How to Build and Establish Credibility as a Coach

 This week, Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith discuss how to build and establish credibility as you begin your coaching journey and build your business. They talk through common perceptions (and misconceptions) of the title ‘coach’, and share valuable tips on how to build and establish credibility regardless of which phase you’re at in your coaching business. Additionally, they reflect on their journeys as coaches and tactics that have been helpful in developing their own credibility. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Perceptions (and misconceptions) of the title coach - and alternative words and titles to use 
• Tips on establishing credibility as a coach 
• Effective language that highlights your coaching expertise
• How to position your resume to highlight your credibility as a coach
• Ideas on how to build up a credible network to establish authority
• How Em and Lex started getting testimonials from their coaching clients 
• The power of collaborations, speaking events, and case studies in building credibility
• And more!

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

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

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Lexie Smith  

Hi, hi. Hi.

Emily Merrell  

Hi, you seem really excited today.

Lexie Smith  

I'm excited because I know what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about mermaids. And before you say one other word, I don't think I told you this. But when I said to my husband, last week, everyone's telling me to watch more people. He said, So Emily's telling you to watch her people. Did you watch it? We're watching it still? Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

And what do you think?

Lexie Smith  

I mean, we're captivated. It's fascinating. It's beautiful. It's a whole new world, I get it kind of want to do it. Also really extreme,

Emily Merrell  

painful, painful, like when they were talking about their, their ear issues or nose issues or eye issues like you don't think about the performance level that you have to have where you're keeping your eyes open. You're breathing underwater to the best of your capabilities. And you're like entertaining and being graceful while your lungs are about to explode. It's a lot.

Lexie Smith  

No dead mermaids,

Emily Merrell  

no dead mermaids. And okay, the best part when I was watching it with Greg, he would be sleeping on the he was sleeping on the floor, His back's always hurting through sleeping on the floor. And every few minutes he'd go, are you I think serious? Is this true for real? Like you'd be asleep. And then he'd come to and he'd wake up and he would comment and have some sort of commentary like he could not look away. But fun fact actually, no, a professional mermaid.

Lexie Smith  

Actually, I think you do through self made write

Emily Merrell  

your self made and she's amazing shout out to jinx. But just crazy. She was the only person I had heard of that did this. And then to realize that it's such a robust and like, I forgot what they said the industry was how much money these people were making. But there's conferences, there's competitions, there's click, there's,

Lexie Smith  

I want to go to wit wiki watching now. You know, CJ has been more into it even than me, which not to put stereotypes but I'm I go to bed earlier than him. And I keep like stopping the show mid episode. And he gets so upset. He's like, we're moving just a minute. So I'm like, until tomorrow

Emily Merrell  

the mermaids will have to wait. But there was a moment. So spoiler alerts for what we're talking about y'all is a Netflix show called merpeople. It's a documentary about these individuals who are pursuing murder meeting as as professional as a profession. And some of these individuals are going into extreme debt to do so some of them are working multiple jobs just to continue to pursue this, this goal of theirs. And I think the thing that was just so admirable was that like this is a dream that they want to bring to reality no matter if they live in Arkansas, or they live in Florida. But there was a moment in the show where this gal goes to a kid's birthday party and she's carried out by like a teenager, essentially and plopped into the pool. And I cried because I was saying to Greg, I was like, I know this sounds really corny. And I know, the entrance seems really cheesy. But if I was a kid there, I would have lost my shit to like I literally was so I was just putting it that childlike wonder that I had as a kid very much overtook me my emotions, and just I was so appreciative of like, what she's doing is not only for her, but it also brought joy and this this element of magic that we lose in our adulthood to these little kids.

Lexie Smith  

I totally agree. We're halfway through the final episode. And that's when they're all going on to the cruise ship. And there's a moment where they zoom in on the faces of these mermaids looking at the cruise ship. And there are very few authentic human moments in life where I've seen people look that happy. And I turned to teach him like, I don't know if I've ever been that happy about anything. We were like, what is there a day or a time or a memory and I narrowed it down to my wedding day. I think there was some wonderment in my eyes but it's truly wonderful. Seeing these humans thrive and you know There is a bad rap. Not Not everyone might think that mermaid is real, right? There's probably a lot of misconceptions, maybe they don't think it's all that credible. And that is so such a wonderful tie in to today's show. We're going to talk about how to build and establish credibility as a mermaid. Just kidding. As a coach.

Emily Merrell  

I wonder, I have to help. Before we start. We have to introduce some new lingo. It's mermaid lingo. So when we talk to each other throughout the today's show, we have to incorporate the new mermaid lingo she Hello, hello to you too. And I'll let you finish that one.

