How to offboard clients who are TOO SUCCESSFUL WITH YOU!
The perfect offboarding system for ADHD entrepreneurs to set ex-clients up for continued success!
I've seen it time and again: entrepreneurs in the throes of success, grappling with a hidden dilemma... what to do when clients achieve unprecedented success under their guidance.
Hey, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and this is my podcast "The Weeniecast!"
In the latest episode, "How to offboard clients who are TOO SUCCESSFUL WITH YOU! ", I'm sharing some tips on handling this potentially squirmy aspect of business.
The client success 'dance'
There's this move we need to dance between nurturing a client's growth and knowing when to let go of them and wave them on to their next phase.
I'm sharing a couple of personal stories - one involving a client who found personal growth overtaking her business goals, which leads us to question the very definition of success.
And the other one which talks about an interesting business dynamic I have with my podcast producer, who does all the things.
This is counter to how I'd normally work as a service provider, but it works for him and it's ideal for me!
The various client coaching models
I also talk about how to ensure your clients become self-reliant, the importance of knowing when to direct clients to new opportunities, and the delicate craft of soliciting impactful testimonials.
This episode won't just share insights—it’s a blueprint for you to follow as an ADHD entrepreneur who wants a solid offboarding process.
Get ready to take notes! You might find the transcript useful for this which you'll find on the episode page at weeniecast.com/how-to-handle-clients-who-are-too-successful!
Every entrepreneur envisions the moment of triumph when their hard work pays off.
Only sometimes, that success isn’t theirs; it's their clients'.
Timestamped Summary:
- 00:02:12 - The dangers of fostering dependency in our clients.
- 00:05:20 - The necessity for steady marketing.
- 00:08:45 - When coaching becomes personal development.
- 00:12:30 - Maintaining professional boundaries.
- 00:15:45 - Real-life examples of clients who thrived after completing with me.
- 00:19:55 - Why referring a client to another coach is sometimes the right move.
- 00:23:10 - How organized offboarding influences referrals.
- 00:28:25 - How to ask for GOOD testimonials, without awkwardness.
- 00:33:40 - The emotional and logistical elements.
- 00:37:50 - Proactive communication when discussing service cancellations.
Your next steps after listening
Realizing it's time to work with me? Book your free intial strategy call with me - weeniecast.com/strategycall
Get more support in your ADHD entrepreneur life by joining my hyperfocus community! - https://weeniecast.com/hyperfocus
Wanna get this content earlier, and totally unbleeped? Subscribe to the Apple Podcasts premium version of this show - https://weeniecast.com/winners
Want to just buy me a coffee in return for some helpful insight? Thank you! Here's where you can do that - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiethecoach
Mentioned in this episode:
My May challenge
Want to participate in my May challenge? Find out more, and sign up for your chance to win 1:1 sessions with me at weeniecast.com/challenge!
Katie's May Birthday challenge
Clients can't hire you if they don't know you exist... Which is why it's SO important to post content to Social Media. Consistently. But that's easier said than done... To learn how to post consistently, you have to DO consistently. Which is why I've created the 31 Day Challenge- to hold your feet to the fire so you can create content, post, and finally attract your ideal clients to you, rather than chase them down...
Transcript
In this episode, I'm going to tell you how
Speaker:you can handle when your clients have too much success with you and it's
Speaker:time to flee the nest. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business
Speaker:strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weenie cast.
Speaker:Squirrel. One of the coolest things about starting a
Speaker:business based solely on work that you're passionate about
Speaker:doing and being super conscious about developing
Speaker:a niche that attracts people who are not only your
Speaker:ideal client, but are just your ideal people.
Speaker:Like, they are the people that if you bumped into them in the real
Speaker:world, if you weren't running your business, you would probably become
Speaker:friends with them. It is one of the greatest joys
Speaker:in the world, because not only are you making money doing
Speaker:what you love, you're making money working with people who
Speaker:you genuinely enjoy spending time with. And you're not just
Speaker:working with them, you're helping them transform some
Speaker:element of their life. It is one of the
Speaker:greatest gifts that we can give ourselves is to start a
Speaker:business where we get to do that day in and day out.
