529. 9 Things I Wish I’d Known as a New Coach

I started my coaching practice over 11 years ago, and these are the nine things that if I could go back in time, I would go tell that version of myself. Some of these things cost me a lot of money to learn. All of them cost me a lot of time to learn. But today, I’m saving you time and money. If you’re a coach, you’re building a coaching business, make sure you tune in to these nine things I wish I had known as a new coach. Here we go.

Welcome to Better Than Happy, the podcast where we transform our lives by transforming ourselves. My name is Jody Moore. In the decade-plus I’ve been working with clients as a Master Certified Coach, I’ve helped tens of thousands of people to become empowered. And from empowered, the things that seemed hard become trivial, and the things that seemed impossible become available, and suddenly, a whole new world of desire and possibility open up to you. And what do you do with that?

Well, that’s the question… what will you do? Let’s find out.

Sometimes, listening to a podcast is enough. But sometimes, you’ll feel inspired to go deeper. If you hear things that speak to you in today’s episode, consider it your invitation to a complimentary coaching workshop.

On this live, interactive Zoom call with me, you’ll get a taste of the power of this work when applied in real life. You can participate, or be a silent observer. But you have to take a step if you want to truly see change in your life… two steps, actually. Head to JodyMoore.com/freecoaching and register. Then you just have to show up. Your best life is waiting for you. Will you show up for it? JodyMoore.com/freecoaching. I’ll see you there.

What’s happening, my friends? I’m kind of on fire right now. It’s Friday afternoon when I record this, and I just got off a new member welcome call in The Lab. We have tons of new people in there who are there to work on their mental and emotional health, lots of coaches building their businesses in the coach access portion of The Lab. And it was so much fun. If you were there, I’m giving you a shout-out right now because I had so much fun getting to know all of you, hearing about what you’re working on. I feel the motivation and the fire that you’re bringing and the goals that you want to achieve, and I cannot wait. I’m so honored to be your coach and to get to help you achieve those things.

I hope you’re listening to this episode because it’s going to be really useful for all of you who are building coaching businesses or similar businesses, or you might even just be able to apply this to any of your goals that you have in your life if you’re not a coach listening. Let’s go ahead and dive right in. 

I want to start with number one. This is the number one thing that I wish I’d better understood. I want to tell you today is that nobody wants to hire you to coach them. Do not go out there and try to sell coaching. Because unless you’re a little bit crazy like me and you, then you don’t just love coaching. You don’t even know what that means when somebody says they’re going to sell coaching. It’s not a regulated industry. It’s not like saying I’m a therapist.

If you’re a therapist, you can say I offer therapy, and you can charge an hourly rate for therapy because people have an idea of what therapy means. Therapy has a certain reputation, at least in this country and in many other countries. And so you don’t have to explain anything. But that is not the case with coaching because it’s so all over the map. Nobody knows what that means. Nobody really wants that. 

You know what people want? They want some kind of a transformation. They want help solving a problem. They want to have an experience, maybe, that they value that would be pleasurable. They want to get out of pain. They want to achieve a goal. They want something, but it doesn’t sound like coaching or mindfulness or thought work or any of those other terms that only us coaches will sign up and pay money for. Okay?

Most of your clients are probably not coaches unless or until you get to the point where you’re coaching other coaches, which might happen at some point. But in the beginning, you’re probably not. You’re probably coaching normal people on normal problems who want normal things. How do we know what’s normal? 

Go to the internet, see what people are Google searching, pay attention to what people are talking about online, pay attention to what your friends and family are complaining about or struggling with or stuck on. Pay attention to the world around you. Pay attention to the problems that exist, especially the ones that you think you could help solve, especially the ones that you have maybe a little experience or education or some kind of knowledge in that you could help people. That’s what you’re selling. You’re selling solutions and experiences. Lead with that. Do not lead with coaching. Nobody knows what that means.

Number two, consistency and patience will win the day. Okay? Whatever strategy you’re going to take on, maybe you’re going to post on social media. Maybe you’re going to be all in on TikTok or Instagram or LinkedIn or whatever you’re doing. Maybe you’re doing a podcast. Maybe you’re doing a YouTube channel. I’m not saying you have to do all these things, but you’re going to want to pick a strategy. Everybody seems to have an opinion about what’s the best one. You can hear a few people out, and then I want you to pick what you think is the best one. But you know what’s going to get you the result ultimately? Consistency and patience.

