#218: How To Find Health Coaching Clients

Hello there, health coaches. I was going to do an episode today about photo shoots because I just had an amazing photo shoot last week, but then a question came up in our Facebook group and it's a really, really common one. It's so common that I decided that I just had to dedicate a short episode to it today. But before we get into it, I haven't done this in a while. I'm sorry I, have to give my apologies to AsianAmazing that is the name in Apple Podcast. AsianAmazing, wrote a five star review for us inside Apple Podcasts and it says high value information. Thank you, Michelle, for providing such wonderful information. I'm a fan because every podcast I've learned something that moves my business needle a little bit more. You're great and a delight to listen to. Thank you so much for the review. It really helps because the more reviews we have on the show, the more we're able to reach health coaches that need this type of information, coaches that are looking for more clients, for example.

So, Asian amazing. Please email support@healthcoachpower.com 'cause we have a little thank you gift to send your way. We just need your mailing address and for everybody else, if you could take a moment to leave a review of the show, we value that so much of my gratitude in advance for your time. As for today, like I said, I was gonna talk about photo shoots. I'll make a deal with you guys. If you would like to hear more about having a photo shoot, what do you do? Maybe you're planning one of your own, maybe you need some tips, you're not sure how to hire a photographer, where to do your photo shoot. Just hop over to our Facebook group, it's at health coach power community.com and let me know that this is interesting to you. If we get enough interest, I'll definitely bring that topic to a future episode.

But today I thought this was really important because, it was actually Gabriela. So, Gabriela, if you're watching, you tip me off when you said, I'm a brand new health coach and I'm having trouble getting started. My biggest struggle is finding clients. I'm like, Yeah, . She said, Where do I start? Thanks a bunch. Learning a ton from your podcast and excited to be part of your Facebook group.

And then Rashita chimed in and Rashita said, I'm in the same boat starting as a health coach. Don't know where to get clients. Well, I'm gonna tell you guys something. they're not...All the clients, They're not over here standing around at the client warehouse store just waiting to sign up with us. I wish, 'cause then I would tell you where to go to get clients. I'd say, Well take 95 to exit 15. Make a left at the light and boom, that's where they all are. If only, if only. But it's not like that.

This is why marketing exists. Marketing is a big term. There are lots of things that fall underneath marketing, like advertising, like pricing, like packaging, like a zillion things come underneath marketing. So it, it's not even as easy as telling you market yourself, right, . Cause if it were that easy, we'd all be doing it. Marketing and everything that falls underneath it is perhaps the most important skill that you can learn without it. And this is gonna sound harsh, but without it, your health coaching certification kind of goes to waste. Think you can know a ton about health and wellness and functional medicine and hormones and gut health and this, that and the other thing. But if you don't know how to market yourself, it's hard to find clients to work with and therefore it's hard to actually help anyone. And this feels like a very good time to remind you that I have a free training.

It's all about marketing. It's just 30 minutes and everybody says it's super helpful in understanding this process. And it is a process of how to find clients. It's a result of several efforts all working together. And you can get that free training at healthcoachpower.com/training. It's all there for you. You are gonna love it. And you'll see why There's no simple answer. I can't just give you the direction to make a left at the light and boom, that's where you're gonna find clients. So let's work backwards today. Let's think through this process. It would be like someone said I don't have a boyfriend . I don't know where to find a boyfriend. There's no one place you can go to find a boyfriend or anything like that. It's a complicated question. So, I wanna work backwards in order to have clients. You all know this already.

I don't even need to tell you to have a client. What do you have to do first you have to have a consultation, right? Cause it's inside that consultation that you offer your services to somebody. We're have just standing around on the street with a sign that's like health coaching, package price and collecting cash. That's not how it works. So if we want clients, we need to book consultations. Are you having consultations? Because zero consultations automatically is gonna mean zero clients. So there's a little bit of clarity for you if you need clients. Your question really needs to become, how do I book more consultations now on the off chance that you're having a lot of consultations already, right? Then you can pinpoint where the problem is. You can say, Well I had 10 consultations this week and I still have zero clients. So then we know there's something going on in that conversation. Maybe there's something off about the way that you're talking about your services. Maybe there's something off about your pricing or your packaging.

This would be great cuz we could say, Okay, we know the problem is happening during the consultation and we can fix that. Absolutely. But by and large, and just tell me if I'm wrong, if you're watching and you're like, This doesn't describe me at all. By and large health coaches don't have clients because they aren't booking enough consultations. Sound familiar? Yeah. Had any consultations this week? Great. Okay, so we'll back up again. In order to book more consultations, what has to happen? This isn't a trick question. This is very straightforward. In order to book more consultations, you have to offer more consultations. The offer has to be out there, not just once, not just on your website somewhere. And like five people every month. Go to your website. You have to be offering lots of consultations. What percentage of those offers are people actually gonna take you up on it and book?

Not that many. You gotta be making a whole lot of them. Let's look at that. Where are we gonna make an offer? Well, it's usually gonna happen in the forum. Some type of conversation, some type of communication that you have to be having with people. Obviously. Are you having conversations and communication that allows you to offer a consultation? We could be talking about an in-person conversation. Maybe you are one of those awesome networking people who are just great at shouting it up when you're standing in line at the grocery store and when you're dropping your kids off at soccer, soccer practice or whatever it is. Maybe you're having a lot of in-person conversations. Great, that counts because when someone starts telling you about their health issues and start picking your brain, what you wanna say is, I'd love to talk to you more about that.

