BEFORE YOU STOP READING — I hate this exercise and think it sucks… keep reading….

Basically, the idea of the avatar exercise is that you should define your ideal client by narrowing it down to one specific person based on demographics, interests, pain points, and more, so that you can tailor your coaching services to them.

An avatar exercise will ask you to list things like what kind of shoes your client wears, whether she is married or not, how many kids she has, and what books she reads.

It also asks you questions about their psychographics – their values, attitudes, beliefs etc. 

It can be a fun exercise to fill out (maybe?), but then you’re left wondering what you are supposed to do with it.

It’s often used as a niching exercise, to which I say…

If you have struggled with the avatar exercise, you are not alone.

It’s an outdated way of thinking about your niche. And here’s why:

1. It’s limiting. By focusing on one “ideal” client, you could be missing out on a whole group of people who would benefit from your coaching. What if someone who doesn’t fit your avatar perfectly is still interested in your services? What if they don’t have kids or wear heels instead of flats? What if they value routine and stability and you value freedom and spontaneity? Does that mean they are not a good fit to be your client?
2. People are complex. Your ideal client is not just a collection of demographics and interests. They have a complex set of experiences and motivations that drive their behavior. By focusing solely on an avatar, you could be missing the opportunity to connect with them on a deeper level.
3. It’s not flexible. What happens if your ideal client avatar changes over time? Are you going to change your whole business to keep up? Not likely. 

Look at the clients I work with here at Uncaged.

• I work moms AND women who never want kids.
• I work with 25 year olds AND 60 year olds.
• I work with folks who work in corporate AND those who work as bartenders.
• I work with people whose dream is to take their laptop and work from Bali half the year, AND people who have never left their hometown who have no desire to travel.

Writing an avatar would be hella confusing for my business, and I have been doing this a long time and am VERY niched in.

No wonder it’s so confusing for new business owners!

So, what’s the alternative? 

It’s simple: focus on the problem your clients have that your coaching solves.

That is your niche.

All the people I work with have the same problem – they are starting coaching or online service-businesses, and they need help learning how to market themselves and find clients…. even though they are very different people, they all need the same thing

Focusing on the problem and putting less focus on the person allows you to work with a huge variety of people, which keeps it interesting!

Better questions to ask about your clients:

1. What is the biggest thing they are struggling with when it comes to X (X being whatever your general niche area is)
2. How does this problem affect them day to day; how does this show up tangibly in their lives
3. What have they tried to solve this problem in the past
4. What has been frustrating about trying to work on this
5. How do they want to feel / what do they want to have instead

And unlike an avatar, you shouldn’t just make up answers to these questions on your own. 

You should actually go out and talk to the people you want to work with, and ask THEM.

A few good conversations with your target clients will go a LONG way in making sure that your niche is marketable.

Fuck the avatar exercise.

We teach a whole process for doing this kind of “market research” in Uncage Your Business, to help you develop your niche from REAL people who have REAL problems. It’s a game-changer for our students (they ALL say they wish they did this sooner!)

If you want to finally figure out your niche and learn how to create offers you KNOW they want to buy, we’d love to have you in Uncage Your Business. Click here to learn more.

The post Fuck the avatar… do this instead appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

Of course, many of these reasons are fair and legitimate, and I would never push somebody to sign up for any program if it was not the right fit for them.

But there are a couple of excuses that I hear over and over again that I actually think AREN’T good reasons not to sign up for a course, and I want to talk about it (and no, one of those excuses isn’t “I can’t afford it”)

These excuses are typically misconceptions about what you actually need to succeed in a program.

I am calling myself out here too, because I have even used these excuses before when I was nervous about making an investment.

We all want to make sure that the money we spend on a program is going to get us what we need. And so our brain does all kinds of crazy things to try to absolutely ensure that will happen.

OUR BRAIN IS TRYING TO CONTROL THE OUTCOME.

We want to control every single outcome, because that will keep us safe and ensure we are successful… right?

Mmmhmm…

Here are two common reasons that people don’t sign up for programs when they SHOULD. It’s helpful for you to be aware of these so that you are not blocking yourself from signing up for a course or a coaching program that could truly help you.

Not being available for all of the coaching calls. 

This is a huge one and I have done it too. You get excited about a program. It looks exactly like what you need! It’s expensive, though, and that is scary. 

So your brain starts to freak out, and starts trying to sabotage you. It tells you that you need more details to know if this is truly the right fit. 

So you email the course creator and you ask them for the coaching call schedule. When you get it, you realize you will not be available for all of the calls.  Dammit. 

You convince yourself that you absolutely need to be available for all the calls in order to truly be successful in the program. 

So you talk yourself out of joining.

This is a huge mistake!  Despite what your brain thinks, you don’t actually need as much support as you think you do. And (and I would put money on this), I bet even if you were available, you wouldn’t show up to all of those coaching calls anyway.

Know how I know? Because I see it in Uncage Your Business ALL the time! My students insist that they need to be available for all the calls. But when it comes down to it, calls come and go, and they don’t show up. 

Why? It’s not even that their schedule is full and they can’t make it. It’s that they truly don’t feel like they need to be coached on that particular week. Sometimes they listen in but don’t ask any questions, sometimes they listen to the recording, and sometimes they do neither. 

Often I get emails saying they are still around and chipping away behind the scenes and doing well, and just haven’t needed any particular feedback.

We have approximately 150 students in Uncage Your Business, and I’d say the calls range from 5-35 attendees on a regular basis.

I have had this experience too. Last year I signed up for a $38,000 year-long mastermind. It is by far the biggest investment I have ever made in my business. 

We had coaching calls every second week. 

Even though when I signed up I told myself I would absolutely make it a priority to be on every single call, I probably showed up to only a small handful of calls over the whole year.  

Why? Because I didn’t need as much support as my brain was telling me I did. Yes, I needed SOME. So I showed up when I needed it, or I listened to the call recordings and got most of my answers there.

But this idea that we need constant hand-holding in order to succeed? Not only is it false, but it’s disempowering, and it takes the onus of success OFF of us and puts it onto something external. Which is NOT a good place to be.

If you are a new business owner, making investments is scary. And it’s natural that you want to make the most of them. I am not saying that coaching calls and live support in programs are not useful, but what I am saying is that I can almost guarantee that you don’t need nearly as much support as you think you do.

Any course creator who has a program that has a track record of getting students results (ahem… UYB has been running for 10 years!), has already done a good job putting together the content in a way that leads you to those results. It is not the hand holding, and the feedback, and checking in on you every step of the way, that will get you results…

It is having structured content, tailored to your needs, and taught in a way that you can implement, with support available when you need it.

Of course, there are some shitty courses out there that don’t have their content organized well. That’s usually the case with newer courses that haven’t been around very long and so haven’t been refined over the years.

But for the most part, any good course creator should have refined the content enough that it will give you everything you need, even if you didn’t have any calls at all.

We have invested over $12,000 with three different curriculum design experts over the years to continue to refine our Uncage Your Business program, to ensure that it is set up to get results.

