdom because they don’t get it. But their advice to broaden won’t help you. You might be thinking … “But by narrowing in all those ways Maria is missing so many opportunities! She’s missing the chance to work with all types of relationships or all parents about any parenting topic.” But actually specializing is a strategic thing to do. The reality is this … in this competitive world coaches must grab attention from the larger service business pool not just from other coaches. Broad Coaching Niches Mean Slow Business Growth I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 179: Are You Worried About Promising Coaching Results? | 17 May 2022 | 00:07:29 | |
So there you are. You’re trying to choose your niche. You’re trying to write your web copy. Or maybe you’re trying to figure out exactly what you help your ideal clients accomplish in your Signature Program. And, I hope you are! But you feel stuck. Fears and doubts are clouding your judgment. You are in danger of playing too small in your coaching business, which will cost you. You are worried about promising too much. After all, who are you to take a client’s fees and make them believe you can help them achieve … anything!? This 179th free episode of Prosperous Coach Podcast is about that worry that you might be promising too much. Get ready for a mindset shift! Find the full transcript of this episode at prosperouscoach.com/179 Experienced Coaches Don’t Worry About Promising Too Much So first, all new coaches worry about over-promising. But experienced coaches don’t. What do you think is going on there? It’s certainly NOT because they soft pedaled the specific outcomes they help their clients achieve. Because coaches who stay safe in their messaging will not attract and enroll enough clients to survive in their business. And it’s NOT because they are lying. You can’t stay in business long as a coach if you don’t operate from integrity. So where is the line between what you can promise and what you shouldn’t promise? Well, here’s the eye opener … don’t promise anything! Both Coach and Client Have Responsibilities But They Aren’t the Same I don’t promise my clients anything. I help them make smarter decisions and take more strategic actions. You see, I can’t promise anything because ultimately my client’s success is not up to me. No matter how good my guidance is and how well I work with them, in the end, THEY have to make things happen. That’s why my motto and podcast sign off are: Stay inspired and make things happen! My motto is not: With my help you can achieve anything! If they don’t make things happen that’s not on me. That doesn’t mean I don’t care and do all I can to support them to success. This should be a relief, because your clients’ results are not on you either. Period. And that may be a bit humbling because you might have been under the impression that you will make THE difference between whether your coaching clients sink or swim with regard to their goals and your niche. Nope. What Exactly Can You Control, Coach? Let’s think this through. This is a matter of survival and mastery for you. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 304: Attract Ideal Coaching Clients Who Can't Wait to Work with You - LIstener's Choice | 08 Oct 2024 | 00:10:02 | |
Find the full episode and more resources for coaches at ProsperousCoach.com/304. Before we dig in, I want to thank you for all the 5 star ratings and great reviews you have bestowed on Prosperous Coach Podcast and me. Here’s a review from someone who used the moniker Soulful Coach. This podcast is my go to for encouragement and quick reminders on specific topics that I’m struggling with. Rhonda is an amazing business coach and person. Her VIP program for coaches not only helps you identify your niche and much more but also helps you achieve personal growth in all dimensions of your life. This review fits today’s topic about attracting ideal clients. I feel so blessed that I get to work with amazing human beings like Soulful Coach. How did that happen? Most all of my clients apply to work with me because they like what they are hearing in my podcast episodes. My podcast is my content strategy. What’s your content strategy? Whatever it is, the content should strike a resonant chord with your audience. That’s the best way to attract ideal clients. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 178: How Can Coaches Work Less and Earn More Profit? | 10 May 2022 | 00:09:48 | |
This episode is inspired by an excellent question a coach asked me. And I love answering your questions so ask away. You can ask me easily from my website contact page. Start by finding the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/178 and then enjoy all the resources waiting for you there. The simplest, least expensive business model for coaches is to offer a high-ticket one-to-one VIP Signature Program geared towards helping your target audience solve the big problems that have been in the way of achieving their big goal. Oh, how I wish I had started my coaching business this way in 1997 when I finished certification! It would have saved so much frustration. I would have earned more faster and not wasted so much money trying all sorts of other business models. 2 Big Mistakes Coaches Make That Are Easy to Fix The two biggest mistakes I see new coaches make are: 1. They aren’t serving a big enough problem, which keeps the coach from earning enough. 2. They offer too many options to prospects, which keeps the coach from earning profits. They run themselves ragged trying to enroll clients and lose profits because their expenses are high. There’s a difference between revenue – the total of all your sales – and profit, which is what’s left after expenses and taxes are subtracted from the revenue. You want to be focusing on profits so you can use that as you’d like to for you and your family. I would love to save you from making those 2 mistakes that I made in my coaching business. If you haven’t heard them yet, I recommend you listen to 2 earlier episodes -- Episode 65 – Are You Solving A Big Enough Problem In Your Coaching Business? and Episode 66 – How to Describe Your Coaching Program Without Selling Coaching. The business model I recommend to my clients is the model I have for my own business now. Profits are high, expenses are low and I work with clients only 3 days per week. That means I have a lot of discretionary time. With this simple business model: · You don't need big coordinated marketing campaigns or to be an influencer on social media. · You don't need a Virtual Assistant to help you with all the tasks because admin is minimal. · You don't need a bunch of software programs with monthly fees. Your business can be simple, delightful, fun and relaxed. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that building a coaching business with this business model is easy. There are lots of things to learn. Lots of task I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 177: Is It Strategic for 'Coach' to Be Part of Your Professional Title? | 03 May 2022 | 00:07:56 | |