Why don't we schedule a time next week? That's a consultation. It doesn't have to be in person though. I know that I do all my work from home. It's a whole remote these days. I'm not having nearly as many conversations in person as I was having 10, 20 years ago. So that's alright. Conversations via email. How about that? Someone you know, someone you don't know. Someone from your audience. Someone who saw you speak in an event last week, right? You can be having conversations via email. Same thing. As soon as they start talking about their health issues, I'd love to talk to you more about that. Let's book a time next week. It's that easy. What about your mailing list? Do you have a mailing list? Cause if you do, you can be making offers to your entire mailing list at the same time. So rather than one offer here to this person and one offer for her, consult here to this other person.

You can be routinely offering to chat with everybody in your audience all at once, every time you send out an email, right? We're talking about many offers being made. We're not one, not too many. Now of course, conversations can be had via social media. Last week we talked all about ways to get in front of a new audience and build your business without social media. But I'm not going to discount this because I know lots of health coaches who do well when they get into maybe a DM with somebody going back and forth, it's the same darn thing. They start talking about their health problems. Start trying to pick your brain. Ask for your advice. I'd love to hear more about that. Why don't we put a time on the calendar? And that's all you have to say. You don't have to say, Please book a free consultation on my website.

That sounds stuffy and a little bit intimidating. Let's put a time on the calendar. Let's schedule a time to talk. That's it. Who can do that? That sound reasonable? Cause I find it can be off putting when we offer our free consultation, . It just doesn't sound like something I necessarily wanna do. But of course I wanna chat with you. Of course I'm trying to chat with you now over dms. Of course I would like to chat with you on the phone. So that to me is like a softer, easier way to do it. Now what about all of those offline ways that we meet people? Or it doesn't even have to be offline, but off social media. Like I'm thinking, are you holding workshops? Because a workshop is a type of conversation. You're talking to a lot of people in a room at the same time.

Of course it can be a virtual workshop, but the same thing. You're talking to a lot of people at the same time. There can be an offer to book something on the calendar at the end of that workshop. Are you speaking at events? This is the start of a conversation with many people at the same time, are you appearing on podcasts? That is another way to get in front of a lot of people. At the same time, are you writing guest articles? Same thing. This is you opening up a conversation, getting eyeballs on you from all different walks of life. This is how we start the conversation that leads to, hey, let's chat about it. Hey, book a time on my calendar. It's not rocket science, but can you see when we step backwards? The problem is not that you don't have clients, the problem is that you're not booking consults and you're not booking consults cuz you're probably not putting yourself out there in enough avenues to find people to talk to . 'Cause that's really all it requires is talking to people.

Now, let's say that you are talking to people, I don't know who they are, You found them at the park, whatever. You're having a conversation with people. There are different ways to offer that consult. And by ways, I mean there's different, there's different timing. So I wanna talk about a few of them. It can happen right away. It can be the first thing you say. Especially like I said, if you're having a conversation and someone starts trying to pick your brain, the best thing you can possibly do is redirect them into a phone call. Because number one, it's not professional. It's not something you can do. Just start spouting off health advice for to somebody. And you don't wanna be doing that anyway for free. And you don't wanna be doing it without knowing more about them and their health history.

It's not in service of them either. So the very best thing you can do is go straight from that conversation to let's put a time on the calendar so it can happen right away. It often goes a different way though. Often people will get on your email list one way or another and the offer comes down the line because in two weeks from now, whatever, they get an email from you and you're saying, Book a time here, schedule a time on my calendar. They're going to start getting offers within the emails that they receive from you. That can go on for years. Sometimes people will get the offer right away and they're like, Yes, I would like to talk to this person. I signed up for their email list for a reason. Thank you. And it happens quickly. Sometimes it's years. I've had some of my clients sat on my mailing list for 5, 6, 7 years before they finally did the thing.

Okay, because when they were ready, I was ready too. Another way it sometimes goes is like this. First we get them to download a freebie or a lead magnet. It's a pdf usually let's say. And they open it up and we offer the consultation within that freebie. So like let's say it's 10 breakfast ideas for women with Hashimotos. They download it, great. They get this free resource from you and within it, Hey, dealing with Hashimotos goes far beyond what you eat for breakfast. Let's talk about it. And there's a place for them to click and put themselves on your calendar. So that's another way to make an offer. Again, at scale, you're doing this in your sleep, you're sleeping in bed, and somebody several time zones away is downloading your freebie and booking an appointment on your calendar. Isn't that the dream? And then in a similar vein, but I want you to just think about this different ways.

If we can get people to sign up for a free event with us, it's a free webinar workshop, five day challenge, three day challenge, whatever it is, they're going to do something with us. Great. That also means they end up on our mailing list. Take the opportunity if they're spending time with you, talk about the work that you do with your private clients. Offer them away to book a call if they would like to do that kind of work too. Lead them through an experience and that webinar or that five day challenge or whatever it is that leads them wanting more from you. Perfect segue to booking a call.

So my point today is there is no one way to find more clients. And I don't know if you are a natural speaker or you're a very gifted writer. I don't know what the best avenue will be for you to get in front of people and start a conversation. Maybe it's TikTok, who knows? You might not know either. So in the beginning, coaches spend a lot of time trying out these different avenues and feeling it out for themselves. I really hate being on camera. I never wanna do videos like that. That's not my jam. Or I really love the energy that I get from being on stage and talking in front of a group of people. You might need to try a bunch of things out to figure out which one of these is gonna work best for you, or which several of these techniques will work best for you. But you do need to put yourself out there and you need to do it over and over and over again. You need to have a message that people are like, What's that? My ears are perked. I wanna hear more about this. And once you have their attention, you have to offer the consultations or else you will not have any and you won't have any clients either. And this is the process. And again, I have this fully detailed inside my free training. Earn a living doing the work you love and you can get it now at healthcoachpower.com/training. I will see you all next week.