That means you’re going to have to pick something, and you’re going to have to do it over and over and over again, more times than you wish you had to do it. And it’s going to take longer to see the result of that than you wish it would take. That’s okay. That’s the way it is for everybody who’s successful. There are occasional exceptions where somebody gets lucky and is in the right place at the right time and achieves overnight success, but that is very rare. That’s not what we’re going for. 

When people tell you that they made a whole bunch of money in one day or in one week or in one month, what they’re not telling you is that it took them years of consistency and patience to get to the point where they could then generate that revenue in one week. Okay?

You have to be consistent. I published a podcast every week for a good three years before I saw it actually bring in a consistent flow of clients. Now, I was getting some people listening, a little bit of some positive comments, a few people saying they liked it, so I kept going. The listenership grew slowly but surely, but it would be years before I would see the benefit of that in clients and revenue for my business and impact that I want to make ultimately on a big scale. Consistency and patience. 

And three years, actually, in hindsight, that’s nothing. Three years actually is super fast as I look back. At the time, it felt so slow. Keep going. Consistency and patience will win the day. Not having the best idea, not having the best podcast, or looking the best on YouTube, or any of that stuff. Just be consistent and be patient because guess what? Most people won’t do that. Most people will quit. Most people will walk away, but you’re not most people.

Number three, making money and making an impact go hand in hand. Those things are not at odds with each other. I hear so many coaches say to me, I want to make money. I feel like I should be getting paid for what I’m doing because I’m working hard and putting in a lot of hours. I know this is really valuable, but I feel bad charging money. I’m not motivated by money. I just want to help people. This is a very common scenario I hear people say, as though those two things are different. Those two things are not different. Okay?

The strategies that I teach and that almost anyone in the world of online business teaches are all about putting out lots of value in the world in order to find your people, and then taking great care of those people, and then offering those people something more at which point you charge money. And guess what? If you follow that strategy, you will help so many people through that process that you will make a tremendous impact. 

You will build a reputation as somebody who provides tremendous value, somebody who has something interesting to say, somebody who other people want to listen to. And that in turn leads to more clients. You’re leaving a slew of value along the way if you follow basic online marketing strategies. Okay? So it’s not I’m either going to make money or I’m going to help people. It’s, I’m going to help people and make money along the way. Those two things go hand in hand.

Let me give you one other example of this. My book, Better Than Happy: Connecting with Divinity Through Conscious Thinking, which you can order online if you’d like. Shameless plug. That book was published by Faith Matters. I love Faith Matters. I’m actually going to be at Restore, doing a breakout session there, and I’ll have a booth there. If you’re coming to Restore, come and say hi to me. If you don’t have tickets to Restore, go Google Faith Matters Restore and get your ticket and come. It’s happening soon. But my point is, Faith Matters is my publisher. They published my book. Bill Turnbull, who is one of the heads of Faith Matters, said to me recently, “Your book is our number one bestseller.”

Now, this is not because my book is the best book that Faith Matters has published. I’m not just being humble here, you guys. I think it’s a pretty good book, but guess what? They’ve published some of the most amazing authors, people who are so much smarter than me, people who are such better writers than me. Do you know why my book is number one? Because I do a lot more marketing than most of those other people. Okay? And so that’s the key. 

As I’ve done more marketing and put more content out there, then I get to make even more of an impact. It’s not because my book is better; it’s because I reach more people. And I do that by following all the strategies of online business. It’s not rocket science, but yeah, you’re going to have to learn some technology. You’re going to have to overcome that part of you that’s like, “I’m not good at tech.” Guess what? Me neither. Nor do I have a desire to be. But I’m willing to figure out just enough to make a big impact and achieve success in my business. And if you’re willing to as well, those two things go hand in hand. Let’s go.

Number four thing that I would go back and tell my little newbie coach self is that the number one priority you should always focus on, whether you’re brand new, you’re making a little bit of money, or you’re making a lot of money, is to grow and nurture your email list. Your email list is your gold mine. It is the place where you are going to make the most impact and the most money. It is your best investment, your best investment of your money, your best investment of your time, of your creativity, of your ideas. Email still converts. I’ve been doing this 11 years. Email converts better than social media. Now, we can use social media to grow our email list, and I do, but your email list matters.