Speaker:But it does have its dark side.
Speaker:When a client starts to work with you, they're gonna work with you for a
Speaker:bit, and there's gonna come a moment where they're done.
Speaker:Your work with them will end. And I can tell
Speaker:you, as a coach, there's, like, a certain sadness. There's a very specific
Speaker:sadness that comes along with completing with a client.
Speaker:Mainly for me, it's I get sad that I'm not going to get to talk
Speaker:to this person every week. You know, I get really close with my
Speaker:clients, and oftentimes we continue the friendship beyond our
Speaker:professional engagement. But as a business owner, when a client
Speaker:completes with you, there are some other things that go into it. A,
Speaker:you no longer have that income coming in, so you then have to start thinking
Speaker:about backfilling that client. B, there's also this element of,
Speaker:oh, my God. Like, was I good enough? You know, you can start getting imposter
Speaker:syndrome because they don't want to work with you anymore. Even if
Speaker:they're done working with you, because they reach their goals, it's super
Speaker:easy for that voice of doubt to pipe in and be like, oh, you weren't
Speaker:good enough. They're done. They don't want to work with you anymore. They probably never
Speaker:want to speak to you again. They're probably just being nice because they don't want
Speaker:to be rude, because they don't want to, like, leave this uncomfortably. They
Speaker:want you to feel good. But like they're going to tell everyone that you suck.
Speaker:And see, once you get over that imposter syndrome,
Speaker:one of the things you want to prioritize is getting a testimonial from this
Speaker:client. So I want to walk you through how you can set up an off
Speaker:boarding process that is going to work really well for you and
Speaker:really well for your clients and have you ending those relationships. On a really
Speaker:solid note, I'm also going to walk you through what my philosophy
Speaker:is when I complete with clients. So you can kind of see how I put
Speaker:it into practice and how I use this philosophy to really
Speaker:help me strategize my whole business.
Speaker:So how you off board clients actually starts with
Speaker:how you onboard them. One of the things that you want to design
Speaker:with them, either verbally or in your agreements,
Speaker:is what it looks like to complete. So let me give you a couple
Speaker:examples here. So if you're doing contract work where
Speaker:they are signing up to work with you for a very specific amount of
Speaker:time, you're starting with them in January, you say that you're going to work with
Speaker:them for nine months. So that means at the end of September, your
Speaker:contract is going to come to a close. And that is where they have the
Speaker:option to either finish the work or sign
Speaker:up for, for another contract. You want to know that going into it. And
Speaker:of course, your client's not going to sign up not knowing that, so it's really,
Speaker:really necessary. You can also have it set up in a way where
Speaker:clients just sign up with you and they pay you monthly until they're done. This
Speaker:is the retainer model. This is the model that I find works really, really
Speaker:well. If you are charging less than
Speaker:$1,000 a month. Once you start charging more than $1,000
Speaker:a month, that whole model of it continues forever until you say you're
Speaker:done. Gets a little squirrely. Clients have a kind of a hard time
Speaker:sticking with something when you're charging that much. But if you do
Speaker:have that retainer model where it's just continue until you're done, you do have to
Speaker:explain to them how they ask for cancellation,
Speaker:right? Cause remember, it's awkward for you. It's awkward for them. When you're
Speaker:working with someone and you're paying them, you're aware that you are making up part
Speaker:of their income. And it's one of the hardest
Speaker:things to say, hey, I no longer want to pay you for this thing.
