Leadership Coaching, Confidence & a Website That Works with Jessica McClure

Episode 8 — Leadership Coaching, Confidence & a Website That Works

In this episode, Jessica McClure—a leadership coach with a background in corporate real estate—unpacks why even high-performing leaders need coaching, how to navigate fast-moving change at the C-suite level, and why your website must evolve as you do.
 
We cover confidence gaps, the “lonely at the top” reality, and practical ways founders and executives can operationalize white space, clarity, and consistent messaging online. 

Jessica also shares how blogging, SEO, and a living website presence drove real pipeline, plus when to DIY vs. bring in specialists.


What you’ll learn in this episode:

Why top performers still need a coach (safe space, challenge, perspective)
The confidence gap: why leaders underrate themselves—and how to fix it
Perfectionism as a ceiling: replacing “always right” with visibility and voice
Your website as a living asset: voice, legitimacy, and continuous refresh
Blogging, brand mentions, and local SEO: what actually moved the needle
Analytics basics: pages that win, bounce signals, and what to iterate
DIY vs. hire: when to bring in SEO, copy, and creative partners
The 20% mindset: committing to visibility so clients can actually find you


👉 Subscribe for more episodes: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/website-growth-show/id1840905450
 👉 Learn more about WP Minds: https://wpminds.com

Takeaways

My coaching dream is to reach as many people as possible.
I work with high-performing people who want to scale.
80% of coaches fail within the first two years.
I had to think about what will set me apart.
Having a website allows people to find you.
You stake your claim in the coaching world.
It's important to have a voice that says what you do.
A blog or podcast can enhance your online presence.
Understanding the challenges of startups is crucial.
Coaching is about empowering leaders to do better.

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Sound Bites

"How can they be part of that 20%?"
"You stake your claim."
"Put a blog, put a podcast."


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Empowering High Performers: The Coaching Journey
Navigating Coaching Success: Insights and Strategies

#podcast #websitegrowth #businessgrowth  #marketingtips #leadership #digitalmarketingstrategy

Transcript

Rana (01:48)
Jessica, welcome to the show.

Jessica McClure (01:50)
Thank you, Rana. It's great to be here.

Rana (01:51)
Excellent. Can we start with why you are helping leaders and C-suite leaders going from surviving to thriving?

Jessica McClure (02:00)
So I was in corporate real estate for about 15 years. And what that means is I leased space and large shopping centers across the country. And so I would put like the big gaps and those things within the mall. And what I would also do is when gaps would leave, I would find mom and pops to take those stores over in between the time frame.

Fast forward five years, we're back in Seattle. I relocate back and it's time for me to go back to work. And my old boss calls me and he's like, Jess, sabbatical is over. Time to get back to work. And I was like, no.

I don't know what, but I couldn't feel the pull. I couldn't feel the call. And so I said no, but I also knew I had to I did it for a while and I was like, I want to do something else. And in addition to being a

stay at home mom And I also knew I didn't want to travel full time. I wanted to have my own schedule. I wanted to be able to be as full time mom as I could while also focused on something else in the world. And in a weird kind of twist of fate, I'll tell it to you. I was in my house and I went to bed and I was like, what should I do with my life? I need to figure out what I want to do with my life. And I went to bed.

and I had a dream. I'm going to share my weird dream with you. in my dream, I was sitting in a circle with two other women. And one woman said, I forge for mushrooms and I collect them. And I was like, that's so cool. I love that you forge for mushrooms and you collect and sell them. And the other woman said, I teach yoga. And I said, I speak.

Rana (03:24)
Please.

Jessica McClure (03:46)
and I woke up from it and I was like, what the heck does that mean? I speak like I want to be a yoga teacher or I want to forge for mushrooms and do these cool things. And about four days later, and the weird thing if I tie it back is I was also at the time finding used treasures, vintage finds and selling them at flea markets. And I was doing yoga full time. So now in my brain, now that I can link everything together,

were all three parts of myself that I was doing. But a few days later, my husband looked at me, we were at the at the store and he goes, what about being a coach? And I was like, that's so strange. Like I just had this dream, then you said the coach. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to research it. So from there, I went down this rabbit hole and ended up interviewing a couple of coaching companies, ended up with CTI, which is the oldest coaching company.

