#236:“I Didn’t Recognize Myself Anymore” – What Coaches Experience When Clarity Finally Clicks

If you’ve ever thought:

• “I love coaching… but my business feels all over the place”
• “I have so many tools, but I don’t know how to package them”
• “I’m doing a lot… and still not getting clients”

This episode is for you.

In today’s conversation, I’m sharing real client stories and the behind-the-scenes shifts that happen when coaches stop guessing and finally get clear on:

• who they’re meant to serve (without spiraling)
• how to merge their skills, story, and experience into one clear offer
• how to market in a way that feels grounded instead of exhausting
• why confidence grows when you have a real plan

You’ll hear what it looks like when coaches go from scattered to clear, from overthinking to taking action, and from hiding to actually being seen.

This isn’t about becoming louder or more “salesy.”
 It’s about clarity, support, and building a business that actually fits you.

In this episode, we cover:

• The internal shift coaches don’t expect when they do this work
• Why having more tools isn’t the answer
• The “Who do I serve?” question that keeps coaches stuck
• How niche clarity shows up through the right questions
• The difference between having an idea and taking action
• Why introverted coaches thrive with simple, clear strategy
• What changes when fear turns into curiosity

🚪 Coaching Biz Builder is OPEN

If you’re ready to stop guessing and want support building your message, offer, and client-getting plan step by step, Coaching Biz Builder is open for a limited time.

This is my 8-week live cohort where we build:

• a clear message people recognize themselves in
• an offer that’s easy to say yes to
• one visibility path you can stick with
• a simple enrollment process that doesn’t feel awkward or salesy

➡️ Learn more and join here: http://coachingbizbuilder.com

Meet Your Host: 

Hey, I’m Michelle — The coaches’ coach.

I'm a Business and Visibility marketing Coach who helps female life coaches build a coaching biz, get seen at all the right places, and attract paying clients.

I believe your coaching business should feel beautiful and profitable — without sacrificing your sanity, your weekends, or your personality.

Using my 7-Step Client Enrollment Method, I help you build a coaching business 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

Book a strategy call with Michelle ➔ http://coachwithclients.com/strategycall

Transcript

Opening Enrollment & Purpose

Michelle Kuei 0:00

This week, I'm opening the door to Coaching Biz Builder. This is my signature eight-week live cohort for new coaches or coaches who are in training to become a coach. And as I was planning for this open enrollment, I had the opportunity to go back and look at and review a lot of the um feedbacks and testimonials that my past clients had left and given me. And so today's episode is a little different because they just brought so much joy. And you know how that moment of this is exactly what I meant to do. I had that moment this week. And what they shared was not just what had changed for their business, but it was really something that had changed for their life, going from I don't know what to do, to knowing exactly what they want. Whether it is continue to build this business, or some of them actually decided to take a break and started to explore their new interests. It just brought so much joy to know that they're not lost out there anymore and they actually have a direction, they know what to do, and they have the confidence of doing it well. So today's episode is a little collection of all the things I have heard over the year, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of them to allow me to be part of their journey. Enjoy. 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. Grab a notebook, pour yourself a favorite drink, and that's make your coaching business visible.

SPEAKER_10 2:41

I don't recognize myself from the beginning of the year at all. It's just the things that I can do, yes, the the technical things that you gave me are beyond what I thought I could do. But just having those moments, especially the moments that were extra hard to have to really sit with myself and look at my limitations, but also see my gifts. Yeah. That brought that for me, that's the biggest takeaway. I tell this to everybody, I'm even the people that are seeing face to face. Real deal is not the word. I I don't even know what the word is. You will be challenged. You may cry a little bit, but you will have your heart burst with so much joy with one watching somebody care for you like I don't even know. You feel so supported, you feel like you've got this, she's got you. And hey, you can waste a lot of time or you can get in, learn it. I know I say this all the time to you, but thank you for doing your work. Thank you for shining and showing up and just supporting the way you support, because I'll say it again: you have impacted the way I show up in for my clients, and that's a huge deal. It's really big.