Speaker:Even if it's coming from a really amazing place, even if it's coming from
Speaker:like, you've helped me reach my goals and I'm so happy for you. To make
Speaker:this a positive experience for everyone involved, you have to be the person
Speaker:who lays all the cards on the table first. And you need to be very
Speaker:specific about, here's how you do it, and here's how you notify
Speaker:me, and here's the conversation we're going to have, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
Speaker:blah, blah. And as you're imagining this, you're going to
Speaker:get really squirmy, right? You're going to get really uncomfortable because
Speaker:this is going to be an uncomfortable conversation. And that's
Speaker:okay. It's okay for you to get squirmy about it. It's
Speaker:okay for it to feel unsettling for you. But
Speaker:the more you lean into it, the more you're open about it, the more you
Speaker:talk about it proactively with your clients, the less awkward
Speaker:it will actually be when it happens. I want you to think about talking
Speaker:about money. For instance, say you just started dating someone and you're trying to get
Speaker:to know them. You think everything's like pretty aligned and you're getting
Speaker:serious and you're thinking, okay, I really want to create a life with this person.
Speaker:If you guys have never talked about money
Speaker:ever in the relationship, but that's one of the things that you
Speaker:need to know, like what is their approach to money? How much debt are
Speaker:they caring? How much savings do they always have? What are their
Speaker:financial goals for the future? Because that's really important for you to know when you're
Speaker:partnering your life with someone else. If you've never brought that
Speaker:conversation up before, and it's never even been referred
Speaker:to talking about it, bringing it up when they're high
Speaker:stakes is really uncomfortable for everyone.
Speaker:So when you start off talking about those things earlier on,
Speaker:it makes it easier for those big topics to come up when they matter
Speaker:most. It's the same with your clients
Speaker:and the whole cancellation process.
Speaker:So when your client comes to you and they express their
Speaker:desire to complete working with you, your job is
Speaker:now explaining how this goes. All right? And of
Speaker:course, it's different for every business owner depending on what kind of work you
Speaker:do. For the kind of work I do with my clients, one of the things
Speaker:that I always like to address is amazing. I'm so proud of you for getting
Speaker:to this point where you feel like you do not need support from me anymore.
Speaker:Here's what I want to do in our final few sessions is
Speaker:I want to make sure that any questions you have about what's going to happen
Speaker:in your business in the next six months, we cover. Now,
Speaker:I also want to hold you accountable to completing any
Speaker:of the projects that we have started, kind of gotten halfway
Speaker:through and haven't completed yet. And if I can't
Speaker:hold you accountable to finishing them by the time we complete our work
Speaker:together, then I want to make sure you're walking away with a
Speaker:plan, knowing exactly what you need to do to bring it to
Speaker:completion. If you're doing more consulting work
Speaker:where you're doing some stuff for your client, then of course you're
Speaker:going to have deliverables that you want to make sure you're handing off to
Speaker:them. Say you've been doing their social media marketing
Speaker:for a year and a half, and they've decided at this
Speaker:point that like, maybe they're going to switch to an ads model
Speaker:and they don't necessarily need to be creating as much organic
Speaker:content, and they just want to kind of reuse what's already been created. At
Speaker:that point, what you're going to do is you're going to transfer over
Speaker:all of the assets and content that you've done for them and make
Speaker:sure it is all nicely organized and ready
Speaker:for them to take the reins with. And you want to make sure,
Speaker:especially if you're handing over assets, that they understand
Speaker:where everything is, that they understand how you have it
Speaker:organized, that they understand how they're going to take ownership over
Speaker:these computer files. Right. If they're in a shared drive, do they need
Speaker:to download those files by a specific date? I can tell you that
Speaker:people that I've worked with in my business who've done this well, I refer business
Speaker:to, even if I'm not working with them anymore, they are
Speaker:my go to. Like, I'm so happy with what they did. Even
Speaker:if they no longer fit my business, I want to send more business to them
Speaker:because I know how professional they are. I've had one
Speaker:really bad experience where I had a
Speaker:fractional COo. It was my first fractional COo in my business.