Lexie Smith  

That sentence if I N Yes.

Emily Merrell  

Are the other ones that they have? finality.

Lexie Smith  

You have a great personality.

Emily Merrell  

Emily, you're my mama.

Lexie Smith  

My mama your mama.

Emily Merrell  

She's Schuster's shelters. No Easter Seals are a sister's sister and my mercy stirs. Anyways, so we might incorporate some surprises and delights throughout this episode. Oh, yeah, let's

Lexie Smith  

make a challenge.

Emily Merrell  

Now I'm like, what were the mermaids chat? TV? No.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, Emily, kick us off. So how to build and establish credibility as a coach. First, let's start with the word in the title of coach of

Emily Merrell  

blacks. The word coach is so, so controversial. And I have to be completely real with you that when I first started off with coaching, I really struggled with the word coach. I first first and foremost been backing up further, I remember hiring coaches, and felt like a failure for hiring coaches. At the time, and when I hired coaches, I wasn't tagging them on social media, I felt like it was an undercover mission to hire a coach. And now I feel like the coaching industry has become a lot more mainstream, where people are celebratory, by, you know, sharing their wins and tagging their coaches, and there's a lot more celebration of who they're working with. So when the time came that I decided to become a coach, I really struggled with putting that hat on. And I think it comes from my perception at least is the achiness of feeling like there's a great quote in what's it called the wedding planner, those who don't read plan. And so with coaching, there's that aspect of is that Cook is the person who is a coach, are they people who weren't successful in the industry that they wanted to be in? And now they're teaching people what they're doing.

Lexie Smith  

That's a thin tastic overview, Emily? Yes. I've been thinking about that for half the time you're speaking. No, but really, it was it was a fantastic overview. And I would say more often than not, when we talk to individuals who are transitioning or considering the transition into coaching, they have a massive resistance to wanting to associate themselves with the word coach, so much to the point someone, a lot of them say like, I hate the word coach, the word coach is slimy. I feel like it makes me look much less credible. And to call it what it is there's there's ego attached to it. Right? Because to your point beyond your point, there are a ton of people in the marketplace who have claimed that word when they don't necessarily have will say the resume to backup so business coach who's never had a business?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a great one. And I think when I had my first introduction to coaching, it was life coaches, and it was always through my mom, you know, it'd be in high school or, or more call Yeah, more high school, she would go to these woman's like newcomer luncheons and Tobago, this is life coach Deborah, and then I'd meet Deborah and Deborah felt like a hot mess. And, you know, felt really disorganized. So, in a weird way, I think my Association had been with that type of stereotype of a person, when in reality, that's not the case at all. And I think credibility, though, is a lot of times based on your first perception of something. So I'd actually be curious for you, when you when you think of the first coach that comes to your mind, do you have someone that that pops into your brain? Yeah, my basketball

Lexie Smith  

coach. I think that's the other part too is that there's a long standing history of the word coach attached to athletics before it became necessarily a profession. I have shared this on the podcast before but you know, I was initially attracted to coaching because of the business model. When they found out I was listening to podcasts from coaching, then, you know, the algorithms that be then started putting a lot of coaches content, throwing it at me showing up in my feed. I then started consuming a lot and I think the perception I had originally with coaches is that but they were really just after high volume money with not delivering a ton of value. And I kind of became anti high volume coach for a moment in my career. Because I associated high volume with lack of value, basically, yada yada yada. The psychology lesson is saying to your point, my first experience with coaching and how it was advertising to me, did affect how I then perceived that

Emily Merrell  

word. Yeah. And yet, I think at the same time, there's words that are synonyms of coaches that we feel a lot more kinship towards, like mentorship or strategist where it feels more intentional of delivering something specific while coaching can be a vague word. And in my own personal experience, as a coach, I tried on on a lot of different words before. Coach was the only word in which I did like I'm, I'm more than a consultant, I'm more than a mentor, and more than more than any of those strategists. I am literally your coach like I am, I am there running the side of the basketball court with you.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, for sure. One thing I advise to people, or let me say this another perspective I offer, because if you have a mental block or resistance to the word coach, it's usually not something you just get over in the blink of an eye. So from a strategic standpoint, one thing that would behoove you to own that title is how it makes sense. searchability wise, if someone is looking for a business coach, and you're a business coach or mentor, and you aren't using that word, you're not going to show up in their searches. So a lot of people, the people who want to coach, the people who are not thinking the world of coaching is spammy, are going to be looking for that word. So from an SEO standpoint, or searchability standpoint, there's a lot of business sense to be made for allowing yourself to own it.