It started in the late 80s and started a year-long study in order to become a coach. Originally, while I was in that process, which is a really... I feel like people become coaches because they want to help people.

They want to speak. They feel like they're really good at helping. And then you realize when you're training to be a coach that you have to pull all that away because as a coach, I'm actually not coming up with the solutions. I'm actually not helping people. What I'm doing is being incredibly curious in the moment and helping people come up with their solutions. So there's a lot of unlearning that happens when you become a coach,

Rana (05:21)
Hmm.

Jessica McClure (05:26)
Taking away this desire to help people and and you do want to help people But you realize that you're not the expert anymore. They're the expert and so Originally I wanted to get people out of the corporate world and become entrepreneurs. That was my original goal as a coach I'm going to help entrepreneurs to expand their businesses similar to what I used to do in my corporate job is help people expand their businesses help them to

to

what realize, how to scale, all of that stuff. And what happened in the process as I was helping these people is I started working, some corporate clients started coming in. And what I found is that when I started working with corporate clients,

They actually didn't know they needed my help. And here I go saying help. the people in the entrepreneurial space, they knew they knew they would come in and say, this is what I want. This is what I want to get six months down the road. This is dadada. These corporate clients were coming in and saying, I don't know that I really need a coach. Somebody is making me talk to you. And what I would find is we would organically unpack where they currently were and the transition of where they wanted to go.

and I found it so insightful of being able to work with these people who wouldn't necessarily have found me. And I always say that we're meant to work with people that we're meant to work with. And so the way that I look at coaching, and I say this all the time, is therapy,

Rana (06:58)
Fantastic. It's a very interesting story that why you are coaching and why you're a leadership coach Interestingly, you mentioned dream recently I'm watching quite a few videos of Simon Squibb if you heard about him recently He gone very popular on social media. He's asking people all around the world What is your dream and he tried to support those dreams? So I would love to pick his you know question and ask you what is your coaching dream here is?

Jessica McClure (07:14)
Yeah.

Well, my coaching dream is to reach as many people and have them realize that so often times when I start working with leaders and I work with high performing people, this isn't usually punitive coaching. This isn't people who are like, you're going to get fired in 30 days. I do sometimes work with those people, but the majority of my work are high performing people who want to scale and do better. And so what I often do is when we start working, I have them

themselves in certain capabilities, both internal capabilities, how they feel, and also external capabilities about how they show up, leadership capabilities. And in a perfect world, we'll also have somebody else rate them close in their world, either a peer, if it's somebody in a C-suite, or if it's somebody who is transitioning up like a manager. And 80, I'll say 80 to 90 percent of the time,

they rate themselves lower than the person, their peer, or their boss. And so my goal as they transition is always, this is my underlying quiet goal, is that I want them at the end of our time to work together to have the confidence and see their strengths at the same level of everybody who's around them.

And so my dream is really to help people own their confidence and move to that next step of expanding themselves.

Rana (08:56)
Very interesting. You mentioned that you work with high performing leaders. So let me ask you a coaching 101 questions. Why high performing people lead coaching? They are already performing at the peak of their strengths.

I personally

do, but let's for our audience and people who think they are doing well, they need coaching.

Jessica McClure (09:13)
Yeah, yeah, no, Bryant is one of like,

yeah, like Kobe Bryant's the all time goat in basketball, I'm from LA. And so there's some differing points about, know, who's the all time goat with basketball, but he's one of them. And you still need a coach, you still need somebody. so what I often hear from my really high performing people is one, it's lonely at the top. So when you're in the C-suite,

Rana (09:22)
Thank you.

Jessica McClure (09:41)
You are the leader. You can't be asking people around you, is this the right way? Yes. You can't be doubting yourself. You can't be, you are the, you're the chariot driver in the front of the business. And so you can't be looking back on how am I doing? What's happening here? And so I often hear from my leaders like,

I am that safe space, one where they can share their fears, they can share what's not working, what they're not sure of, how to move forward. And I get to be that sounding board partner to them.

that is, you thought of this perspective? Have you thought about this perspective? Where do you want to go? Let's look at what that outcome might give you and let's look at what other outcomes might this give you. And so they can try things and I'm also pushing and challenging their thinking. Are you getting out enough? Are you being a thought partner? Are you collaborating with other people outside of your business? Where do you want to take this business? What's holding you back?

