How can I get more clients for my life coaching practice? Are you a life coach?
Do you want more clients? You're in the right place. I can help you with that.
First, let's take a look at where those clients are going to come from, and then I'll share
five specific strategies that you can implement immediately. If I back up just a little bit. I am
Dr. Paul Jenkins. I'm a professional psychologist who practices exclusively positive psychology and
life and family coaching. I've gone to a coaching model for a lot of reasons which you can probably
relate to. And one of the things that I enjoy the most about my current practice is I get to
train and certify life coaches in a positivity practitioner certification. And we also get into
the business side of things. So, here's the basic business model. Think of three buckets,
and these buckets are full of people. The first bucket is people who know about you. So,
thinking about your life coaching practice. How many people out there in the world actually know
about you that you exist and that you're a life coach and that you have some things that you might
be able to offer them. That's bucket number one. Bucket number two are the people who know you.
They like you and they trust you. So, these might be your followers or your subscribers if you have
a Podcast or a YouTube channel like I have. Whatever represents the people who know you,
like you, and trust you. That's in bucket number two. These are your people. Bucket number three
are the people who pay the bills, alright. They're the ones who are hiring you and paying
you to do your thing for them. So, they're your clients or the people who are on your membership,
or those who come to your events and actually pay a fee to engage with you. So,
we've got our three buckets, and the numbers of people that you have in each of those buckets
matters. Because who's going to show up and pay you the bills. As we talk about getting more
clients we're mostly talking about bucket three. They're the ones who you consider to be your
clients or your customers. Where are they going to come from? Bucket two, they're going to come from
the people who know you, like you, and trust you. Because if they know you, like you, and trust you.
They're going to want to get more of what you have to offer. And people do business with people that
they know like and trust. So, they're going to come from bucket two. Does that make sense? Where
do the people in bucket two come from? From bucket one. Because they have to know about you before
they can develop a relationship with you so that they can know you like you and trust you. When I
learned this model first, I realized everything that I need to do in my business has to fill
bucket one, bucket two, or bucket three, or move people from one bucket to the next one.
That's how I make sense out of everything that I do now. So, here on YouTube for example. I'm
filling bucket one and moving people from bucket one to bucket two. So, if you find me on YouTube,
you drop into bucket one for me. Now, you know about me. If you watch several of my videos here
or if I'm able to help you answer a question about parenting your kids or about staying
positive or about learning how to improve your life coaching practice, then you move over to
bucket two. Because you get to know me, and we develop a relationship here where you start to
decide. You know, can I trust this guy? Does he have something really that he can offer me? Now,
you're in bucket two. And occasionally, you'll see me make an offer to engage in my membership
platform for example, Live On Purpose Central. You can check it out at go.liveonpurposecentral.com.
Am I trying to sell you my membership here today? No, I want to give you an example of
what it looks like to move people from this bucket into that bucket. Because then you become a paying
client if you sign up for my paid membership, and that's just an example, okay? So, we're going to
be moving people through these buckets. I share this with you. Because if your question is how
do I get more life-coaching clients? How do I get people into bucket three? Well, obviously,
we have to have a good bucket two, and we have to have a bucket one that feeds people through the
buckets. So, it's all about buckets, right? Let's look at some specific strategies that allow us to
move people from bucket two into bucket three so that they actually become paying clients. I
like to think of this on two levels. And one of my coaches shared with me that its kind of like the
difference between gardening and hunting. Now, if you're gardening, you plant seeds. You nurture and
grow those seeds, and eventually, they bear fruit and you're able to harvest that, and then you get
to eat it, right? Hunting, you go out and you find something. You kill it and you eat it. Now,
that's an example of two very different ways to get new clients. The gardening approach would
be let's work on bucket one, let's work on moving people from one to two, and then let's move we're
come moving people from two to three. I'm going to give you two gardening ideas, and then let's
talk about three hunting ideas which is where we just drop them right into bucket three. Okay,
so, gardening tip number one is to create your freemium. Now, what is a freemium? A freemium
is a lead capture. It's sometimes we call it a lead magnet. That's where you create something
that people want to get. You offer it to them for free in exchange for their contact information.
Like this one. Now, I share this with you as an example, but also because I think you might want
this. I have put together a free quiz. It's an assessment that you get to take to see where you
are in the progress of becoming a positivity practitioner. Whether you're a life coach,
human resource director, a trainer, an author, a speaker. Go take my free quiz. So, go to the URL
on the screen, and I'm showing you exactly how I would do this. Because I'm doing it, right? But
use it as an example. Go to the URL on the screen, drpauljenkins.com/practitionerquiz. You're going
to find there is a free assessment that you get to take, and then I will provide for you the results
of that, that will show you right where you are in your progression. Now, this is a little more of a
complicated one having a survey or a quiz. You could do a single one-sheet PDF like this one.
This is the communication cheat sheet. You can get this one at drpauljenkins.com/communication,
and go get it. If you want to have another example and you'll see how I've set that up. This is free.
