#228: 3 Things Every New Life Coach Needs to Get Paying Clients

That beautiful coaching certificate? It’s not a client magnet on its own.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the 3 biggest blocks keeping newly certified coaches from building a profitable business—and how to overcome them without the overwhelm.

You’ll learn:

• Why “traffic” is your real problem (and how to fix it)
• How to stop offering free sessions and start coaching paying clients
• The real reason your offer isn’t selling (even if it sounds amazing)
• My 7-step visibility framework that helps turn strangers into dream clients

🎁 BONUS: Take the Client Readiness Score Assessment to find out which area of your business needs the most support. You’ll get a personalized report + video feedback from me.

📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Get your free 7-Step Coaching Biz Checklist → https://coachwithclients.com/coachingbizstarterchecklist

How to put your first coaching package together: https://youtu.be/zz_v9wSbeQU

How to price your coaching package: https://youtu.be/CFKSDiuv2NI

#LifeCoachMarketing #NewLifeCoach #GetCoachingClients #OnlineCoachingBusiness #CoachCertification #VisibilityStrategy #CoachingOffer #ClientAttraction #LifeCoachHelp #CoachingTips #BusinessForCoaches #CoachingWithoutSocialMedia

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 1:17 The Three Essential Circles
• 3:07 Why Traffic Is The Real Bottleneck
• 5:40 The Seven-Step Visibility Path
• 9:35 Applying Platforms And Enrollment
• 10:55 Diagnose Your Gaps And Next Steps
• 10:55 Closing And Ways To Get Support