Rana (10:39)
Okay.

Jessica McClure (10:49)
And

I most often here and when you are leading something I work with a lot of startups to you're moving at such a fast pace and in with the world right now with AI and everything else with technology people are chartering new territories that have never been chartered before.

Rana (11:14)
Absolutely.

Jessica McClure (11:14)
And so sometimes you need, ⁓ I don't really know what I'm doing here. And so I can be that partner to people to help them think through these spaces in order to go to that next place in a new level of confidence in unchartered territory.

Rana (11:34)
Excellent. And I heard recently as well somebody saying that most of the high performing people, you look at it, you mentioned Kobe Bryant and you look at all sports, they all have coaches. That's the one thing in common with all high performing athletes or people in business.

Jessica McClure (11:51)
⁓ I ask people all the time, how much white space do you have? And people are often like, I don't have white space. Like I'm just working fire after fire after fire strategy, working with my team. And I can be that white space. How do you need to slow down? You know, I'm doing work like helping people that will breathe and like.

Rana (12:04)
⁓ Amazing.

Exactly.

Jessica McClure (12:08)
Get out of that last meeting and get present to this meeting. What's present right now? And even if we take that space, you know, I've been talking a mile a minute, and even if we take that breath, or if anyone who's listening, takes a breath to breathe.

Rana (12:22)
Prior to this call, most of my understanding about coaching was accountability. thought most coaches held you accountable for doing what you say you will do it. But I think I'm learning how important is the listening as well, being a coach. So that's amazing.

Jessica McClure (12:39)
And

the higher you get, those people know accountability. I don't need to handhold as much at that level. And I can also poke and say, why aren't you doing that?

Rana (12:44)
Exactly.

and

Exactly. You mentioned you work with startups as well. So do you see any patterns of coaching or challenges which are different to startups and the high performing leaders?

Jessica McClure (13:01)
Yeah, I would say the biggest is with startups is you're flying blind. You're creating new SOPs. You're creating new newness. You're you're creating a business from nothing and

Rana (13:02)
Established business is yes.

Mm.

Jessica McClure (13:20)
So with more established businesses, you have to work more with the system. Like both you have to work with the system, but more established is you have a solid foundation system way of working. And so there's a piece of how am I navigating within this existing system? And sometimes I might not like the way the system works.

Rana (13:27)
BLEH

Jessica McClure (13:45)
And so how am I looking above and beyond more organizationally in order to change the system from within that is a more solid system that's less reactive to change? And or in this point in time in life that's in massive change.

Rana (13:45)
Mm.

Jessica McClure (14:08)
Like we hear of lots of companies with massive rifts, massive reduction in force, massive changes internally. And how are you being like a swing going from one change to the next while still leading and knowing what is the, trying to come up with a strategy of how to move forward and leading your people.

when you're getting bombarded with all this ideas and change and everything else. So it's how do you walk those two paths?

Rana (14:41)
Very interesting and very relevant to problem we all are currently facing. Do you have any example of recently you worked with someone and you did some coaching and that worked for that person? Is there any case study or any example you can share for our viewers?

Jessica McClure (14:58)
Yeah, um, you know, I think I'll speak to a woman that I coached who was moving high up. So I really like that transition stage stage of working with people of where you currently are versus where you need to go. So if you're moving into the C-suite or this person was working at a pretty established company and there were

Rana (15:16)
Hmm.

Jessica McClure (15:26)
They had moved up because of their ability to be a perfectionist. They were really, really good at their job. They worked a lot of hours. They prepared. They were always right. They were really good at it. And they were stuck at this certain level. And so what we worked on was removing the perfectionism.

Rana (15:32)
Hmm.

Jessica McClure (15:49)
How do you show up? How do you show up and be vulnerable? How do you show up and say, I don't know? How do you show up and be real? What's your relationship to failure? And in this process, they actually was able to get to that next level because what they started doing was talking to their skip levels about where they wanted to go, about what their challenges were, what their next steps were. They were starting to receive more

Rana (16:08)
B

Jessica McClure (16:16)
advice, they started to receive more information and that relaxed them and was able to catapult them to the next level. So it's actually like a reverse of your brain, like you think you got to work harder, be more perfect, do all the things to get to that next stage, but it was actually the opposite of that.

