#325: Build Confidence and Get Clients: Steps for Health Coaches Who Feel Stuck

Michelle:
Hello there, health coaches, do you ever feel like you are just not ready to put yourself out there as a health coach? I hear it a lot from our listeners. I hear that you feel stuck. So today we're going to talk about building confidence and getting clients. Even when you feel stuck, like maybe you are not 100% confident in your coaching skills, that's totally normal. By the way. Maybe you're still trying to figure out your niche. You don't really feel like you know what the heck you're doing or what you have to offer. If that sounds like you stick with me today because we're going to be diving into how you can still confidently attract clients even when you're unsure about what you're offering. That's exactly right. I'm going to say that again. Even if you feel unsure about what you are offering, I'm going to give you three steps for your mind to reframe where you're at right now, and then three very actionable, practical steps to move you forward.

And if you get a special free resource to help you get started, don't miss this. You can steal my actual client session outlines from when I was practicing as a health coach. I'm going to tell you how to grab those for free in just a little bit. But first, okay, step one, remember, this is all about our mindset. Making sure that we are framing our experience in such a way that we don't just lock ourselves in our room and hide under a rock, but we're actually able to take those steps forward. So the first one is why does it matter? Why does it matter? Why did you get into doing this work as a health coach in the first place? When we forget why it matters, when we just feel the fear, we just feel that stuckness, then we don't do anything right? We don't put ourselves out there.

We don't work with any clients. That means we're not improving anyone's lives, which is what we set out to do, right? I know that's the real reason that I became a coach. I'm assuming that's why you became a coach. And this week I wanted to make sure about everyone else in our community. So I asked in our Facebook group, I said, why does it matter if you find clients? Who cares? What's your real motivation behind all of this? And here's what some of our coaches said. By the way, there were many answers. You can look in the Facebook group, but see if any of these resonate with you. So Danny said, I can't help people if I don't have people to help, and I want to earn a decent living and contribute to my family's finances. Yes, yes, yes. Bobby Jo wrote to serve those I've been called to serve and equipped for while also providing and serving my own family as a single solo mama.

And I hear you, Bobby Jo, single mom to single mom. And then Connie said, the services I provide are absolutely essential to women's health. It's a known deficit in healthcare system, and I provide it. Tap into your why. Remember why it because if it doesn't matter, then turn this podcast off by. You don't have to be doing this with your life, but if you have that driving motivation behind you, that's a very good way to start getting unstuck and the confidence that you're looking for, it's not going to come from waiting until you have everything figured out. It really comes from taking action little by little. And I'm going to show you how.
When I first started health coaching, so this was in 2008, 2009, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had never done anything like this before. And I also felt this pressure, and you could tell me if you've ever felt this way. I had to prove that I was good enough. I was making this big career change. I think everyone in my life was kind of giving me this side eye like, what are you doing, Michelle? You're an art director. Why are you suddenly calling yourself a health coach? That's ridiculous. So I had to prove that this was a real thing. And so when I was working with my first clients, one thing I did was fully over prepare for my sessions. And it's like if you were going to have any conversation with someone, you might think about it a bit in advance, but if you are planning it word for word, it can really come across as a little, little much, a little too much, a little intense.

But I was doubting my value. And when I was sitting there with a client, I was just fumbling through not really sure how to do this, of course, because I was brand new. And maybe you're in that place too. So once again, confidence grows in proportion to the action that you take. And your ability of course grows with the action that you take. The more you coach, the more confident you're going to feel. So even though I was fumbling through, first of all, I know I still had clients that were seeing results, that's the shocking part. Even if you're only at, I don't know, half capacity or whatever, you're not coaching as effectively as you could be because again, you're new and you're learning, your clients are still going to benefit just because they're there because they decided to do this thing and you're holding space for them, they still make progress, which is fascinating.

And for you as the coach, even if you're fumbling through like I was, the main thing is that you're showing up. You're doing the thing. Now, I talk more about this idea of doing it scared and building confidence in episode 3 23. So if you go back just a few episodes on my website or on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening, you can check out episode 3 23 for more on that. But the point is that over time, I got better at what I was doing and so will you. And instead of having my desk cluttered with 27 different reference sheets, I had point by point everything I was going to say over here. I had a whole list, like a hundred different open-ended questions that I could ask. I had lots of sheets for note taking and pass notes from the client. You would think I was sending somebody to the moon with the amount of information in front of me on my desk.
Over time, I was able to boil that all down to a really simple outline for each of my client sessions. And if you want to start there, instead of trying to send your client to the moon with way too much over preparation, I want to give those to you. You can steal my client session outlines and walk into every session feeling prepared but relaxed, not over-prepared and super tense even if you're just starting out. So I want to help you get there. You can grab my session outlines there at healthcoachpower.com/outlines, and I want to give you a little something else too. So you have to get those outlines. Another way that you can feel more confident is to prep not a list of a hundred. It was far too many for me to be looking at everything while I was trying to coach a client, but maybe just one or two.