Speaker:And when we transferred everything over, she actually didn't transfer
Speaker:over. A lot of the training videos that I had for some of my programs
Speaker:and where we were storing them for my
Speaker:courses wasn't working. Like, the whole system just never
Speaker:worked from go. And unfortunately, she lost
Speaker:everything. So I had to re record everything. And
Speaker:that was super frustrating. It left a terrible taste in my
Speaker:mouth, and I think you can bet I'm not referring business
Speaker:to her. So this is the importance. Like, you
Speaker:handing everything off in a really professional, organized manner
Speaker:can make the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
Speaker:of business, depending on how many people this person could refer
Speaker:to you, depending on how much you charge
Speaker:and so many other factors. So you really do want
Speaker:to do this. Well, and the last bit,
Speaker:I know it's awkward. I know it feels like you're fishing for
Speaker:compliments, and who am I to ask them to say nice things about me?
Speaker:But you do need to ask for testimonials. I'm terrible
Speaker:at this. I'm so bad at this. I know my podcast
Speaker:producer is always on me to ask you guys to, like, go
Speaker:onto Apple podcasts or whatever, to review
Speaker:this podcast and say, if there's anything that is specific that you like about it.
Speaker:And I feel super awkward and cringe about it. Even though I train on
Speaker:this, it's always funny when a client
Speaker:completes with me, and I've trained them on asking for
Speaker:testimonials, and they're like, Katie, aren't you
Speaker:forgetting to ask me for something?
Speaker:And I laugh and I'm like, yeah, yeah, I absolutely do want a
Speaker:testimonial from you. Thank you so much. I'll send you some questions. Asking
Speaker:for testimonials a. It's awkward af. The reason it's
Speaker:awkward Af is because you're not a
Speaker:sociopath, you're not a narcissist.
Speaker:Congratulations. You're safe to be amongst
Speaker:other people. But it also means you're gonna get really weird when you're asking for
Speaker:testimonials. That's the downside. Asking for testimonials is
Speaker:one part of the hurdle here, getting over the fear of it and being
Speaker:comfortable with it. But you also have to understand that most testimonials that people give
Speaker:are really bad. They're not helpful for other people who are considering hiring
Speaker:you, it may sound really nice for someone to write a testimonial saying, oh,
Speaker:my God, tim was so kind. I really enjoyed
Speaker:every single one of my sessions with him. He was super helpful,
Speaker:and I just really appreciated all the support he gave. What
Speaker:the does Tim do? You have no idea. Like, who is this
Speaker:person? Where did they start from? What did they accomplish while they were
Speaker:working with Tim? What's the result that they're getting now
Speaker:after they've completed the work? What made Tim stand
Speaker:out more than anyone else? That made them choose to work with him? When
Speaker:someone's looking at a testimonial of yours, yeah. They're doing it to make sure
Speaker:that you do what you say you do. And that you're a good person. But
Speaker:more than that, what they're looking for is, is this person who gave the
Speaker:testimonial like me, was their life like mine when
Speaker:they signed up for this? What are they saying about how it was to work
Speaker:with this person, and what's the result that they got?
Speaker:So one of the things that I have found super helpful, and I train my
Speaker:clients on this, is to send them a very specific
Speaker:list of testimonial questions. Some people love this, some people hate
Speaker:it. I had one client in my BYOB program who, when I trained him
Speaker:on this, he was like, this just sounds like, so
Speaker:formulaic and cold, and it's like, cool.
Speaker:Then this doesn't have to be your process. But when you do ask for testimonials,
Speaker:you want to give people a little bit of direction, because if someone's going to
Speaker:write a testimonial for you, they want to write a testimonial that'll actually help you
Speaker:get more business. I can't think of a
Speaker:single Yelp review that I've written that was positive about a
Speaker:restaurant that I wrote because I didn't want them to get more business. The
Speaker:reason we give testimonials is because we want to promote this business that
Speaker:has had a positive impact on us. So set your
Speaker:clients or your former clients up for success so they can do that
Speaker:effectively. The other thing about asking for testimonials,
Speaker:and this is true across the gambit of any favor
Speaker:you are ever going to ask of anyone, ever, in your life,
Speaker:how a lot of people treat asking for favors is.