You want to come up with your freemium something that you can offer for free in exchange for
someone's contact information. Because that gets them into your bucket one, okay? And as they start
to know you, like you, and trust you. They can move over to bucket two. So, that's strategy
number one. Gardening strategy number one. Create your freemium. Now, here's my second gardening
tip. When you have your freemium, go out there and offer your freemium on two different marketing
channels. Now, when I talk about marketing channels. The only way to get people into bucket
one. Well, there's two ways really. Marketing or advertising, and referral. Now, you get to decide
what your marketing channels are. But my challenge to you in the second gardening tip for you today
is to offer that freemium that you came up with on two marketing channels. So,
maybe you make a YouTube video, and you offer it there. Like, I've demonstrated for you here,
or you put it out on Facebook, or you go to TikTok, or you give a talk somewhere to the local
Rotary Club, or whatever it is. Find a marketing channel where you can actually offer your freemium
in exchange for someone's contact information. I mentioned giving a talk. I do a lot of speaking.
And when I was first starting out, I would go to local clubs. Like, Rotary or the Lions Club,
or whoever it is, right? That gather together service clubs and organizations. They're always
looking for speakers. And I didn't have the fancy internet freemiums like what I've shared with you
here today. I had a little quarter sheet that I made up where I ask for people's name and
contact information in exchange for a little card that I would leave them about the model that I
just shared with them. And now, I have this in PDF form and I can offer it electronically. But at the
time, I would just trade them this for the little slip of paper that they would return to me. So,
open up your mind about how you're going to fill up those buckets, those are gardening tips. Now,
I promised you three hunting tips too where we can put people directly into bucket three.
Here's hunting tip number one, prepare your offer. If you're going to ask people to come
in and be a client or a customer. What is it that they are buying? You need to be clear about that.
Prepare your offer. What is it? Is it a seminar? Is it a class? Is it a coaching experience? Is it
a product? Is it a course? You have to know what it is that you're offering them so that you can
be really clear. Now, I put this in his hunting tip number one. Because a lot of the coaches that
I have worked with really have a sense that they want to help people but they don't have
their mind wrapped around. How am I going to help those people? We have to have an offer,
okay? So, think about it, and whatever it is for you. It might be three coaching sessions,
and then you come up with the price that you're gonna charge for that. That's an example. Now,
as you're coming up with your offer, try to focus on the benefits to your client. For example,
when I'm in inviting people through my offer to come to my membership at Live On Purpose
Central. I say here's what you get at Live On Purpose Central. More peace in your home. More
confidence as a parent. And a transformed family culture that you will all enjoy. Okay, notice,
I'm focusing on the benefits, not the features. I'm not saying you get group coaching live for
me. I mean, I include that in the description. But focus on the benefits to your client. What's
in it for them? One of my coaches taught me. If people want to go to Hawaii on vacation,
you don't spend a lot of time teaching them about the plane that's going to get them there. You
focus on the destination. The sandy beaches and the warm weather and the wonderful foods that
they'll get to eat, okay? The benefits that they get. You get to worry about the airplane because
you're going to take them there. But sell the destination, not the plane. Here's hunting tip
number two. I want you to go to your bucket two as it is today. And you might think well,
I don't even have a bucket two Dr. Paul. Yes, you do. Because you know people, and you know people
who know you, like you and trust you. True? Now, you might not have them organized into a database.
That doesn't matter. What I want you to do is go to your bucket two and offer to 10 of them. I'm
not saying sell it to them. I'm saying offer it, okay? You don't control whether they buy it or
not. But you need to get into the habit of making your offer. So, call 10 people in bucket two,
offer them. What you just came up with in tip number one. The hunting tip number one. The
offer that you came up with. Offer it to them. This will give you practice in making your offer,
and you may sell a few too. But that's not the importance of this particular tip. I want you
to try making your offer. Put it out there. Go to 10 people, make your offer. Here's hunting
tip number three. And this one, I saved it till last because it's probably the most powerful one.
Ask for referrals in helping industry. Whether you're a coach or a therapist, a practitioner
of some kind. The best way to get people into bucket number three through your offer is to ask
for referrals. These are people who already have worked with you. They know what you have to offer.
And they're willing to endorse it. Look, I can endorse my programs all day long because I'm in
love with them. I love what I offer to people. But if my clients love it, that sounds different to
the people who are considering coming in. Ask for referrals. This is hands down. The place where we
leave most money on the table. The people who can give you referrals will connect you more quickly
to new clients than any other way that I know. This is relationship marketing at its best. So,
go to people you've already worked with. Go to people who know what you do and are willing
to endorse you. And specifically, ask them for referrals. That's ending tip number three. Okay,
you got this? There's a couple of good ideas for you. Do you remember the quiz that I
offered earlier? Go to the URL on the screen drpauljenkins.com/practitionerquiz. This quiz
not only is an example of one of the strategies I've shared with you here today. But it will also
help you to wrap your head around where you are in this process so that you'll know what's next for
you. It's totally free. I'll share their results with you. Go grab it. I've got your back on this.