Go-to questions for your session. So for example, and you could just write these down on a little sticky note nearby. You don't want too much in front of you, but just this very simple client outline. And then maybe a question, what's one thing that you want to feel good about by the end of today's session? You could ask that in the beginning of your session. You could ask it pretty much at any point during your session, especially if you have a client who's kind of going in circles and you feel like you're not getting anywhere. Redirect to the conversation. What's one thing that they want to accomplish? One thing that they want to feel wrapped up and good about by the end of the session can be a really powerful one. Just as an example. Another one that a lot of coaches like to use and that I've used is this question.

Your client is talking about an experience and they're having an emotion of some kind, positive emotion, a negative emotion, anything. And you can ask, where do you feel that in your body? Because sometimes our clients are talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and they're kind of up in their head And when you say, where do you feel that in your body, it can cause them to pause for a moment and tap in with themselves. So those are two examples, but just one or two powerful questions. Have them sit next to you, whatever ones you feel comfortable with, and that can help you just get through any stuck points in any session that you're in with a client. I also think those types of questions keeps the focus on the client. It reminds you that your role is to be a guide not to have all the answers.

Remember I didn't say put a little sticky note next to you about how many grams of protein your client should be eating. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not like that. You just want to have a couple great questions in your back pocket that can make you feel ready for anything during the conversation and not go into, let me tell my client what to do mode, which is of course the opposite of coaching. That's not what you're trying to do in any of these sessions. Now, another place that our coaches get stuck, and you can tell me in the comments that this is you. If you're here with me live or if you're watching this in our Facebook group later, do you ever get stuck on that whole target market thing? I want to get started coaching, but I don't have a niche. I haven't figured out my target market yet.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard one of you guys say that I would have a lot of nickels. So I'm here to bust that myth just right through it. We're going to say, you don't need one. Okay, poof. Gone. You can just make that worry disappear. You don't need to have your niche perfected to start coaching. And I promise if you do the work and you can continue to do the work, not once with one client, but you continue to show up for those sessions, you continue to work with any clients you can get your hand on, it's going to come over time. You're going to figure out your target market. So if right now you're in a place where you're like, I don't know, I prefer working with men, great work with men, cool. And if you're like, I have no idea, Michelle, I don't know who I prefer to work with.

I don't know who I'm best suited to serve, even in the broadest sense, work with anyone, health coach your dog. I mean any experience is experience. And just know that in time you're going to develop a sense of who you work best with and the words to describe that, right? It will come with time. And I talk more about this idea of starting even without a niche. If you go back to episode number 304, that episode's called Trouble Choosing a Target Market, do this instead. So hopefully you get the point, which is you don't need to be stuck there. If in your brain you're like, I have to do this first and then I can start working with clients, I want you to just flip that around. Let me start working with any clients I can. I'll figure out the target market as I go.

Is that the best way to do marketing? No, of course not. But that is the best way for you to hone your skill and that is how you build confidence. So those are the three things that I need you to do in order to get out of this stuck place. For starters, remember why your motivation. And then step two is kind of decide to do it anyway. Do it imperfectly, just like I did when I was shuffling all those papers on my desk, just trying to get through my client sessions at all. And then the last one was start without a niche. So I just set you free there in three different ways and you're probably just free falling now, not sure what to do. So don't worry, I'm going to catch you in a nice little basket with three practical ways that you can start attracting clients right now.

So the first one I love and I think everyone should be doing at all points of your career, but if you're just starting or if you've never done this before, we're just going to say do a little mini workshop. You can be holding workshops, big huge workshops down the line for now. Host a mini workshop, share some simple tips or strategies on a topic that your audience struggles with. And your audience at this point might be your three best friends, your neighbors, a couple coworkers. Think small at this point. And I don't mean think small, be small. I mean, think small, doable. Something that you can get done. If you can check this off your list. Michelle told me to host a mini workshop and I did check, boom, your confidence is going to grow. So maybe it's like meal prep hacks for busy moms.

If you're talking to moms, and I guarantee you get moms in the room and you ask them a couple questions, they're going to provide a lot of content, they're going to have questions, they're going to want to talk about their situations and their kids. So it's not like you have to hold a microphone and just talk for an hour. Workshops are never like that. They're super interactive sessions. A lot more like hanging out with a couple friends and having a conversation than presenting from a stage. So that's the energy. You can go into that with host a mini workshop. Alright, the next thing you can do to attract clients, and you can do this even if you've only worked with one client or even if you've only helped a friend or a family member, I want you to leverage those client's stories because even one client story can be incredibly powerful.