Merging Modalities Into One Clear Offer

SPEAKER_07 4:03

I've been close to seven years already coaching. My spiritual practice really took off when I became a Reiki master, and there was no synergy. I was treating Sujokan, I was treating Reiki, and I was treating coaching separate, and I didn't know how to merge. On one-on-one, I did, I brought all the tools and all the knowledge and inner wisdom, but I didn't know how to wrap it up. And so when I started working with you, that was one of the things that we addressed because I didn't know how to share my story. And one of the questions was, who do I serve? I have clients that are teenagers and I have their mothers too. Who do I serve? Do I serve the mother or do I serve the teenager? Who? And that was a big question. I didn't know how to merge them. And that's how and why you came in when I saw you that you were offering, and I said, That's it. I'm doing this. And within that same day, I sign up my most valuable, one of my most valuable clients who has brought so much in the last year that is just amazing. And it was simply, or not simply, because it's not so simply, but because sometimes we're in it, we don't see it clearly, bringing my story together and just sharing genuinely my genius, my magic, and sticking to what I am good at and how I create that magic and transfer that. And that's what I've been doing, attracting those most valuable clients that allow me to serve them from a space of authenticity, vulnerability, courage by just being me and sharing my story and in bloom. I didn't have to chase anybody, I was just letting go of the outcome and just surfing from that higher place, tapping into what I know it comes naturally from me without making up anything other than okay, let's roll up our sleeves and work that inner journey. And so by the mother working through their fears, their childhood wounds, they are able to transfer that wisdom and to let go with love their daughters so they can be whatever and whomever they want to be.

Finding The Right Niche And Client

Turning Ideas Into Actionable Launches

SPEAKER_06 6:42

And is in that freedom where magic is created, like I should have known this so long ago. I was a little scattered, and I wanted, I have a lot of men to that come to me because in the professional world, I work with more men than women. So I have the men that are interested, and it's for some reason when I post something, it resonates with men. So I was, I'm like, okay, should I give men an opportunity? Am I closing a door to helping people and to earning that income that is also part of my goal? And I wasn't sure, and I was also a little confused with my journey started through a divorce. Like, do I work with divorced women? But someone that's going through a divorce is not ready to start the journey that I'm offering. So it was more of asking the question and dialing down through your questions to identify who is that targeted individual. So by following the questions in your framework, I continue to ask the question, but it was like the why, the why, but what am I looking for until I finally discovered that it is not a person that is in the beginning state of a transition. It's the person who has gone through a semi-transition, but is ready to make the change in their lives. And that's that's how I was able to discover who is my ideal client. I've worked with other coaches. You know, I've worked with other coaches, and I've had this course in mind for the last like two years. But one thing is having an idea, and there's a difference with an idea and function. And what I love about working with you is that you simplify processes. You have the ability to take a very complicated process and simplify it, simplifying it. And hearing you and working directly with you, where you kind of like just broke it down in little pieces, where I was able to tackle it. So when I received then the launch of my course, it was just like this gigantic project that I couldn't even like put my hands around it. And I was looking for perfection as well, because that's going back to your own limiting beliefs. I can't put, I'm a senior HR director, court corporate director. I can't put something out there that's half, that doesn't work, right? That's not perfect, but that's part of the journey, and that's what you taught me in the sense of let's simplify little bite-sized training and lessons and one step at a time. This is what we're working with now. Complete that. This is not right. So you basically hand folded the process, and that's what made it possible for me. So seeing then your strategy and the way that you work, then for the first time, Michelle, I said, Oh shit, this is possible. I could do this. So I launched my course following your strategy. And as you said, like that same day, I had two people that signed up. And then and by the end of the second day, I had a total of seven. And before I closed the cards, I had one more individual. So my goal was to have 10. I have eight people that enrolled in my course, which at first I said, Oh, I'm lucky if I have two. And if it's two, that's fine. I'm just gonna practice. Michelle said it's the journey, it's the practice, so I'm happy with it.

