#247: What If Visibility Isn’t The Point At All

A while back I told overwhelmed coaches to make a task list, delegate, and automate. Work smarter, not harder. I still believe that. 

But lately I had a different thought, and a client email this weekend made it click. You're not missing a system. You're not missing another program. You're missing the one thing a regular job always gave you: a deadline and a job description.

No boss. No clock. No order of operations. Just you, wearing every hat at once. Of course it feels like chaos.

In this episode I break down what a real system actually is, why "be more visible" is incomplete advice, and the one-line routine that cuts through the noise.

In this episode:

• A system is a routine, not a tool you download and install
• Why visibility does not equal clients (visibility sparks conversation, conversation gets clients)
• What an overwhelmed coach's day really looks like, and why doing a little of everything keeps you stuck
• How to reverse-engineer your routine from the only goal that matters
• The one metric to measure, and it's not downloads or followers

Your homework this week: write your routine in one single line. How do I get clients? Which really means: how do I start conversations? Then give yourself the deadline nobody else will. Three conversations by Friday.

Resources & links:
🔗 Free 7-Step Roadmap to build your coaching business and get paying clients

 🔗 Coaching Biz Lounge, ongoing marketing support for coaches, built by a coach ($197/month)

Enjoying the show? Follow so you don't miss next week's honest hot take on Substack, and if this one landed, a quick rating and review helps another coach find it.

I'd love to hear it: 

what kind of conversation have you been having this week? Message me and tell me. You never know who needs to hear exactly what you do.

About the host:

Michelle Kuei is a business and marketing coach for coaches. She helps women coaches across all niches stop chasing clients and start attracting them using her Client Enrollment Method. She's the founder of Elevate LifeCoaching, the creator of Coaching Biz Builder, and the host of the Make It Visible podcast.

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If this episode helped you, the best thank-you is a quick rating and review wherever you listen.

 
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Transcript

Why Overwhelm Shows Up

Michelle Kuei 0:00

A while back, I wrote an article telling overwhelming coaches to make a little task list. And that video is probably still sitting somewhere on this channel. And what that was involved was I hear a lot of coaches feeling overwhelmed. So the thing, the very first thing that I said was, Well, making a list of all the things that you have to do and figure out what are some of the things that you can carve all the time, delegate, and maybe automate. So the whole idea and premise behind that was that I encourage you to work smarter and not harder. And it sounds right, and I still believe that that is the way that eventually your coaching business wants to go to. However, lately I had a different thought. That's what we're going to talk about today. Hey coach, welcome back to Make It Visible Podcast. I'm Michelle Kwei, business and marketing coach for coaches. And if you're new here, I teach coaches how to build a coaching business and get their first and next paying clients. You became a coach because you are good at this. Really good. And the world needs what you have. But being a great coach and knowing how to build a coaching business, well, those are two complete different skill sets. That's what we fix here on this podcast. Every week I'm breaking down the what stops you from being visible in front of your audience, giving you simple marketing strategies that works, and showing you exactly how to show up so the right client feels like, well, you're already reading their mind. If you're ready to start building your coaching business that pays you back, grab a drink and let's get into it. Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. And if you have not hit the subscribe button, I would love for you to go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Because on this channel, I'm doing things a little differently because over the past couple of months, I've been sitting there with this idea of exactly what do I want to do with this channel. Do I want to sound like another guru teaching you all the how-to, or do I want to really focus on what I do best to build my own coaching business and also now helping other coaches building theirs? So here's what you can expect. There's four pillars that you can find on