Emily Merrell  

Next, how can people find out how to work with us?

Lexie Smith  

Super simple, go to ReadySet, Coach program.com, you can show notes.

Emily Merrell  

I think that's a great point in terms of you want to make a splash, you need to make sure that I had to put it in there. You need to make sure that you're not being too creative. And this is a big problem. We see where they're like, I'm not a coach. I'm a Business Mentalist, you're like, Hmm, maybe that's a part of what you're doing. Maybe you're a mind reader, business mind reader. I'm totally making this up, y'all. But I think there's that aspect of you need to, you need to be searchable, or people aren't going to find you.

Lexie Smith  

Totally at one point I was playing. I'm an organic growth coach. And I realized very quickly, no one is searching for organic growth coach. So even though it felt real to me, from a strategy standpoint, people weren't looking for that. So there's things you can do to put a title on LinkedIn, or put a title in Instagram bio, that just makes sense. And then of course, when you're explaining or talking to someone, or networking, you can expand and use language that feels good to you. But for most, coaching is legit. This is an industry, it's a multi multi billion dollar industry. There's Fox, their stats, there's data. So if you decide to own that title, what are the things that can help you build credibility, as a coach, Emily

Emily Merrell  

is always putting me on the hot seat first. So building credibility as a coach is something we don't want you to wake up tomorrow and be like, I'm a coach. That's all my title I have worked at. I just graduated college and I have no life experience, I'm going to start be a business coach. I wouldn't recommend that. So I think in terms of building credibility, you need to have worked in a business if you want to be a business coach, better yet launching a business if you've launched, if you want to be a business coach. So credibility can start with the work history that you have the jobs that you've been at the companies that you've been a part of. It can also be taking courses or certifications. I'm a huge I'm a huge proponent of or supporter of continued learning. So be that through a program like General Assembly where you're learning to deepen a specific skill or certifications, that helps you get stronger in a particular area. I encourage you to dig deeper there. Those are some of the initial thoughts that I have, but lacks Are there any other things that you think that help build credibility.

Lexie Smith  

I see are you mostly agree with that? S EA? Again, we'll see about that half the time you're talking. Okay. So yes, you're gonna wrap up, I was multitasking and listening. But your resume is big and your resume can look like real world experience, your resume can include degrees, your resume can include certifications in certain programs. So, absolutely your resume those elements on your resume can build credibility. Another thing that can build credibility and is huge are testimonials and case studies. And testimonials can be in case studies are great. You might be thinking, Oh, I have a new coach, I don't have those yet. There's things you can do to build them. And it's something you should be thinking about from day one. If you don't have an experience, any experience coaching yet, get some beta clients, you need to start coaching so that you can have people's third party words on how you did because someone else saying you did great, is a lot more credible than you just saying your great

Emily Merrell  

1,000% and lacks when you started out. How did you find your beta clients?

Lexie Smith  

Yep. So my very first was someone I knew, just because I was nervous. Once I got that out of the gate, I went on Instagram, and I cold DM a few women that I thought would be my ideal clients. And I said, Look, I'm getting my start in a coaching industry. I really like what you're doing. At that time, I'd had 10 years experience in PR, I'd love to do a coaching session for one hour, hopefully, you'll get a lot of great advice out of it. What I get out of it is a testimonial if you want either way, you know, I'll get you a copy for your time. And luckily, everyone said yes. And luckily, they went really well. And they got some really phenomenal testimonials. That also helped build my confidence in my ability to coach

Emily Merrell  

1,000%. And I'll also add that getting a beta client is a great way to start building referrals, not to get too ahead of ourselves, but just referrals of people that when you are interviewing, or clients are interviewing to work with you, and they might ask, Hey, can I talk to a past client, you also have someone that you can send them to with their experience, as well as this person now is a little micro Ambassador out in the world who's singing the praises of, of Lexi and, and her skills with PR?

Lexie Smith  

Yep. So resumes, testimonials and case studies, what else helped you build an established credibility, Mother ones

Emily Merrell  

could be credible, collabs and incredible collabs could be like with a brand that isn't a household brand, or like a cool brand or a sought after brand. Think about how often we buy as consumers or we follow individuals on Instagram or we engage in a particular way when a certain brand is linked to it. Like oh my god, Taco Bell did a collaboration with this brand. I must buy the product. I really respect that product. And I'm a big fan of Taco Bell. And then your husband buys you a super bright red suitcase. But that's a different story for a different day with gets very excited. But yeah, so credit credible collabs. So it could be with other coaches, it could be even with brands or it could be with your own clients.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, absolutely. And another kind of spin on a credible club could be credible club in way of an event. It could be with a brand. It could also be a university, maybe you're invited to speak. So here's early on in my post collegiate career, I was invited back to my university to speak to their PR department or not, what are they called? Yeah, the PR kids in the PR school?