This is why I just taught a class to all of you that are in The Lab Coach Access called How to Grow Your Email List. If you’re not in The Lab Coach Access and you want that course, you can grab it by going to JodyMoore.com/coachworkshop. But your email list is your most important investment. Okay? Now, we don’t want to just build an email list, and I should touch on for those of you that maybe aren’t familiar, the reason why it matters so much. 

If I have a name and an email of somebody who’s potentially interested in what I offer as a coach, then I can keep nurturing that person. I can let them know, I just published a new podcast episode. If you want to hear it, here it is, and here’s what it’s about. And by the way, I have a program where I can take all this next level for you, and if you want to learn more about that, here’s where you go, and here’s how I can help you. And that is ultimately how I get clients is from my email list. I do not get clients off social media. I don’t get clients off my podcast. I get clients off my email list. Grow your email list.

Now, we don’t just want any names and emails. We don’t want to buy a list from someone. We want people who said, “Wait, what is she talking about? Huh, that’s interesting. Huh, that’s helpful. I kind of want to learn more from her. I want to hear more about that.” I want people who are interested, and I can gather them in many different ways. But the way that I teach you in the workshop, How to Grow Your Email List, is in a way that naturally leads people into the next step in your funnel, which ultimately helps you convert the most of them into paying clients where you can do the most good and make the biggest impact in their lives. Grow your email list. It’s a must, everybody. Again, JodyMoore.com/coachworkshop if you want to check out that course.

All right, number five. Your personal growth is directly tied to your business growth. Okay? The more you develop yourself and grow yourself – how do we grow ourselves? We learn. We stretch ourselves. We get outside our comfort zones. We try things. We fail at things. And then we get back up again, but we get back up a little bit stronger than befeore we failed. All of this is necessary to grow your business. If you were already a million-dollar business owner, you would have a million-dollar business. Okay? So we have to grow ourselves. And even if you’ve had a million-dollar business in another industry, if you want to build a different business, you got to grow yourself to be able to grow that new business.

So your personal growth matters. I got to tell you, I’m always confused by all these coaches that don’t have coaches. I feel like it’s like a dentist who doesn’t have a dentist. Okay? If you value coaching and whatever that means to you, why would you not have a coach in the way that you define coaching? Just saying. Get a coach.

All right. Number six thing that I would tell my young coach just starting out self is you can just do things. Did you know this? You can just do things. The reason I’m wording it this way is because just this morning, I was watching something on YouTube, and I was introduced for the first time to a gentleman named Chris Koerner. Maybe you guys know Chris Koerner. I have had not heard of him until today. He’s an entrepreneur. He owns all kinds of businesses, not coaching businesses, but all kinds of other businesses, it seemed like.

And I was just learning about business from Chris Koerner on this podcast interview that he was on, and he was wearing a t-shirt that said, “You can just do things.” And he didn’t really speak to it at length, so I’m yet to know exactly what he means by that, but they did briefly give a nod to his shirt. And I sort of got the impression that he was like, you know, when you’re an entrepreneur, you can just do whatever you want. And not only can you do whatever you want, and you should remember that and use that to really test out and figure out how you want to build your business. But also, you should be doing stuff, right? It’s a nod to taking action. 

Because it’s so tempting as entrepreneurs to want to just sit back and keep learning and cross our fingers that we’ll find the right way, and then we’ll do something. And what this statement means to me is just go do things. The best way to learn something is by doing it, and you can just do things. Did you know that? Don’t do anything illegal. Don’t do anything even out of integrity, but you can just do things just because you want to, just because it seems like maybe a good idea and it might serve your clients or it might serve your business, and you kind of want to try it out. Just go do things, my friends. Take action. Take action. I can’t say it enough times.

Number seven. The people who will judge you are not the people whose opinions matter. Again, when I’m coaching entrepreneurs, especially coaches, I hear this a lot. I’m just afraid of putting myself out there. I’m afraid of being judged. I’m afraid of being laughed at. I’m afraid of what people will think. And guess what? I don’t want to sugarcoat it and tell you no one’s going to judge you. People are going to judge you. They’re just not the people whose opinions matter.

