As a business coach for entrepreneurs, I work with a lot of purpose-driven individuals who want to build a coaching business. Most of them strongly dislike the idea of relying on social media to find clients.
But we’re all constantly bombarded with ads, courses and programs that claim social media is the key to growing a thriving coaching businesses. People have social media accounts not only for their business but their pets too!
So, what’s the truth? Do we need social media to grow our business or can we find clients without having to post on our Stories every single day?
In this post, I will:
- Explain why you don’t need to rely on social media to fill your coaching practice
- Show helpful tips for using social media instead
- Share how I built my business coaching for entrepreneurs practice without a single client coming from social media
In my experience as a business coach, there are three main reasons why coaches dislike the idea of promoting their business on social media:
- They don’t like the idea of self-promotion. I believe it’s safe to say that coaches are focused on their clients’ success and helping them grow—and less focused on growing their IG followers. Coaches are used to being in someone’s corner, not necessarily being the center of attention.
- They don’t know what to share online. By definition, coaches support their clients to discover their own answers and make their own decisions. Going on social media and delivering content to “educate” feels like the opposite of what we are taught by our coaching certification courses. Coaches feel like they don’t know what they should be posting about, and they can’t imagine recording a viral TikTok dance.
- They don’t feel qualified to share. Most clients I work with deal with imposter syndrome and fear from negative comments. If you’ve ever thought: “Who am I to… [fill in the blank with give advice, call myself a coach, be an expert etc.],” then in addition to this post, also read this one.
I understand all of these concerns and I’d love to help you find your sweet spot with social media. I’d like you to walk away from this post with better and faster ways to gain clients.
But also, I’d like to help you overcome your fears with social media so you could be empowered to use it as your compliment to the rest of your marketing strategies and tactics.
Why You Don’t Need To Rely On Social Media To Find Coaching Clients
What made you think that you need social media to grow your business?
Let’s think about that for a moment. When did you start believing that you needed to have thousands of followers and a ton of content to attract your ideal customers to you?
There are two things that shaped this believe. The first one is that you’ve seen way too many ads and promotions for learning how to get clients with social media. There is an entire industry which profits from making you believe that if you buy their social media courses, you will fill up your practice. If these courses are really great, they’ll teach you strategies that will pay off—but will also take a LOT of time and a lot of effort.
But you need a strategy that gets you clients now.
In my opinion, social media is a complimentary tactic to your strategy, but not your main strategy for attracting clients.
Secondly, you follow some great people with amazing content and many followers. It makes you think that to have clients, you’ll need to do what they’re doing and that seems impossible.
It’s important to remember that these people could be doing something different with their business after years in the industry. They might have a specific niche that they’re experts in. And with years of practice in this niche, they’ve grown an audience. They’ve probably scaled their business where they’re no longer doing one-on-one coaching. They’re probably doing courses and trainings. They’re also amplifying their brand by utilizing other influencer’s platforms or big media channels.
For example, Matthew Hussey is a dating expert, but many people refer to him as a dating coach.
He started his one-on-one practice more than 15 years ago. With time, he started a YouTube channel, grew his email list and his social media. He offers books, courses and retreats. Matthew has 1 million followers on Instagram and millions of views of his YouTube videos. He has been a guest on many TV shows and podcasts since. Therefore, he’d multiplied his following by being guest on other platforms with millions of viewers.
His business strategy, video production quality and posting schedule won’t be yours. He has a team of experts that help him do all of this.
Moreover, you won’t be able to hire him as your dating coach! You can buy a book, a course or watch free videos but if you wanted your own dating coach, you’d need to find someone ELSE.
Do you see how unfair it is to compare yourself with some like that? You could aspire for your business to get on this level but how many people are you serving in the meanwhile? How are you helping people now? What are you going to be know for?
Tony Robbins is a famous business leader, strategists and best-selling author. Many know him as the original “life coach.” He has 5.8 million followers on Instagram. If I waste any time to compared myself with him, I’ll never be able to serve my amazing clients that I love so much. Plus, he’s not doing one-on-one coaching either. So why compare my business strategy to his?
Lastly, there are many people with enormous following, who make NO or little money from their thousands of followers. A big following doesn’t always equal paying customers!
If you want to fill up a one-on-one coaching practice, stay with me until the end because I’ll share with you what you can do to get PAYING clients.
How To Use Social Media As A Coach
How do people hire coaches?
