EP 304 - Marketing for Coaches: 3 Simple Steps to Get Your First Paid Client

Marketing is Simply Talking: Your Easiest Strategy So we've just turned over the calendar to 2026. If you're a coach with no clients, I know what you're thinking. I cannot go another year in this same position as being a coach with no clients. I have to make money this year. Well my friend, you make money from marketing and I want to talk to you about the three simple steps that you can take to create a marketing plan that is doable. 1 where you feel really in alignment with it, one that will meet your desires. There's one that you will know how to do and that can be repeatable if we haven't met. I'm Debbie Shadow, I help women over 50 create profitable boutique style coaching businesses and I want to teach you how to market your business. I'm going to actually blow your mind on how simple marketing can be if you allow it to be simple. Are you willing to go with me on this? Let's make it easier than what you think, OK? It should be approachable. If you listen to what I'm going to teach you today, you will see. You know, actually I've been thinking about marketing in the wrong way. Let's get a baseline here. What is marketing? It is literally the words that you say about what you love most. It is that simple. So you've already done marketing. You've already been talking about your coaching to people. You've already explained what it is that you are most passionate about that is actually marketing. You've already been doing it. So let's talk about having a mindset shift right there. How about if you could already say you're pretty good at talking about what you love most? So marketing is just talking to people. And how do you get better at marketing? Will you talk to more people? I know, it sounds so simple, doesn't it? Where can you market beyond talking to people? Let's get into that. Not the first thing I said, which was the most important one that I want you to take away from today is that talking is free. It is the most overlooked way to market your business. Now, before you shut off this video, I'm going to go through all kinds of other ways to market your business. I'm even going to help you if you're an introvert, learn how to market your business. But I really want to drive home the point that talking is the most overlooked thing we do. We spend so much time learn how to do social media, worried about getting our graphics right, thinking about the e-mail we're going to write, thinking about our website scripts. In reality, you telling somebody what you do is the easiest thing you can do. There is no learning needed and you need no tech, so it's free and easy. I want you to think about hiring somebody when you needed a plumber because your sync backed up or you needed a hair stylist, somebody to do Botox for you, an attorney, whatever it was you needed. What did you do? You asked somebody or you were thinking, now wait a minute, I think there was a plumbing truck down the street at my neighbor's house. What was the name of that place? You call your neighbor or you remember that a Co worker had a conversation about this new aesthetics place that they went to and this girl was really great and had an offer on Botox. OK, This is literally the things that we get referrals on. Coaching is no different. And the only way that this happens is because you talk about your business. Think about this for a moment. Put this picture in your mind. You throw a stone into a pond, into the lake, and there's this ripple effect. That is literally what happens when you start talking to people about your coaching. If you are a relationship coach and you've been telling everybody about what you do, you save marriages. Guess what, when the lady at church remembers, Oh yeah, I know somebody who helps people just like you who are in need of a relationship coach. It is almost a guarantee that you will get a connection and maybe even get hired when you have a referral. I know for sure the plumber that we use, my hair stylist, I can think of a whole list of people that I use, services that I pay for where I ask somebody, who do you go to? Don't let your coaching business be the best kept secret. Explore Networking, Social Media, and Local Markets Now, where else can we market networking? That is just talking to somebody. I really again want to simplify this for you. I said talking to people and I mean like talking to your neighbor, your coworkers, the people at church, wherever you are, you talk about your business. But networking is the same thing. It just happens to be in a more formal setting. And it's a place where you can make a bigger impact at one time because you have a group of people you can talk to. You can even ask for referrals. So let's reframe. Networking is not like that thing you should dread. It's a situation where you get to talk to a lot of people. You can get referrals, and it's a way for you to take care of a lot of marketing. Basically one opportunity. OK, social media. Social media is just sharing. And here's what I want you to hear. Sharing to the world. Social media is the only place that I know of where you have access to every corner of the world for free. So let's think about social media as an opportunity for you to share. You do not have to get the video right, the script right, the Canva graphic right. Do you know what you can do? You can actually go on your personal page and you can just type something and that is marketing. Now, of course, I want you to do something really phenomenal. I want you to have a beautiful graphic. I love videos and I would love to see you talk about your business. Please connect with me on Instagram, Tag me when you do your first post and I will like it and engage with you. But that's what social media is. It's just simply sharing. It's getting on there and just saying, hey, you know what I was thinking about you today. Here's what I want you to know. e-mail marketing is simply sending a note. Yeah. It's just making a note to somebody, telling him something. You don't even have to think about what's the structure of the e-mail. You can just send somebody a note. That's e-mail marketing. A workshop. You guys know I love workshops. I love education. All it is you teaching about the thing that you love most. Now with me reframing networking and social media and e-mail marketing and workshops. Can you see how much easier marketing could be if you would think about