Even one happy client creates what we call social proof. For starters, if you did work with someone, even if it was a friend, even if they didn't pay you, ask them for a testimonial. Write up a case study about where they were before the results they got, the steps they took to get there, how they felt in their life. Again, the before and after is very, very powerful. And talk about this. So if you're in a conversation with someone and they bring up a problem, I don't know, eczema, you can say, oh, my client was struggling so much with eczema, she's really gotten much better. Or they bring up something about picky eaters. Your mom's at your workshop. Don't just say, oh, is your kid a picky eater? Say, oh yes, my client was really struggling with her picky eaters and now that kid's eating green beans and broccoli, whatever the story is, reference your clients, reference their successes.

You can do it in really formal ways like posting a testimonial on your website, but I love when it just becomes part of your everyday conversations and definitely conversation within a workshop or with anything where you're talking about your business. So speaking of conversations, how about we just have more of them? Overall, you can do this. There's no technology required. There's no particular person that you have to have a conversation with. This is the third thing that I want you to do. So start attracting clients right away. It's almost like you got to circle around the clients that you're trying to get. If you go straight at them, if you walk up to someone on the street and you're like, you want to work with me, I'm a health coach. That has pretty much a 100% failure rate. Don't do that. But if you're having genuine conversations with real people, not to sell, sell, sell, but to connect with them, right where we got into this work, because we care about people.

We want to make the world a better place. We want to impact lives. Okay, great. Take all the selling out of it and I want you to connect and be curious and care about people in these actual conversations where you're asking about them. So just someone that you might not normally invite to go get a cup of coffee, invite them to go get a cup of coffee or a tea or whatever it is, find yourself chatting with people at the grocery store. Find yourself talking to the moms at the soccer game or whatever it is. Start having more real conversations with people. This will pay off in dividends down the line. I always share that I was more of an introvert when I started my health coaching business. You take the Myers-Briggs test, I wasn't I all the way to the end of the spectrum, I was as introverted as introverted gets.

And over the years, having to start talking to people in small ways and bigger ways, talking with my clients, of course, I became more and more comfortable with that. Became more and more extroverted actually over time. But now I actually enjoy it. So if you're not quite there yet, don't worry. You can change. You can grow just like anybody else. But this type of business does require that you have conversations and those conversations, whatever it is, just grabbing a cup of tea can turn into referrals or clients down the line sometimes right away, sometimes. But don't push for that. Don't think it's like a transactional conversation where someone's going to be like, Ooh, I want to work with you today. And if they don't say that you failed, that's not it. Connect, be curious, care about people. That's what's going to pay off in the long run.

And in this way, you're taking action, which is always better than taking no action. And these actions don't have to be perfect. They just require that you're showing up as yourself. You're showing up consistently and doing those things I just mentioned. You can write those down. Sometimes we call it the three Cs. You connect, you're curious and you care along the way. I also want you, maybe there's a fourth C, because I want you to celebrate the small steps, things that seem very small along the way, right? It's just like our clients. They think Eaton one serving of dark leafy greens today doesn't matter. It matters. It's the small things that add up over time. Same for you and your business. So celebrate those small wins. Every conversation you have, every little step you take forward, even just listening to today's episode, right? These are all steps along the path.
And just because you're feeling unsure, you're going to keep moving forward anyway you can. Human beings are capable of being afraid and still doing something of feeling unsure and going for it anyway. You've done it a million times in your life and you can do it here. So remember that all the confidence you need is going to come from showing up, serving and learning as you go. And if you want to feel a little bit more prepared and confident during your sessions, don't forget to grab my free resource. You can steal my client session outlines at healthcoachpower.com/outlines. You're going to be feeling much more like professional even if you've never worked with a client before, just because you have something to follow. You're going to have a baseline with this. And if you have questions along the way, if you want to share your wins with us, join me inside our Health Coach Power community on Facebook.

You can just go to healthcoachpowercommunity.com, answer a couple of quick questions. This is a free community. We have over 15,000 coaches, and that's what helps these episodes today. It's not just me yapping about a topic to you. It's about me responding to what I hear inside our Facebook group, right? I'm listening. I've always been listening to what everyone is saying inside the group, and this is how we can communicate for free if you listen to every episode of this podcast at thousands and thousands of dollars worth of business coaching right there. So I encourage you to do that. And again, join us in the Health coach power community so that this can be an interactive experience. Go to healthcoachpowercommunity.com. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening today, everybody. It's been a pleasure, and I'll see you next week. Bye-bye.