We have students who sign up and never attend a single coaching call, who email us with rave reviews and amazing results they are getting with what they are learning.

Don’t let not being available for every single coaching call hold you back from investing in a program that could potentially change the future of your business.

Not needing all of the content that is taught.

If you have taken other programs before and been chipping away at your business for a while, it is likely that there are certain things you need help with and certain things you don’t. 

If you are looking at a course curriculum and there is some stuff in there that you already know, but some other stuff that you desperately need help with, you should still sign up.

We get this sometimes with our Uncage Your Business students. They will be very interested in the program but tell me that they already have a niche, so maybe it is not the program for them. 

But do they know what to do with that niche? Have they done the market research? Have they turned it into niche specific packages and pricing? Have they learned how to actually sell to that niche and how to create clear messaging for that niche?

Just because you have a niche doesn’t mean you have a business. 

Our brains do this funny thing where we think we need to make the most of every investment.

So we believe if we only need 50% of the material, it is not worth 100% of the price.

But what if it was? What if that 50% was the missing piece you needed to make your business 100% work? My guess is the price would be irrelevant.

Sign up to get the stuff that you need, and let the rest be a refresher or a refinement of what you already have.

Is there an investment you have written off as not the right one for you, because of one of the two reasons above? 

I would encourage you to go back and revisit the program after reading this. There’s a very good chance you were missing out on something that could truly help your business.

And if you have got hesitations about joining us in Uncage Your Business, hit reply and let’s chat it out, I’m always happy to look at your business and give you my true assessment on whether I think UYB can help you right now, and can share more about exactly how the coaching calls and support works in the program.

x becca 

PS. Curious how the coaching calls actually work on UYB? Click here to watch a full replay of one of our Foundations calls and one of our Mindset calls.

The post Are you making these excuses for not investing in the help you need? appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

I get it — it’s easy to hate on life coaching. I can understand why it has a bad rap when people only see the hokey side of it through social media, and don’t actually understand what it is or see what amazing results GOOD coaching can have. To be clear – I am not a life coach. I DID train as one back in the day, but I never really coached – I was always more interested in the business side of coaching, and that’s what I do now (and just happen to work with a lot of life coaches because they tend to suck at marketing themselves!)

I think the reason we hear this thing about it being a pyramid scheme a lot is because people will say that the only way to make money as a life coach is to coach other coaches. More on that later in this post – I have a LOT to say about this!

But first let’s dive into some basics you need to understand to answer this question.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a fraudulent investment scheme in which money made by newer members is used to pay earlier members. This results in a pyramid-like structure, with the few individuals at the top receiving the majority of the profits. Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries!

Think of a pyramid scheme like a big game of “Telephone” that never ends. Person A convinces Person B to give them money, and then Person B convinces Person C, and so on and so forth.

The only way to make money is by recruiting more people into the scheme. The problem is, these schemes eventually crumble because there aren’t enough people left to convince, and only the people at the top of the pyramid make any real money.

Pyramid scheme-like qualities exist in MLM (Multi-level marketing) businesses – you know the ones that hawk beauty products or nutritional shakes or leggings, the ones that have your old acquaintances suddenly messaging you on Facebook “wanting to catch up!”. You can smell it a mile away – a pitch is coming. The only difference between MLMs and a true (illegal) pyramid scheme is that members are also selling products. 

MLMs are majorly problematic. There is a great podcast about them called The Dream that I recommend you listen to.

But, let’s talk about life coaching.

Life coaching is all about helping people achieve their personal and professional goals. Coaches use a variety of techniques to help their clients look at beliefs and thought patterns that are limiting them, identify their strengths and values, set goals and find the motivation to make positive changes in their lives. It’s so much more than that, but that’s a simplified version.

Let’s look more closely at whether coaching is the same as a pyramid scheme:

1. Purpose: Life coaching is about helping people improve their lives, while a pyramid scheme is all about making money through recruitment. Coaching does not involve a recruitment process of any kind (more on this point below).
2. Skills and Training: Life coaches need to have a certain set of skills to help their clients. YES it can be argued that many coaches don’t invest enough in skills and end up being crappy coaches, but there is generally the expectation that they have specific skills to help move their clients through stuck points to help them make change.  Participants in a pyramid scheme don’t need any special skills or training, just a willingness to convince others to join in.
3. Revenue Generation: Life coaches make money by selling a SERVICE that they then deliver.  Pyramid scheme participants make money by enrolling others into the scheme.
4. Client Satisfaction: Life coaching success is measured by the satisfaction of their clients and the results they help them get. A pyramid scheme is only concerned with recruitment and the enrichment of the top participants.
5. Initial investment: In an MLM business, participants are often required to make significant financial investments in order to participate – they usually need to buy a certain amount of products to then sell. While many life coaches may choose to invest in a coaching program that teaches them coaching skills, they are not required to invest further in order to become a coach and take on clients.

So we can see right away that there are some major differences between life coaching as a service business, and an MLM or pyramid scheme.

But what about coaches coaching coaches?

Ah right – the elephant in the room. The myth that you need to coach other coaches in order to make money as a life coach.

This is where I can see how the industry can be seen as a little pyramid-y. If the ONLY way to make money as a coach was to enroll other coaches, and teach them how to enroll other coaches with the promise that they will show them how to make money as a coach, and then those coaches learn the same strategy and they enroll other coaches….. Then sure, I’d be on board with coaching as a pyramid scheme.

HOWEVER – that is a gross misrepresentation of how MOST of the coaching industry works.

There are for sure a few sketchy coaches out there who operate on that model. But after working with 1000s of coaches in all different niches, I can say that type of coaching is certainly NOT the norm.

I have seen coaches in ALL different niches making upwards of 6 figures, sometimes even 7-figures, in their businesses. 

There are a few reasons why most people don’t see this:

1. When you are a new coach yourself and you are looking for help with your business, ALL you see are business coaches (because that is literally what you are searching for). So you get inundated with coaches coaching coaches on their businesses, and you take that to mean that is the ONLY profitable and successful niche.
2. The other coaching niches might not even register to you as “life coaches” because they are so specific in their niches and they might not even call themselves life coaches. For example, a coach who helps women who are in a new job or a new role overcome their confidence issues might call herself a Leadership coach;  or a coach who helps college students figure out what they want to do with their lives might look more like a Career Coach. The life coaches who didn’t niche in – it’s likely no wonder you don’t see a lot of them, because general coaching is very hard to sell, and niching is where it’s at in order to create a profitable business.

There are LOTS of coaching niches that are killing it who are still technically trained as life coaches, but who are describing their work much differently than the typical generic coaching language (hot tip: this is your key to success as a coach! Work with us in Uncage Your Business to learn exactly how to do this).