it in this way? Now, where can you market online? Of course, when we became coaches, all of a sudden somehow we thought that was the only way to market your business. And I want to tell you that's true. But you can also market in person, locally, nationally or worldwide local markets. This is one more thing that we often overlook. We're not talking to people and we're not doing it in our local market. Now, why do I think you are skipping this? I think it's because, number one, you're prejudging your local market and you're saying there's no people here that would buy coaching from me. There's no people that have money. But I'm going to challenge you and say I'm going to bet that you are actually scared of being judged, that you are looking to places where you don't know people so that you don't have to talk in front of people that you know. First, let's decide yourself that coaching is priceless, that it is so important that everybody needs it. And please consider talking to people in your local market. This is your official reminder that you can go old school. I'm doing air quotes here, old school that you don't need the World Wide Web to have a successful coaching business. You can literally to build a very big business in your local market in your state only. So the goal is today for you to learn how to create a marketing plan that will just support the life that you have and the business that you desire. I'm going to talk about three things that you need to do to have this marketing plan. Master Your Niche: Repeat Key Content Categories So the first step is for you to create your content. What is content? I will tell you in a moment that's based on your niche. The second part is for you to select where you're going to market. That is based on your desires, what you desire to do. Because if you set up a marketing plan for things you're not going to do, guess what? You'll get nowhere, OK. And the third part of this process is for you to decide how often am I going to market? And I will tell you that's based on your goals. O in the first step, I talked about content selection. What is content? Content is simply the topics that you're going to talk about. To become well known, you have to say the same thing over and over. I literally hope you get bored of saying the same thing over and over. When you get bored with what you're saying, then I know you're doing your job well. Now, why is this important? Number one, we're all very distracted. We all need to hear things multiple times. There is a high chance that you are not sitting down with dedicated attention watching my video. You are multitasking. You've got your earbuds in, maybe you're on a walk. You need to hear from me multiple times about the same things to have it really sink in. Your client is no different and #2 I think almost all of us identify as have an ADHD, right? We're like, oh, I can't keep track of anything. Again, This is why you want to repeat what you're saying. So what can you talk about when it comes to your niche on repeat without doing any research? This is another key factor to you actually executing on what we decide today. Your content has to be that simple. Think about the things you can talk about without having to do any homework. No more reading a book, no more studying, nothing. Because it's easy to produce content when you can just talk about what you do. So I would love for you to come up with some ideas for content. And to do that you might be thinking, well, OK, what would my content be? And I'm going to help you out on that too. Why would somebody hire you? When you work with a client, what are you helping them with? You're helping them discover something to make a shift, to make a change, to become something to learn, something to create a different outcome than what they currently have. All of those things could be content categories. What do you help them discover? What's the shift they're making? What's the change? Who are they becoming? What are they learning? What is the outcome that you create? What is the result they get from your coaching? That is what you talk about. Those are your content categories. If we were talking about weight loss coaching, I'll give you a list of content categories #1 Discover why they overeat. That's what you would help your clients do #2 assess with them. How did you get here? Why are you 50 lbs overweight #3 Decide how are you going to lose the weight #4 Decide what will you have to do to be successful #5 Identify mindset obstacles. And listen, I want you all to hold on for a minute because I'm actually describing categories that could work for you in any niche that you are #6 be mindful of what to look out for and #7 learn how to have long term success. So I just gave you 7 categories. Six of those categories could be for any niche. I'm going to tell you what those are. Again, assess how you got there. Determine what you will do. Determine how you're going to be successful. Identify the mindset, obstacles, be mindful of what to look out for. And the last one is learn how to have long term success. Those could be your content categories. Ideally, you're going to pick 7 because there's seven days to the week. Let's make it easy for you. Whatever those seven content categories are, you're going to talk about that stuff on repeat on social media, when you network, when you meet somebody, when you write an e-mail, when you do a workshop on repeat. Constraint works in your favor. Allow your business to be simple. You don't have to come up with anything different than those seven ideas. And please stay with me here. You want to say the same thing over and over so you can become well known for something. The goal is for somebody to remember your name when they have the problem that they've heard you talk about over and over so that you are the go to expert. Think about your content categories. Make a list of those so that you can have those today in place for 2026. Now where do you market your business? Overcome Obstacles and Choose Your Best Channels That is also based on your desire and your skill set. You want to identify what obstacles you're facing. Number one, you might be saying I'm an introvert. Debbie, you don't understand. I'm an introvert. Well, I do understand because everybody I talked to is an introvert. OK, I mean, I say that jokingly, but honestly, even extroverts don't love walking into a room and having to have a conversation with