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 new business bestie who knows exactly how to help coaches like you get seen, get heard, and get paying clients. This is where your voice (literally and figuratively) becomes visibility and visibility becomes clients.
No more feeling invisible. Let’s make marketing easy-peasy and magical.
Make It Visible
Why Free Coaching Sessions Don’t Get You Paying Clients (and What to Do Instead)
If you’ve ever thought, “Maybe if I give away some free sessions, people will see the value and sign up…” — this episode is for you.
Free sessions don’t create paying clients.
They create freebie seekers, drain your confidence, and leave you wondering if coaching can ever be a real business.
In this episode of the Make It Visible Podcast, I’m breaking down why free sessions don’t work and what you should be doing instead if you want to fill your calendar with paying clients.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- The 3 reasons free sessions keep you stuck in confusion (instead of building momentum).
- The mindset shift you need to stop proving your worth and start owning your value.
- What to offer instead of free sessions that actually leads to discovery calls and paying clients.
Because yes — you can build your coaching business and sign clients without giving away all your time for free.
Links & Resources:
🎯 Join the free masterclass: Your First $5K Month: How to Market, Get Clients, and Build an Online Coaching Biz (Even if You’re New) → https://coachwithclients.com/5kmasterclass
If this episode hit home for you, share it with another coach who’s stuck in the “free session cycle.” We’re in this together.
Drop me a line and share your thoughts!
Meet Your Host:
Hey, I’m Michelle — The coaches’ coach.
I'm a visibility marketing strategist who helps female coaches simplify their message, stand out, and scale their business without the hustle.
I believe your coaching business should feel beautiful and profitable — without sacrificing your sanity, your weekends, or your personality.
Through magnetic messaging, simple marketing systems, and smart visibility strategies, I help you build a brand that clients can’t help but say, “OMG, that’s who I need!”
More clarity, more clients, more champagne moments. 🥂
Because building your dream business shouldn’t be a nightmare — it should feel like coming home.
🐦 SOCIAL STUFF:
Instagram ➔ / elevatelifecoach
Facebook ➔ / coachmichellekuei
Linkedin ➔ / michellekuei
Website ➔ http://elevatelifecoaching.org
If you ever thought, if I could just let them test drive coaching, they'll see the value and sign up. This episode is for you. Free sessions are not the magic marketing strategy you think they are. In fact, they're one of the fastest ways to burn yourself out and end up with a zero-paying client. So today I am going to break down exactly why free session they don't work, what they're doing to your confidence and your business, and what to do instead. By the end of today's episode, you're going to have a clear plan for how to shift out of the free session limiting belief and work your way into real paying clients. Hey coach, welcome to Make it Visible podcast to real paying clients. Hey coach, welcome to Make it Visible podcast. I'm Michelle Kuei, your visibility marketing coach, and I help female life coaches to get seen in all the right places, attract happy paying clients and build a coaching business that actually feel good to run. Even if you are still trying to figure things out, each week I'm giving you visibility tips, simple marketing strategies and showing you how to create the kind of content that connects with your audience so that you can stand out, build your authority and attract clients who's already feeling like a yes, before they jump onto your discovery call. So grab a notebook, pour yourself a favorite drink and let's make your coaching business visible.
Michelle Kuei:So today we are talking about why free sessions don't work, what they're actually doing to your confidence and your business, and what to do instead. So first of all, let's talk about why free sessions don't work. The first reason is that they train your people to expect free. If I give you a full free session and then turn around and say now it's going to be $2,000 to keep going, you know what most people are going to think. They're going to think why should I pay for something that I just got for free? You're training them to see coaching as something that they can get without investing, and once someone have experienced something for free, it's very, very hard to assign a dollar value to it later. The second reason why free coaching doesn't work is because they confuse your role. Instead of being seen as a professional, someone with expertise who can guide them through, help them on block, you end up being seen as a free resource, more like a friend who give out advice than a trusted coach who's worth paying. And I know that's not the position that you want to be in because you just got friend zoned by the potential paying client rather than being seen as a coach that they wanted to work with.
