Michelle:
Hey there, health coaches, welcome back to another episode. I'm really excited to give you some practical ideas today that you can totally run with. It's not going to take you a month or a year to implement. You can listen to this episode. You can turn around and give these ideas a try, and you can book more calls with potential clients starting today. So that's exciting, right? Are you with me? If you are here live, go ahead and say hi in the comments and leave any questions as we go along. Same thing goes for all your replay watchers inside our Facebook group or even on YouTube. Oh my God, we're everywhere. What I really want to know, and I'm hoping we'll get enough feedback from those of you that are here live with me. I mean, I do these live for a reason, right? Tell me in the comments, how many free consultations or how many consultations or discovery calls have you held in the last month?

Just an estimate. If you're not sure. Did you meet with 20 potential clients? 35, maybe one. And for those of you listening via podcast later, you're going to do the same little calculation in your head or just come up with an estimate. How many consultations have you had in the past month? We're going to come back to these numbers in just a moment. But first, if you love the idea of following super practical steps, you got to join this month's free, get more clients bootcamp each day of bootcamp. It's going to be kind of like this. It's going to be full of plug and play business ideas to help you reach more clients and help more people. That's the name of the game. We did this last year and it was so super successful. We had so much fun. I decided to bring it back with some new updates that you're not going to want to miss, and it's all free.

Sign up at healthcoachpower.com/getmoreclients. I'm going to drop that right over here in my Facebook chat area and say hello to Jenny and hello to Lonnie. It's so nice to see you guys here. I should also mention that FastTrack 2020 fives Live Spring cohort is also coming up quickly. This is my most popular 12 week program and it includes all of my done for you materials. So you probably want in on that, right? If your name's on the wait list, this is a hot tip, names on the wait list, you're going to get best possible pricing and bonuses. There's no obligations, so you might as well put your name on the list. You'll go to healthcoachpower.com/waitlist to do just that. And now that I got all that out of my system, let's go back to the question that I asked a minute ago.

How many discovery calls are you holding or have you held in the last month? I see that Linda's here with us live. That's great. Nobody's given me any numbers though. You guys, I got to do math. I need your help. It's important because generally as health coaches, we're offering our private coaching services and maybe our group coaching services during those free calls. That's how people sign up for them. And let's say that your closing rate is really high. Let's say it's 80% and that is really high you guys. Sometimes our expectations are that every time we hold a consultation call, it should result in a client. But honestly, I mean if even your closing rate is like 50%, that's pretty good. So I encourage you to keep track of how many of those calls do turn into paying clients. Alright, I got some numbers now.

Jenny says zero. So there's not much math to do there, Jenny, that's good. Thanks for keeping it easy for me. Lonnie says she's had three. Linda says zero. Okay, I am glad that you are all here. Let's say that you got a really high closing rate and 80% it means for every 10 free calls that you hold, eight of them turn into paying clients. And that's the kind of closing rate that my fast trackers see because we have a really specific recipe for these calls. It is so good, but this is a really big, but you can't offer your services 10 times or sign eight clients if you aren't booking those calls in the first place, right? You guys, right? I'm so glad that you've shown up. So we can talk about this today. If you're like, Michelle, I want to get more clients. I signed up for your Get More Clients bootcamp, obviously, how can I start signing more clients?

The answer is you got to book more calls. That's actually what you need to think about. You don't need to think about the booking the client's part. You need to think about the booking the calls part. So that's what today's episode is all about. Most of you, it's not just Lonnie, it's not just Linda. Most of you who are listening, we're in our Facebook group, are like book a free call, book a free call, and you just hearing crickets calls are not getting on your calendar, and it's like what nobody wants. What we have to offer is that it, even though just look around, so many people are looking for help with their health and they are spending money on their health. You see what people are spending money on, they are really truly in need of your services. So it's like what gives, today I'm sharing a simple twist to get more calls booked on your calendar and make those calls a lot more fun too.