somebody they've never met. So if you identify as an introvert, a true introvert, that's an obstacle that we need to overcome. If you don't have money for ads, don't worry because I don't think you should be spending money on ads. If you're terrible at tech, we need to address that. If you're not comfortable on camera, OK, that's something else we need to solve for. It's important for you to know what are the roadblocks because you either have to learn how to do the things you don't know or else you got to figure out a way around them. So let's imagine if you need a solution as an introvert, how are you going to market? Well, I would immediately say let's connect with people individually. Don't do it in a big group. Don't go to this big networking event. Hey coaches, it's Debbie Shattered here. I've got something very special for you. If you're trying to figure out how to get coaching clients on your own and you're wondering what to post, how to explain what you do, or how to actually sell your coaching, this is for you. I'm inviting you to join me for a live edition of the Fast Track and VIP Coaching Experiences. This is your chance to stop spanning an indecision and finally take those actions that are needed to build a profitable coaching business. You'll get the answers, the guidance, the support you're looking for, plus real time feedback on your niche, your offers and your marketing. Spots are very limited and enrollment closes soon. Let's connect Debbie shattered.com/schedule to claim your spot and to talk about your options. Let's get you clients faster and easier than you ever imagined. Connect with people at a coffee shop. Do small group settings, small round table discussions. Grab your e-mail list. I remember when I started e-mail marketing I was like this is literally an introvert's best marketing Ave. e-mail letter writing because you have no way to be exposed to anyone except via the words on an e-mail. So that's what you can do as an introvert. If you have no ad money, don't worry, you're in good shape. Remember social media reaches every corner of the world. YouTube is amazing. Talk to people wherever you go. If you are terrible at tech, here's the deal I just said talk to people. It involves no tech network in person. Use your personal Facebook page if you are over 50 plus I guarantee you your personal Facebook page you know how to use post on there until you learn how to do something else. There are no excuses for not talking about your business in 2026. You guys. You can use Zoom for your meetings. We all know how to use Zoom if you are camera shy. Create videos using Canva and beautiful graphics. Build a Facebook group where you can connect with people without being on camera. And of course you can use DM marketing. That's always to connect with people without even having to see their face, without having to show your face. OK, so decide where you're going to market. Do not over commit. Don't let this be this thing where it's the first of the year and you're like, OK, I'm going to the gym every day because we know what happens if you have not been going to the gym every day. You going to the gym every day in 2026 is not a good idea because you haven't even been going once a week. So commit to something that you can do. The key to having success with this is doing it consistently. That is how you will build your business in 2026. Quickly, some ideas that I've already talked about. To recap, social media, any platform you want, talking to people, networking, Facebook groups, collaborating with other coaches. This is so beautiful because if you have 100 friends and they have 100 friends on Instagram, you collaborate and do something together. Now you have their friends and they can utilize your friends collaboration. I mean, it's gold workshops. You can do those locally. We have a client who has a workshop that she does at a vegan restaurant. Yeah, you could do that at a restaurant, at your Public Library, in a knitting club, whatever it is you're doing. Honestly you guys you can do local training, local workshops, local coaching and of course you can do it on Zoom emailing I mentioned that Google My Business if you are local, you want to have a Google My Business listing free coaching. If y'all haven't been listening to me very long then you need to know this. I built my business from 0 to $100,000 in six months by giving free coaching sessions, no paid ads. I met people in Facebook groups and I said you're struggling with your business. Here's how I can help you. If I saw that they had a question, I was like, OK, I can actually show you how to do that. If you don't know how to do e-mail marketing, let me get on a call with you and Justice show you how to do that. I displayed my expertise for free. One coaching call. You know what happened? People hired me. If they didn't hire me, I would say, hey, can you refer me to someone? And they referred me six months from 0 to $100,000 on free coaching calls. OK, You can do video and you can also do blogging. For those of you guys that love to write, Sub stack is a big deal. Now that's another option for you. One thing I want you to know, and I know I'm going deep on this, but please stick with me. When you think about the places that you're going to market your business, there's going to be places where you can convert clients quickly and places that are going to be a little bit slower. So converting a client quickly, that's having a conversation with somebody in person. OK, that is quick conversions. If you need quick business, I recommend that you do that. If you decide I'm going to do YouTube, YouTube is amazing. And if you are not subscribed to this channel, please do me a favor and subscribe and comment and tell me what it is you're interested in listening and learning from me in 2026. All right, back to YouTube. YouTube is initially slower. Think about it, you have not very many people watching your videos. You probably aren't great at doing videos. You don't have a following, you don't have subscribers. So it's slower, but you know what it does? It compounds over time. We've heard this from lots of people. You know, you start out and you've got 100 followers, then you have 1000 and then all of a sudden it's like wow, she has 40,000 followers. It's not like wow, how did she get there? Well, all those videos and all those watch hours compounded and that is what grew her following. OK. So think about creating a