What A System Really Means

Michelle Kuei 2:32

this channel. There's always going to be a plant with me. You're gonna sit down and grab my marketing calendar system where you can sit down and plan with me. I'm gonna show you my process of how we do that. We're also going to talk about one practical skill that you can do in your coaching business right now that will grow your business. And the third thing I want to give you is my honest hot take. And there's a lot of different opinions lately, especially now that I have been thinking about what do I want to talk about on this channel. There's a lot of my honest hot take on the things that's happening in our business. For example, this morning I was waking up and I was thinking, whoa, I need to talk about Substack. So next week I am going to talk about Substack. If you're on it, you're not on it. I am going to share my experience on it and what I think is the biggest advantage and disadvantage of being non-Substack. So that is coming up. And if you'd like to hear that next, be sure to hit that subscribe button. And I'm also going to give you a recap of what I have planned and what happened during my launch or the planning that we had came up with in the beginning of the month, what went wrong and what we need to do better. But today I want to come back to a topic that I had covered in the past, which is system. Now I'm gonna say this out loud that a system is not some place or a perfect platform, or it's not an app, it's not a program. It is simply knowing what you need to do and when to do it. There, I said it. So there's a lot of people and marketers selling you systems, and their idea of system is that you need to create a funnel. Great. Let me show you the system on how to build that. So maybe you are on an email marketing service provider. Maybe you are creating a course and you have to have a course delivery platform, and that builds a system itself where you can deliver your course or deliver your program or deliver your email or deliver your client relationship. So you also hear the CRN term. There's a lot of different terminology that builds around the word system. Here's my hot take on that. A system is not something that you buy. It's not something that you have. It's not another program, another app that you download and install into your computer or somewhere on your phone. To me, what a system really means is that you know exactly what to do, when to do it, exactly what needs to be done in building your coaching business. That to me is a system. That's what a system looks like. Now,

The Real Source Of Overwhelm

Michelle Kuei 5:30

let me peg up and tell you how this whole episode got started. So I was sitting there, and then suddenly this email came in during the weekend, and one of my clients, and I heard this so many freaking times over the past 30 days, where a coach reaches out and they're saying that, hey, you know, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I love your program. I love to sign up with you, but I'm also feeling overwhelmed. Here's what I'm doing: I am finishing up and wrapping my wrapping up my certification program. And there's a lot of classes that I have to do. There is a peer coaching session that I have to dedicate it to. And then on top of it, I'm also building this business. I don't want to walk out of my certification and just starting from scratch or starting from zero. I actually want to get started so that, you know, by the time I get out of having my certification, I already know that my clients are coming. So they're doing a lot of different things. And even within my program, you know, I have like step-by-step pillars and milestones that I help clients to accomplish. But somehow, every time I talk about milestone and steps, there's still a lot of you going out there and then trying to do everything all at once. That defeats the whole purpose of having these steps so that it addresses these overwhelmed, so that you know exactly what needs to be done and when. So when coaches reach out and say that I am so overwhelmed, you hear it so many different places, so many times. Here's what a typical day usually looks like for them. So Monday through Friday, maybe there's three peer coaching calls that you have to hop on, and you're spending hours with your peer coach, practicing your coaching skill. And then you also recognize that, oh, I need to be on social, I need to put my message out. So you start creating content, you start jumping into marketing without knowing what that big picture looks like. So you're creating spending time in writing posts. Maybe you're talking to AI more than the time that you talk to your family member. So you spend a lot of time creating and creating and creating. You're also doing research. Who is my avatar? What is my package? How much should I charge? Where should I go and pitch about my speaking workshop? So you're creating all these things all at once. And then on top of it, you're thinking about okay, so which technology should I be using? What calendar program should I be using? What is the CRM client relationship management tool? Which one should I be choosing? And how do I put a contract together? How do I put my package together? You're doing it's occupying you majority of the time every single day. So it becomes a little bit of everything that you're dabbling on. Now, a lot of my clients who starting this coaching business and they're in this business, they had a prior role where it may or may not be related to business at all. And this may be their first time, their first rodeo, where there's no one for the very first time, no one is there to hand you a deadline. There's nothing due immediately. There's no clocking in, there's no clocking out. You basically nothing is due unless you really give it a deadline. So when I told you to simplify and by creating a list on all the tasks that you have to do and elegate the time, delegate to your person, maybe it's a VA and maybe it's automate some of the things. Well, I was wrong. I was wrong in the fact that it's not a system that you're lacking, it's not another program that you're lacking. It's that simple idea of the overwhelm doesn't come from choosing just one platform. It's not the all-in-one platform that's going to help you. It's not knowing which format of the social media post I need to create. Is it a post? Is it a carousel? Is it a reel? The problem is none of that. It's the fact that nobody hands you a deadline and said, do this first. So you're running a business with no boss, there's no clock, and there's no orders of operation, and calling, calling, you're basically calling the chaos overwhelm. Now, most of you don't have the business background, so you don't know how to run a business, and that operational big picture thing, it's probably very foreign to you. You may have been a supervisor running agenda, running a team, supervising your staff, but there's not a whole there's a lot of work that's been delegated and that's being broken down by your job description. Now, the problem when you come into the business is that you have no job description. You you have several roles, but within that role, you