So the problem is that a free call, whether you're saying discovery call or consultation call, what are you guys saying? Do you have another name for it? Everyone knows that regardless of what we call it, it's a chance for them to be sold on something. If they get themselves on your calendar, they're basically like, please sell me something. So that's a little frightening. And what you're going to get typically when you're like, book a free call, your website says, book a free call, click here to book a free call. You are going to get some very few people to do that who are like, yes, I want to know about working with this coach. That's like, I don't know, half a percent of people. And then you're going to get on the other side of the spectrum, those who are like, no way am I buying anything, but let's see what I can get for free.

A lot of times they don't even show up though. They're not serious at all. But then you got to think about all those people in the middle. They aren't jumping to necessarily hire a health coach today probably because they don't really understand what health Coach is or what they would get from this call. Would it really be worth their time to put it on the calendar? And similarly, it's vague, it's overused. They've heard it a million times. It sounds salesy. It doesn't promise any inherent value, it implies a sales pitch. They're not raising their hand for that even though they are having health issues. They do want help to solve those health issues and they're willing to spend money to solve their problems, but they're tuning you out. So instead of offering a generic free call, what if, and this is where you're going to start taking notes.

So get a pen ready, and if you're listening and you're driving or you're listening and you're out for a run, that's okay. You can always come back and listen again later. What if you gave people a specific valuable reason to want to book a call with you? Just think about that for a moment. What would that be like? This is something that I'm going to cover more in depth during our Get More Clients bootcamp, by the way. But here's what I'm talking about, A specific reason to book a call that this potential client can see the value in right away, such as, here's something that I did in my own health coaching practice. Instead of book a free consultation, I emailed my list and I offered a free food diary review. All they had to do was complete a three day food diary, very simple breakfast, lunch, dinner.

It wasn't like they had to measure everything down to the quarter cup and they just said, fill that out and send it to me by a certain date. And then we got on a call together to talk through it. What comes up when you discuss somebody's food diary, their health issues, obviously they're food issues. You have a chance to ask all kinds of related questions and get to know this person and vice versa. And what do you know? That's the conversation that you want to find yourself in. So what do you think about that idea? You think you could offer a free food diary review? Do you think people would go for that? Does it feel a little more comfortable than saying free discovery call? We're going to discover, I don't know. I'm going to give you a few other ideas for a value-driven specific C like this.

But keep in mind that you never on any of these calls, regardless of what the theme is, you never have to let your brain get picked or find yourself giving away your expertise for free. That's not what this is about. You're always coaching. You're always asking questions regardless of how you invited them into the call. You're always in a coach role. You're helping this person discover their next best move, which as we know as a good coach, we trust that each individual already knows that. They already know for themselves what their next best move should be. We're just helping them reveal it. So if you're ever like, Ew, I don't want to be salesy, just remember you're not. You're just coaching someone to make the best decision for themself. So Linda says she thinks this is genius. Linda, you got to try it. Jenny says, I love that idea.

I'm going to steal it. Steal it. Everyone just take it. It's free for the taking ideas today are just going to be popping off, and I want you to take all of it and run with it, but promise me something. Do it this week. There's no reason why not. And if you just do it very quickly and you get it out there and whatever, and then you think, oh, I could have done it a little differently, or maybe I should have used one of Michelle's other ideas, great, do that next week. There's no limit to how many times you can offer something like this. Jenny says, the food diary is such a great way to entice them to book the call and for the right people, and we'll talk about that more in just a second. Linda says she's going use it with her mailing list. Deanna says, how would this work if you are an intuitive eating coach? Yeah, so let's talk about other ideas. The point is, we got to get them on the call to do something that they're interested in. That's it. That's the secret. That's the formula.

So to answer Deanna's question, because for umpteen different reasons, maybe you don't want to do a food diary review or maybe you did it this week, but next week you want to do something else. There are actually so many ways to frame a call like this and make it even more targeted to a particular niche. Remember, it just has to be something that they want, not what you want, what they want, such as, let's say that you're talking to a group of people who are suffering tremendously from eczema. You could invite them to an eczema solution assessment. Doesn't that sound like it's going to be helpful for them? They're going to get solutions and they're going to be assessed. That's better than a discovery call. And so maybe your potential client in that case is going to answer a list of questions related to their eczema, their symptoms, their diet, their lifestyle. You can make it as thorough of a questionnaire as you want. Use the call to review it together. Same thing. It gives you an opportunity to start asking questions to get to know this person, for them to get to know you. Does that help you start thinking about it? Deanna, what do you think you could offer if you want to work with women around intuitive eating, what is it that they want?