Rana (16:35)
Very interesting. What is your favorite part of your job of day to day? What do you love about your work?

Jessica McClure (16:41)
every

different. Like today I'm talking to you, then I have a one-on-one client, and then I'll be working with a team later. I sit on a board, so I'm gonna go sit on a board later. So every person comes with something new and my days are just filled. And so I actually get more energized the more I talk to people versus less energized. I guess that's why I'm more of an extrovert. But my days are always different. I

I'm a data nerd, so I really like actually diving into data and noticing where you started. And I love having people do 360s or assessments. We can do.

So my day is just filled with lots of different things and it's exciting. And my work is, when I start working with you, there's an end date.

So I would say that the average time I work with people is about six to eight, six to nine months. Sure, I have people I've worked with for years and sometimes I work with people for three months, but usually six to nine months. And then I'm like, okay, you should have all the tools, all the frameworks, the belief system, go off and do your thing. And then they might come back in three years and be like, okay, now I have this new challenge that I'm ready to like dive in again. I'm like, okay, come back, let's do it again.

Rana (17:38)
you

See

Jessica McClure (17:59)
at the new level. we're constantly, we don't want to stay with you for four years. And I'm, that's not true. I do work with people for a long time, but for the most part, you want to move on.

Rana (18:11)
Exactly. All right, brilliant. And this is the coaching part of the section. So let's get back to probably websites as well now. What is the importance of your website or online presence in your business?

Jessica McClure (18:23)
it's incredibly important because one it helps you to define your define your voice so I think that's the most important thing is helping you to and and it's so helpful working with someone in order to help define your voice because you're listening and

compiling what's important, what resonates, and then you're feeding it back of what the world can see and what the world can hear. And so you can get so much into your own head about what you think.

you do or what you think people want to hear. And so it's so important having a third party to be able to hear that and distill it and send it back. So I think number one importance is defining your voice. Number second is claiming your, I mean, you gotta be found. So say someone's going to look for me.

They're going to go to my website. They're going to look at my voice. They're going to see who I am. They want to know that I'm legitimate. And that's what the website does, is it gives you legitimacy. It also gives you a chance to play. So my first iteration of my website to my day to day iteration is very different because I'm different.

And so my blog voice is different. My video presence is different. My pictures are different. And so it's a living...

It's a living piece of who you are that is going to appeal. So I always say you coach the person you were five years ago. And so you have to be evolving in order to attract the people that you're going to attract today. Like if you talked to me six years ago, I wouldn't be talking about coaching leaders and startups and CEOs. I might have had one or here or there, but not to the level I do now.

Rana (20:24)
Exactly.

Only thing consistent in life is change. So the website is a living, breathing piece of your marketing home base, which should evolve as you evolve with your business.

Jessica McClure (20:43)
said those three things, what would you add? Would you agree with me in the order of the three? Would you disagree? Like you're the expert. So what would you say?

Rana (20:51)
So what was your voice? I think I would start with the, it depends on a blog is different, but for a website, because when you build a website, you have some sort of commercial ambitions from a website. So the clearer those ambitions are, the better your voice will be and the better the results will be. Is that what you wanted to hear?

Jessica McClure (21:09)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, like the voice,

like I said, I said that was my first and I love that you said as well, the voice plus the commercial, what do you wanna get out of it?

Rana (21:16)
Hmm.

And this importance of the website, you always knew when you started a business or there was a moment when you realized having a clear, authentic website presence is important for the business.

Jessica McClure (21:32)
think when I started, I knew it and I was afraid of it. Like I didn't know how to go about it. I didn't know what I should do with it. didn't know, I knew that I wanted it, but I was afraid of it.

Rana (21:39)
WHY?

Jessica McClure (21:51)
And so it took some time for me to get more confident in my business to then be like, okay, this has to be a reality.

Rana (22:02)
What gives you that confidence?

Jessica McClure (22:03)
Coaching is interesting because it's something like the percentage is shocking. Something like 80 % of coaches fail within the first two years of coaching. Like it's brutal out there in the coaching world. And I knew that I was not gonna be one of those 80 %. And so I had to think what will...

