Make It Visible
You’re full of amazing coaching skills, ideas, and a desire to make a difference, but marketing your coaching biz isn’t your thing?
Meet Michelle, your business bestie who knows exactly how to help coaches like you get seen, get heard, and get paying clients.
No more feeling invisible. Let’s make marketing easy-peasy and magical.
Make It Visible
#199: How to Craft a Compelling Story That Resonates With Your Ideal Clients and Turns Leads Into Paying Clients
Drop me a line and share your thoughts!
In this episode, we dive into the power of storytelling for your coaching business. I’ll walk you through how to craft a story that not only connects with your ideal clients but also converts leads into paying clients. Sharing your personal journey can set you apart in a crowded market and build deeper trust with your audience.
Key Takeaways:
- Why storytelling is essential in your marketing strategy
- How to structure a story that resonates with your ideal clients
- The secret to using your story across platforms to attract clients
About Me:
Hey There! I’m Michelle! Your Visibility Marketing Coach, content and Email Marketing Strategist, Motivational Speaker, Author (…And soon to be your new business bestie!)
I’m an international speaker, Visibility Marketing Coach, and founder of Elevate LifeCoaching.
I help coaches like yourself to build your brand, attract high-quality 5-6 figure clients, and land paid speaking gigs.
I’ve been public speaking since I was 9 years old.
My dad helped me draft my first speech and signed me up for a contest. (Yep, voluntold!)
And since then, I’ve been the go-to person whenever someone needed a speaker on short notice.
At work, I was the one presenting, running workshops, and leading training sessions.
While everyone else stayed quiet, palms sweating, hoping not to get called on, I was the one grabbing the mic and taking the lead.
After working with hundreds of coaching clients to help them boost their visibility and market their businesses, I realized there’s a HUGE missing piece most coaches overlook.
This is the #1 strategy man top coaches use to grow their coaching business. are you using it?
🐦 SOCIAL STUFF:
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Hello, hello and welcome back to Make it Visible podcast. I'm your host, Michelle, and today we are going to talk about one of the topic that I am very passionate about. It's how to create a compelling story that actually resonate with your ideal dream client and turn them into paying clients, if this is a topic that you're interested to hear stay tuned because I got a lot of details and secrets.
Speaker 2:Hey, you're listening to Make it.
Michelle:Visible podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Kui. I am a visibility marketing coach and soon to be your business bestie in the coaching business world Not knowing how to connect with your audience, grab people's attention and get them excited to buy from you should never be the reason you give up on your dream to become a full-time coach.
Speaker 2:I'm all about making marketing, the easiest part of your coaching business, so that you can turn a passion for coaching into a visible and profitable reality.
Michelle:So buckle up, ladies, let's get started. Go up, ladies, let's get started. When I first started out my coaching business journey, many of you, if you've been following me for a while, you know that I started off as a life coach and my intention was I wanted to help more people. Like many of you, I was on a personal journey of how to overcome my self-doubt, my negative self-talk, and during that journey, I realized that there's so much more once you start working on your mindset, with your body, and there are just opportunities just open up and come flushing at you right, and so that was my. That inspired me to want to look into okay, so now that I know this is helpful, how can I create more impact? How can I be out there and spread this message around? And one of the things I was also experiencing in my work life was I was, I was just. I just got rejected from a promotion that I was trying to apply at my work, at my full-time job, and that was also part of the reason why I was searching elsewhere to find a solution. And, like many of you, you're probably working at another job or maybe you'll retire. No matter where you are, there's always that part of you that wanted to do more right. There's something else that's out there that you feel the calling, and so coaching was calling me and I didn't know what it was until I had a conversation with one of my friends who was looking for a life coach for his nephew, who has schizophrenia and just needed someone to guide him through that initial transition period to get back on his feet and actually have a job, a steady job, instead of going from job to job. So I got exposed to the term life coach and I know a lot of you don't like that term and I do have a resource. So if you want a copy of that resource, it's 50 names that you can call yourself without referring yourself as a life coach. So if you do want to have a copy of that resource, simply send me a message or reply to my email or just reach out to me and I'll send you a copy of that resource. Simply send me a message or reply to my email or just reach out to me and I'll send you a copy of that.