SPEAKER_08 10:10

You are absolutely amazing. You are the magic ingredient for all interventive coaches. Um, I am actually singing your praises to people I know uh because you took me from walking around in the dark to really understanding and knowing and owning my marketing plan.

SPEAKER_09 10:40

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_08 10:44

You'll help people with. Um, I I likened it like this when I was talking to my husband about it. His his mom um was an artist, and one time she was sitting there when she was drawing a picture of me, and she was putting weird lines on the page, and you know, it didn't make y'all thinking, you know, she's just kind of doodling, scribbling, I have no idea what she's doing. And then all of a sudden, she did like three or four other lines, and I popped up. So that's what the experience of how you take people from not understanding what their niche is and not understanding what their ideal client looks like, feels like, sounds like, etc. You know, you take us through manageable pieces that walk us on a path that actually create all of that. It's infused in us. You understand that that's what it takes to get us there, and you're just dragging us, you know, to where we need to go to.

Building Clarity Through Stepwise Frameworks

SPEAKER_01 11:53

I I came to Michelle because I um I felt like I was really excited about coaching and I loved the possibility, but I had no landing spot. So I was forever in the clouds going, yes, this is a great idea, but but but where do I where do I get grounded? And so um Michelle's sort of vision is so clear and uh yet so flexible, she can adapt it to anybody. And what what Michelle's course has given me is um a landing spot, a place to understand, you know, the tools that I need to pack with me on my journey and how to do it, and and a navigational chart and how this gets done, and um clarity. Those are all sort of the intellectual things that she's given to me, but the emotional things that she's given to me is um an incredible example of uh joy, positivity, resilience, um just the sort of divinity of the human spirit, um, which will stay with me along with all the things that I've packed in my bags that she's given me. Um, you know, just to light the way, because anybody who is embarking on a new endeavor, it often is dark. And with Michelle's incredible example of um possibility and optimism, it it's it'll just be with me as far as I go. So I'm so grateful for that, as well as all the nuts and bolts and things in my bag that I have. Um how blessed, how grateful I am. Thank you, Michelle.

Confidence, Visibility, And Leading By Example

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Thank you. Honest to God, I I didn't ask for it, but Michelle sorted out my entire LinkedIn profile while I was in Starbucks lineup. Like, like, Tina, this is what you need to do. And I thought, oh my god, like this is enormous value. And like so, so your your um archetype is exactly, exactly you. Like you you loved on me hard, um, and then you you're like, but I want what's best for you. Like that's exactly your archetype. It's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_05 14:32

Michelle's there, it's like she's always there, always watching, always um, always supportive. I don't know how you do it, Michelle. Like everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

It's so true. I've actually I've actually messaged her privately just like, I'm worried about you. I don't think you sleep.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

You you have no idea how much money I have spent over the last few years. Uh and I don't feel like people challenged me or gave me the right information to actually get out there and do. Um, and I had a lot of people who tried to tell me what I should be doing, and none of those things resonated with me. Um, it for the moment I would be excited, but then as soon as I left their presence, the excitement was gone, and I didn't do even that little bit. So with you, it's totally different. You actually tried to find out what my interest was, and then you said about, okay, this is how you're gonna make this work. You may not believe in journaling, but you've you've generated such excitement and enthusiasm that even if I was even if I was starting to back off from it, uh everything's been renewed because you've shown me, hey, you can do this, and you can be a success at it. You might even make some money at it. Um it's it's all in the presentation, and that's what you do. You you you have given you give me that. And that was something that I honestly I needed because I don't have any, my family has never really taken an interest in the the things that I've done. And the friends that I have all tried to tell me what I should be doing. Nobody ever really listened to what it was that I wanted to do, and so having you be my cheerleader is awesome.