Where can I stake the claim in order to be a successful 20 %er? And part of it was I need a website. I need an online presence. And so it happened within two years of my business. ⁓

Rana (22:41)
Fantastic

you meant you mentioned 80 % failure so the other coaches because as I said we work with a lot of coaches and that's our Target market as well. So the coaches if somebody of a coach listening How can they be part of that 20 % not the 80 % failures if you want to share anything?

Jessica McClure (23:00)
Well,

yeah, I think it's one, it's a mindset. Like, yes, you're gonna always think,

you know, I could go back to my real world or my other world, my, you know, my corporate world, this fallback of the corporate world. And so there is a component of that. Lots of people start out in the corporate world and do coaching on the side or something. There has to be a, I don't know what it is. it's almost like,

you know that you won't fail. I don't know how to say it other than I knew that there was no option, other option for me. I wasn't gonna go back to my corporate world. wasn't, cause for me that meant traveling full time. I still had young kids at home. I knew that that wasn't an option. So I had to figure out.

Rana (23:40)
Mmm.

Jessica McClure (23:50)
how to be in the 20%. And so it was working with a coach. It was creating a website. It was thinking out of the box. It was reaching out to people. It was, what did I have to do in order to make this a true business? Market myself. We all suck at marketing ourselves, coaches. Like I feel, sorry, coaches out there, I'm sure there's a few, there's good ones out there.

Rana (24:18)
the

Jessica McClure (24:18)
and God bless you, we all look to the good coaches out there who really know how to market themselves. But most of us just want to coach people. We want to help people. We want to like be in it. And we want, we want people to know. So there's so many coaches out there and I even know as a coach, it's difficult to find like who should I work with?

Rana (24:30)
Hmm.

Exactly.

Jessica McClure (24:40)
So many voices out there. And so what I tell people is I'm like real estate. So all of us coaches are happy. Most of us coaches are happy to have a conversation with you. So interview a couple, find a few voices that you like, interview them, and you will know we're like real estate. You know, when you walk into a house and you're like, this is me, this is my house. I want to say yes to this house. That's how a coach should feel to you.

When you're in the conversation, you should feel like that's the right coach for me. Not because they're telling you you have to commit within 15 minutes or else the deal's off the table, but because you feel the desire. Like I will always say at the end of a coaching session, if you want a couple other names, happy to give it to you. If you want to talk to me again, let me know. I want you to feel so confident that you reach out to me and you say, that conversation hasn't left my mind and I want to work with you.

Rana (25:35)
Fantastic. Very nice of you to offering other coaches to your students. So let's go back to our website conversation once again. So initially you were afraid, then you decided that you need a website. And when you decided you need a website, what was your main goal of having a website?

Jessica McClure (25:52)
I presence, noticing that I was letting people know that I was a professional, that this was my world. And so I had a website with a blog on it as well. And so it was also a place for me to write. And this was before AI. So I would write blog posts and then I would upload them on social media. And so I started to gain confidence in my voice as well.

Rana (26:19)
So, excellent. So what was your goal you achieved by creating a website? And did you create your website yourself or did you go to a third party of building a website?

Jessica McClure (26:28)
Both. So I created it originally by myself and on Squarespace. And then I started helping and then I started to reach out to other people in regards to like I got my pictures done. SEO. I SEO is I do you guys do SEO?

Rana (26:45)
Yes, some of the work we do, yes.

Jessica McClure (26:46)
SEO is to me like someone if you said give me a haircut that's what SEO is to me like I'm like

I don't know where to begin. It's like a foreign or dropping me in Korea and be like, find your way around and talk. I'm like, it's a foreign language to me. And so I hired people for SEO. I hired photographers. I hired. I haven't hired copywriters because I personally like to write, but I have met with a few copywriters and that is something that I always play with.

Rana (26:56)
Mm-hmm.

Jessica McClure (27:18)
Because I do feel like it's important to have a third party who hears your voice and can distill it. ⁓

Rana (27:27)
How

did SEO work for you? Did it produce results for you?

Jessica McClure (27:31)
It did produce results and I saw a huge increase in my numbers coming in and I always ask people how they find me. And so oftentimes it was like a Google search. I went to do a deep dive and it was a Google search.