Michelle:I know Life Coach and, honestly, back then I was not resonating with that term either, but I got exposed to that term and so I was looking into and I started to do research, and many of you who's starting out your business journey, you're probably also doing a lot of research, right? That research? For me back then it was, oh, what is Life Coach? And for you it might look like you're actually researching. How do I do marketing? How do I create that social media online presence? How do I bring my social media up to par? Or how do I actually get onto social media? How do I start my business without social media? So all these are things that you're probably heavily researching on, and maybe you even invested some of the courses out there and teaching you how to start the social media marketing Now. So when I look the like the term life coach and I got a whole lot of uh information, right, what is life coach? Uh, why people need life coach, and my my reasoning was that I was already in my, I was reaching my mid mid year, my midlife, uh, the midlife crisis. Um, and there's another story for another time, I was reaching to that midlife and and I didn't want to go through in another four years of school getting a degree and going and spending all the tuition and money and just you starting from scratch. That was not me.
Michelle:I was very clear in terms of I want to do this, but I want to do this, but I want to do it right and I want to do it with something that's more creditable. So I was looking for accreditation school to get certified, and, being someone who came from the healthcare background, I really believe that you know if you're dealing with someone else's life, you better be certified. That's just my belief. That's just my personal belief. Right, is it required? You don't need to be a certified coach to be a coach, but I do believe that it's an added value if you do have the accreditation or you do have the certification right. And plus, nowadays there's so many coaches around, how do you differentiate yourself from everybody else? Certification, getting certified, is one of the way that you can differentiate yourself among all these other coaches, and that, hopefully, that's something that you do highlight, because that's something that you're actually putting the work into.
Michelle:And so I started to look and I was doing a lot of research, so that got me started in life coaching business. I started and there I was trying to know exactly where you are now pretty much trying to get my business off the ground inside a community where Facebook, where life coaches hang out, and someone was asking is there a life coaching program that also teach you about business development and marketing? Now, based on my research and you can prove me wrong if you do know a accreditation or school or certification program that actually has a comprehensive, that teach you how to be a coach and also teach you how to be a marketer, please do let me know, because I think that would be a very important resource for my clients and for my listeners and followers to know, because, when I look, there's not a single program that's out there that actually combined the two. And it makes perfect sense, right? Because you're going into a certification program to become a certified coach. You didn't go into a certification program to become a marketer. So, a lot of these coaching program and certification program they teach you how to be a great coach, but they don't necessarily teach you how to be a good marketer for your coaching business. Yes, they do give you some kind of business development and marketing classes, but it's not enough. They don't go into details of how do you grow and how do you scale your coaching business. Every single program that's out there. They probably combine a little bit of here's how to be a good coach and here is how to get your business started.
Michelle:But getting your business started is really easy in my opinion Well, I can say that because I teach that right but it is really easy and you don't need a whole lot of things in order to get started. You need a calendar, you need a way to accept payment, and nowadays people have PayPal, venmo, however, that you can accept payment right. So that's another thing that you need. So that's the things that number two that you're going to need. You're also probably going to need to have a copy of the contract which I had covered in previous episodes, or many other previous episodes way before where, with that contract, icf International Coach Federation give you a really good template that you can download and you can bring it to your legal advisor to have them double check and take a look. So there's a way that you can set up very easily.
Michelle:So you need a contract, you need a calendar to allow your client to book appointment, and you need to have a way of accepting the payment. So those are the things that you're going to need to get started, and that's what a lot of coaching certification program would help you do. They give you the foundation of how to get started, and that's what a lot of coaching certification program would help you do. They give you the foundation of how to get started, but they don't go into details of how do you market that business, which is why a lot of newbie coaches, and even coaches who's looking to scale, run into the problem of how do I make this business scalable and sustainable? Because they lack the knowledge of how to do that. And in order to do that, you need to become a marketer or you need someone who has the marketing knowledge to show you the steps of how to get there. And so we're talking about two different, two different area of specialty that your coaching certification program. It's not going to be able to apply because that's not their thing, right? So as coaches, we all talk about a niche. So that's their niche. Their niche is to help you to certify as a coach. Their niche is not marketing course for coaches, right? So that makes sense.