Michelle Kuei:Reason number three of why free sessions don't work is because they actually chip away at your confidence, and this is a big one. Every time someone says thanks, that was great, and then never book a call with you, your brain starts to collecting evidence that you are not worthy of paying, and it doesn't take long before you start wondering if you'll ever make this coaching thing work. So, instead of building the momentum, free sessions actually drains your energy, your confidence and, clearly, your time. So here's a quick mindset shift that you need to take in order to get over offering free session, because this is the part where most coaches miss. You don't have to prove that your coaching works. Let me just repeat that. You don't have to prove to anyone that your coaching works. Coaching works, period. Your job is not to convince someone, especially if you're just starting out, that coaching as a profession it's legitimate. Your job is to help your potential client, your audience, anyone who's following you, your friends and family to see that you are the person who can help them with their specific problem and that, my friend. It's a huge change and huge shift in your mindset work. So instead of giving away free samples like Costco chicken nugget, you want to be able to show them. One I understand where you are. Two is I know where you want to go. Three is and I have a clear path to help you to get there. And that is it. That's what creates trust, not your one-off free session to demonstrate that your coaching works. So what should you do instead of free session? Here are three things that actually lead to paying. Clients tested it. I've tried them all and here they are.
Michelle Kuei:First one is you want to offer free values, not free session. Let me just repeat that you want to create free values or offer free value and not free session. How do you create free values? Creating content, hosting a workshop or running a masterclass, like I'm doing next week. That way, people get a taste of your expertise in a group setting. You're giving away values, but you're not burning one-on-one time and energy. You help them to decide whether to take the next step forward or accept what they can receive, without pressuring them or making them feel uncomfortable having to commit, and it is refreshing, to be honest, to actually know that they don't have to feel pressure on that call to commit to you, and it allows them to actually truly process the cost of staying at the same after they attend your webinar or your workshop or maybe just reading a piece of your content.
Michelle Kuei:Two is to use your discovery call as the logical next step. Notice the difference. Discovery calls are about exploring whether or not you are the right fit to work together. It's not providing coaching work. You're not coaching them for free. You're leading them through the process that helps them to make that decision to sign up with you. Three is you want to package your coaching into a clear offer, and this is a big one. If you want people to pay you, they need to know what they're saying yes to. That means your offer needs to be specific. Who is it for, what problem does it solve and what are the results that your potential client can expect. When you have a clear offer and being able to articulate why you specifically throughout their journey with you, from the moment that they come across your social media profile to the moment that they decide to actually book a call with you. People don't need free session to decide. They need to see the value right away. In other words, you'll need to get their commitment before they're actually hopping onto your discovery call. Because, going back to my point number two is that discovery call is really just the next logical step. If I want to hire you, I just need to know that if we're going to be a good fit. So here's the takeaway Free session don't create more paying clients.
Michelle Kuei:They actually create more freebie seekers. It also causes your role to be confused. Instead of seeing you as the expert, now people see you as a friend and, trust me, you don't want people to friend zone you if you're looking for paying clients. Free session also creates a whole lot of self-doubt. If you want real clients, focus on giving values in the way that builds authority, invites people to the conversation about working together and create a clear offer that you're able to articulate and get them to easily say yes to. Those are the things that's going to matter more, instead of creating all these free sessions, that giving away just so that they can do a test right, and if you want more help doing exactly that, I got you.
Michelle Kuei:This week I am hosting a free masterclass called your First 5K Month how to Market, get Clients and Build an Online Coaching Business, even If You're New Inside, I'm going to show you the three lies that we believe that kept new coaches stuck. You'll also learn a simple framework to package and price your coaching so that people can say yes, and the five questions that every live coach must answer if you want a business that actually get clients. It's happening live next week, with three sessions to choose from that best fit your schedule. And even if you can't make it live, register anyway because I'll be sending you the replay. There's a link inside the show notes to save your seat, and if you know another coach who's stuck and giving away free session like it is charity work then share that link with them too. All right, coach, that is it for today. Go sign up for the masterclass and I will see you there.
Michelle Kuei: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.