What do I mean by that? Well, first of all, they’re not your target market. Okay? Sometimes I have people who I love whose opinions I would even say I value, like in my family, for example. If my – this hasn’t happened, so I’m not calling out anyone in particular, but if my brother were to come along, I love my brother. I have two brothers. I love them both. I value their opinions. But if they mocked something I did on social media for my business, I would say, it’s cool. I wasn’t talking to you. You’re not my target audience. Okay? My target audience is LDS moms or other coaches building businesses. That’s not you guys. So it’s okay that you didn’t like it. I didn’t make it for you. Their opinion about what I’m doing online doesn’t matter.

Now, most of the rest, and actually, most of the time, the people who are going to judge you aren’t going to be your family because they, for the most part, support what we do, although not always, right? They don’t always get it. But the people who are going to leave the nasty comments, the real haters, the real people we’re afraid of, who are going to tell us we don’t know what we’re talking about and we should shut it all down and all of that nonsense. Those people are not people who are succeeding as coaches or at whatever else they desire to do. People who are successful are cheering other people on. They are not tearing people down, especially the people who are behind them. 

Think about it. Something that you’re good at, you don’t turn around to people who are still learning and tear them down. You say, “You can do it. Keep going. Keep going. You got this. I remember when I was where you are, and I, if I did it, you can do it.” That’s how human beings operate. The people who are tearing you down are typically unhappy, middle-aged straight white men who have not achieved the life that they thought they were going to achieve. And they feel pretty bad about that, and that feels awful. So they take it out on you on the internet. It’s okay. Their opinion doesn’t matter. Just keep going.

All right, number eight. Do not abdicate things in your business; delegate. There’s a difference between abdicating and delegating. Abdicating is, here, this is yours. I don’t know what to do with it, so I’m giving it to you, and I hope that you can do what I want with it. And you don’t pay attention, and you don’t even know exactly how to do what you’re asking them to do. Delegating is different. Delegating is having very clear expectations, and it’s, I don’t need to get in the weeds with you on this, but I do know what the weeds are. And so I can caution you, and if something goes wrong, I can have an intelligent discussion with you about how we’re going to get out of this pickle, or if you’re not meeting expectations, I know how to clearly articulate what my expectations are.

I see a lot of new coaches who are like, I don’t want to learn this part, so I’m just going to hire someone to do it. And I’ve done that myself at times. This is why this is advice for my past self, right? I’ve hired people to do things, and I’ve paid a lot of money and noticed that it never once has worked out. If I’m hiring them to do something that I don’t know anything about how to do, it doesn’t turn out well. When I hire people, even if they know a lot of things I don’t know, if I know the gist of what they’re doing, I know enough to have intelligent conversations with them, it works far better. That means you got to learn the basics yourself before you start hiring it out. That is my recommendation.

Number nine, final piece of advice I would give my past self that I’m giving to you today, is that your way of doing things is the best way for you. People will come along, and I am guilty of this myself. We’ve had success in a certain way, and so we’re like, this is the way you got to do it, right? But there’s always an exception, and there’s always many ways to achieve any given result. So what I recommend is that you find teachers and coaches and mentors and you learn from them, but ultimately then you decide what is going to be the best way for you to find clients, to build your business, or the best opt-in, etc., that you want to create. 

How you want to structure your program, what you want to call it, what you want to charge. All of these things ultimately should be your decision. All right? Get advice from experts, but then you decide. Again, a lot of entrepreneurs come to me, coaches coming to me looking for permission to do it their way. And that’s okay. Sometimes we need a coach to help us get to a permissive place. But listen, you have permission. Do it your way. Remember, you can just do things.

But go do the things. Go build your businesses. Go help people. Go change the world. I love you. I’m right here with you, trying to do the same thing you’re doing. And I know it’s not easy, but I also know that there are lots of ways to achieve success. And I’m so happy that you were here today. Thanks for giving me your attention. Go execute some of it, and I’ll see you next time on another episode. Bye, everyone.

Oh wow, look at that. You made it to the end. Your time and attention is valuable, and I don’t take it lightly that you made it this far. In fact, it tells me you might be like me; insatiably curious about people and life and potential and connection. Maybe you have big dreams but a small budget and no time. You’re tired, but bored. You’re content, but dissatisfied. Sound familiar? Come to a free coaching call and see for yourself what’s possible: JodyMoore.com/freecoaching to register. That’s JodyMoore.com/freecoaching.