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What makes the difference between failure and success in your coaching business?
From my own personal experience and from watching my clients grow their own coaching businesses, there is a special ingredient that will help you with success. And that, my friend, is having a strong marketing mindset.
So today, I'm sharing five marketing mindset shifts that you can make to help you be and feel unstoppable in marketing for your coaching business.
Hello! if you are new to me, I'm Nikki Berkel. I'm a marketing and online business strategist for coaches. My first coaching business failed, but my second business was fully booked Within just two months. There were three big differences between why one failed and the other is still going strong: clear messaging, a hot target market, and a strong marketing mindset. And today we're diving way deeper into the marketing mindset and the things that I did to create my marketing mindset that helps keep my business going.
As you’re reading through this, I want you to keep in mind that no strategy or advice is a one size fits everyone's situation. So sit back, read, use your judgment, pull what resonates with you, and leave what does not.
For today', I wanted to bring in some real life scenarios of things, life experience in my business and from my own brain, and then offer the mindset shifts that have been helpful for me. That way instead of just watching and listening, if you want to, you can take what I share today and you can apply it to your business right now.
Notice, Then Avoid This Type of Thinking
The first scenario I want to share that you might be dealing with also is what I call, I need X before I can do Y type thinking. This shows up in examples like I need to create my website before I pitch my services. Or, I need to have my professional email address set up before I pitch to talk to that group for free.
I know my brain loves this kind thinking. It's organized, it's practical, it's following a specific order of something. But what it also is, is my perfectionist popping up to slow me down from making progress. For sure, as your business grows, there will definitely be cases where it's important to have a specific system or marketing process set up before you do something else like certain pieces before a launch. This totally makes sense.
But, I'm going to venture and say you're still fairly new. And so if that's the space that you're in, you're not there yet. So the strong marketing mindset shift for if, oh, I need X before I can do Y type thinking is first to notice that you're having those thoughts.
And then the second piece of it is to challenge those thoughts. I would ask myself, am I 100% positive that I need a professional email address before I pitch that group talk? Then I would come up with a few pieces of evidence to support why I actually don't need it.
So if I search in my memory, I can remember working for companies where we actually hired and paid some contractors that didn't have a professional email set up, right?
They still had, back in the day it would be like MSN or Outlook, now it would be more like Gmail, but we still hired them. They did good work for us and we paid them. Hmm. So there's a little bit of evidence to tell me that maybe I'm not quite right in my thinking.
And here's the deal with this type of thinking and this type of shift that I'm mentioning here. At some point, are you going to need a professional email address? Yeah, I would argue that you would, totally. But in the beginning, you'll end up with hundreds if not thousands of scenarios where you will have, I need this before this type thinking.
I mean, there will literally be a stack of things that you'll think you'll need to do. And so questioning yourself in these instances can really help you stay focused on the work that you need to do in the beginning to help you get clients versus work that turns into busy work and doesn't get you clients.
So after hearing about, I need X, before I can Y type thinking, I would love to hear from you. Do you notice yourself having any kinds of thoughts like these? If so, comment below with a yes and feel free to share your story. I would love to hear it.
Feeling afraid to put yourself out there?
Here is the second scenario. I felt scared to death to put myself out there. Now I am kind of middle introverted, extroverted. I like my quiet time, but I also enjoy being around people. But, taking a step into like online marketing land, very scary. And I think it's very possible that you could be feeling the same way too.
So being afraid to put myself out there for me showed up as procrastination. I would make a lot of plans. I would say, Oh, I'm going to come up with, um, this set of social media posts to write, or I'm going to reach out to this person to see if they want to work together or I'm going to write this email. Things like that. I would plan it. I would have it like on my journal perfectly jotted out, and then I wouldn't do it.
So for me, I went digging and I was trying to uncover if I'm so scared of putting myself out there, why? Right? Like what's underneath that? And the big thing for me, which you might share as well, is fear of judgment. So if fear of getting judged by other people as you're growing and building your business that resonates with you, then here are my mindset shifts for that.
The first piece to it is just know you will be judged. It's important to know that there will be people who don't even notice you, don't pay attention to your content. It's kind of like you don't exist to them.
There will also be people who don't like your work. Maybe they think you're wrong based on some experiences they had or they just don't like your personality. That's probably going to happen.
And then there could be a very tiny percentage of people that actually say something negative about your work. So haters, right? And for most human minds, those are the ones that your brain is going to want to focus on and like magnify and make way bigger than they need to be. Because the other thing to keep in mind is there are some people that are going to be judging you in a positive manner. The people that you are meant to serve, the people that you are creating your services for, you are going to need to show up for them so that you can help them.
So it will help if you can really focus on creating work, content, services for the people who will value you and who need your help. The other piece to this of when you're feeling afraid of putting yourself out there, is this: everything that you do, consider it practice.
Once I realized that every social media post every blog, every YouTube script, every conversation with a potential client, every conversation with an existing client, once I could reframe my mind around the fact that it was really all practice, then I could really let off some of the pressure. It helped me get through trying to be perfect for everyone, trying to be liked by everyone and trying to say and right and do the perfect thing.
Working through the fear of putting yourself out there is something that I talk about in my free guide. So if you want to get a little bit more about that plus some great other things for basics on marketing, you can
click here to grab my free download 7 Steps To Guarantee a Profitable Message and Market.
When imposter syndrome creeps in…
The third scenario that I want to offer a strong marketing mindset shift for you today is imposter syndrome.
You know that situation where you have some training and skills and you're perfectly qualified to do the thing that you're saying that you’ll do, but for some reason you just don't feel good enough, you're never going to be good enough, and you're worried that somebody is going to pull the blanket out from under you and expose you for the fraud that you are.