Speaker:Is. Here's a hot potato. I'm just gonna throw it at you. Ow. Now it's
Speaker:your problem. Now you have to manage the hot potato. You have to make
Speaker:sure it doesn't burn your hands. And if you drop it, then that's your
Speaker:fault. As someone who moved 16
Speaker:times in nine years, because the real estate situation
Speaker:in San Francisco Bay area is fucking miserable, I can tell you I moved a
Speaker:lot, obviously. And when you move, unless you're
Speaker:hiring movers, I mean, there are times in there that I couldn't afford to hire
Speaker:movers. Cause I was in my twenties and I was bad with money. So I
Speaker:had to ask people to help me move. You know, I had to ask the
Speaker:friend who has the truck, and I had to ask the friends who I knew
Speaker:were strong and wouldn't hurt their back, and I had to arrange all
Speaker:these things. Now imagine if I asked someone to help me
Speaker:move, and they said yes, and I was like, great, and
Speaker:then never communicated something else to them. Didn't tell them
Speaker:where to come to help me with my stuff and where we're going or
Speaker:what time or what day. Didn't give them a heads up on, like, the kinds
Speaker:of stuff we were moving. Like, if we're moving a grand piano, that's something they
Speaker:should know. I don't play the piano, so I don't have one, in case you
Speaker:were wondering. But when you're asking someone for a favor,
Speaker:it's your responsibility to remind them. It's
Speaker:your hot potato. You're the person who has to
Speaker:communicate the details. You're the person who has to remind them
Speaker:of, hey, just want to touch base. I know I asked you for help with
Speaker:this. This is the date. Does that still work for you? Do you need
Speaker:reminders? Do you want me to call you at 05:00 in the morning? Cause we're
Speaker:gonna be doing this super, super early to wake you up. When you're asking other
Speaker:people for a favor, the kindest thing you can do is to
Speaker:carry as much of the mental load of remembering to do it
Speaker:as possible. So when you're asking people for a
Speaker:testimonial and they say, yeah, absolutely, I want to do that, you're going to say,
Speaker:okay, amazing. What I'm going to do is I'm going to send you some questions
Speaker:that you can answer. And I know you're really busy, so
Speaker:if I don't hear back from you in a couple days with answers, I'm just
Speaker:going to send you another follow up email. Because I know what it feels like
Speaker:when you offer to do something for someone or you agree to do something for
Speaker:someone and then you forget and then you start feeling bad, and I don't want
Speaker:you feeling bad. And also, if you decide you do not
Speaker:have time for this, or you've decided for whatever reason, you don't want to write
Speaker:a testimonial for me, no bad feelings at all, just let me know so I
Speaker:don't pester you with it. Without that design, if you're reminding
Speaker:them, without you explaining that upfront, you reminding them can feel
Speaker:like you're chasing them down and pestering them and annoying them to get
Speaker:this thing from them, and it feels really gross. But when
Speaker:you design that and you say, hey, listen, I'm gonna do all these things to
Speaker:kind of manage the mental load for you because you're doing this
Speaker:incredibly kind thing for me, it takes a weight off of their
Speaker:backs. It allows for them to keep living their
Speaker:lives and also do something really nice for you. Small caveat
Speaker:here. If you did not like working with this person,
Speaker:don't get a testimonial from them. Don't use a testimonial from them.
Speaker:Words carry energy, and when you use the words of
Speaker:someone whose energy did not match up with yours for whatever
Speaker:reason, guess what kinds of people those words are going to attract
Speaker:more of? That's right. You're going to attract more of that kind of
Speaker:person. So you want to be super hyper specific about the
Speaker:kinds of testimonials you're actually utilizing in your business, and you
Speaker:only want to use the ones from the people that you really enjoyed working with.