Emily Merrell  

The youth? The youth? Yeah.

Lexie Smith  

So, you know, in my rap sheet, and a rap sheet is not the right word in my I can say right, I have been invited by or I was trusted by the University of Oregon to coach their youth. Right. And there's credibility in that.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a great one. And then another one that I think is really helpful to Lex and you are the expert on this, but is getting impressed. You know, being a thought leader in various publications or being featured in publications. I know when I was featured in Forbes, it. I don't know how this happened. I guess someone tagged me on LinkedIn. Then my people on LinkedIn got a notification and I woke up to text messages from people being like, Oh, my God, you were featured in Forbes. I don't think they read the article, but like that, that name association made me that much more

Lexie Smith  

credible. Yeah. And I think the concept there is very in line with a credible collab because Forbes, Business Insider, he's big media outlets, they already have credibility. So by then featuring you or by you Being able to leverage that logo. It's going whoa, Forbes thinks I'm credible. You should.

Emily Merrell  

Oh my god, how many times have I bought a product that had the Shark Tank logo on it? Where I'm like, these are smart people. I must buy the scrub daddy. I think it's my favorite products still

Lexie Smith  

accessible today and I was Lori's I met I met them I met that team really, like forgetting the guy's name, but we did a quick squirrel. When I was in the heat of representing the Shark Tank brains that I did we had a commercial recording or you know one of those updates they do like where are they now? depot in LA. And it was all glory grenadiers entrepreneurs at that point in time, so I gotta meet like all of them anyways, I like totally fangirl that scrub daddy, which if you would ever said Who fun fan girls, a scrub entrepreneur of sponge entrepreneur. Not everyone would get it but if you watch Shark Tank you get it.

Emily Merrell  

You get it I see it I'm like waiting to buy Milani

Lexie Smith  

potty.

Emily Merrell  

I know some big consumers of this the Squatty Potty I love their commercials. But that credibility to like, if you were to buy a random Smiley Face Scrub thing. Without shark tank on it, you might think it's trash. But because Shark Tank has verified that this is something that's amazing. You're that much more likely to put your dollars towards their product.

Lexie Smith  

100%. So, credibility. Another thing, another phrase that is in line with credibility is a concept of know like and trust. And we've talked about this on the show, you know, if all the things we just said if you're getting press if you're getting logos, if you're doing partnerships, you're really aligning yourself and putting yourself in a position to be known and trusted. I think the the last little piece there is still showing up to give people an opportunity to like you. Yeah, and

Emily Merrell  

I think there's so many ways to do that. You can do that with a free consultation call. You can do that by engaging on Instagram. You can be generous. I think being generous and generosity goes a lot further than being selfish in my opinion.

Lexie Smith  

I was trying to think of a pardon. There's I was gonna say I agree. I can't think of algae. I algae agree.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, rough.

Lexie Smith  

Rough Seas out there captain. Oh, there we go.

Emily Merrell  

Whale that in whale it in.

Lexie Smith  

I wailed it in. Oh, Lord. Appreciate

Emily Merrell  

your compliments on that one. I think

Lexie Smith  

so. Okay. Okay, guys, we're wheeling ourselves in here. Some homework that we have for you is to develop a credibility list. You can call it a different things. You can call it a self love list. You can call it a we had a guest speaker wants to call it? Was it an effing fabulous list? Okay. Yeah, I

Emily Merrell  

think fabulous list. I love that. Yeah.

Lexie Smith  

So the activity is this sit down, either on your computer or with a pen and paper and force yourself to come up with 15 to 20? Yes, 15 to 20 things that make you credible. We just gave you a bunch of stuff. Now, if you're early on and you haven't done collabs, you might not have that box, tick, tick off a ball yet, check off the ball yet. But you're going to have real world experience or you're going to have resume things you can pull if you really can't get to the 15 or 20 than the step two is it's going to point you towards an opportunity of where you can focus next.

Emily Merrell  

Yes, amen to that. So with that, we have five for mermaid. Is there a buy?

Lexie Smith  

Is there a goodbye, mermaid. See you later. See? See you later. Guys. We will see you later on the ready, coach, OD Das.

Emily Merrell  

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