Michelle:So when I got out of life coaching program, that's what I was struggling with. I was trying to get my business off the ground as soon as I came out, I didn't wait. I knew that the time is valuable and the fact that I went into coach certification and knowing that I don't want to spend another four years going through the schooling and getting myself a degree or going through that whole tuition process and all that admission process I knew very well that by the time I get out, I want to have this business going as soon as possible, as fast as I can, and so one of the things that I did right off the back is I went and hired a mentor coach who can show me how to put my business and get my business off the ground. So a lot of you are out there doing the research on your own You're like looking for how do I get more? How do I market my coaching business? Maybe there are social media marketing courses I need to take. Maybe there's a niche development course I need to take, or maybe you're doing this for free. You're paying someone, no matter what it is. The longer you wait, the longer it's going to take for your business to get off the ground. So if you're sitting there and wondering if you should hire somebody, please do and go and get yourself a coach right, because if you're really serious about having a coaching business, then that should be the number one on your list that you need to do.
Michelle:Now, speaking of number one thing to do on your list, I recently put together a coach startup checklist, because a lot of my clients and new coaches who are starting out the number one question that they always ask me is, or they always tell me, is that, michelle, I wish there's a checklist that I can put together and I can just go through them and one by one. I know that by hitting these, I am on track, I am hitting my goal. I know that these are the things I'm not missed. So I recently put together a coach startup checklist and all you have to do is there's a link down below this episode. You can click that and you can get a copy for yourself. And if you're looking for something to like really to track for yourself and to be able to know like am I missing a step? Am I on the right track? This checklist is super helpful and I put a lot of energy in creating it, and these are the steps that you're going to need to get your business off the ground.
Michelle:Okay, so I quickly realized that in order to have a viable, sustainable business, I need to start market my business, and one of the things I came across really early on this journey is I realized that there's really a need for having that ability to connect emotionally with your audience, and I know a lot of coaches out there who's on social media. They're posting, they're posting every single day and a lot of when you look at their posts, right? I have this habit of going around and checking out everybody's posts. When you look at their posts, the post is great. Some of them actually incorporate AI and you could tell, because there's AI elements that's in their post that just normally we wouldn't say on a daily basis. And I know that that's not the way that they usually talk, right, because you look at their other posts, that's not the way that they're speaking or that's not the way that they're writing. You could tell that what's there in their own words, versus what's coming out from the artificial intelligence, what's coming out from ChatGPT or Claw. No matter which app you use, you can tell there's a certain degree of variation from the way that they usually talk to the way that the AI is creating their posts.
Michelle:So when I first came out, I realized that was the thing that you're going to need. You need to connect with your audience and you need to connect with them on an emotional level so that people feel like, oh, they feel inspired, they feel motivated, they feel that you actually understand them. And the powerful thing that I found and this is something that I actually went into when I got certified in this is the storytelling. And I know it sounds so easy, right, it sounds when you hear storytelling. There's a lot of marketer nowadays also encourage creator or coaches to use more storytelling, but the struggle with storytelling is a lot of coaches.
Michelle:When they do the storytelling, first of all, they don't know which story to share. Right, let me know, if this is true for you, that you have overcome so much in the past and life has brought you so much and your journey has just been incredibly rich, that you have so many stories in your pocket and you have no idea which one to tell. And there's the other hand, where some of us, we don't believe that our story is actually important and significant enough to actually be shared in front of our audience. And, of course, there's the third aspect of the hesitation. Right, the hesitation would be oh, if I come out and being vulnerable, I'm going to hurt a lot of people and I don't want that right. So which of the three best describe you? Are you someone who has a lot of story to tell, but you don't know which one describe you? Are you someone who has a lot of story to tell, but you don't know which one to tell? Are you someone who doesn't believe that you have anything significant to tell? Or are you the third person where, if you come out and tell your story, it's going to hurt a lot of people? Which one of the three are you? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Michelle:So storytelling it's not about, like, giving your audience all the detail and give them a laundry list, right, and that's a mistake. A lot of coaches and content creators, or even anyone who's on social media, when they do storytelling, a lot of them create this long post on their Facebook thread or on their Instagram, or when they talk, they give a whole detail of. This is the experience I had A, b and C, and this is what happened. Nobody wants to hear that laundry list, right, because people are busy and unless your story is actually relevant to them, to their experience, why would anybody care about your story. We're all too busy and in our own journey, in our own story, nobody wants to hear that long laundry list of yours, and so that's the biggest mistakes. I see a lot of coaches making that when you go to their posts, even some of the some of the like the high ticket coaches like that that I I've seen, I know of when they do storytelling, I'm like I'm thinking in the back of my mind. I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, that sucks, that sucks, don't post that. Gosh, that sucks, that sucks, don't post that. So it's in itself, it's an art of how to do storytelling.