Jenny says, I am a diabetes prevention health coach. The food diary is great, but what are the options can I offer? Okay, keep listening. Jenny, I got a few more I'm going to throw out for you. And guess what else where a lot of these ideas came from? Because in my own health coaching practice, I tended to work with type A, stressed out women around losing weight around autoimmunity issues. So I'm very, I know that woman very, very well. You guys could have all different specialties. I'm not an expert in all of them. How could I possibly be? So I went to chat GPT and I asked, I kind of put in this idea and it spit out a list of 10 different ideas for a call. I just plucked out a few of them to share with you today that I thought were particularly good or that I kind of massaged them a little bit to be more what I was looking for.

But anyway, invite people to an assessment of their symptoms of what's going on in their life so that not just for the heck of it so that they can get solution to their big problem. And that example, it was eczema. Alright, how about this? This would be something that actually would've worked in my health coaching practice had I thought about it. How about a stress and sleep? This is for the woman who cannot sleep. This is for the woman who is ordering those CBD gummies off Instagram to try to help her sleep. Nothing's been working and she's popping melatonins left and right. What if you got together to pinpoint why this person isn't sleeping again, it's going to be in the form of a conversation where you're asking lots of questions and talk about a plan to fix her sleep. Spoiler alert, the plan is your coaching program.

So you're never on these calls like, okay, well what do you think about eating more dark leafy greens or anything like that? You're not getting to the solution on the call except to say that the solution would be to work with you. So a plan to fix it would look like, Hey, and I'm going to talk to you in a second about how to segue from the topic that you got them on the call to actually pitching your program. Linda said, yes, yes, yes. Something around sleep is germinating in my head as you were talking. When someone cannot sleep, and I know because I've gone through periods of this myself, they want to talk about it, right? They want to tell you what time they're waking up every night. They want to tell you exactly what the problem. I mean most people do. You're inviting them to a conversation to essentially complain, that's not the right word, probably, or very professional to use that word, but really ask people to complain and they will talk.

That is a good way to get them into a conversation. Alright, how about a sugar cravings makeover or a family meal planning session? Get together, start putting together a meal plan. You're going to have to ask questions. What's going on with your kids picky eating? What do you mean that you're making three meals every night? That could be a great segue into talking about what's going on in that household and various health issues. What about an energy audit? Think about your clientele. By the way, think about your audience and think about yourself, your personality. The word audit is going to appeal very, very much to certain people. If you're working with you're intending target markets that you're working with, accountants offer them an energy audit. You know what I mean? That's really going to work for them, but I'm sharing all different ways to frame this.

It could be a planning session, it could be a makeover. Choose words that resonate with you and with the type of person that you want to work with. You get the idea. Any ideas coming up for you guys? For those of you that are here live, throw some stuff out here in the chat. What do you think you can offer? We can help brainstorm, we can help workshop it if you just even put a bad idea out there. That's how most of my ideas start as terrible ideas, and then they kind of evolve from there. Deanna says, I could do what is your mindset around food assessment? So that's a great starting point, and then if you think what does she want? Does she want to know what her mindset is around food?

I'm just guessing she probably wants something like, how do I stop over eating? Or what is her desire? I want to lose weight, but I don't want a diet. Maybe it's the non diet or your diet makeover or your non-diet planning session. Any of those things that I just shared just swap in the desired result for the other ideas that I shared earlier, right? As long as it's clear, as long as it's helpful, as long as it gives them a compelling reason to take action, it's going to be compelling because they want the outcome. They want the solution to their eczema, for example. Now, once they book any of these super valuable calls with you, it's going to flow naturally into some deeper coaching. The opportunity is there, and I will also say to you, if you don't think this person is a good fit for what you're offering, if you don't want to work with them for any reason, then you can just make it a nice quick call.