Transcript

Michelle Kuei: 0:00

As a life coach, being certified for the very first time, it is exciting. And there you are holding on to that certification, and you're wondering this has been the things that I've always wanted to do to change life, making more impact, and sharing what I have learned on this journey to help someone else who might be experiencing the same thing. Most newly certified coaches hit one, if not all three profit bloggers that we're going to talk about. Hey coach, welcome to Make It Visible Podcast. I'm Michelle Quay, 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 feels 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 that's make your coaching business visible. Today we are going to talk about the three essential fundamental things that every life coach needs to have. And this is also the area where I believe a lot of coaches are experiencing when it comes to not knowing how to get paying clients. And it falls in one of all these three areas. And you'll be surprised how many coaches have no idea that these three areas is the magic circle that you're going to need to conquer in order to have a coaching business. So, what are those three areas? First, you need to have the skill in coaching others and helping them to get the result that they want to accomplish, which undoubtedly, if you're holding a certification, then chances are you have already learned the skill that you need in order to deliver the result that your clients want to accomplish. The next circle is the offer, which aka is your coaching package. Most of us, when we first started out, that offer doesn't need to be complicated. It could be four sessions, however much that you're going to charge, or it could be eight weeks, 12 weeks, however that you design and you want your coaching business that first package to look like. I'm going to share some resources below this video to show you how you can put your first package together down in the description box. And to be honest, that circle is probably the easiest thing to do now with the help of Chat GPT. You might be staying up at 2 a.m. in the morning and asking ChatGPT, help me put a package together. And ChatGPT will do just that. Except now you are sitting with tons of ideas and you have no idea of which one to pick. So my video is going to help you to identify exactly how to put that first coaching package together. Now the next circle you're going to see is the traffic circle. And this, my friend, is the biggest challenge for all life coaches who are trying to get themselves out to build a coaching business and have paying clients. Traffic means that somebody needs to know that you exist. No matter how big or small the audience would be, even a small audience is not the problem. The problem is that the small audience are filled with people who love you and they would probably never hire you in the first place. I mean, let's face it, friends and family can cheer you up, but when it is time for you to share your offer, share your package, getting them to know your skill, they're probably not the most ideal clients that you ever dream of. So you end up doing one or two things. One is to fill your calendar with networking events, hoping that maybe the referral will trigger in or trying to show up online only to find yourself feeling overwhelmed and swallowed by all the noise that's online. And unless you got something truly unique to say, it is very easy to feel the burned out before you actually break through. So at the end, if you are unable to fill the traffic circle, meaning new people need to come and know your business, then you don't have any client to fill the bucket for your coaching skill. Then even you are able to get a couple of pro bono clients, you won't be able to sell your offer or your package. And that becomes a vicious cycle of I don't have the traffic and therefore my coaching skill gets really rusty. So in order to keep up the coaching skill, you end up offering more pro bono. Maybe it's among your peers because I need these practice sessions. I mean, practice is great, but real confidence comes from coaching, paying clients, and deliver those results to those real clients who trust you to help them to transform in the first place. But it is not your fault. It stems from that first problem that I talked about before, which is your traffic problem. If no one knows about you, chances are you're not going to fill the bucket with your coaching skill. And therefore, no matter how beautiful and how amazing your package, you created, no one is going to buy. So you might be sitting there and wondering, okay, Michelle, but how do I solve it? So, in order to solve this problem where your traffic is not bringing enough people to experience your coaching skill and to therefore to buy your package, then there are actually seven steps that we need to focus on. And these are the seven steps that helps you to bridge the gap and moving your audience from, well, I have a problem here and I'm looking to hire a coach to help me to solve this problem, to I am ready to invest. And it takes a total of seven steps in order to accomplish this from turning your stranger into your dream client. What are those seven steps? These seven steps include define and identify. This includes defining your message, defining who you're helping with what, and how you're going to help them. It also includes how you're going to position yourself in this busy and crowded market so that your ideal client can see you and they will be able to identify you as the coach that they want to work with. The next step is to express it. Now that you know who you're helping with what and how you're going to help them with, you need to have a way of articulating your message so that those who need to hear can actually hear it and feel like they're being seen. And this one you might have heard it a lot of time, where marketers encourage you to deliver the value. But what does that even mean? So illustrating your value, it means that not only do you illustrate the skills that you have as a life coach, you also illustrate why your dream client wants to hire you in the first place. And that can often accomplish by doing all the things that you've been doing on social media, including creating content, posting on social, creating real. There's reason and purpose behind all the things that you do in your coaching business, in your marketing strategy. Next, we have visibility. Visibility is not just about showing up online when you feel like it. Visibility is about having a rhythm of how you're showing up, where you're showing up. So platform is important. If you're picking the wrong platform, of course, you hear cricket. So you have to decide which one-to-two platform that you would like to take ownership and you would like to be on regularly, that includes on your routine basis. Once you have the visibility and your next step is to start enrolling your clients. And there's a strategy of how you can invite someone to your calendar and not just, there's my calendar and go book a call. Because we all know that's not a perfect strategy. And most likely your client will be sitting in front of a blank screen and they're thinking, Well, why should I be booking a call? That's a commitment. Help me understand why I am committed to booking a call with you. And therefore, I can trust you're going to do something with me on that call. Otherwise, nowadays our time is valuable. And last but not least, the seventh step is to be able to repeat the process and knowing and identifying which and where do I need to fix the gap. So these are the seven steps that would help you to stop that profit blocker, whether it's the traffic, the skill, or the offer, you need to have the perfect three triangle in order to have a profitable business. Now, if you're curious about which of the seven areas that you have the weakest link, there's an assessment down below this video. You can take an assessment using the link below, and I'm going to send you a personalized report to show you exactly which of the seven areas that you need to improve on. And I will personally deliver a customized video to you to go over the report, or you can simply book a call and we can discuss your report in much more detail. So the bottom line is once you have the certification, that is only the beginning. The journey continues. And if you want a profitable coaching business, not only being able to make impact, but something that you're excited to wake up to. Because there's a lot of things that's changing in 2026 with the incorporation of AI and all these different coaches using AI, what makes you stand out is that personalization and how much you understand your client, how much you're willing to deliver what they truly want, that is going to help you to make you stand out in this current market. 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 elevate lifecoaching.org 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 wasting 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 elevateelifecoaching.org and grab a free strategy out of today.