Michelle:So how do you exactly do storytelling? All right, so I hope you have a pen because I am going to give you the elements of what makes a compelling story. So, element number one and this is very important, okay, it's about relatability. Like, how is it relatable to the audience that you are serving? So if you think about your journey, your struggle, your challenges that you had experienced and faced, how does your audience relate to that experience? So you always want to, even before you start writing or before sharing, you always want to think about how is this relevant and how is this relatable to what my client or what? My prospect or anyone who's going to read this post? How is it relevant to them? What are they going through? So the key to storytelling is you always want to think about, right, not your own story, but how is your story relatable to the audience that you are going to serve?
Michelle:So in the past, I was serving as a negative self-talk expert. Right, I call myself a negative self-talk expert, and the story that I was telling is relatable to everybody who experienced that negative self-talk. Now, that's very broad, but it's also very narrow, right, but when you think about all these negative thoughts but it's also very narrow, right, but when you think about all these negative thoughts, we all have these negative thoughts, and so that makes it relevant, relatable, and so, no matter what I bring into that story, someone is going to resonate. Somehow, that negative self-talk created this body shaming, it created this lack of confidence, it created a lot of these unmotivation, right, things that I would completely not do to others, but I would do it to myself. And so it becomes so relevant that people stop scrawling and they start reading my story, but in their mind, they're reading their own journey, they're reading their story, and so the first element of storytelling is you want to start by thinking about how is this story going to be relatable for your audience, for the people that you're serving, and that is the key. Okay, and so it's not a laundry list so you can think about all the stories that you have in your pocket. Take one, so you can think about all the stories that you have in your pocket, take one, take one and ask yourself what is it about this story that can be relatable to the people that I'm serving? And how can I help them by using this as an analogy, as a metaphor, how can I help them to see this is what they're going through? And so that's number one. Number two element that's most importantly inside a storytelling is there's always a change, there's a turning point, there's a point of no return.
Michelle:Right, sometimes you'll hear people say this is the moment that changes everything. Or this is the moment that you had a down to your knee, where you had a major breakdown, or you decided you put your foot down, or you decided this is no more. And you might be thinking right now right, you're doing a lot of marketing research. What is that? What will be that turning point for you where you said you know what no more enough research. What is that? What would be that turning point for you where you said you know what no more Enough research. I'm just going to start working with Michelle, right, so what would be that point where you are going to say this is the moment that changed everything?
Michelle:So think back to that moment where you knew that that moment you made a decision is a turning point and how your audience can also see the hope and possibility for themselves. Okay, so, example right. One day I realized that helping others was truly fulfilling for me, and that's when I made the leap into coaching. Example like that, in just a single line, is demonstrating a turning point, a point of possibility, right, for your audience to see, and so that not only is it relatable, but you're also giving them an opportunity, a hint. This is something possible for them too, all right, so hopefully by now you can see how you can use storytelling in marketing, and I hope that if you're listening and you have not subscribed to my podcast yet, this is the moment that changes everything. Okay, so go ahead and hit that subscribe button and subscribe to the podcast, because this is the moment that changes everything. All right.
Michelle:So, moving on to element number three, element number three is the after moment. I have a worksheet that actually walk you through this whole format, okay. So again, if you want that copy, just go ahead and either reach out to me or send me an email and just say hey, I heard you on the podcast. You know there's a resource about the storytelling. Can I get a copy of it? Just send me an email and I'll be happy to send that over to you.
Michelle:So, basically, the third element is you want to describe an after moment. So we talked about the point of no return, the turning point, which is the moment that changes everything. And so, once you change everything, you got to tell your audience what changed and what's that outcome and what's that possibility. Look like, right, you can't just leave your story hanging. You got to give people like, what changed for you? And so, if you're sharing your story, you want to describe what were you able to accomplish, what was the result of working with you, or how is life going to be different. That is the after moment.