Rana (27:40)
Hmm.

Mm.

Did you do some analytics that which pages are bringing more people to you?

Jessica McClure (27:53)
Yep. And so, and I still do my analytics and I tie it to, can see where people are looking at the most, where people bounce. And so this was a question that I came back to SEO or came back to the people that I worked with and said, okay, how do I, how do I build upon that? If they're going to this, what does that mean? And what do I need more of? And what do I need less of?

Rana (28:16)
Okay, so we started with the building a website. So your suggestion is what is your suggestion that people should build it themselves or learn to build website or find help that what will be better for them.

Jessica McClure (28:28)
So here's the question to you. If you have tried to do it and it's not successful, hire somebody. Go to you and hire somebody. If you keep thinking about it, but don't know where to begin and can't begin, hire somebody.

So if it feels like it is a foreign language to you, hire somebody. Because even just to have a simple website, it gives you, I feel like, legitimacy. It also tells the universe that you are choosing this. Like I worked with ⁓ a client recently and they didn't, their website was just like a piece of, a plain piece of, like a landing page, basically.

Rana (28:45)
Yes.

Jessica McClure (29:12)
And when we worked together, they were creating a podcast. They spoke. They were doing all these things. And I'm like, I don't see any of this on your website. All I see is this landing page. And so they ended up working with somebody to build all of that out. And then the business started coming because there is something about when you stake your claim, the universe provides.

The universe, I don't know, is that sound too woo? Is this too woo for your clientele here? But I don't know if it's the law of compensation, the law of, there's a universal law of when you put yourself out there, then it will come back to you. And so I definitely noticed once I started putting myself out in the world and the universe, you,

allow yourself to be seen. You allow people to find you. You're not hiding anymore. And so it's, I know I keep saying it, but you stake your claim. And I think that's so important out in the world to have a voice that says what you do so people can find you.

Rana (30:14)
Yes.

Exactly and you talk about authentic style on your website. So basically the easiest way is to put yourself out there All the tools are there your phone you have phone you don't need anything else So the more you put up your authentic self outside out there the more you connect with people This why we are doing this podcast as well. So discussing and sharing sharing ourself You you mentioned do you

Jessica McClure (30:42)
Yeah.

Rana (30:47)
You advise this person to put a blog, put a podcast. Does the website comes into your coaching part of the puzzle as well, or it is not related to your coaching?

Jessica McClure (30:58)
Bye!

I don't do website design or anything like that. What I do is I look at what's existing and I'm like, these two things are not equaling each other. And so you who I'm talking to does not look like what the website that I'm seeing or the LinkedIn presence or whatever it is. And so that needs to change. And so then I tell them to go out and hire somebody like you to help them or do something.

Rana (31:05)
Yeah.

Yes.

Exactly.

Jessica McClure (31:28)
Yeah, but I'm happy.

Rana (31:28)
So you mentioned that if you don't know how to build a website, hire someone. I would add to that because there is so much information out there. And I build a website agency because I hired someone about probably 17, 18 years ago to do SEO and other stuff. And I didn't get results. I had to learn myself. And I love so much that I ended up creating a company.

having one team instead of other business, I enjoy doing more of it. my suggestion from experience is it also depends on the business level. So if you have marketing managers and other resources available, of course you would do it differently. But for more small to medium sized businesses, if you want to invest in any of this website related stuff, you should educate yourself what is out there, what are the few fundamentals.

and what can be achieved from SEO because SEO is not predictable, it's getting very difficult. So it's very complicated. So before hiring someone, have some sort of education and if you can't do it, then hire someone. So ⁓ amazing. So first the building to hire someone, then promotion. You said SEO worked for you. Did anything else work for you to bring people to your website?

Jessica McClure (32:30)
Yeah.

Rana (32:44)
like social media or any paid adds or anything else you try.

Jessica McClure (32:47)
I know I'm in conversation with somebody just last like last month I was talking to somebody and she went down this Google ad rabbit hole and you're reminding me when I talked to you that I was like I'm gonna explore that and I haven't so again

Knowing the things that have been on your to-do list for a long time and you're not doing is a good reminder to talk to somebody who's a professional about it. Like if you're not doing the research, if you're not doing it. And so I am curious now, be curious what you've found like with paid ads, with AI, all of that. How do you see that changing with people's websites right now?