Need proof? Ok, here you go. Here are some coaches who are killing it who DON’T coach other coaches

• Andrea Owen – www.andreaowen.com
• Amy Green Smith – www.amygreensmith.com
• Sara Best – www.sarabest.com
• Rachel Hart – www.rachelhart.com
• Christine Hassler – www.christinehassler.com
• Amanda Rootsey – www.shinefromwithin.com.au

This is a very very small sample of the coaching businesses that are rocking it. Want more? Check out this thread in our Uncaged Facebook group  that has a long list of examples (note: you will need to request to join the group to see the post).

But let’s talk about coaching other coaches for a sec. WHY IS THIS BAD?

It’s not.

There is a niche and a market for this. Many coaches seek their own coaches for lots of things – some for ongoing personal development, some for business, some for other random things.

Just because someone coaches other coaches does NOT make them a pyramid scheme coach or a bad person. As long, of course, as they aren’t teaching these coaches a generic template for how to coach other coaches and then teach them to coach other coaches etc.

But JUST coaching coaches — yeah, that’s fine. It’s good, actually.

For example, I teach coaches how to market their businesses. The coaches I work with are in a large variety of niches. In my program we have worked with relationship coaches, divorce coaches, career coaches, coaches that use horses to help people process emotions, emotional eating coaches, weight loss coaches, enneagram coaches, coaches who focus on helping moms with overwhelm… you name it, we have probably worked with a coach with that niche.

We help them with their marketing. We do NOT teach them how they can scrap their niche and make more money by becoming a coach for coaches. Gross.

What about affiliates – isn’t that kind of pyramid-y?

Affiliate marketing is a system where if someone has a course that I think would be a good fit for my clients, I can get a special link to share with them, and if anyone buys the course through my link, I make money. Like a referral fee.

This is not a pyramid. I can’t enroll people under me to sell the course and then take a cut of whatever they sell. It’s a simple referral relationship and a nice way to say thank you for when someone sends you business. 

Bottom line – coaching is an unregulated profession right now that is a bit of the wild west. So you are going to get some sketchy coaches just trying to capitalize on a booming industry, and you are going to get some incredible coaches who literally change lives.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for a coach, you need to do your homework – read their website, listen to any interviews they have done, look for case studies and testimonials – figure out if you jive with what they are saying, what their approach is, and whether you can get behind what they are doing. It doesn’t take long to listen to a few interviews with a coach to figure out whether they have strategies that you feel could help you, or whether they are utter BS. 

This is why the work we do in Uncage Your Business is SO crucial.

We help you develop an ability to talk about your approach and how you help people (and why it differs from what else is out there), so that your prospective clients can decide whether that approach works for them. It’s a unique way to differentiate yourself and is one of the most powerful tools you can use in your marketing.

Click here to learn more about the program if you are interested in seeing how it could help your business.

If anyone in your life is razzing you about being a life coach and say you’re joining a pyramid scheme, feel free to send them this post. And then get out there and crush it in your business so you can rub it in their face later.

The post Is Life Coaching a Pyramid Scheme? appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

But no matter your reasons, you DO still want to earn “a good living”, right?

And I will be honest… even though there is a lot of annoying talk in the online space about making 6-figures as if it’s some holy grail, it IS actually a decent goal to aim for.

Because at the end of that day, $100k is not that much money once you pay your business expenses and your taxes… you’re usually left with anywhere from $50-$70k. Which is nice. But with the cost of EVERYTHING these days, and depending on where you live, how many kids you have, and your desired lifestyle, that isn’t a whole lot.

So this whole $100k thing, I actually think it’s a good thing to aim for as a new coach. NOT right away — it takes time to learn all the things you need to learn to get to 100k, but as a 2-3 year goal in your business.

Especially because once you start making more, you are usually in a place where you can afford to hire more help, which gives you even more freedom of time and gives you more possibility for scaling.

So let’s talk about the best way to hit that $100k.

So many people jump into the online business game and immediately want to scale. They think passive income sounds pretty damn great, and they want to create low priced online courses and memberships and all kinds of ideas that honestly, just aren’t going to work well for their new business (sorry to be the bearer of bad news).

The reasons that passive income/scaled ideas don’t work for new coaches are a few.

1. Small Audience: As a new coach, you typically don’t have a big enough audience built up to sell enough of these lower priced courses and memberships to make it worth it.
2. Expensive: Online courses and passive products require more expensive technology (as they are usually set up to sell through funnels), more support on the backend (like someone to handle customer service inquiries, and someone to help when a student’s password isn’t working, or when a payment defaults or somebody needs to change the credit card info). You need to be earning enough already to pay for those that tech and team support, and most new business owners don’t want to pay those costs upfront.
3. Expert marketing: You need to become a marketing machine to scale a program. You will spend more of your time writing emails, creating funnels, launching, growing your list, tracking metrics etc., than you will actually coaching. If you got into this business to become a marketer, then you might love it. But most coaches got into this to coach, and they are disappointed when they realize that scaling in this way often means less coaching and a lot more of the other business stuff that they never loved in the first place. 

Of course, most new coaches and new business owners don’t think of these things, and the allure of passive income seems great to them.

But that is why I am here folks — to help set you straight so you don’t go down a long and expensive path to being broke.

And when you think about everything that is involved with trying to sell passive courses, and how little is involved in actually getting and working with one on one clients, the choice seems easy for your first $100K.

The fastest and easiest way to get to six figures is by selling one-on-one services.

All you need is a PayPal link and a calendar link for people to book their session. 

Hell, I have worked with coaches who don’t even have a calendar –  all the scheduling was just done by email. I don’t recommend it long term, but it is a possibility when you are just getting started.

So what would it look like making $100K as a coach? That depends on your coaching package and price point.

Here are a few examples:

Work with 125 clients in an $800 package  (10 a month)

Work with 65 clients in a $1500 package (5 a month)

Work with 33 clients in a $3000 package (3 a month)

Work with 20 clients in a $5000 package  (2 a month)

Work with 12 clients in an $8000 package  (1 a month)

You get the idea. 

Of course, you might have several different packages with several different price points, and it might not be as clearcut as the above, but at least it gives you an idea of numbers you could aim towards.

A note on pricing

It will take you time to work up to your “full price”. Just because you might be coaching for free or low cost now in order to get your skills and confidence up, doesn’t mean these will be your prices forever.

You can raise your price after each client you work with, if you want! You can raise them anytime. 

As long as you are always setting your prices based on your level of confidence and the results you provide for your clients. 

My general rule of thumb is that you want to feel like you are overdelivering. You want to get on a consult call and know 1000% that your price is absolutely worth it for that person!

Once you are in the swing of things with your coaching and you have a good idea of what your package price will be for the foreseeable future, bust out that calculator and divide $100,000 by the price of your package to see how many clients you will need to meet your $100k goal.

Then get hustling! It’s actually so much easier to go on a mission to fill those client spots when you know exactly how many spots you have to fill!

Here are some examples of our Uncage Your Business students who sell 1:1 packages and make 6-figures  with just their 1:1 services (we are SO stoked for them!!). Some of them do have other services, but they hit 100k with their 1:1 offers!