Speaker:I also want to name that the people who give you testimonials and the people
Speaker:who give you some of the best testimonials you might be shocked
Speaker:about. I had this one client about three years
Speaker:ago who started working with me because she wanted to start a coaching
Speaker:business. And we worked together for half a
Speaker:year, and we had these amazing sessions where we planned what she
Speaker:was going to be working on and how she was going to
Speaker:really hone in on her niche and start marketing and doing
Speaker:sales and all the things. And I trained her on a ton of stuff that
Speaker:she would need when she started the business. And every session I'd say, cool. What
Speaker:did you accomplish from last session? Nothing. No, I just. I didn't
Speaker:get around to it or it just. I don't know. I was resistant to it
Speaker:for some reason. And at the end of six
Speaker:months, she was like, I want to write a testimonial for you. And she
Speaker:hadn't started a business. Like, she hadn't gotten a single client. She didn't market
Speaker:anything. And I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely would love to have a
Speaker:testimonial from you. And I'm like, oh, my God, what is this person even going
Speaker:to say? They're probably going to write a testimonial about how they didn't get any
Speaker:results. And she wrote one of the most beautiful testimonials that I've
Speaker:ever seen that made me feel so good about my work
Speaker:that she had signed up to build a business and
Speaker:that when she signed up with me, she thought she wanted all these
Speaker:things. And through our work, she didn't necessarily get what she thought she wanted. She
Speaker:got what she needed that she didn't realize that she needed from
Speaker:our work together. She also named that she'd been in an MBA
Speaker:program, I'm sorry, an NBA MBA.
Speaker:She'd been in not the National Basketball League or
Speaker:National Basketball association. Whatever. I know sports.
Speaker:Absolutely. I also know acronyms. This is honestly
Speaker:why I can never work for another company, is I can't handle
Speaker:acronyms. Is because I can't handle acronyms.
Speaker:I can't even pronounce the f word. Also, as I'm
Speaker:recording this, I'm really sleep deprived, so just don't mind me right now. I
Speaker:apologize. I will be better rested for the next episode, I
Speaker:promise. What was I talking about? So she even
Speaker:explained that she had been through an MBA program. She
Speaker:was trained in business, and she named that she learned more about how
Speaker:to start a business and get clients and market yourself and do all the
Speaker:things from working with me for six months than she ever did in the whole
Speaker:two year program she was in. You will be shocked. The
Speaker:kinds of positive impact that you have even when your clients don't
Speaker:necessarily get what they signed up for. If you treat your business a little more
Speaker:professionally and you don't, you don't pursue friendships with your
Speaker:clients, one of the things that you want to design with them also is,
Speaker:what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find
Speaker:out. But first, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
Speaker:If you treat your business a little more professionally and you don't, you don't
Speaker:pursue friendships with your clients, one of the things that you want to design
Speaker:with them also is like, a six month check in,
Speaker:just to check in to see how they're doing for you as a business person.
Speaker:A, this helps you kind of check in to make sure that they're doing well
Speaker:and that you can speak authentically about their success.
Speaker:B, if you get to that .6 months from now and they've decided that
Speaker:they want to, like, start working with you again, that's that natural
Speaker:conversation for you to have where you're discussing picking the work back up.
Speaker:What I run into with my clients is, you know, I become friends
Speaker:with them, so I have to design with them. Hey, now that
Speaker:we're not working together anymore, still call me,
Speaker:still stay in touch. Just because we're not in a
Speaker:professional agreement anymore doesn't mean we
Speaker:have to stop talking. And I'm so glad I do this because I've made some
Speaker:of the most incredible friends in my life through working with
Speaker:them. So that is your offboarding process. Those are all the things that you have
Speaker:to consider when clients complete with you.
Speaker:Now, I want to share with you a little bit about what my philosophy is
Speaker:about my clients and how long they work with me. And them coming to
Speaker:completion at some point, and I wanted to name that. There are
Speaker:some business models out there that are reliant, right?
Speaker:So my relationship with my podcast producer,
Speaker:Neil, I'm not going to do any of the things he does for me.