Conversation Is What Gets Clients

Michelle Kuei 10:50

need to be the CEO, you need to be the marketing, the chief marketing officer, you need to be the CFO, the chief financial officer. You're basically wearing a lot of hats, and these are the roles that you you have when you start a business, but there's no job description for you. Say, okay, so sit down, and here's your role, here's your function, and here's what you have to do as a CFO or as the CMO. No one is giving you the job description, so you end up you're dabbling a little bit of all the area and thinking that, well, this is how you build a business. So of course you're feeling overwhelmed. Now, a system is not a place, it's not a platform, it's not another app, it's a routine. It's knowing what you do in what order, by when, and also why. So I say, I'd say the job is where someone says, here's a deadline, do this first, and I need it by Friday. That structure is completely gone. But that structure was the system. You never built one for yourself. And this is why not having a routine is going to create that overwhelming feeling because you know you want a client, but you don't know what vehicle how you're going to go about and getting to the client. So let's take a step back and let's create that system first. That system again, it's it's a routine. Okay. So what does that routine look like? And this is a true conversation I have with a client. So basically, your goal in your business is to get a client. Comment client down below and let me know that this is the ultimate goal that you're watching this video for. You want a client, you want clients, right? Not just one, but multiple, multiple clients that's going to enroll themselves in and you continue to attract them throughout your coaching business. So that is a big umbrella of your ultimate goal is to get a client. Now, how do we get clients? What you need essentially is conversation. Now, type in conversation in a comment and also let me know that if conversation or starting a conversation, hosting a conversation, maintaining a conversation has been a challenge for you because that would be something that I can help you with. Comment conversation down below if that's something that you've been working on trying to get conversation. Now, client conversation equals to clients. Also, type that down. Conversation equals to client. Visibility does not equal clients. And this is a mistake that a lot of coaches are making where they're thinking that if I just be visible, then I'm going to have clients, right? No, wrong. Visibility itself, it does not generate any clients. Visibility that sparks conversation or facilitate conversation, that is going to get you a step closer to getting a client. So visibility alone does not generate client. So knowing that fact that I need to be visible in order to have conversation, then your next question should be well, okay, so I know I need to have conversation. What are some of the things that I can do on a day-to-day basis that would allow me to facilitate, to generate, and to lead to conversation? And that becomes the why you are on social. Your goal on social is not just to be visible, especially if you're a coach. If you're an influencer, that argument is out the window. Because your purpose on social is getting visibility and being an influencer. But if your goal is to have clients in your coaching business and you are a coach, not an influencer, then your ultimate goal is to facilitate that conversation so that you can invite that person into your coaching business that becomes a client. So knowing that I have to have conversation and my goal and my reason for being on social is to have conversation, then my routine of how I am going to go about doing that is broken down into a simple way, right? So if I am someone who just starting out, starting new, what will lead to a conversation? One, I need to get my clients or my prospects know me more. So initially, your goal for getting on social is probably going to be I need to reach out to more people and not just looking for the reach out, right? Your goal is to how can I be in front of new people, new audience? I need to focus on making my self-introduction. Maybe there's people in my world who didn't know about me and who who might know somebody who knows somebody, then my initial step in my initial focus would be to introduce myself to everybody. Now, I am also going to introduce my topic of expertise that position me as the thought leader in that field, in that niche that I am going to. So my goal is not going to, hey, I need to sell you my program. My goal is to, hey, if you like what you're hearing, then give