Debra Doak – Divorce coach 

Package: 6 sessions for $775

Shelley Harrison – Energy Healer

Package: 3 months for $1333

Chioma Ndjoku – Financial Coach

Package: $7500 retainer for 6 months

Erin Foley – Professional Development Coach

Package: $1597 for 5 sessions (over 3 months)

Emilia Farrace – Brand Strategy

Package: $1500 half day VIP day; $6000 website package

I can confirm (because I have worked personally with all of these students in our UYB program), that they did NOT start with these prices. All the folks listed above started where you are now. But they niched in, started working with people to build their skills and get testimonials, and raised their prices over time.

This does NOT have to be a long process. You don’t need to “pay your dues” for a decade before you can earn 6-figures. 

But you DO need to do a few key things to get there. In fact I wrote a whole post about 7 things you need to hit 6-figures. Click here to read it. 

If you need help honing in on your niche, getting 1:1 clients, and making your business “work” – I’d love to work with you in our Uncage Your Business program. Check it out here. The price for the program is going up on August 1, so if you have been thinking about joining, get your butt in there before it gets more expensive! Got questions about the program? You can always DM me on Instagram @theuncagedlife, or email me over at hello@theuncagedlife.com

The post The fastest way to make $100k as a coach appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

A lot of our students in our Uncage Your Business program freeze up when it comes time to actually start asking people to be their clients.

They often tell us that they have “imposter syndrome”.

So I wanted to set the record straight about what is actually going on for MOST of these new coaches (hint: it’s not actually imposter syndrome), and help you correct it ALSO so you don’t get stuck in the same trap.

Imposter syndrome

First off, let’s talk about imposter syndrome. This sneaky little bugger is when you’ve already rocked the thing you are doing, have a proven track record in getting people results, are objectively GREAT at what you do… but you still feel like a fraud and doubt your abilities. You know you have the skills, but that nagging voice in your head says otherwise. Sound familiar?

It is a WHOLE phenomenon that disproportionately affects women. On the one hand, it’s been a helpful term for people who feel this way as it helps them see that it’s not just them that feels these fraudulent feels.

On the other hand, the concept in itself is problematic for the following reasons (excerpt pulled from this fantastic article in Harvard Business Review that you should definitely check out)

The impact of systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, and other biases was categorically absent when the concept of imposter syndrome was developed. Many groups were excluded from the study, namely women of color and people of various income levels, genders, and professional backgrounds. Even as we know it today, imposter syndrome puts the blame on individuals, without accounting for the historical and cultural contexts that are foundational to how it manifests in both women of color and white women. Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work.

Go read the full article to learn more.

All that being said, this “imposter feeling” still exists in many business owners, 

HOWEVER, I don’t believe that it is actually what is  going on with most new coaches I talk to.

The other thing that is really going on

So if it’s not this imposter syndrome that is causing you to feel like a fraud, what is it?

It’s a lack of experience.

There is a big difference between having coached a lot of people with great success and glowing testimonials and still feeling like you don’t know what you are doing or that it was all a fluke…. and NEVER having coached anyone (or not many people) and questioning whether you can actually get people results. You simply don’t have enough experience.

For MOST new coaches, coaching is a new skill you are learning. Even after coming out of coaching school, many new coaches still don’t feel totally confident in their coaching, because  they still need to practice.

And not only do you need to practice, but you need to practice within your chosen niche.

You need to work with enough people and apply your process within your niche, then refine your process based on what worked and what didn’t work for your niche.

It’s a whole process of figuring out what works best to get your clients to where they want to be, and doing it enough that you can SEE the results you are getting people.

The reason this distinction between imposter syndrome and lack of experience is SO important is that I see many coaches solving for the wrong thing.

They spend a ton of time and energy trying to think their way to confidence – cheerleading themselves, using affirmations, even hiring mindset coaches to help them work through their imposter syndrome.

And while we LOVE mindset work in our Uncage Your Business program, you can’t THINK your way to competence. You need to actually DO THE THING in order to develop your skills and gain competence as a coach in your specific niche.

Confidence ≠ competence

Here’s the real fucked up thing and why it feels SO important for me to write this post and make this distinction — you CAN think your way to a false sense of confidence And that gets dangerous. 

But confidence doesn’t mean you are good at what you do.

We often see business coaches cheerleading people, encouraging you to “own it”, and “fake it til you make it” and to “act as if” you are already a successful coach… and then telling you to set premium prices, because “you’re worth it!”. 

This is a massive problem, for you and for the industry. Because if you have confidence and not competence, then you are just swindling your clients into a service that can’t actually deliver on its promise

No other industry does this

Let’s look at the field of medicine. You need to go to school to practice medicine. You go for many years, actually. You get supervised by professionals, You have to pass exams. You may not feel like you know what you are doing at first, but over time, as you practice your skills with real patients in a supervised environment, your skillset grows, and your competence grows.

How fucked up would it be if doctor skipped ALL that and took on a coaching approach, cheerleading themselves, “faking it til they make it”, repeating to themselves that they are worthy of having patients…. and then walking into a surgery room like they have been doing this all their lives, with their poor patient putting ALL their trust in them (they seemed confident, afterall, during their consult!). 

And then the doctor having absolutely no clue what they are doing or how to help the patient that is cut open in front of them.

It simply wouldn’t happen.

Or this example:

Imagine trying to THINK your way into being a double-black diamond skier, when you have never put on skis before. You can’t just will yourself into knowing how to ski, no matter how hard you try. You will absolutely break your neck when you drop into that double black diamond bowl.

So why is it any different in the coaching industry? There seems to be this belief that we can bypass the work that goes into actually being good at what we do, and think our way to competence and confidence.

All the affirmations, and positive self-talk, and spending time perfecting your website so you appear like you have your shit together – none of it is going to help you become a better coach or develop the competence that you need in order to build true confidence in your coaching. 

You want to know the only thing that will actually help you? 

Actually diving in and coaching real people within your niche. 

It feels a little bit chicken and egg right? You do need some level of confidence and competence to dive in and actually start doing it, but actually doing it is what is going to give you that competence and confidence.

But you have to start somewhere. So here is what I recommend.

Beta Testing

Beta Testing is basically trying out service out with real people so you can get feedback and make tweaks.

If you’re new, we highly recommend beta testing for free.

Working for free takes the pressure off of having to feel like you have to be perfect.

I recommend being upfront and actually telling your beta test clients that you are a new coach, and developing your skills, and want to offer some free sessions so you can practice and get feedback.

Not having the pressure of having to perform a certain way simply because somebody paid you money is going to do massive good for your mindset! 

The pressure is off and you can dive in and just focus on coaching, and it’s ok if it’s messy.

You can even ask your beta testers for feedback on how it is all feeling as you go, so you can improve your process along the way.

And definitely ask them for a testimonial at the end of your work together!

I promise, by the time you have beta tested with 5 to 10 people, not only will your competence be there, but your (real) confidence will also be up!

