Episode 32. You Aren’t Signing Clients… Now What?

There’s something that happens to every single coach and entrepreneur I know. There is literally no one who I’ve met in the online space who hasn’t struggled with this at one point in their business or another.

This can happen all the time, even for seasoned entrepreneurs and that is not signing clients.

In This Episode:

Common scenarios where coaches or service-based entrepreneurs struggle to sign clients
Why it’s not a matter of “I’m not doing enough.”
- What six-figure coaches are actually doing
- Make a full time income on part time hours simply doing a few key basics
We all have internal resources that we can capitalize on
How I went from undercharging to consistently making 5k and 10k months
Holding the belief for yourself and your clients
What to do and what to think when you feel like giving up
You always get to choose your thoughts, no matter the circumstances

Common scenarios where coaches or service-based entrepreneurs struggle to sign clients

For some, this could look like you started your business maybe 2, 3 or 4 months ago but you still haven’t signed your first paying clients.

For others, this could look like you signing a few clients here and there, but then you aren’t able to sign clients consistently since starting.

For others, it could even look like having major success then all of a sudden there’s dead silence for a few weeks, maybe even months.

Whatever it looks like for you, I’m sure there’s a period of time in your business where you didn’t get any new inquiries about your program or no one signed on as a client for weeks or months.

It happens.

We’ll discuss what to do when this is happening for you, and how to keep going so you can actually start seeing direct messages (DMs) or applications to your programs or services.

When there’s a lull in your business, what do you start to think, feel, and do?

Do you start thinking “Oh my goodness, I don’t think this business is going to work. I’m so stressed and anxious?”.

Then maybe this overwhelm will lead you to try to think of all the things you think you should start doing in your business, like creating a few new freebies and hope people will sign up and start receiving your email newsletters?

Maybe you decide “I’m going to start a podcast or YouTube channel!”.

Or maybe you start repurposing content for more social media platforms.

Or, I also see the opposite happen. Which is when people give up.

They stop posting on social media. They stop talking about their offers.

They don’t have that energy or zest to them anymore when they do show up.

Does either scenario sound like something you’ve gone through before?

Let’s address these situations and start thinking about how to pick yourself back up and move forward so you can start seeing results in your business.

Why it’s not a matter of “I’m not doing enough.”

First, let’s talk about feeling like you NEED to do more.

Whenever a client comes to me and they say, “Cheryl, I feel like I’m not doing enough.”

I would immediately ask them WHY.

Why do you feel like you’re not doing enough?

And clients would usually say, “Oh, I just feel like I’m not doing enough.”.

Let’s take it back to your school or university days.

How often did you feel, while growing up, that you weren’t doing enough?

How often did you look at your peers and see them doing all these fancy internships and doing multiple extracurricular activities while getting pretty solid grades?

How often did your school encourage you to do more so that it “prepares” you for university or your future career?

Chances are, we’ve all been bombarded with the message from our society and school system and even workplace that we need to do more more more in order to move forward in our lives and careers.

But is this true for your business?

Do you need to do more in business in order to sign clients?

I need you to think critically about this question: Do you need to do more in business in order to sign clients?

What six-figure coaches are actually doing

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming that you’re at a point where you haven’t yet hit six-figures in your business.

Maybe you haven’t hit 10k months or maybe even 5k months.

Basically, I know that for most people listening to my podcast, you’re at a point where you’re either focusing on selling one-on-one coaching or services, or you’re selling group programs and perhaps a passive income product as well.

Either way, you aren’t at the point where you’re scaling to multiple six-figures yet.

If that sounds like you, then things like hiring team members, doing paid ads, doing complicated funnels or having fancy funnels likely aren’t on the horizon for you yet.

For many of you, you really just want to make your first six-figures by booking out your one-on-one or group coaching programs or one-on-one services. That is 100% possible.

In fact, many of my coach friends who have hit the six-figure mark, have a very simple business.

They have one or two offers, usually one-on-one and group programs.

They only have two or three platforms at most. They don’t do ads, they don’t have a team, they don’t have funnels or even an email list!

Honestly, if you compare their business and their to-do lists, it’s probably gonna look super similar to someone who may have only signed a few clients.

That’s also what I’m currently doing and I’m getting closer and closer to crossing the six-figure mark.

I focus on Instagram and Podcast.

I’m focused on selling two key offers, one-on-one and occasionally my group program.