Rana (33:27)
That's a very interesting time. So things are, you know, evolving very rapidly. So, but I think I normally stick with the foundations. So basically, as you blog, you blogged previously. So I personally believe it depends on what you're offering and whether people need it or not. So if there is a true connection of problem and solving, blog still works.

Because if you do research properly and writing authentic content, it still works. On top of that, these video things, social media, these are important. Used to be ⁓ only writing used to do well, but now it's very complicated. You have to appear in AI searches as well. So it's all about your brand mentions. The more you'll be out there expressing yourself authentically and

mentioning your brand name, your website on different places, the more chances there will be to be found online.

Jessica McClure (34:25)
Yeah, and I do feel like also the other thing is if I don't go to my website as very often, I notice a dip versus if I'm going in and playing with it a lot or adding some new video or adding some new content to it or doing something, I find that I start seeing an increase. And so there is something about, think, do you agree with that?

Rana (34:48)
I agree that's a freshness of the content. That's very important. It used to be very important. It's even important now. So keep the content fresh. So keep adding new content. And even more important, the pages, you must have seen drops in the clicks. Because with the AI overviews, there are very few organic results are appearing in the Google searches. So the clicks are dying. So the more you keep it up to date with your content,

the better it is for you for your presence out there.

Jessica McClure (35:17)
Yeah, and I do think that the more, since your audience is mostly coaches, I do think that the majority of people for coaching used to be blogged. So I would get just random people reading about like some random thing that I was talking about. Like I had a really high blog post about healing ancestral wounds. And so that was more like a knowledge thing. And then they would kind of then, you know, continue, what do you call it?

bounce rate, they would go to other blog posts and understand more. But now I feel like because coaching is more popular, it's people searching. Coach in Las Vegas, spiritual coach who helps with transformation. They're more specific search. And so I'm finding that's

actually helpful because I'm not just getting random things of people who aren't so interested. It's more of a targeted person who's actually looking for a coach.

Rana (36:17)
That's very

good and do you coach people online or in person locally?

Jessica McClure (36:21)
No, I'm not 100%. I am 95 % online, virtual.

Rana (36:26)
online. your students are all over the US. ⁓

Jessica McClure (36:30)
Yeah, and global. it's

overseas.

Rana (36:34)
Amazing. But if you are targeting clients locally, maybe you should check your local SEO, which is getting very prominent. And it's lot easier to attract local clients once your local SEO is optimized than competing worldwide. So that is something you should check for.

Jessica McClure (36:51)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and I do do that a little bit and I will say that that's helpful, you know, and I think I do think that cross referencing like LinkedIn has been really helpful in my local market as well. Plus I'm in Vegas, so people look for a bit coach in Vegas because they're doing like a conference and they want to bring in a coach to do a workshop or something like that, somebody local in person. And so that's been helpful for me to with a local. ⁓

Rana (37:14)
Hmm.

I highly

recommend you should optimize your website for coaching in Vegas. So that will be very lucrative keyword to optimize for.

Jessica McClure (37:33)
Do you guys do that? Do you do like the audit of people's websites to see how they're optimized and things? Okay. I'll talk to you.

Rana (37:40)
Yeah, that's what we can do.

I'll share my favorite inspiration of how someone should approach like a coach on a website. Have you heard about James Clear, Atomic Habits? So I stumbled upon James Clear around 2012, 2013. At that time, I was three or four years into my online exploration. I was subscribed to many newsletters, watching every video at that time.

Jessica McClure (37:54)
Yes, love James Clear.

Rana (38:10)
And then I thought I had enough. I have to unsubscribe everything because I'm just grabbing information. I'm not taking action. So I was unsubscribing everything. And for some reason, I couldn't unsubscribe James Clear. James Clear and a couple of other newsletters stayed in my email. And as you mentioned, other people, they create content and add that.

bottom they said buy this thing, buy that thing or affiliates and other things going on. For years I kept thinking about, I was waiting for his email because I was building a team and everything what he writes really helped me build habits, build teams. And I was kept thinking why he shares so much value and never asked anything. And his formula was he was writing two articles

well-researched articles on habits. So habits means he picked a niche, which is very important. So as you said, the coaching is a very competitive market. So he picked the angle of lens of habits and researched on that. And I believe because I met him on his launch and I have a signed book, which has become a I think, precious item now. He's a top bestseller of atomic habits.