Seeing your beta clients get results is the best thing ever, and once it is time to start charging and doing consults with real clients, any sense of lack of experience or imposter syndrome will have melted away.

I know it can feel scary to dive in when your coaching process still feels messy, but it is LITERALLY the only way.

Not having competence will make you sabotage your business

I remember in my early years of coaching, I would get on consult calls and feel terrified that people would say yes to working with me. I would sit there before the call praying that the person didn’t show up, and then I would be SO nervous on the call. When I hung up I secretly hoped they wouldn’t hire me. And when they did, and that money hit my Paypal account, I would almost feel sick to my stomach. 

I was working with a coach at the time who had encouraged me to niche into one particular area and raise my prices. I hadn’t worked with many people in that specific niche, and I wasn’t sure of my level of competence. 

Now I can see that I definitely should have worked with a few more people in my new niche for free, before setting those higher prices!

I don’t want you in the same boat! You want to get on your consult calls for paying clients KNOWING that you can coach them to awesome results and feeling like your pricing is a steal for them.

Ok, but what if you are actually terrified of working with people?

If you are SO scared to dive in and have no idea what you would even do with a client, I would ask you if you have done a coach training program? If not, absolutely start there. 

Coaching is NOT just about listening to people talk and giving advice, and there are real skills you need as a coach to help get people unstuck in their thoughts and beliefs and move them through to a transformation.

I think every coach can benefit from more coach training. So if you feel majorly stuck, I would invest in a reputable coach training program to help you learn and practice the skills you need in a very safe environment.

Bottom line

You can’t mindset your way out of lack of experience, so get ready to get a little messy and dive in with some practice clients. EVERYTHING about your business will progress so much faster when you are out there doing the work with actual people instead of working on things behind the scenes.

Remember — confidence comes from doing the work and getting really good at what you do. And the only way to do that, is to do it.

If you need help moving past this hump and getting some beta test clients in the door so you can build your confidence, this is a huge piece of what we focus on in Uncage Your Business. Click here to learn more about the program and how we can help you build your competence, build your confidence, and get PAID clients faster.

The post You don’t have imposter syndrome. You have this. appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

It can be a real mindfuck trying to figure out what the hell you’re supposed to do, right?

You don’t want to pick the wrong thing, because it could throw your whole business off, and you want the best chance of success.

So you agonize over every decision you need to make, waiting til it feels perfect, waiting til you KNOW for sure that it will be the right one to ensure your success.

Well, I have something to tell you that I think is majorly going to help you (you can thank me later).

There is no right or wrong anything that will make or break your business.

• ANY of the niches you are thinking of choosing is fine
• Your package could be 4 weeks or 6 months and it will be fine
• You can pick green or pink for your brand colors and it will be fine

There’s no magic combination of niche, package, or price that’s going to suddenly make your business a success.

It’s all a decision. That’s it.

The only thing that’s going to determine your success is your ability to make a decision and take action.

If you agonize over every decision, you will waste years without making progress.

Trust me, I have seen it probably hundreds of times with our students in Uncage Your Business. SO many of our students come to us who have been paralyzed about choosing the right niche for years, and have gotten nowhere in their business because of the pressure they are putting on this ONE decision.

But what if you really DO make the wrong choice??

I know what you’re thinking. “But wait a minute! What if I really DO make the wrong decision? What if I choose the wrong niche and no one wants to work with me? Or what if I do all that work and then have to go back and start again if I change my mind?”

Well then my question back to you is — if that did happen – if you decided the niche you chose wasn’t right for you — what would you do? Quit your business entirely? Go back to the 9-5 and give up your dream?

No, not likely. Or at least I hope not!

You would step back, assess why it didn’t work, make some tweaks, and try again (and hopefully not get stuck in too much mindset drama about it!).

If something doesn’t work, your job is to figure out how to make it work. And if it truly won’t work, your job is to shift to something that WILL work.

It’s all about being willing to take the information that you are being given, and PIVOT.

Even if you started with a niche that really, truly did not want to pay you for anything, it would be 100% totally fine.

In fact, we have seen this happen in our program, and have seen those students still go on to create successful businesses. Contrary to what most people think, it doesn’t take that long to re-start with a new niche. Once you understand HOW to niche, how to market research, and how to make sure what you’re offering will work, it really can be done in a matter of DAYS.

Most people think if you switch niches you will have to re-do EVERYTHING – your entire website, social media, business name etc etc. But this is only true if you set all that up in the first place…. Which YOU SHOULD NOT BE DOING!

Yes. I said it. You should not be creating a website and social media right out of the gates in your business. I actually argue that you should not create any of that stuff until you have worked with at least 10 paying clients in your niche.

Why? For exactly this reason — your niche will probably change. Even if you pick pretty close to the “right” one, small things about it will change the more you work with people.

It’s a big waste of time to spend time writing copy and trying to make a marketing plan for a niche you aren’t even sure about yet.

So if you do niching our way (which you should lol), you can be working with people and testing out your niche in a low pressure way, so that it is NOT a big deal at all if you decide you need to change niches (and yes you can be making money while you do that, even without a website!)

TWO WAYS TO NICHE

Let’s look at Blair, a new life coach…

Blair is an over-thinker, and spends 6 months ruminating over the niche decision. They journal about it, meditate on it, pull cards about it… and they almost quit their business because it’s just soooo hard to figure out the perfect niche.

6 months in, push comes to shove and Blair’s partner desperately needs them to start making money, so they FINALLY decide to make “THE BIG NICHE DECISION”. They choose the niche that feels like the right fit based on all their journaling.

They put it out there to the world, get a few coaching clients to practice with… but they quickly realize that ummmm, it’s not quite right. It doesn’t feel amazing, and the clients aren’t coming in as fast as they want.

So Blair has to go back to the niche drawing board, and is in the exact same place as they were when they started 6 months ago, unsure what niche to pick, back to journaling about it…..

Now let’s look at Sally….

Sally gives herself just ONE DAY to choose her niche based on our Uncaged Niching Guide.

It only feels about 70% “right”, but she makes the decision, and gets out there and starts testing out her coaching with real clients in that niche. She does that for 2 weeks.

And after 2 weeks, Sally realizes, for whatever reason, that it was not quite the right choice. A few things about it don’t feel like they line up with what she expected.

So Sally makes some tweaks to her first niche, cuts some stuff out and incorporates some other aspects, and gets out there and pulls in some new practice clients in her updated, revised niche.

And rinse and repeat.

After just 2 months, Sally is working with paying clients in a niche she loves.

Compare that to Blair who took over 6 months just to even pick a niche to test out!

Who do you think is going to have quicker success in their business???

The answer is Sally (duh), because Sally has learned to be a quick decision maker AND to not make every single decision be the biggest decision of her life.

JUST PICK SOMETHING

I HOPE this shows you how much more useful it is to just PICK SOMETHING and get started, than it is to try to wait to pick the “perfect” thing.