Speaker:If he and I, for some reason stopped working together, there just
Speaker:wouldn't be a podcast. I'm not learning how to edit,
Speaker:okay? I'm not figuring out how to upload things to
Speaker:places and have other stuff go
Speaker:on. I don't even know the things. I don't wanna know the
Speaker:things. What I like about our professional
Speaker:relationship is I get to show up sometimes with an idea. I get
Speaker:to talk into a mike for anywhere from an hour to 2
Speaker:hours, and he turns it into an episode and does all the things
Speaker:and I don't really have to worry about it. And all I have to do
Speaker:is have incredible conversations with people who book sales
Speaker:calls with me because they want to learn about working with me, because they listen
Speaker:to my podcast. That is what I love. So that's a reliant
Speaker:relationship. That is, you know, Neil in this case, is
Speaker:not building independence in me because I don't
Speaker:want it. I'm sure if I did, he would find a way,
Speaker:we would design a package for him to train me on all that. But no,
Speaker:thank you. I'm good. My philosophy with my clients is very
Speaker:different. I'm not working with clients so that they're always going to
Speaker:be dependent on me to grow and run their businesses. My
Speaker:ultimate goal is that a client works with me from
Speaker:wherever they're starting from and throughout our work, however long
Speaker:we work together, be it six months, a year, three
Speaker:years, my goal is to see them, to reaching their
Speaker:goal, whatever that is. And absolutely,
Speaker:I have clients who've worked with me for years and years and years,
Speaker:and who are committed to just continue working with me forever until they
Speaker:hit that goal. And I love them. I will always have
Speaker:space in my business for those people. And also I have
Speaker:clients who work with me. They might join BYOB beginner
Speaker:for a year and get their first, like, five high
Speaker:paying clients and really understand, like, the simple ways that they can market
Speaker:and sell their services and realize, cool, this is good
Speaker:enough. I don't need anything else. I have clients who will go through the
Speaker:BYOB advance program. Program, and we'll get all the infrastructure
Speaker:built in their business, from their websites, their email marketing,
Speaker:to creating lead magnets, and understanding how they can do webinars
Speaker:and so on and so forth. And once we have all that set up.
Speaker:They're good. They don't need to continue working with me,
Speaker:and that's my goal. My goal is to
Speaker:create a self sufficient business owner
Speaker:who knows that they can do it on their own in some instances. I'm
Speaker:also not the right coach to continue with them. I had a client
Speaker:a few years ago who just this incredible coach.
Speaker:We worked together for nine months. She did this beautiful job of building her
Speaker:business and establishing multiple different revenue streams for the
Speaker:work that she did. But when we came to the end of our nine months,
Speaker:you know, one of the things that she was struggling with was she was the
Speaker:mom of two small children and her husband had a very time
Speaker:intensive job. So she was really struggling with how to manage her
Speaker:time, how to balance the demands of her new business that was
Speaker:doing really well and the demands of her
Speaker:two beautiful toddlers. And I'm not a mom. I don't have
Speaker:toddlers. I spend time around kids very rarely, if my
Speaker:friends have kids, those are the kids I'm spending time with, but I'm not
Speaker:taking care of them. I'm not managing their lives. I'm not dealing with them when
Speaker:they're, they're sick. I'm not liaising with their preschool. I have no idea
Speaker:about that stuff. So, for this client, you know, she'd gotten to this really beautiful
Speaker:point in her business, and what she needed next was
Speaker:a coach who could help her work on balancing
Speaker:motherhood and business ownership, and that wasn't
Speaker:me. And so it was a natural conclusion for
Speaker:her to move on to someone who really fit her needs for that time. When
Speaker:you approach your business with this kind of philosophy, it becomes a lot less
Speaker:scary when people compete with you. It becomes a lot less
Speaker:imposter syndrome inducing because you've made it about them getting
Speaker:to the point where they need to be. I've bumped into several
Speaker:business coaches out there in the world who,
Speaker:when you start, like, being in their world, they start trying to
Speaker:set that expectation that once you hire them, you're always going to work with them.
Speaker:Once you hire them, you're going to be with them for decades, and
Speaker:often not always. These coaches will play on
Speaker:the insecurities of their clients to sow fear that they can't
Speaker:do it on their own. And let me tell you, if you're starting a business
Speaker:and if you're looking for support to start and grow this
Speaker:business, stay away from people like that, because what they will
Speaker:create is reliance in you. They will so doubt that you
Speaker:cannot do this on your own. They will give you just enough to help you
Speaker:with that next little problem that you have or that next little goal.
