How to Land Your First Coaching Clients

Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith share how they landed their first coaching clients and review the different ways you can land your first or next client too! Tune in to hear their behind-the-scenes stories and learn activities you can implement today to get started.  

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How Em and Lex landed their first coaching clients
• How to start coaching with beta clients - and what to ask for in exchange
• How to gain confidence to land your first paying client
• Different marketing tactics that you can implement to find clients
• Specific examples for coaches of where to hang out to find clients
• The most important thing you can do to find your first or next client

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Snag free resources from Ready Set Coach here.

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell  
Hey, Lex.

Lexie Smith  
Hey, Em.

Emily Merrell  
Good to see you today.

Lexie Smith  
Good to see you. Good to see you looking beautiful as always.

Emily Merrell  
Oh, yes. So just so everyone knows I'm wearing like a it looked like a polar bear. Like I skinned a polar bear. Someone really cozy polar bear?

Lexie Smith  
Like a white fluffy, yummy marshmallow blanket.

Emily Merrell  
Jacket. Exactly. And I just, yeah, it's a shock. It is a shock it is. Oh, I know. I will not go out in public in this but it is a very internal. Only select people can can see it up close jacket. But I'm gross and sweaty because I just finished working out. I don't know if I told you, Lex but I just finally got an Apple watch.

Lexie Smith  
Oh, man, you got two monitors last week. Now you're getting a Apple Watch.

Emily Merrell  
I know, I might not learn to Google soon, too. It's amazing. But it's cool. It has these little rings and I set my rings at a very stupidly high thing. And now I'm just obsessed at making the rings happen. I'm like, Okay, let's go for a walk. Let's go for an afternoon walk. Let's

Lexie Smith  
get a ring like a sound.

Emily Merrell  
I know. It's like, like a fitness ring basically. So like, show you how far you are in your rings. And I've already made my I'm 69% Done to complete

Lexie Smith  
a circle. Like the ring is like a goal. It's like a circle.

Emily Merrell  
Yep. Like an exercise. But they have like tears of the rings.

Lexie Smith  
The Apple Watch people are like, oh, like see your dumb watch. People are appreciative that I'm asking these questions.

Emily Merrell  
These very thoughtful questions. Yeah, so it has a little ring. And when you complete your exercise ring, it'll be like, your exercise ring is complete. And then when you complete your goal ring, it'll be like your goal for today.

Lexie Smith  
I don't know. Goals complete. No, that's

Emily Merrell  
that's and it tells you when to stand up.

Lexie Smith  
Oh, that's a good one. Because I could well, pre having a two month old I could sit without moving for 10 hours and forget. Yeah.

Emily Merrell  
Yeah. Be like it's time to stand up. Or I'll be like, are you still alive?

Lexie Smith  
That's like when Netflix says are you still watching? Watching? What's your judgment, please?

Emily Merrell  
Yeah. I just started watching bad vegan on Netflix last night. And have you seen that?

Lexie Smith  
I did. I watched like 75% of it. And then I got ADD so I could I know the premise.

Emily Merrell  
Crazy, crazy story. I used to walk by there all the time. I don't think I've ever been. You see Tinder swindler? Oh, yeah. It reminded me a lot of that.

Lexie Smith  
Yes, that one I did. I did watch full through. I have a connection to Tinder. I guess the story for another day. But yeah, there's a theme of these documentaries and people getting swindled for a lot of money. Yes, swindled. There you go.

Emily Merrell  
Yeah. And then you think about like the annadelle movies in the world who just have so much competence, it seems that this wind blows to like, that's actually a wonderful question. Where does this confidence come from? Are you born with this confidence? Or like Did something happen in your life that made you this confident? That's like

Lexie Smith  
nature versus nurture? Right? Yeah. Big Question, Emily.

Emily Merrell  
Huge question. But I'm just so curious, like in the annadelle V's of the world, to be able to be like so certain, you know, I paid for this or I'm, I'm this person, do you think they actually believe the persona that they are trying to be? Or they're just really incredible.