Even if you pick the wrong thing, you will actually end up getting to the “right” thing (ie. your actual perfect niche) faster than if you sat and thought about it, waiting for the choice to feel like the right one.

We always want to place the blame of our business not working on some external factor, rather than accept that it’s all up to us:

• “My niche doesn’t want to pay for what I offer”…. (well figure out how to sell it to them better, or change your offer)
• People are saying my package is too long”… (well then shorten it, or figure out how to show them the value of a longer package)
• “I took a course that taught me a new strategy and it’s not working”… (well then change your strategy and try something else)

The ONLY way that your business will not be successful, is if you are unwilling to make a decision and if you are unwilling to change things if they are not working.

That’s it.

There is no wrong niche.

There is no wrong package.

There is no wrong anything.

So, stop obsessing over finding the perfect “thing” before you move forward.

Pick something today, ANYTHING.

Your choice will not determine your success.

YOU will determine your success.

xx becca

PS. Need help making a decision? That’s our specialty in Uncage Your Business! We loooove helping over-thinkers and perfectionist-y type people just make the damn decision and get moving so you can make some damn money (you’re ready, right?). Click here to learn more about UYB.

The post What if you choose the wrong niche? appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

As I sat down to write emails for the launches of the last few rounds of Uncage Your Business, I found myself… OVER IT.

This is not my first rodeo and Uncage Your Business has been around for nearly 10 years.

But lately, I feel like there is a coach on every corner of these internet streets trying to sell you on a problem that you may or may not have, with a generic course promising to fix all your problems and make you a millionaire.

You have taken these courses.

I have taken these courses.

I don’t want to be part of that noise. You’re bored of it. And honestly? I am bored of it. SO FUCKING BORED.

The industry has taken some nasty turns in recent years, and many coaches and marketers have shown their true colors

• Bro-marketing that tells you you need to hustle and work your ass off so you can have all the lamborghinis or ever be successful at all
• Weak stances on anti-racism and their spiritual bypassing when anyone tries to call them out on it
• And don’t even get me started on the coaches that continue to take advantage of struggling new business owners by selling you false promises and then blaming YOU for not being “high vibe” enough to get results, telling you you just need to manifest more, or cheerleading you with no real strategy or clear focus on WHAT you should actually be doing in your business (mindset is great but it’s nothing without clear strategy for YOUR level of business).

I’ve seen it all, and I’m over it all.

And I understand that probably 80% of students who join us in Uncage Your Business are BURNED OUT from taking other courses and getting nowhere.

It all makes me even MORE determined to find a way to show you that not all internet marketers and online coaches are like this, and that there IS hope for your business.

Here’s where I think the issue is for most of these programs that are just shouting false promises in your ears from every corner of the internet– they are not vetting their students well enough.

“Want a business and a life you love? Great, you’re a fit and my program will definitely help you!!”.

They let anyone join, and then you are left feeling terrible for not getting anywhere, when the blame should be on THEM for not screening students properly, or for creating a crappy program in the first place that was never set up to help you actually get to the end.

Here’s the thing that we do differently around here at Uncaged:

• We actually care that you are in the right place to benefit from Uncage Your Business.
• We don’t promise to help you with EVERY business problem you’ve ever had
• We DO promise to help you with a few very specific things (that can make a huge impact on your business success).
• Oh yeah, and I have hired 3 different curriculum design experts for over $10000 to go through UYB to help make it better and help make sure it’s set up for you to GET RESULTS.

You either need the help that UYB provides (the FOUNDATIONS for marketing), or you don’t. We work with businesses in a very specific stage of business, on very specific things.

For the right business, Uncage Your Business will take your business from crickets to clients, because you learn the actual foundation that is missing from most of those other programs that tell you to be on social media 24 hours a day or try to convince you to create an online course out of the gates with no audience and no clarity on what results you even get for people.

So let’s keep this simple and no BS:

• Do you need to find your first paying clients? Or next ones, if you have already had a few but not consistently
• Have you been hustling your coaching or services with no results?
• Do you have no idea what your niche is, or really don’t want to have to choose one?
• Are you lost in a thousand options for what you’re “supposed” to be doing to market your business, and are paralyzed because you have no freaking idea where to start or what will actually work?

If you answered yes to any of these, Uncage Your Business is the solution you need now. Click here to learn more about the program.

We keep it simple and give you the exact steps you need now, at your stage of business, to get clarity and get clients (and not a thousand other things that will just overwhelm you or confuse you).

RED FLAG ALERT:

If you see a program saying they will teach you how to find your niche, create your packages, raise your prices, build your entire website, do your social media, create your first course, create your first funnel, create a webinar, hire a team, run FB ads, and scale to 6 figures…

RUN THE OTHER WAY. NOW.

I have seen those programs (and been in them!) and most of my students have too. And they don’t work. You need different strategies for different stages of business, and NO course for newbies should be teaching you all that stuff (hello overwhelm). If they say they teach it ALL, you can almost guarantee that ALL of it is watered down and therefore not going to actually get you anywhere.

What I call the “Foundations” (niching, messaging, market research, drafting and testing your packages in real life, and learning how to articulate what you do CLEARLY enough that people want to buy – that shit takes time. I know, because it’s exactly what we work on in UYB.

It takes time to come up with your best 70%, test it in REAL life, assess what worked and what didn’t, tweak again, and test again.. And so on. You don’t just decide your message and niche and check that box and then go on and scale your business with FB ads.

Any coach or program that teaches you both is not doing a very good job of either.

(Plus you can hit 6-figures without any of that fancy shit. It’s true! We focus on helping our students create strong offers that help them make a good income with just 1:1 coaching. It’s the fastest way to make money and the most sustainable.

Remember, over 1500+ students have gone through our Uncage Your Business system at this point, so I have HUNDREDS of testimonials you can see on the program page above — but this is about you.

Right now you have the power to learn how to finally get your business working and do it the right way, in a sustainable way.

Learn more and apply for Uncage Your Business here.

xx becca

P.S. Want a sneak peek of what is inside UYB? Click here for a complete course walkthrough + a sneak peek of some of our actual call recordings!

The post Sick of the industry selling you lies? Me too. appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

Or is it better to get people on a call, show them the value, and then talk about money?

What about having them fill out an application form first?

There are MANY differing opinions about whether you should list your prices on your website. Personally, I think my opinion is the right one lol

The answer is YES. You should list your prices.

The end.

Lol kidding, kind of.

But it really is that simple.