Jessica McClure (39:11)
Mm.

Rana (39:23)
And he picked the lens of habits. And I believe that was the natural to him. He learned through his own experiences on habits and he loved researching about it and writing about it. I think time was very good at that time for blogging as well. So in two, three years, think he collected probably two, 300,000 email lists and which helped him

get a book deal, launch a book deal and become a sensation in a coaching world. So I think that formula still works, even though it's difficult, easier to write content, but very difficult to write authentic content, you mentioned authentic style, adding your own flavor, because AI write content in five minutes, but it will not have your experiences, your style, your...

your passion in that content. If you can add that into the content, keep it very simple. And I believe when you manage to do that, people will find you, your tribe will connect with you and you will get what you are after.

Jessica McClure (40:27)
100 % agree with you. And I made a decision with myself that I wouldn't use AI for my writing because I feel like you lose that heart. You lose that voice of who you are. Can you tell me what's a success story you've had with doing somebody's website? Somebody that you...

Rana (40:46)
Before I

mention, I'm not against AI. AI is like a computer like this too. Yeah, Yes, yeah.

Jessica McClure (40:49)
I'll use AI all the time, but not for writing. Not when I want to share

my, like a blog or something like that. I'll use it to clean up, but I won't have it write the whole thing.

Rana (40:59)
Hmm.

there are a couple of local accountants and solicitors, these sort of businesses we worked with. They have reached about 5,000 traffic in current world, which is amazing number. That is a game changing number.

for many small businesses. So the first goal is whatever SEO services is that how can we reach 1000, at least 1000 people traffic per month and then we go from there on.

Jessica McClure (41:13)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's amazing. Yeah, I can definitely see seeing numbers jump. You definitely see where when it makes a difference like my CEO experience was similar.

Rana (41:36)
Fantastic. Amazing discussion. Last question. Again, same thing probably might have answered before, but the coaches who are listening wants to become a coach. Any final thoughts, advice for them from you?

Jessica McClure (41:49)
think education is really important. There are so many coaches who are maybe consultants who are in that mentoring space, which is great. We need mentors and consultants as well.

Do the education, know, understand what it is to be curious and ask questions and put yourself out there. Find the thing that feels authentic to you and lean into it and commit to being that 20 % that makes it after two years. And that means you have to put yourself out there.

Rana (42:08)
Yeah.

Amazing, Jessica. Thank you very much for your generous advice, coaching, and websites. And I hope people find it helpful to learn wherever they are in the world.

Jessica McClure (42:35)
my coaching dream is to reach as many people and have them realize that so often times when I start working with leaders and I work with high performing people, this isn't usually punitive coaching. This isn't people who are like, you're going to get fired in 30 days.

Rana (42:53)
you work with startups as well. So do you see any patterns of coaching or challenges which are different to startups and the high performing leaders?

Jessica McClure (43:03)
Something like 80 % of coaches fail within the first two years of coaching. Like it's brutal out there in the coaching world. And I knew that I was not gonna be one of those 80 %. And so I had to think what will...

Rana (43:22)
So the coaches if somebody of a coach listening How can they be part of that 20 % not the 80 % failures if you want to share anything?

Jessica McClure (43:30)
Well,

Rana (43:31)
So initially you were afraid, then you decided that you need a website. And when you decided you need a website, what was your main goal of having a website?

Jessica McClure (43:41)
It did produce results and I saw a huge increase in my numbers coming in and I always ask people how they find me. And so oftentimes it was like a Google search. I went to do a deep dive and it was a Google search.

Rana (43:50)
Hmm.

Mm.

Jessica McClure (43:56)
You allow people to find you. You're not hiding anymore. And so it's, I know I keep saying it, but you stake your claim. And I think that's so important out in the world to have a voice that says what you do so people can find you.

Rana (44:07)
Yes.

You advise this person to put a blog, put a podcast. Does the website comes into your coaching part of the puzzle as well, or it is not related to your coaching?

Jessica McClure (44:25)
Bye!