Lexie Smith  
Con artists, con artists. I definitely think there's a lot of nurture involved for the people like in Adobe's, and the Tinder, Tinder swindlers. A lot of those people are hiding insecurities, and they're hiding behind these false personas and confidence. Yeah, so I'm sure there's some you know, please don't hold this against me this I'm formulating my thought as we speak. But I do think there's quite a lot of nurturance probably a lot of product of their environment and how they were raised and the circumstances that happened in life, but I don't know when you think,

Emily Merrell  
yeah, probably like some sort of survival where they have nothing to lose. And so they probably I don't know much about their backgrounds, but thinking that they, they have nothing to go back to so why not just go forward and be the person that they think they are They want to be in some way shape or form.

Lexie Smith  
And this you guys will now know I'm a huge true true friend of crime fan I listen to a lot of true crime podcast and so this is actually reminds me of like psychopaths and sociopaths like it right nature versus nurture. How much are you born with that versus how much is it a product of your environment? So some crossovers there a few for me some true crime podcasts recommendations, guys,

Emily Merrell  
feel free to actually give us one good recommendation before we buy favorite murder

Lexie Smith  
SS DGM if you know, you know, it's actually one of the top podcasts. It's up there with how I built this. Okay? Yeah, it's these two girls, they're comedians they talk for 20 minutes and then they recount murders but do it in a comedic way which sounds terrible if you're not into true crime but it's I don't know if you again if you know you know if you like that kind of stuff, it's fantastic show I really I really like

Emily Merrell  
it. Kind of kind of messed up, though, that how much we enjoy murders and like understanding murders and understanding crime.

Lexie Smith  
Yeah, well, look at all the documentaries and true crime shows. It's this whole thing they call us Marino's?

Emily Merrell  
I've seen that SNL skit on it. Yeah, yeah.

Lexie Smith  
I don't know what's deep psychology there. But speaking of swindling, not spindling. We're going to talk today about how we got our first clients, we did not opposite of that, how did we not swindle our way? But how did we authentically as coaches get our first clients? Oh, my gosh.

Emily Merrell  
It was good. It was very good. It was very clear, very, very clear. To be clear are we did not swindle our clients.

Lexie Smith  
We did not. But there is a point in time where you go from the concept of wanting to coach to having your very first client. And that's what we want to talk about today. And I'd love to give you the mic first to talk about your experience.

Emily Merrell  
So back in the day, I'll start with my own business. When I coach through six degrees society, I went through a coaching program where the coach that I hired gave me the confidence to be a coach, but I had every single impostor syndrome and objection come up like who am I to coach? What did they going to want to learn from me? What if I can't teach them what they want to learn? And instead of just lingering in that I decided to push that aside and give it a go. And I told people that I was a coach. And the first client that I got was a florist she was starting her own floral business. And I remember, I had a sales script that I had written. And it was a phone call with her. And I remember reading through it, and it was insanely low, how much I priced myself at the time. And she said yes. And she was like, Yeah, I would love to work with you. And I had all the doubt and whatnot, come back and rush back towards me. But working with her was incredible, because I was able to I had the first program be at six months. And I was able to see how it felt to work at six months. And then my next client, I was able to actually my next two clients were beta clients, I gave them to people that were ambassadors for six degrees, I gave them a month free of coaching. And I asked, I said to them, if they want more coaching afterwards, they can pay. And they all did. And they one of them is still client to this day. And it was cool. Because I was able to play around with structure, I was able to play around with time and duration. And having those two extra clients gave me the confidence I needed to then get my fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and so on clients from that point, but I think the first one is always the most intimidating, you know, is the one that you put the most pressure on? Like, am I giving them enough value? am I delivering enough? My Are they happy? So that was my experience with clients? And Lex? I'm curious, what was yours?

Lexie Smith  
Well, first I have to ask how did the flower shop gal? Find me find you?

Emily Merrell  
Yeah, so she was a wedding florist primarily. And it was fun because I was able to hire her for my wedding. So it was a full circle thing that she found me through. My San Francisco Ambassador worked corporate with her and she was quitting her job. And she wasn't really 100% sure what her next steps were. And so this person was like you should meet Emily, who has this business x degrees and I think she's doing coaching now too. So she made the introduction to

Lexie Smith  
so a couple of lessons there right first, the power of networking. Right, you'll hear Emily and I are huge proponents of that. Also, if Emily hadn't verbalized and told people that she was a coach, that friend would never even have known to then facilitate that introduction. So great points there.