I have two digital products which literally I did just for fun.They aren’t offers that I actively promote.

I initially thought I would do an email newsletter but it’s not something I think I will commit to right now.

I do want to explore LinkedIn because I love that you could do different mediums of content, but again, it’s not something I think I’ll firmly commit to right now either.

Make a full time income on part time hours simply doing a few key basics

The main point is, there are countless examples of entrepreneurs who are making a full time income on part time hours simply doing a few key basics.

Those basics could mean posting content consistently on 1-2 platforms and selling 1-2 offers at most. It can be that simple.

The reason why many entrepreneurs feel like they aren’t doing enough is because of that message we’ve been told our entire lives.

Do more or bust. Do more or you become irrelevant. Do more or your peers will surpass you.

But in business, that doesn’t have to be the case.

No higher up or supervisor or system is telling you that. Only you are telling yourself that.

This is really empowering to realize because you get to choose what to do and what not to do.

Instead, you can choose to keep things simple, master the basics, and keep doing the basics until you see consistent results.

You can choose not to complicate things.

Of course, it’s your choice, which means you could choose to add more to your plate and see how it goes.

You could 100% choose to do that.

But I want to offer you a different perspective today: There is always another way.

You don’t have to do more just to sign clients. You don’t have to always be desperately scrambling and stretching yourself so thin just to make it work.

That doesn’t have to be the narrative you subscribe to.

In fact, I would argue that right now, if you’re trying to hit 5k or 10k months consistently, your internal state of mind matters equally as much as the “strategy”.

You aren’t at a stage where you’re trying to scale to multiple six-figures per se.

Instead, you’re still trying to get a hold of this business thing and establish yourself within your niche or industry.

That’s why I would urge you not to think about your business in terms of what other strategy you could implement, but rather, I want you to use your brain and think about how to make what you’re already doing actually start yielding consistent results.

How can you use your brain to master the basics?

How can you use your brain and think of thought leadership content?

This one is really important. Creating content that positions you as a thought leader and leading with your thoughts.

But, we’ll save it for another post since thought leadership is something I’m increasingly vocal about on Instagram and with my private clients.

We all have internal resources that we can capitalize on

In my own work and research offline, a lot of the work I do is premised on the belief that we all have internal resources that we can capitalize on to move forward in our lives.

I truly believe that even though having some of the right information, strategy or resources is important, what’s actually going to bring you long term results and sustainable success is your internal resources aka your thoughts. Your mind. Your brain.

Because you need to make decisions in your business and learn to respond to challenges using your brain.

Literally.

Even if you have a textbook of all the best practices and strategies, how are you going to use your brain to tailor those strategies and apply it to your business?

Even if I give you all the strategies or even the clients, you still need to use your brain and think the necessary thoughts and figure out how to serve those clients and how to deliver on your program and services.

More often than not, it’s not the lack of strategy that keeps you from growing your business, but it’s that you haven’t mastered those internal resources.

You keep thinking thoughts that self-sabotage your actions and execution.

You keep telling yourself you’re not good enough to be an entrepreneur or that you don’t have any value to give your audience, and that discourages you from showing up and posting in the first place.

You tell yourself you have to sign this client on your sales call, and then on the sales call that’s all you can think about. And the person on the other side can sense that you aren’t even listening to them and that you give off a desperate energy and thus they say no in the end.

That’s why when I work with private clients, we work on both the strategy and mindset, thoughts about their business and themselves as an entrepreneur, and their identity as an entrepreneur.

This isn’t some woo woo or fluffy thing.

Your brain and your mind. That’s your biggest asset, especially in your business.

It’s the thing you use when you’re creating content, sharing new thought leadership ideas, when you’re working with clients, listening to prospects on sales calls, and everything else.

Your thoughts play a role in literally everything you do in your business.

How I went from undercharging to consistently making 5k and 10k months

This is seriously the exact same work I personally did to jump from undercharging in 2020 to consistently making 5k and 10k months.

Once I worked on my mindset, my identity, and self belief, my business skyrocketed.

It wasn’t because I did anything different in my business.

But rather, I thought about business differently and I thought about myself differently.

These thoughts were what helped propel my business forward since October 2020, when I’ve been hitting consistent 5k and 10k months ever since.

Prior to October 2020, I didn’t really know what mindset work was, what it could look like for me, and I definitely didn’t recognize the value of it.

I also didn’t deeply understand the value of coaching.