You talk about the issue. Don't ask too many deeper coaching questions and then get off the call. It doesn't have to turn into a pitch unless you want it to, and I encourage you to be discerning about that because have you ever ended up with a client who was like the wrong client? It's so draining and you wish that you had never offered them your program in the first place. So be discerning now on all of these calls, you are going to be giving some value, but it is about having that conversation that allows you to ask the big questions and it makes the think to themselves, wow, I love this. I need the support. Wow, this has been so enlightening. I remember doing a food diary review with one of my health coaching clients. Her name is Martha. It was the first time that I ever spoke with her, although she had been in my world, she'd been on my mailing list.
She was probably following me on social media and stuff like that, but I didn't know who she was until she booked the food diary review. She had a long history of yo-yo dieting, but by the end of the call, we also had gotten into talking about her digestive issues, which were significant, and I just knew that she would be a perfect, perfect client. So if it's a fit like Martha was, for me, what you can do is simply ask maybe about 15 minutes into a 30 minute call. You could simply ask or whenever it makes sense, but roughly, I would try to keep these calls to 30 minutes and somewhere around that 15 minute mark, would you like to hear more about how I work with clients? Now? It helps if prior to that you've dropped a couple hints that you work with clients. You could say with Martha, I could say, oh, that's funny that you mention you have so many.
I remember her talking about her handbags. She said, I have so many handbags and purses because a handbag always fits. Her size was always changing in her clothing, so she always put a lot of money into buying handbags. They always fit, and maybe I say something like, oh, that's funny. A lot of my clients talk about their handbags and also shoes for the same reason, so I can just mention my clients. If you can do that two, three times prior, when you get to that part where you say, would you like to hear more about how I work with clients? They're going to be like, yeah, I would, especially if you kind of hinted or indicated to them that you've helped clients see success or that it's possible for them to see success. It doesn't even have to be about your own clients. You could just be like, oh, I know a woman was dealing with that same kind of eczema.
She's doing great now. It just makes them feel like warm and fuzzy inside. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, right? So I'm going to say it one more time. Write this down. Would you like to hear more about how I work with clients? That's how I always phrase this kind of thing. Then you're off to the races. Now, by the way, Martha ended up being one of my most amazing, memorable clients ever. She had, again, she'd never taken me up on the offer for a free consultation, but a food diary review. Sorry, that was hard to say. She was in and she signed up as a private client during that food diary review. That is hard to say. Jenny says, what about grocery list and label reading sessions? Yes, but this is the hardest ship brain shift for health coaches to make.

So reach up into your brain and turn it around like this. Nobody wants, the desired result is never like, oh, I wish I could read labels, but maybe it's like, I need to avoid gluten because I was just diagnosed with celiac disease. So a session to help them read, make sure it's tied to the desired outcome. It's not just like, let's get together and read labels. Just like I said, a family meal planning session. You could probably argue that that was a little bit not about a result either, but I think most moms, they do want that meal plan that's going to organize their life anyway, so just be careful about that. You can put together a grocery list. You could even do a pantry makeover, but tie it to the problem that they're trying to solve that would really make that strong. Alright. The overarching theme here that I want you to walk away with is that getting clients doesn't have to be super complicated.

It doesn't have to involve social media algorithms or funnels. It's just really about having conversations. We all can have conversations. We can put down the phone and we can stop worrying about hashtags and all that kind of thing, and we can just have more conversations. That's what we're talking about today, how to invite people into conversations in a way that they're going to say yes. And what we've talked about today is just one of the strategies that we're covering in the Get More Clients Bootcamp. Trust me, you are not going to want to miss this. It is free. It is happening soon, and it's going to help you book more clients and those calls in the first place. Like I said, you want to have more clients, you got to have more calls. So go sign up now. It's at healthcoachpower.com/getmoreclients. And if you're interested in this Spring's Live FastTrack cohort, remember the wait list is open for that at healthcoachpower.com/waitlist. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you guys next week.