marketing plan with places where you get immediate results and places that will compound like YouTube or a podcast or growing an e-mail list. So think about where are you going to market? Now I've talked about your content categories. What are you going to talk about on repeat? Now where are you going to market on repeat? Align Your Marketing Frequency with Business Growth How often are you going to market? This is the last of the three steps. So if you decided I'm going to market on social media, I'm going to market through e-mail, I'm going to do networking, I'm going to do workshops, and I'm going to meet people, like just talk to people. Those are the five things that I'm going to do to market my business in 2026. I'm going to say, OK, how often are you going to do that? How often are you going to post? Now, what should you consider? Well #1 if you work full time, you can't do as much as what the people who are full time in the business can do. So decide if I work full time, how much time do I have to work in my business and do this? How much time do I have? That's going to depend on how many posts you can do. And I just want to caution you also one more time, if you've not posted on social media ever, posting on social media every single day for 365 days might be a little bit much. Maybe set yourself up for three posts a week. Now, if you've already been posting on social media every day, I challenge you to go to two posts a day. Some common questions that I have when I'm actually talking to clients is how often should I post? And my kind of answer back that sounds like I'm being a smart ass here is well, how fast do you want to grow your business? How many clients do you actually want to work with? Because how often you should market or post is dependent on how big of a business you want. If you want to have a massive result in 2026, then you better be posting a lot. You better be see emailing a lot. You should be doing multiple workshops a month. You could do a workshop every single week for 52 weeks. You know what you do for your business? Wow. You would change your business results. The first workshop would have zero people. The second one might have one, then maybe 2, then 4. But by the time you got to the end of the year, you'd have a good turn out and you'd have a big list. You'd also probably have a lot of clients maybe decide I'm going to post daily on social media. So what could your plan be this schedule for your marketing? I'm going to give you an example. Daily social media posting, weekly e-mail marketing, one networking event a month, one workshop a month, and then meet one new friend a week. Now that is so doable. 1 networking event a month. You're like, well that's not that big of a deal, but it is a big deal. If you meet 10 people and you do it 12 months for the year, that means that you met 120 people. That's when it really changes. The same way with you making one new friend. And I'm not talking about a Facebook friend. I'm talking about a real relationship where somebody really understands what you do. 1 new friend a week is 52 new friends in a year. This is how you make a difference and this is simple. It might not seem like enough, but it's enough at the end of the year. So how often do you want to market? I'm going to tell you something I want you to remember, and if you're in a position to write this down, you hold the keys to your own cashbox. Do you know how through your marketing, if you want more cash in the cashbox, then you have to market more. So what are you going to do? Where are you going to market? How often are you going to market and what are you going to talk about? Those are the three steps. The three steps that you have to know the content categories. That was the first thing. Step one, OK. Step 2 was figuring out where to market, and Step 3 was how often you're going to market. That is it. How do you do this for a whole year? Will you just rotate through the categories? And you know what else happens? At some point you get to repeat things. You get to repeat what you're doing because who can remember what you talked about two months ago? Most people can't. So you get to repeat. Give yourself the freedom in your business by starting to repeat your content. Fuel Your Business with a Powerful Personal Commitment One last thing I want to talk about is commitment. Now, how do you stay committed to this? Well, let me tell you what you have to have a big why. Why are you even building a business for so many women that I talked to that are over 50, they don't actually have to earn a full time income. And I'm going to tell you this, it almost hurts you because you're not having to pay the mortgage payment because you're not really strapped for cash. It sometimes is easy to put off the marketing. When I started my business, I had to pay the mortgage. I had to pay the car payment, all the things. I didn't have a choice. I had to make my business go. I had a baby 25 years ago. She was actually in kindergarten, but yeah, she was small. So I had to pay those bills. You have to figure out if you don't have to pay the mortgage, what are you going to do? And it is that why that makes you cry? Who needs your help desperately? How can you change somebody's life by your own experiences? And if not that, what could you get motivated by? Maybe it's that trip to Disney. Take your grandkids to Disney. Maybe it's that new car. What is it that you could do? I actually want to buy my husband a car. That's something that I'm excited about doing. So anyway, this is how you build your business in 2026. You talk to people, you tell them how you can help them, and you make an offer that's as simple as it gets. I want to invite you to grab my Canva training if you are just getting started and you're like, OK, I didn't have a brand. I don't even know exactly what I'm going to do. Watch that training. I'm going to walk you through a very simple three-step process for not only learning how to use Canva, but also creating a professional brand for your coaching business that you can use with all of your marketing. The link is right here in the comments or in the show notes. Make sure you sign up. I cannot wait to see what you're going to do in 2026. In the comments, tell me what your key take away is and what you would love to learn from me this year because have a beautiful day, an amazing week and let's go make a difference. All right, until next time, bye bye.