Well, here's what helped me when I would know it is imposter syndrome creeping up. I would ask myself this very simple question, Do I know enough to help someone? And if my answer was no, and in some cases occasionally it was a no, like if I was honest with myself, then I identified the areas that I either needed more education, more experience, more practice, whatever, and I went out and got it.
But if the answer was yes that I did know enough to help someone in this case, then it was just a matter of reminding myself so that I could get it through my thick skull that yes, I knew enough that I could help people.
And so I would use post-it notes. You could write things like “I know enough to help someone” on a post-it note and put it all over the place. I would put these in my bathroom mirror, in my car when I was driving to the place where I still worked when I was training to be a life coach. I would put it as a background note on my phone. Anytime I needed to just try to retrain my brain on something, I was making sure that I got that message front and center.
When you feel inspired, then lack action.
As I built my business and this is definitely ongoing, I have found that I will have periods of energy and excitement. I might get super jazzed up if I have a conversation with someone and we really connect that inspires me to continue doing my work.
Maybe I listen to a podcast or I watch a documentaries that talks about success and failures of entrepreneurs, something that lights me up.
And then boom, I am off to the races. I've got my journal out, I've got my planner and I'm going to town making plans, letting ideas rip, and then it's time to take action on those ideas. And it's like, whoa, where did all that amazing energy go? Why am I now not as excited as I was to do all of these things?
Most of the time, the lack of energy comes from the fact that I'm out of idea euphoria is what I call it. And then switching into the gear of doing something that's either new or uncomfortable. So switching from idea to actually making it happen. And this is a normal process for entrepreneurs. And so I think knowing this is an advance, knowing that you're going to come up against this is a very important thing to note so you don't feel like, Oh my gosh, what kind of roller coaster am I on?
And how am I going to get through this? So if this happens to you, two things for you here. The first one is to just know that this is part of the process of being an entrepreneur. You're going to have highs, you're going to have lows, and then you're going to have to learn how to work them both. The second shift I’ll offer you for this is…
Stay in the Magic of Your Vision (no, really!).
The other piece to this is something that I have been doing lately and have learned from Master Creativity coach Leah Badertscher. Leah is the founder of The Art School and The Art School Podcast. Now, this shift that she teaches that I've been doing is all about staying so super connected to your vision. So drop in, spend a lot of time picturing, visualizing, meditating, however you want to work it, staying in the energy of what you're creating.
And this is instead of getting hyper focused on all of the things that you're going to need to do to achieve the vision. And here's what I have to say about this shift, it's magical. Think about this: if you're a kid going to Disneyland and you're just envisioning your experience at Disneyland, how awesome it's going to be and you're just kind of visualizing the pretty fun things.
You know what you're not visualizing? Booking travel, standing in the long lines, being tired at the end of the day. You’re not worried about all the different things that you're going to need to do, paying for your tickets. You're not all visualizing all those details. You are staying connected and focused to the magic.
So the same thing for entrepreneurs, and it's complex because after a few minutes, your brain is going to want to jump up and down and go, okay, okay, but how? And so then it's like, okay, shift back into the vision.
And then what I find is that when you can do that, you probably have a stack on your desk, right, or in your mind or wherever of the things that you need to do in order to grow your business. Yeah, those exist for sure.
But if you can stay more connected to the energy of the vision, when you go back and you're feeling overwhelmed or stuck or just not sure what, which one of those things to do next, I find that when you can stick to that energy of that vision, the thing that you should do next either pops out of the stack or your perspective shifts a little bit, something becomes more clear and easier to work through because of staying connected to that magic.
I am a huge fan of Leah's work. She is an incredible mentor and she's modeled a way of building a dream business without an exhausting hustle approach. So if you're inspired by that idea and want to learn more about staying connected to your vision or how you can use a creative process to build your business, check her out!
What if I fail?
So here is the fifth and last strong marketing mindset shift that I'm going to share today.
Notice and reframe any thought that you have about marketing that is not helpful to you. For example, here are some of my real life thoughts that I have had about marketing.
I will annoy people.
People won't like me.
Nobody will buy my services.
I'm not qualified enough to sell these services.
I might fail again.
When I notice I'm having thoughts, I get my journal out and I go to town and explore it. I always ask myself, what is a higher quality thought that's also available to me? So here are some of the reframes that I have had.
So instead of I will annoy people, I would reframe that to the right person won't be annoyed by this, they'll like it. Instead of people won't like me, I reframe that to the people I'm meant to work with, will enjoy my personality. Instead of nobody will buy my services, I reframe that to the right offer will help the right person. Instead of I'm not qualified to sell these services, the reframe is I have enough training and expertise to help people. Instead of I might fail again, the reframe is this business is a learning process. There really is no failure, just lessons to get better next time.
And there you have it, the five strong marketing mindset shifts that I've used in my business. So take what you want, take what you need from this and apply it to your business today. If you can make working on your marketing mindset part of the experience of building your business, it will help you achieve the success you're looking for.
Do you need more guidance on how to learn how to market your coaching business? If you've never marketed yourself before or you've tried programs and they didn't work, I highly suggest starting with some marketing basics and practicing to work through the fear of putting yourself out there. For that, you can click on the link below and grab my free guide, 7 Steps to Guarantee a Profitable Message and Market.
I cover the marketing basics you need in the beginning, how to create a clear, sellable message. And of course, there's more tips on working through the fear of putting yourself out there.
And if you’d like more mindset tips, in this video I share how to get unstuck and uncover what’s making you stuck in How to Start a Life Coaching Business From Scratch.
FREE GUIDE!
Feel confident when you introduce yourself to people as a coach.
Know exactly what to put on your website so clients want to work with you.
Uncover a profitable target market you love to work with.
Figure out what to charge your first or next client.
Learn how to work through the fear of putting yourself out there and marketing.