Emily Merrell  
Yeah, I was gonna say such great points because it's so true. I see so many people, post on Facebook once or post on Instagram Stories twice and be like up Have I got no clients? You know, no one knows I'm here. And I'm like, Have you actually told the people in your world that this is what you're doing? Because people don't know what they don't know. You have to really, really, really, really hit it home and and let them know. So how about you, Lex? How did you find your first client?

Lexie Smith  
So mine is a little bit different. Um, if you guys have been listening to the past couple episodes, if not good on the first episode, you'll hear a bit about Emily and his backstory. But I reverse engineered my way into coaching meaning I heard about the business model first. I completely honestly wasn't passionate for so a lot of people are passionate, and then they turned it into a business. I was attracted to the business model and learned I was passionate about it. So with that being said, when I had the concept of wanting to be a coach, I wanted to test out if I could coach, right, just because I liked the concept of it didn't mean I could actually do the thing. So I went on to Instagram. And I sought out brands and founders who I thought would be really cool to work with. And I slid into their DMS and I said I would love to give you an hour free coaching call in exchange for a testimonial. And I mean, I give them a little more backstory. So it wasn't just some random girl and like I've been, you know, in PR for at the time, 11 years and marketing. And I think I want to be a coach. I'd love to test it out hour of your time. That's all and thankfully they all said yes. So actually did three of those. They were all in very different industries. One was a health coach and influencer one was a product based business owner. The other one was a life coach slash product based business owner. Anyways, so I did three beta coaching hours with them. And I loved it, they seem to like it as well. They give me glowing testimonials. And that right there give me three solid, social proof testimonials to use to find my first paying client. So my first paying client was launching a company for dieticians. And she found me I was hustling and Facebook groups. That's where I started. It's funny because I no longer play in the Facebook group group realm. But I was very intentionally at that point in time spending probably an hour a day going in different Facebook groups networking, contributing. And in one of them, I couldn't tell you which one, she saw me she found me she booked an intro call. And we had a sales call which I had a sales script to back then. And she hired me. So mine didn't come to me actually, now that I'm hearing our stories, it's kind of cool to to see the difference. I I really went out after them to find them.

Emily Merrell  
Yeah, and I think this is something we'll talk about in later episodes. But I do think that there's this flying of the flag and then also hustling and being generous and knowing that it's okay to have free clients or beta clients to get the comfort levels to get your authority to see what style you have with coaching. We had a client in our cohort who she her first beta client wanted a zoom connection and she had only had experience on the phone coaching people. And even that was just such a learning for her in getting the kind of client that she wanted or understanding how a client would work. So but I find it interesting Lexa both of us three in a way was like our magic word, or a magic number for for moving forward.

Lexie Smith  
Three was the magic number. So you know, actually, you guys slide into our DMS let us know what point in your journey you are at coaching but if you're new to coaching Emily and I were pro charging your worth. That being said, there is nothing wrong with taking on beta clients to endpoint to figure out a if you like to coach be how you're going to coach to really get out some of the kinks. One thing we would suggest if you do do beta clients is see if there is an opportunity to exchange for testimonial. Those testimonials will be really important one and your own confidence. But to in taking you or moving you forward to get that first or next paying client. You're way better at visuals than me so why don't you kick this off? Okay,

Emily Merrell  
so guys, close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Now imagine that you're living on an island sipping spicy margaritas in between coaching calls effortlessly signing 10k months.

Lexie Smith  
Well Doesn't that sound like every other Facebook and Instagram ad you've seen from coaches? The reality for most new coaches, you find yourself spending countless hours searching for your ideal clients doing all the free trainings and working tirelessly as you attempt to differentiate yourself in a saturated market way to be a buzzkill lacks a

Emily Merrell  
Yes, that's way more accurate. However, what if? What if what, what is the magic formula to building a profitable and sustainable coaching business didn't have to be so complicated? What if attaining your version of a dream life didn't have to remain on your faraway someday list? What if someone took the time to sift through all the crap that's out there and finally created a program built specifically and only for well intentioned, and qualified coaches and coaches to be just like you? Hey, we did that. That's what I'm getting at LAX.

Lexie Smith  
It's time for you guys to meet Mr. NYes, business baby ready site coach.

Emily Merrell  
It's a turnkey program built by coaches for coaches that focuses on teaching coaches how to build a profitable business that supports their lifestyle.

Lexie Smith  
Learn more at ReadySet, Coach program.com.