Michelle:So, if you think about it, the before, the point, the turning point, and then the after, which almost sounds very familiar and you probably have seen it on social, on Instagram, right? A lot of fitness coaches use this method really well when they do a before and after of the picture of their clients, right, and that's a great visual storytelling the before and the after of someone's transformation. So these are the three key elements. Number one you start with the before moment, right, that moment of all the struggle, all the challenges, all the frustration you have, and then you have the turning point, the moment that changes everything, and then, after that, you want it to be able to describe what the life can be, or the after moment, what that looks like, what is the result that look like, what is the solution look like. So all three are your key elements to a great, compelling storytelling.
Michelle:Now, the key to the storytelling is not just tell inspiration, right, it's great leaving someone, giving someone a lot of inspiration, education, but you have to remember you have a business to run and so at the end of that post, you always want to leave some room for what do you want your audience to do? Now, if you want this, if you want this to be happening in your life, if you want this to be the reality of your life, then here's how we can work together. So you always have a fourth element right? The fourth element is you want to invite your audience to take an action step with you. Now, that action step could be hey, just follow me on social. Or it could be book a call with me. So that call to action can vary depending on what your intention and what your marketing goal is, so that you can get your audience to take a step further with you.
Michelle:So let's summarize real quick what are the elements of compelling storytelling? Number one is you want to describe a before moment. There's also a turning point, right, the moment that changes everything. And then you want to end it with the after moment. What are the result, the solution, the goal and what were you able to achieve? And if you wanted to take it a step further as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, then you wouldn't leave it just with inspiration. You would close it up by inviting your audience to take an action with you.
Michelle:Okay, so when you integrate all this that I have just talked about and this is how I was able, right to within that first year, to get paying client clients who's reaching out to me, clients who's looking up on internet to find me and clients who just found me out of nowhere because I was doing this. I was using this method to put myself out there and it makes it attractive, it makes it relatable, it makes people want what you have. So don't just tell your story. You want to make sure that all these elements are together and you definitely want to make sure that your story is relatable, that's relevant to the audience that you're serving. And if you're not clear and I know this is where a lot of coaches are struggling with, is that they're not clear exactly what is that solution look like? What does that outcome look like? And so if you're not clear about the journey that you're taking your audience on, then we need to talk about your niche, we need to talk about your messaging and we also need to talk about that call to action what are you actually offering them as your marketing goal? Right, marketing can be so complex, but it can also be simplified. As long as you have that roadmap in front of you and knowing exactly what is it that I want my audience to do, and your audience will go where you want them to go.
Michelle:Okay, recap today. Okay, so we talked about how storytelling can actually transform and turn your followers into paying clients by using these three right, very important elements in storytelling. And remember, the key to compelling story is you want to make it relatable, you want to make it relevant to their experience and not your own, and you want to show and demonstrate that transformation how your audience would be able to accomplish by following you or by working with you. And that is the most important thing, which is the fourth step right Inviting your audience to join you on your journey. On that journey, whether it's to follow you so that they become follower or actually just booking a call with you. I mean, ultimately, that's all we want, right? We want to have the paying clients. So ultimately, it's about everything that you do on social. Everything about the storytelling is ultimately walking your clients, walking your potential clients to actually sign up with you so that they can become your paying client.
Michelle:Okay, so next week we're going to talk about how to create a marketing plan. So I talked about the marketing goals that you have. How do you actually create a marketing plan that works for you and your coaching business? So we'll talk more about that on the next episode and, again, if you want any of the resources that I have mentioned. Just simply shoot me an email or just let me know. Hey, I listened to your podcast and it was on the podcast. I need a copy of that. I'll be happy to share the link with you so that you can go and grab a copy, and next week we'll talk about how to create a marketing plan so that it will be easier for you going into 2020, the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. 2020, the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. All right, thanks for joining me on Make it Visible podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, please do subscribe and send me a review and share it with a fellow coach. Until next time, keep shining and make your coaching business visible.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to Make it Visible podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support for your coaching business, head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and see how we can partner together to turn your passion into a profitable business. I help female coaches launch and scale their coaching business faster than ever, without wasted time and money, filling the gaps in your marketing strategies, creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love to wake up to. Head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and grab a free strategy audit today.