Here is why I firmly believe in listing prices:

1. It builds trust: Listing your prices on your website lets potential clients know what to expect, and can help establish trust with your people. When clients have a clear understanding of what it will cost to work with you, they can make informed decisions about whether your services are right for them. They will also be more likely to book a consult call knowing what the price is. If prices aren’t listed people usually expect a lot of hard selling on a call, and that just feels yucky.
2. It helps you get the right clients (ie. ones who can pay you): By clearly displaying your prices, you are attracting clients who are serious about working with a coach and who value the services you offer. This helps you attract clients who are a good fit for your business and will be more likely to work with you in the long term. You can feel good getting on that consult call with them knowing that they are aware of your pricing and booked the call anyway!
3. It’s way more efficient: When clients can easily find your prices, it reduces the amount of time you need to spend answering questions about fees and packages. This also helps make your consult calls flow more smoothly because the price is already on the table. It helps you avoid that awkward moment where you need to tell them what it costs (and then you wait in silence praying it’s not too much for them!). You can spend most of your consult call determining whether it’s the right fit and not have people booking calls JUST to find out the price.
4. People assume it’s too expensive if you don’t list the price: I have done a lot of market research around this and across the board people generally say that if they don’t see a price listed, they assume it’s too expensive. But in MOST cases, the actual price was LOWER than what the person expected. But the only way they found that out was by taking the chance to book a call or filling in the contact form. However, most people I talked to said that unless they were prepared to pay a premium price for that thing, they wouldn’t even bother to book a call or ask about the price, and would just click away, assuming it was too much for them.

But isn’t it better to get people on a call and show them the value before talking about the price?

No. It is not. And whoever is teaching that approach needs to cut that shit out.

Your clients are adult humans who can make decisions for themselves. They don’t need to be convinced or “sold to” on a “discovery call” in order to understand the value of what you are offering.

Yes, they might have questions and yes you will definitely be able to talk with them about the specifics of how your service will benefit their unique situation… but you shouldn’t need to do all that before telling them the price.

Honest truth – if someone insists on getting on a call with me before telling me the price, I am not interested in working with them. This has happened to me before. I was pretty much ready to sign up, and I emailed asking how much it was. They wanted to hop on a call. I said no thank you — can you please just tell me the price. I was already in, the price was fairly irrelevant to me. They still insisted we get on a call. I let them know that if they told me the price, we could hop on a call if they had questions for me to help them make sure it was the right fit. They refused. So I took my business elsewhere.

People know what you are doing. No one wants to get on a call just expecting a sales pitch.

Treat your clients like the adults they are and give them the information they need to decide whether they want to take the next step.

This is why having a great sales page for your program is super important. This is something we teach you in Uncage Your Business (our student Sales Pages are KILLER after they implement what we teach!).

Your page will do the selling for you and can literally replace a consult call in 90% of cases! Give them all the info they need about what you will do together, how it will help them, what’s included, and what results they can expect to leave with…. And then tell them the damn price.

Is there any time when you should not list your prices?

If you are selling a service that is intentionally meant to feel like a luxury, premium experience, and are looking for clients who are willing and expecting to pay a high-ticket price for the experience, you might consider not listing. And by that, I mean like $10000+. Maybe more.

EVEN THEN, as someone who has purchased higher priced services before, I still always appreciate seeing the price listed so I can sit on it, mull it over, and see how it all feels, knowing that I have all the information.

Of course, what you do in your business is your decision.

So then I ask you this — how do YOU feel when you are looking at a service and you don’t see the price? Use that to guide your decision on whether you will list prices on your website or not.

xx becca

PS. Speaking of prices — have you seen our Get Clients coaching bundle? It’s just $19 and gives you great resources for how to get clients as a new coach. Check it out here.

The post Should you list your prices on your website? appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

The idea of being Uncaged is all about never being tied down to an office or a cubicle, getting to work from anywhere,  getting to choose when you work and how you work and how much time off you have.

I get to include my dogs in my branding and fuck you if you don’t like it, and I get to show up for my calls with a messy bun and a sweatshirt, because that’s just who I am.

Most of us start businesses because there’s something we believe in – something we are passionate about, or a topic we really care about.

Most of us start these kinds of coaching businesses for ourselves, for selfish reasons.

But are you making it TOO much about you?

In my experience having worked with thousands of new coaches, most of the time they are too wrapped up in themselves, and it gets in the way of their business.

Here are some examples of what I mean by  being “too wrapped up in yourself” in your business:

• Obsessing over your website. Needing the perfect colours and the perfect logo and the perfect photos. Needing it to feel professional so that you seem like you know what you’re doing. This is all about YOU.
• Focusing too much on your creative ideas, trying to make your business encompass every piece of who you are and what you love. Trying to smash too many interests and passions into one business to make it feel whole, to the point that it feels too complicated for even you to understand. This is all about YOU.
• Worrying about what people will think of what you put out there, agonizing over what you are going to say on your consult calls, stressing about putting your packages out there before they are perfect because, because what will people think of you if they aren’t? This is all about YOU.

Guess what?

NO ONE CARES THAT MUCH ABOUT YOU. 

• They don’t care about your logo (when was the last time you hired someone because you liked their logo?). 
• They don’t care about whether you have the perfect script for the call when you talk to them.
• They don’t care about all your life interests and hobbies, and they certainly don’t care if all of those things are in your business (because that is not what they are hiring you for)

People only really care about themselves and you are a blip on their radar, another scroll on their feed.

And this is a good thing! It means half the shit we do doesn’t matter as much as we think it does.

The most important thing you can understand

The thing that most new business owners don’t realize at first, is that your business is actually not about you at all.

If you are starting a service-based business like coaching, your business is about your clients. Your business is about offering a service or a skill that you have to help them solve THEIR problems.

By putting too much of the focus on what YOU like, and how YOU feel, and whether everything you are doing accurately represents all of who YOU are, you are missing out on what actually makes a business successful… which is really zooming in on exactly how your clients are feeling, what they need, and what you can create that will represent their needs.

It can also be a total mindfuck spending so much time making it about yourself. Perfectionism, self-worth issues, and other mindset crap tends to get in the way when it’s all about you.

What if you took yourself out of it and simply focussed on the people out there who need your help?

The Band-Aid Example

My co-coach in Uncage Your Business, Erin, always uses the Band-Aid example, and I think it’s a great one.

Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop chatting with a friend. They cut their hand on something and they are bleeding. 

You know you have Band-Aids in your purse, but you don’t want to seem pushy, or salesy, so you keep them to yourself. Besides, the band-aids aren’t quite perfect, they’re not quite the right size, or shape, and you haven’t really tried them yet so you don’t even know if they work well enough to stop the bleeding.

So you’re sitting there watching your friend bleed, as she’s searching around desperately for help, and you’re keeping the thing that could help her to yourself because you’re making it all about you.

Just give her the damn Band-Aid!

New business owners do this all the time with their services. They don’t want to seem pushy, they don’t want to put anything out there until they know it’s perfect, and they hold themselves back from simply offering help to the people who need it because they are so wrapped up in making it about them instead of about their clients.

A good exercise to try

We do this exercise a lot with students in our Uncage Your Business program. It happens often that students obsess over their coaching process. They want to figure it all out and make a perfect plan before they dive in and start working with people. They want to know what they are going to say, what they are going to do with their clients, and exactly how it should all look. They think this is going to help them feel ready to start actually coaching real paying clients.

So on our coaching calls with them we often ask them to close their eyes and imagine they are sitting in front of their client, and their client shares what is going on for them and what they are struggling with. We then ask the student what the next thing they would say to their client is. And they always have a clear answer, usually some kind of coaching question that comes very naturally to them.