Emily Merrell  
Now enrolling. And I want to say all so I did the coaching. Before I had a website for coaching. I was it was kind of under the radar, I was being I was able to be selective. And I know, a lot of people will build their website and get the professional photos and have everything built out before they get their first client. And that's all well and dandy. But I also want to give you permission for using that as a procrastination tool to start to start even before you have that website finish, it's okay for you to to reach out to a client before you have a gorgeous website. I don't think I've ever had someone find me through my website through my coaching website that's converted to a client.

Lexie Smith  
Interesting. Yeah, no, I think that's incredible to hear I, I did actually build build out my website, it's that concept of build it and they will come. I had my website, I had my social channels. But then as I told you, I went after people thought it was helpful, isn't it, then sent them back somewhere to look in that me. So websites are important, we just don't want you to use it as a crutch or an excuse to not get started. Because there are a million and a 1,000,001 things you could say that probably have some validity to them to prevent you from starting from I don't have the time to I don't have the capital to Well, first I need this or I'll wait to when you heard Emily and I, you know, I had a full time job. By the way, when I was getting those beta clients. I ended up leaving my full time job and turn like going from a six figure salary to $0, which would know I want it to just everyone but there are a million things in life that you can lean on to not do the damn thing.

Emily Merrell  
100%. And when I started, when I left corporate to do six degrees, I think I gave three weeks notice. And it was as if this I had this full body seizure basically just this idea that all I could think about was six degrees society all I wanted to do a six degrees society all I wanted to talk about what six degrees society, and it was all consuming. And I just knew if I didn't give it a fair shot, and if I didn't see it through, I would never give myself the opportunity to do it. So timing was a big factor for me. I was in my late 20s. I had no debt I lived, I had an apartment, I had some money in savings. And I gave myself a two year window. I was like if I can't survive in two years and back to the corporate world I go, but if I can make it happen in two years, then let's do it. And I thought I kind of thought of it as like my version of an MBA. And it really helped with my mindset to like if I had gone for an MBA, I would probably be at least $100,000 in the hole. So if I can be less than $100,000 in the hole, and profitable would be even better. This is a win.

Lexie Smith  
Yeah. So guys, your first takeaway from today's episode is you need to just start. Now, I want to give you a couple like a list of some tactical things. So you heard how Emily and I landed our first clients. There are a lot of different ways you can land your first client or next big client. So first things there's not one way in coaching. You know, you'll see a lot of people preaching this is the way to fill your Coaching Calendar. There are a lot of different ways to the finish line. You can do it through networking, and really organically like Emily's story, have referrals come to you. You can be more tactical. You can host events and webinars. You can really activate social media, whether that be going and Engaging in Facebook groups or really working tick tock or Instagram. You can go on podcasts to get your voice heard. What are some other ones

Emily Merrell  
I was gonna say? Definitely speaking at communities like speaking in a community setting. For us, that's been really helpful with ReadySet. Coach, our tactics have been speaking at other organizations that have people that we don't know. And being the guest of honor being published has also been really helpful for us. So we pitch articles towards to publications where we knew our audience would be. We did Instagram, Instagram lives, Instagram, like strategic Instagram lives with people who have the right audience as well. Again, it's being strategic with your time, and knowing where your person hangs out, and hang out where they are.

Lexie Smith  
Yeah. And that will inevitably take some trial and error. I don't know, any person who is well versed in the world of marketing, who will tell you, if you're just getting started in business, they will know exactly what marketing tactic will work. There's trial and error involved, there's, you know, knowing where your person is hanging out, and also being, you know, aware of where you shine. So if you're someone who hates being the sound of their voice, maybe podcasting isn't exactly where you're going to start. You also have to know and be consistent. So don't go and hang out in one Facebook group for one day, and then ghost and think that's going to work, don't go attend one networking event, and then get bummed if you didn't get a client. There's a lot of consistency involved. So there's trial, there's air, there's consistency. So we want you to know, there's more than one way to do it. There's trial and error. And really, you just need to start.