Build Your Routine By Season

Michelle Kuei 16:30

me a like or give me a follow. And that will be your goal for at least that first 30 days, if not 60 days, of your coaching business when you're first starting out. Now that's it, you already got that part. You already built the audience, you're you'll continue to attract new people into your social, into your email, or into your podcast or YouTube channel. Then your next set of goal is I need to sell my program. Now, my goal is selling my program, but the last thing you want to do is keep selling, selling, selling. So what you essentially want to do is great. Now my routine is probably going to be figuring out when I am going to sell and launch my program. So how I how I do this is I open up my calendar and I look at the whole year, and that's say there's certain time or season of the month that I am not going to be available. I am going to be aware, whether it's for kids, maybe the school is up, or maybe I'm personally going on vacation. So I'm going to block out those months where I am not going to be fully selling in a selling mode or launching mode. So I block out those months, and then I look at the remaining of my calendar and say, okay, so here are the months that I would like to enroll clients, which means that from the conversation, then I can invite them if it's a right fit, then I want to invite them into my program. So that would be another routine that you would do as you're getting clear, finalizing what is my goal for this season of life. And I find that fascinating because a lot of coaches, and including myself, were so good at creating things, creating programs, creating workshop, creating speaking gig, creating podcasts, creating YouTube channel. We have all these pieces laying around in front of us, but we have no idea of how to put things together, how to put things into perspective. And to me, the biggest challenge and big the biggest reason why a lot of coaches struggle struggle with this is because no one gave you that big picture of here are the steps that you follow. And when I mean steps, it means that you take one step at a time. If you're starting out, you need to figure out the messaging. And why do you need to figure out the messaging? So that you can curate this audience that are your ideal client. Without the ideal client, no matter how beautiful your package design is or how powerful your transformation is that you can help your client achieve, it doesn't matter because you don't have the audience. So your goal, depending on which step that you are currently on, and by the way, there's a link in the description box down below where you can download my seven-step roadmap of how you build coaching business and get paying client. There's a link in the description. Now, once you have those steps in front of you, then you set goal of how you go about achieving, achieving what you want to accomplish. Knowing that each, after each step, your ultimate goal is always going to be how do I facilitate conversations that will lead me to a paying client. So if you're wondering, okay, so when I'm on social, but what exactly is my goal? How do I measure this? One of my simplest simplest ways of measuring the success of your visibility is how many clients you're able you're able to get within the last six months or three months. If you haven't been able to do that, then that tells me something within your process is leaking. Whatever that you have created or whatever that you're doing, it's not leading to a measurable result. And that measure measurable result, it's not like influencer. I need how many views on my video, I need how many followers on my YouTube channel. The ultimate result as a coach who's running a coaching business, your ultimate result is how many clients I have gotten within the last six months. And if you have not been able to do that, then we need to go back and look at all the steps that you have created and what is that routine that you have in place that creates conversation. And I keep going back to the conversation because I feel like a lot of coaches got lost in create creativity, and they they're all into creating, creating, creating. But why do you create? So you always want to take a step back and think about and ask yourself, why am I creating this? I'm creating this, I'm creating a lead magnet, I'm creating an email list because I want conversation. And having conversation is probably one of the biggest driving forces of how you're going to turn your audience into your paying clients. So, if when you're thinking about I'm feeling overwhelmed, look at all the things that you have done so far. I think it's really easy to discredit ourselves on all the things that we have created. You created a lead magnet, you created your social media profile, you created a coaching package. You created a workshop, you created a webinar, you created so many different things, but nothing is leading back to that conversation. And that conversation hasn't been consistent with your paying client. So I like to think of this, and I do this on a reverse engineer. I know I need a client, therefore, my next step is figuring out how I can take an audience into closer so that I can have conversation with them. And what vehicle, what tool, what type of apps, program, or things that I would need to make that conversation a little more, make it more effortlessly. Because if you are creating multiple steps

Homework And Support Options

Michelle Kuei 22:50

and your your audience feel like they have to jump through all these hoops in order to get to you, in order to have a conversation with you, then you're doing it wrong. I'm sorry, but you are doing it wrong. Right? So all the stuff that you do on a day-to-day basis, at the end of the day, is you want to have a conversation. Everything else are just nice to have. So before you let another marketer and another person sell you more stuff, I really want you to go back and look at your current routine. What is your routine that has been assigned for you in building this coaching business? Do you have ways to talk to people? How do you talk to people? How do you reach out to these people? I'm not just talking about like sending them a private message. I'm talking about do you have a routine where you can continue your conversation with them even when you are not there? So here's some homework for you to do this week is I want you to write down your routine in one single line. How do I get clients? And which me also means how do I get a conversation? What is your way of conversing with your audience, maybe with your past clients, maybe with people who have shown interest that they would like to work with you? What is that routine that you have for you to get conversation? And if you ever need a deadline of here, here's what I need from you by Friday, here I'm handing you an agenda. Give me three conversations by Friday. And that's your clocking in, clocking out. Okay. Now, if you're interested and you need ongoing marketing support, something that you can rely on and making sure that you are holding yourself accountable, doing the right thing at the right place in the right order. I want to invite you to come inside the coaching biz lounge this week. The lounge is opened. It is an ongoing marketing support for coaches only, and it is created by a coach. We're building it together one day at a time, one month at a time. There's a link in the description. And again, comment down below. Let me know what type of conversation have you been having this week. Let's start a conversation down below because you never know, someone out there might want to hear your resource. 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 strategy, 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 elevatelifecoaching.org and grab a free strategy out of today.