We respond as their client, and have them respond again as the coach. And again, they know exactly what to say.

This exercise is super helpful to show their brains that they do know exactly what to do when they have a client in front of them. A real human. Not an avatar, not an idea of a niche that they have massaged til their eyes bleed… a real person.

When they make the work about their client, and they drop into helping the person in front of them, all of the stress of having everything perfected melts away. It’s no longer about them having to seem perfect, it’s about helping the human in front of them who is struggling.

How this applies to your marketing

This idea of focussing on your client is also super important when it comes to marketing. Just because YOU want to describe something a certain way, doesn’t mean your clients will resonate with that.

You as the coach have all kinds of insight and expertise about your clients’ problems that they don’t have yet. So it’s important to put your language aside and get out there and find out how your clients are actually describing what’s going on for them, what language they’re using, what feelings they are having, and what they want instead.

Even though you have some creative, complex way of articulating what you do for people, it becomes irrelevant if it doesn’t land with the people you are trying to reach.

Make sure you’re staying focussed on them and not you when it comes to any content you are creating for your marketing.

So good for mindset

And finally, isn’t it a huge fucking relief when you really embrace that it’s not about you? I find it tends to loosen the grip I have on wanting everything to be a perfect representation of me. It takes the pressure off.

When I think of most of the coaches I have hired either in business or personally, very rarely have I hired them because of their website, or perfect brand photos, or hobbies or interests we have in common, or anything else that is really about them…  other than the fact that they were able to clearly describe my problem and show me that they have a solution for me. 

That’s it.

I’ve literally spent thousands of dollars on coaches, courses, and programs simply because they took the exact words I used when I was blabbing about my problems and said them back to me in their marketing, making me feel like they GET me.

And your clients will spend thousands on you, too, once you learn how to take your focus off of YOU and put it back on them, where it belongs.

Want to learn how to read your clients minds so you can sell to them more easily? Check out Uncage Your Business, the program for new coaches where we teach you how to do just that.

The post Are you making your business too much about you? appeared first on The Uncaged Life.

We talk a lot around here about the idea of marketing your coaching as a solution to your clients problems. In fact, we define your niche as the PROBLEM that you solve.

And with this comes talking clearly about what RESULTS someone can get when they work with you.

And we always get push back on this from coaches who say they were told in coaching school never to lead the agenda, to let the client lead, and to not guarantee anything.

We get it. 

We have also been in coaching school and have worked with 1000s of coaches! So we understand well what they teach you in coaching school.

So let’s set the record straight about what we mean when we say that YES, you should definitely be talking clearly about results in your marketing.

Results Resistance

Erin, my co-coach in Uncage Your Business, has coined this “results resistance” – when new coaches refuse to be clear about what results their clients can get, because their coaching school told them that the client needs to lead.

And we get it. “Promising” anything feels scary. And unethical. And that is NOT what we are talking about.

Coaching and selling your services with a desired result in mind does not mean you have to be an expert in your client’s life or that you will be telling them what to do.

Rather, it means that you are an expert in the process you offer to help clients move from point A to point B.

• Point A being the PROBLEM they came to you with 
• Point B being the RESULTS that they want to get by working with you

These are results THEY want. You are not telling them “Hey, you should want this thing”. THEY are coming to you because they want that thing, and they know that you coach people who have the problem they have.

No one signs up for coaching without wanting a result! Otherwise why would they pay you? JUst for the fun of coaching? Nope lol.

Once you have coached enough people in your niche, you will start to see that you DO get clients that all end up being similar, and your “results-resistance” will fade.

But what if not ALL my clients get the results they came for?

That’s fine. You are not offering a guarantee when you talk about results. You are simply sharing that with the work you do, most people tend to get X results after working with you.

I don’t think anyone signing up for coaching expects a guarantee! Seriously. Even with selling a business building program, I have had VERY few people over the years ask me if I offer a guarantee.

People understand that there is variance in results.

Just because you talk about where MOST of your clients get to, doesn’t mean it is your responsibility to guarantee every client will get there, and it doesn’t mean that the client doesn’t have any responsibility.

Pretend you are selling a physical product

I always find it helpful to think about it as if you were selling a product.

If I created a skincare product for acne, and I wanted to test it out, I’d give it to 10 people with acne. Then I’d check in after 30 days and see what kind of results they got.

Just because I gave them the product doesn’t mean the client’s responsibility is gone. It’s a shared responsibility. They need to use the product. They need to use it consistently. They need to use it as directed.

It is my responsibility to make sure that the right people are using the product, and that I am giving them the tools to use it correctly to get the best results. So I might choose people with moderate acne, but not give it to people who have deep hormonal-type acne that seems to be beyond what I know my product can help with.

The people who volunteer to try the product want the result of less acne and have self-selected to be volunteers to use it – they raised their hand when I explained what I was offering and asked who wanted to try it. It’s not like I am walking up to random people on the street and saying “here, you need this, use it”.

Just like you are not taking clients who don’t know what they want coaching on, and then shoving your niche topic on them.

Your clients self-select to sign up for your coaching based on your niche description and your marketing.

You say “I help people with XYZ”, and they raise their hand and say “I want that”

So when you start your work together, it is understood that you are both working towards a result together.

This, by the way, is the power of niching — clients come to you specifically because of what niche problem you help people with!

This is scary. What if I can’t get my clients those results?

I know that it can invoke fear to feel like you are responsible for people’s outcomes.

You’re not responsible for whether people show up, follow through, and are willing to do the work.

But you are responsible for the process that you’re offering, the expertise that you’re bringing to the table, and making sure the right people sign up for your coaching.

And you are responsible for testing out your coaching process over and over and over again to SEE if you can get results.

That is part of the beta testing process. Practicing your coaching tools within a defined niche, so you can start to see what results your clients are getting.

Once you have coached 10 people in your niche, you will start to get a very good idea of where you can take people, and you will be much less scared of talking about it because you have SEEN it, over and over again.

After coaching 100 people, you will be able to talk about results so confidently that you won’t even think twice about it!

People want results

People don’t pay for services that don’t have a result at the end.

No one signs up for coaching without something they want to change or something they want to get out of it.

Even if you are doing open-ended coaching without a specific niche, and you are just coaching anyone on anything… you STILL coach to results. In that very first session you will ask that person what they want to get out of coaching, and they will tell you, and you will hold that in your space as you coach them.

Don’t fear results

Being able to talk clearly about what results your clients get out of working with you is crucial for your marketing.

Getting testimonials from clients that share their results is super important, and being able to write about what you can offer, on your website and in your content, will help clients trust you and believe you can actually help them.

If you haven’t gotten results yet for anyone, get out there and start testing your services and collecting that results language.

Getting beta test clients so you can practice getting results is a huge piece of what we work on in Uncage Your Business! Click here to learn more about how we can help you get confident in your coaching results!

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