Emily Merrell  
And I I will also add, I think it's been helpful for me. And I think Lex you're really similar in this way, too. We operate from a place of generosity. So we definitely give, we give a lot, we plant a lot of seeds. And I have had a client, there was a client that I worked with in 2020, who I planted the first seed and 2017 I wasn't even a coach yet. But I just knew I believed in her. And I needed to work with her in some capacity. But it wasn't even in the manner of working together. I just wanted to help. And when the time came that she was ready to hire her first coach. She looked around and she remembered how helpful I had been in 2017 and 2018 and 2019. And, and hired me and she always shouts me out on her Instagram and on her podcast, and refers clients MY WAY too. So it's really helpful to lead from a place of generosity, and, you know, continuing making those connections and continue giving, even if you can't see that return right away. Yeah, and,

Lexie Smith  
you know, we'll give you a couple more examples to, of what trial and error might look like. So let's say you are listening in and you are a health coach for moms. So here's some advice for you. First off, where are Mama's hanging out? So mamas are hanging out, maybe in mom groups, Mom groups can be physical. And they can be virtual, that can be mama Facebook groups. As a new mom, I know, I'm also reading a lot. I'm going to the bunk.com. I'm looking at MAMA blogs, we're also you hanging out them.

Emily Merrell  
Oh my gosh, so many Facebook groups. There's this amazing group of men called Nisha moms. There are other moms that are just sharing information with one another. So I joined that community, I joined a mama community. So that's been really powerful. Because if anything, you're able to find this connection by being a mom. So even if you're not a mom, think of like where are places that you can form a connection. Maybe it's like rock climbers, you're in a rock climbers group. But you that's the type of person you want to work with. But there's like entrepreneurial rock climbers that you can niche down on.

Lexie Smith  
So trial and error within look like right. Okay, so I've identified some publications, some communities, some social media sites, I think moms are on Facebook. I think, sir, I think they're here. Now. It's it's trying, it's going up. It's showing up. It's being consistent. It's leading with value. And if you know you try one Facebook group, and it doesn't work out, that doesn't mean all Facebook groups don't work out. Yeah, that's just kind of the example of trial and error that we're talking about. No, we there are ways, absolutely to be tactical and strategic. But just give yourself grace and know things like this doesn't happen overnight. Also, sometimes they do sometimes we'll have three years to close one client, and then the other time, you'll have someone find you and book you that day. That's just kind of the nature of this business.

Emily Merrell  
I've had that. I've definitely had that where it's like an introduction call and they're on a call with you and they're like, I need you. You're like Oh, I thought we were just getting to know each other. I accidentally sold you into a sales call. So you can in every connection call you have there's an opportunity to do a little coaching and then tees up what you have have to offer without making it a sales call. So you can still make connection calls sales calls, but not random sales calls.

Lexie Smith  
Yes. So Emily and I love giving homework. So we're going to now give you some homework, I am thinking, We should do it around connection. Because I think that the common theme around all of these is leading with value and making human connection. So what is our homework assignment of this episode AM.

Emily Merrell  
So the homework assignment would be to go through your already existing community. And a lot of people think that they don't have a community because they don't have like a branded community. But fun fact, if you have been on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn, for the last 10 years, you have been slowly but surely cultivating a community. Now it's time for you to activate that community. So take some time, give yourself about an hour to look through now that you know your problem and what you're solving for. If you listen to her, if you haven't listened to her last episode, go back and listen to it. And we want you to I want you to go through your communities and reach out to people that could be potential beta clients, make a list of 20 If you can, and reach out to all of them and see if you can get at least three of them to say yes,

Lexie Smith  
yeah. And here's another like bonus homework for you overachievers out there. I also want you to when you're looking for beta clients, if you aren't necessarily seen ones that immediately look like they could be a client. Look for something we call super connectors. So people that know a lot of people, someone you know, that just had a lot of friends in college or that one person you know, goes to all the networking events, and just reach out to them, see how they're doing and schedule a virtual or real coffee date, just start reconnecting with people. So homework one, look through your network that you already have. See if there are any beta client opportunities. Homework. Part two, is to look for the super connectors in your network and connect with them. Reconnect with them from enough in an authentic way actually care about you know what they're doing in life. Those would be two two homework assignments for today's episode.

Emily Merrell  
I think those are good ones to get started and we can't wait to hear how it goes. So shoot us a DM on Instagram so we can cheer you on and also be in your corner and help find those super connectors for you. So

Lexie Smith  
with that said, like main takeaway, if you're going to after your homework is just start.

Emily Merrell  
Love it. And thank you for joining us on today's episode of Ready Set coach the podcast. We'll see you next week. If you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about Ready Set, Coach Visit Ready Set coach program.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai