The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
What holds back most coaches in the early years is lack of confidence. The best way to bust through this barrier: coach fifty people! It doesn’t matter if it’s just a practice session or if it turns into three months of coaching.
Clients are “gold” for you – no matter what the fee. So don’t let your fee or lack of confidence stand between you and coaching many people.
Every client you have gives you:
- The feeling that you are really a coach, not a fraud
- A practice that looks a little more busy (“Sorry — that time slot is not available.”)
- The potential for referrals
- Free training!
- More and more confidence with every session you do, and lastly
- Possible revenue — either immediately or down the track
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
Who would benefit from your talk and ideally would pay for it (associations, clubs, charities, corporations)? Some will pay; some are just a training ground, testimonial builder, and a place to get individual clients! Source them from friends, yellow pages, people in the speaking industry, Chambers of Commerce, Libraries, a local chapter of The National Speaker’s Association (NSA). All will have a list of service groups, associations, etc… that want and need speakers. Joining a Toastmaster group is also a great idea, and they have a speaker’s bureau which supports their members in getting speaking engagements.
Call or email your friends and colleagues and ask them which clubs they belong to which might need a speaker.
You might provide ‘lunch and learns’ at companies and organizations. These are for free or fee, and are provided during the employees’ lunch hour. It is a way for the company to provide self-development/educational programs and for you to get in front of decision-makers and show them what you can do. Your friends within corporations might be able to put you in touch with the right person who organises or approves these within the company.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Leza Danly in 10 Super Coaches.
What method did you find most effective in getting your initial clients?
First, do your personal inner work. Know what you want to create (the kind of coaching practice, the size, etc.) and more importantly WHY you want to create it. Invest the time to explore your motivation deeply. Because if your motivation is to prove you are good enough, or to run away from failure, or to get people to love and approve of you, or to exploit people, or any of many negative motivations, it won’t work. Often these motivations are deeply buried and we don’t realize they are at play. When you find the joy of service and align yourself with a motivation to contribute, things will turn around.
Once you feel confident that your motivation is clean, you need to confront your willingness to give yourself this dream career. This may sound like a no-brainer, but for most people it’s the biggest challenge. They limp along at a handful of clients, because they honestly feel deep down that to be paid really well for inspiring conversations and having lots of free time is too good to be true. They aren’t willing to receive it.
Second, once you’ve done the introspection, give lots and lots of sample sessions. You never enroll clients from talking about coaching, only from boldly giving yourself to the client in a sample session. Let yourself love. Let yourself care. They will either want it or they won’t. Don’t obsess on the ones who don’t. Just keep giving.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Bob Davies in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
My belief is that it is vital that coaches become public speakers. Find your passion in the field and book yourself to speak as the “expert” in the field. Coaching clients will seek you out.
You could also align yourself with other speakers, like myself, who are not looking for more coaching clients, but want the speaking engagement. Leverage your client relationships to bring in “speakers” who will create “buy-in” for coaching and position you as the ongoing follow up live coach.
Did you coach your friends and colleagues?
My fees are too high to coach my friends, plus my friends would not listen to me as their coach. Many clients have become friends as well although I do maintain the professional relationship first. I won’t sacrifice my impact with the client in the name of friendship.