Support, Adaptability, And Sustainable Growth

Closing CTA And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Since I got my certification in early 2020, my coaching certification, tremendous, tremendous difference in myself. And you're the one person I keep sticking with because you you resonate with me. You don't when I push back, you push back too, which is good, but you also give me that space and you give me that understanding and you come around another direction. I can't even put down, I can't even express uh the journey, the growth, because it's been exponential, hugely exponential. Long answer to a short question, but it's a big answer because the value that you have given me in I'm gonna say showing up in my life, because you introduced me to speaking platforms, you introduced me to being able to do an email campaign, all of these things where there's so many different ways, social media that we have to be out there, and each one how we do one thing is how we do everything. I was showing up like in the beginning, I was like this, but now I'm like, I'm just gonna put it out there and it's gonna be okay. And so big answer because it's just a tremendous amount of growth, just having you lead by example. Everybody, I think, leads by example because everybody's our teacher and everybody everybody's our student. But if I find with you, because I've worked with several different people, I hired coaches or I um subscribed to plans and courses and stuff. And your way of being able to meet me where I am, I think that's really as coaches. That's the thing, as coaches, we meet people where they are. And you're a person who uh you understand where the where each of us is coming from. And I've seen you working with other people. So I've seen you, I've known you for almost four years. I've seen you interact with different people, and I've seen the growth in them. And I've seen mostly how you, I don't say adapt to them, but yeah, you do adapt. You adapt your style to them, you adapt your pressure to them, you adapt your encouragement because we do need someone to push our envelopes. We we do. Otherwise, we become stagnant. We we will never go any further than we are right now unless we push our envelope either by ourselves or have somebody on the outside. And you are very good at knowing what envelopes people need and how much pressure to give. And sometimes when you give too much pressure, you already you intuitively know to back off or change direction. And that's what makes you unique to other to other coaches that I've worked with or courses I've taken. A lot of them were bull in the China shop, and you are a very strong, determined person, but not everybody you work with is like that. And you see us as individually doing that at our pace, and yet still you're I always make the metaphor, you're gonna push us over the edge, but you're holding on to us at the same time. And that is the big difference where you not only showed me how I needed to do things or recommended how I needed to do things based on what my business is, but you also pushed me enough where I wanted to do it, but you led more. For me, it was more of your leading. It was more like I want to follow you, I don't want to be prodded and pushed like other programs have done. And you've shown me in your business, your growth in your business. And I'm like, I want to do that. That's where I want to be. I'm like the little kid that's running up behind you in every step you take. I'm like, I want to do that, I want to do that. That's been hugely instrumental because you lead by example. That's big for me. In the past, I would have been more afraid of all the mistakes, and now I'm just like, hmm, I'm curious. I've never done this before, and I have no idea how it's gonna work out. And I'm good with it. I'm good with the curiosity as opposed to creating the fear. For anybody who knows Michelle, Michelle is the epitome of spunk. Um, because you're little, you're like a firecracker. You don't take anything from people, you just but it's the it's your fun, happy spunky is to me is I'm gonna go out and do that, but I'm gonna do it with joy and fun and abandon. And that's spunky for me. Oh my god. And once you get in Michelle's world for people who you resonate with, because yeah, everybody has their people. I can't imagine where where I would be. I can actually imagine where I would be if I had not come across you uh all those years ago, because I would still be hiding and I would still be, I st I would still be in a very not moving forward, probably even moving backwards police. I might have even at that point, I probably wouldn't have given up, but I certainly wouldn't have gotten where I am now if I had not come across you. That was big. So for anybody who really wants to know about you, they can just contact me. You're you have been, I'm so excited to I'm so excited to to see how my career is gonna go, how my business is gonna go over the next. Year, months. I'm so excited because there's so many ideas and there's so much inspiration. And I'm I'm really excited about going forward with you and going and just an example the other day of the text message. I'm like, oh my God, I didn't even, I didn't even it came out kind of with a blue for me because I don't know these things. This is what's good about this. You catch things because you have because not only do you work with me, but you work with a lot of people and you see what a lot of people are doing, and you can apply this to this person, you can apply this to this person. And so for me, you can see what it is it's missing, or you can see what I'm not seeing. I think that's phenomenal. That's huge, right there, because you were saying things. I'm like, oh my God. Oh my god.

Michelle Kuei 22:54

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 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 elevate lifecoaching.org and grab a free strategy outfit today.