Speaker:But they won't set you up to be able to tackle the whole thing on
Speaker:your own, or at least to understand who you need
Speaker:to hire to help you tackle the big goal. Cause hopefully, if you have really
Speaker:big, massive dreams, you're not doing it all your own. Hopefully you're
Speaker:hiring someone to do your social media. Hopefully you're hiring someone to do ads
Speaker:and to do some pr and to get you booked on stages and to
Speaker:liaise with your literary agent for the third book that you're gonna be
Speaker:publishing this year. But as a business owner, you
Speaker:ultimately can do that on your own when you have the confidence
Speaker:and the know how. When I work with clients, my number one
Speaker:goal is to build that confidence and to establish that know
Speaker:how. The
Speaker:clients who it really makes sense for them to see stay working with me
Speaker:for an extended period of time are the ones who are
Speaker:starting from absolute scratch. They know that they maybe
Speaker:want to do coaching or they want to do consulting, but
Speaker:they need to first figure out, like, what their niche is going to be, what
Speaker:their offer is going to be, how much they're going to charge, how do they
Speaker:market it, how do they sell it. But, like, that's just the
Speaker:beginning of their journey. Like, they. Yes, they want to,
Speaker:you know, have some clients and they want to make a lot of money, but
Speaker:the clients who tend to stay with me the longest are the ones that have
Speaker:the biggest dreams. They're the ones who look out in the world and
Speaker:know that if they stick with this, if they're
Speaker:deliberate and they have the correct strategy, they're going to be the kind
Speaker:of person who is Oprah's life coach. They're going to be the
Speaker:kind of person who gets paid crap ton of money to
Speaker:be a keynote speaker at major events and conferences.
Speaker:They know that if they have the
Speaker:right action plan, that they can launch themselves
Speaker:into the stratosphere and become famous, not
Speaker:just for the sake of being famous, but for the sake of
Speaker:bringing their wisdom and their gifts to the world. Because
Speaker:they know in their bones that they
Speaker:have this deeper gift to give to the world and they feel a
Speaker:duty to deliver it. And those are the clients
Speaker:that I will always make space for in my one on one practice.
Speaker:Because I can't tell you the pride at seeing
Speaker:someone grow from making $0 a year in their business
Speaker:to hitting their 1st $100,000 a year, to
Speaker:hitting their first hundred thousand dollars
Speaker:month, to getting booked on stages, to
Speaker:writing their book, to doing all these things that they
Speaker:only ever dreamed of. But because they were brave
Speaker:enough to put their money where their mouth was and brave
Speaker:enough to actually get to work and stop being a weenie about it,
Speaker:they actually make it true for themselves. Those
Speaker:are my people.
Speaker:If you really struggle with that fear when a client completes because
Speaker:you're worried about backfilling them, then one of the things that you really need to
Speaker:start working on in your business is consistent marketing.
Speaker:Without consistent marketing, you're just constantly going to have
Speaker:a artist boom and bust cycle happening. And if you want to learn more
Speaker:about what that is, then I want to point you to episode 74, where I
Speaker:talk all about what that is, the impact it has on your business and
Speaker:how you can avoid it. But essentially, you want to become
Speaker:so consistent in your marketing that even when you're at full capacity
Speaker:with clients that you have inquiries coming in. Right. And
Speaker:the only way to do that is to be ironclad
Speaker:in your consistency. Squirrel. Squirrel. If you're ready to stop being
Speaker:a weenie and actually run a business that makes money, then go ahead and
Speaker:book a generate income strategy call with me by going
Speaker:to weeniecast.com
Speaker:strategycall. On this call, we will talk about your goals,
Speaker:your dreams, and your frustrations in getting there.
Speaker:And if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about different
Speaker:ways to work together.
Speaker:Boom. I got excited about the word smorgasbord.
Speaker:Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