Now that you’ve taken the training, what you should call yourself? Should you be a life coach or something else? Should the word ‘coach’ even be in your personal title? That’s what this episode is all about. Find the full transcript and personal title examples at prosperouscoach.com/177. So first, let me say that I don’t think your personal title is remotely the most important decision you need to make for your coaching business. In my mind, that decision is informed by WHO you serve and WHAT you help them accomplish. Those two things – your audience and their most desire outcome – are powerful concepts. That first decision is the centerpiece of every other decision you’ll make for your business. Still, just getting to be the one who decides what you call yourself can be fun. After all, how many jobs allow you to decide your title? So first, let’s talk about something that might be hard for some coaches to hear. Some People Poke Fun at Life Coaches I’m not at all a fan of the personal title “Life Coach”. Here are 2 good reasons not to go with that moniker: 1. Some people like to poke fun a life coaches. There are TV shows, films, articles out there that smirk at the concept. And I think … why set yourself up for that ridicule? Why climb the mountain to prove your value when just a shift in language could do that for you? Unfortunately, the phrase ‘life coach’ doesn’t inspire confidence. 2. Life Coach is non-specific. If there is anything I’ve learned about success in business it’s that specificity grabs attention whereas generality does not. Life is everything. Calling yourself a life coach is like saying “I can’t decide how to specialize so for now I’m just an everything coach.” That will likely keep you from earning much. Specializing garners credibility so you can charge more. It’s time to get more specific and creative than ‘life coach’ or other fill-in-the-blank coach titles. You Are Not Limited to Your Certification Title Just because the certification you received is a life coach or wellness coach or relationship coach certification does not mean you can get creative and stand out in the crowd with your title and all of your messaging. Standing out in the crowd is important. If you’re on any social media channels regularly you’re going to see a lot of coaches trying to ply their trade. Most of them are selling coaching. That’s a hard sell. While some people know they want coaching, most do not. Coaching is not the top of mind benefits people look for. If you haven’t already listen to Episode 51 – Why is Coaching a Hard Sell? I think it will open your eyes to a challenge you’ve already been trying overcome. In a nutshell use your coaching skills to serve paying clients but don’t push the idea of coaching because it’s not outcome people know they want. It’s part of your toolbox. I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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| 176: 8 Powerful Coaching Questions to Ask Any Client Anytime - Listener's Choice | 26 Apr 2022 | 00:09:28 | |
Don't you just love having ready made questions you can ask your clients that are so powerful they will send your client into self reflection? Me too. Find the full transcript at prosperouscoach.com/176 . That's why questions are so valuable to coaches and in coaching session. So the first question that you can ask that of course really unlocks a lot for your clients: What do you want? Well, sometimes people have a hard time answering this question, but with probing questions beneath it, you might be able to get them to it. The second question is: What's holding you back? As human beings, we do generally have a sense of this. We might be in denial about it, but we generally do know what we're doing that's either sabotaging ourselves or what we're thinking, what we're feeling that is lingering too long for us to be able to transform. So what's holding you back? That question will cause your coaching client to go inside and really look at the truth with a capital T. The third question is: What is it costing you to continue holding back? I don't know if we normally as human beings think about what the costs are of our actions, of our thoughts, of our habits, but to ask someone that causes them to look at themselves from a place of self responsibility. The fourth question is: How could you show up differently? Presumably you're talking to them about a circumstance or a situation and this question allows them to wonder, Oh, I'm at choice here. How could I show up differently? I remember this one time where I was going to be speaking in public at a pretty big event for coaches and I was just so nervous. I called my husband for support and he has asked me: How do you want to show up, Rhonda? I paused and I thought about it. Well, I want to show up standing in my power, believing in myself and being open and vulnerable to my audience as well as delivering something that is actually valuable to them. Those four answers just grounded me. They made me feel good again, made me feel ready again. And I realized that it was okay to be vulnerable with my audience. It's okay that I was nervous and I didn't have to try to obliterate that nervousness before getting on stage. The fifth question is: What is a new perspective that you could adopt right now? Oftentimes when our coaching clients are telling us how they feel or what they think about something, it might be a gripe. It might be the raw feeling and there's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, I invite my clients to share their raw feelings. You can respond to that raw stuff with the question: What's a new perspective you could adopt right now about that? You're inviting them to pick themselves up out of the situation and get a 30,000 foot view. Look I'd love to hear from you. Stay inspired and make things happen! - Rhonda Hess, Prosperous Coach
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