As a business coach for entrepreneurs, I’ve never gotten a single client from my social media accounts. It’s fair to say that I haven’t scaled my business to 7 or 8 figures yet but I do have a coaching practice that most coaches would love to have. I work with 15 clients on average, over the phone, from home, and around my parenting schedule. Moreover, most of my clients fill up their practices without using social media as well.
When I started my own business, I worked with my own business coach for entrepreneurs. Since those days, I’ve worked with a couple more coaches and they were all running great practices. None of the coaches I’ve hired, I found on social media. Lastly, I don’t think they have Facebook or Instagram accounts for their businesses. They do have LinkedIn but that still isn’t their primary source for getting clients.
If you were to hire a business coach for entrepreneurs, what would you do?
I doubt that you’ll go on Facebook searching for one. Most likely, you’ll type up “business coach for entrepreneurs” in a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Then, you’ll get some results. You’ll see some ads, some articles with top business coaches for local businesses. Maybe you’ll poke around for a bit and find a few names that interest you. You’ll check out these people’s websites and you’ll narrow down your search to the ones you liked. I’d imagine you’ll hope to see some reviews or testimonials to inspire you to take the next step.
Then, you’ll make a little more research on your favorites. If you’re ready, you’ll get in touch with them. You may schedule a consultation or send an email based on their set up. Maybe, you’ll also see their social media accounts on their website, and you’ll go and check out their content. If it continued to confirm your hypothesis about who they are and what they offered, you’ll most likely go back to get in touch with them.
That leads me to the second major point of this post: how to use social media to grow your coaching business.
In my opinion, your social media profiles are your business cards. It’s an extension to your website. It’s a way to showcase to your prospects who you are and what you’re about. They should be able to see what kind of person you are, what services you offer or what your niche is. They should feel like they like you even more after visiting your IG or LinkedIn profile.
A prospect may follow you after finding you on the web so they can hire you at a later time when they’re ready or if they feel more confident that you can help them. So, your content should continue to showcase how you help your clients. That way, they’ll have the clarity that they need to take action.
Here are a few tips for how to use social media as a coach:
- Be generous. Help all the people who can’t afford you (yet). Use your platform to serve. Plus, you never know how these fans will support you in other ways.
- Give away your knowledge and expertise. Paying clients will come to you for the personal connection and individualized support. There are people who will follow you for the free resources. But there always will be people who want someone to help them with their specific needs, one-on-one.
- Focus on the topics you work on with your clients. If you haven’t had any clients yet, hurry up and get some! You need experience to help you make content that speaks to people. One can only intellectualize so much what you think people’s pain points really are. You can also think of all the things you struggled with years ago. Speak about what specific things helped you overcome them.
Where To Find Clients Outside Of Social Media
Now you may wonder how you’re actually going to get clients. And I promised to help you.
The first thing I do with my clients is create a vision for their lives and businesses. Then, we work on their mission statement and their purpose statement that are rooted in their values. Finally, we create the strategy of how they’re going to go about filling up their practice.
Together, we determine what are their superpowers, skills and talents. Based on their niche and ideal client, we find the easiest, fastest and cheapest ways to present themselves in front of these people.
Some of my clients network like crazy on Clubhouse. Others have a network of connections from previous businesses or a career. A third group, may be speakers and writers that attract clients through their work.
My strategy is being a well-established local business that could be easily found on the internet. I strive to be the most respected and trusted business coach for entrepreneurs in San Diego.
I make sure that when people search a business coach near me, they find me. And when they do, I want to make an impression that helps them determine if I am the right fit for them. My 5-star client reviews help my prospects learn more about me from actual clients who were in their shoes.
My website showcases who I am and what I do. It reflects my client’s experience. When they get on the phone with me, they already know what they can expect.
I picked my content and my pictures in a way that are consistent with my brand. I’ve used other tactics like paid ads, SEO, and marketing agencies to help me set everything up. I’ve also taken B School, the business program by Marie Forleo. It helped me build my brand and I learned a ton about online marketing.
With years of my own experience as an entrepreneur, coach, and a passion for business and marketing, I can help YOU, design your own business strategy that’s based on your strengths, niche and ideal client. In other words, I’ve read all the books, took the courses, hired the marketing agencies and tried all the things so you don’t have to!
Get in touch with a business coach for entrepreneurs here and start created a strategy that works for you!
