This is a LISTENER’S CHOICE episode, which means it has aired before and was super popular with coaches listening before you. It is clearly worth hearing!
One of my VIP clients asked me to share the #1 lesson I’ve learned in my 20 years of running my coaching business.
I have a feeling you’re going to be surprised by my answer … the #1 lesson boils down to LESS IS MORE.
It took me a long time to learn this lesson. Now that I have integrated it fully into my business and coaching mindset and habits I see the real power of this lesson. It applies to so many aspects of life.
You see, what a lot of people don’t think about is how can I make my coaching business sustainable. In other words, you can manage it, earn well, love what you’re doing and still have a life outside your business.
And I’m so grateful to the experienced coaches and business owners who shared this wisdom with me long ago.
The first step to this — which you hear me say often enough is choose one viable target audience and develop one specific niche for that audience. Less is more. You’ll market less and earn more.
And now, I want to share 4 more ways that less is more in your coaching business. Take the time to review these areas in your business to see how you can recalibrate to doing less and saying less. Consider putting a sign up in your office that says LESS IS MORE to remind you about this.
Put Less on Your Website
It’s so tempting to use your website as a clearing house for too many satellite concepts, favorite quotes, recommendations. Getting carried away like this can mean failure because you don’t show your prospects the real path to you.
If you try to cover every possibility, cram in all the things you want to say, the message that could spark them will be lost.
Adding more tabs is not a good idea, drop down menus under tab — don’t ever do that! Too many words, too many paragraphs, too many buttons and distractions everywhere, that means your website will be a dud.
See distraction creates a confused mind. And a confused mind never buys.
In this overfull life, every potential coaching client wants a calm, logical experience. You want to inspire them to read more by having less copy. Rather than pushing and prodding them towards action, let them have their own pace.
Every web visitor views a site differently. Your job is to help them see themselves in what you say so they want to explore.
There’s one exception to less is more on a website. If you post a regular blog or podcast there’s no need to limit those posts but you can limit the length to a 5 – 7 minute experience per post. Which brings me to …
Write Less and Say More
One of the things I passionately teach my VIP clients is how to write in a punchy way. Punchy in copywriting speak means streamlined, powerful and compelling all at the same time.
Long highly descriptive sentences and paragraphs won’t get read. Go for a skimmable experience. People will read short sentences, short paragraphs and less total copy.
When you finish writing an article or blog post, go through every sentence and streamline it. Take out most adjectives and reduce prepositional phrases. Also shorten paragraphs by breaking one up into two or more.
Because people read on their phones mostly these day, aim for no more than 3 lines of copy per paragraph. I know, it’s not the way we were taught to write in school. But it is the way people read now unless they are reading a book. And so you have to let go of that academic and stuff and do what it takes to attract clients.
Offer Less Options to Work with You
I know, some experts say create a funnel of multiple options starting with low price and incrementally go higher. That creates busy work for you on so many levels. For example, you’ll end up wasting your time explaining the difference between your offers.
By the time the person buys something you’ve lost most of your profits.
I only offer two things and both are private offerings — a single Strategy Session and my VIP Coaching Business Breakthrough program. There’s no confusion. Prospects know which they want – the short specific experience or comprehensive support. The price points and delivery for each offer are significantly different.
You know I’m not a fan of coaching packages where the only difference offer to offer is the number of sessions and price. I suggest that you create a high ticket VIP experience of 1:1 support in a Signature Program that’s designed specifically for your audience.
If you haven’t heard this concept before and want to know how to create a Signature Program, listen to Episode 59 in your app or go to prosperouscoach.com/59.
A Signature Program helps you earn well and manage a sustainable business.
If you want to offer group programs and products such as online training just know that for each thing you offer you’ll need a separate marketing campaign. That’s a big investment of your time and money, which reduces your profits.
Selling online training and group programs is not the “passive” experience and big money maker that people think it is and it’s why I don’t offer those things anymore. You’ll need access to a big list or to grow that list of prospects yourself in order to constantly have people buying those things.
Whatever you offer, keep the options slimmed down so you don’t run yourself ragged and create admin nightmares.
Minimize Marketing Approaches
I help my clients create a sustainable business — one that they can maintain for decades without burning out. The secret to that is to do the same small set of things over and over.
So instead of posting on all social media channels, choose 1 or 2 to master and stay current there.
Instead of going way outside of your target audience to attract clients focus on methods that put you directly in front of only your target audience.
Don’t give a talk at the local chamber. Give a talk where your audience gathers. It takes some creativity but if you have a viable audience, it can be done.
When you market, be sure you’ve created a simple customer journey. Leverage what you’ve already created. Don’t keep starting from scratch.
I have clients who get numerous requests to speak or provide coaching for various groups on various topics. You might think that’s the way to go. But each new thing requires thinking outside the box of their target audience. It takes a lot of time to conceive and deliver.
It’s more efficient and effective to leverage your audience and Signature Program.
Watch that tendency to leap to “Yes” when asked for something outside the scope of what you offer because you feel flattered to be asked and think it’s easy income. It just takes you away from building your business the way you planned it. For more about this, listen to Episode 20 on your podcast app.
Have Less Apps and Fewer Monthly Expenses
I’m a big believer in high profit, low overhead and low labor. My clients are often amazed at how streamlined my expenses are.
You see lots of hype about a coach earning some astronomical income per month. It’s important to realize high monthly earnings like that often mean low profits. You don’t know what it took for the person to earn that. Their profit may be less that 25% because they had so many apps.
So would you rather work long days, run a staff and spend most of your income on labor and overhead? Or, would you rather live your life well, have time with friends and family and keep things simple? I know my answer. It’s the Simplest Coaching Business Model. I covered that in Episode 5 if you haven’t heard it yet.
Don’t believe claims about 7 figure coaching businesses at face value. It takes money to earn money so choose your business model and what you off wisely.
So less is more in all 5 of these situations will mean you’re more powerful at what you do. But this principle applies to almost anything in life and business so look around for how you can apply it.
I invite you to ask yourself:
How can I do less and have a bigger impact?
How can I say less and have a bigger impact?
How can I spend less and have a bigger impact?
The impact will be about the quality of your life, the effectiveness of your coaching, the response to your messages and marketing, and of course the impact on your income.