Once I worked with a coach who was a great fit for my brain, my way of thinking and my personality, I started doing self-coaching and thought work practices almost daily.

In September 2020, I had a flopped launch. Zero people signed up.

And from November to December 2020, I made 10k in 21 days and started generating consistently between 5k to 10k, often in the higher end of the range month after month.

That’s why I believe so much in the power of mindset work. But it has to be done strategically and with meaning.

Oftentimes, you need to work with a coach who is really a great fit for you in order to start seeing what’s possible in your business.

Holding the belief for yourself and your clients

This is the same belief I hold for myself and clients.

I truly believe that when they master both the strategy and the mindset, it’s possible for my clients to grow their business to a point where they too are making a full time income on part time hours. This is important because it helps them create options in their lives.

When they reach that point, they can choose what to do next.

Whether it’s to go full-time in their business or continue side hustling, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that they have the choice about which path they want to pursue and they can choose the path that is most aligned and one that they genuinely believe in.

Often we choose a career or life path simply because we think it would make us look good or impressive to others.

It is my mission to change that.

I want all of us to create our own options, choose to do work that we genuinely care about, makes us feel fulfilled and allows us to actualize our strengths, skills and talents.

But the belief. This belief I have in my clients and in the program I offer?

I’m going to say that for most of you listening to this, you can tell that I’m serious about my program and clients.

You see, this belief in what I do, didn’t just develop on the first day I said I was going to start a business.

It took months and months if not years to get to this point where I stand so firmly behind my message and work.

Because I truly believe in how I can help my clients as well as the value of coaching and the value of my specific program and what I can offer.

I show up differently from many other business coaches who are literally selling the same program with the same features and same promises.

I make decisions with this belief in mind, I sell with this belief in mind, and I coach my clients with this belief in mind.

I really believe in myself, my program, and what’s possible for my clients when we work together.

So, your inner work does matter.

Your self belief that you are a decision maker matters.

Your belief that you can make pivots and changes when things aren’t working, matters.

Your belief in what you offer, that really matters.

In fact, one of my most recent clients who joined my one-on-one program in April 2021, signed several clients but none were at the high ticket mark.

But in just one month, after three sessions together, she signed two clients at $1,800 and she’s currently waiting for one more person to confirm. That’s incredible!

What I found most fascinating was that this client had invested in several other courses and coaches before working with me, yet she still wasn’t seeing results that she wanted.

She hadn’t hit 5k months yet either.

On our discovery call, she mentioned one thing that stood out to me, “Cheryl, I don’t think it’s another strategy that I need anymore. I’ve bought so many programs already. I think I actually need coaching.”

So that’s what we did.

We didn’t just work on developing her thought leadership and help her have high closing rates on her sales calls.

But we coached her hard.

That’s why in just one month, she literally made back the investment of my program.

This is absolutely phenomenal and it goes to show the power of focusing on both strategy and mindset.

What to do and what to think when you feel like giving up

Here’s what I want to say first: I find that people often avoid things because they’re afraid to feel rejected, afraid of not hitting their goals, afraid of what people think, and so on.

But this fear of failure, rejection, and judgement… What if you just allowed yourself to feel if those things do happen?

What if you did have to feel disappointed when a prospect says no?

What if you did have a month where no one joins your program?

Why are you letting these events mean anything about you as a person or as an entrepreneur?

First, I want to remind you that these events don’t mean anything about you.

It just means something isn’t working, and it’s up to you to keep trying and identify areas you can change and improve on.

Second, these are just super uncomfortable feelings.

Rejection? Failure? Judgement? It’s just your own feelings of discomfort and nothing else.

If you are willing to process these emotions and move on, I can guarantee that you’re going to be way more equipped to be an entrepreneur than someone who isn’t willing to deal with feelings of failure, rejection or judgement.

More importantly, your business is a vehicle to help people and give value to others.

This means you need to overcome your fears in order to keep going.

Otherwise, you won’t sign clients and hence you wont make an income or impact.

This really just comes down to a decision you have to make – specifically, are you going to choose to succumb to fear, or are you going to choose to process these feelings of being uncomfortable and keep going despite this discomfort?

You may be uncomfortable or feel fear, but this is not about who you are.

You don’t have to identify as someone who isn’t cut out for entrepreneurship.

Don’t label yourself.

Yes, we’ve been given labels from people around us. For example, quiet girl, nerd, etc.

As entrepreneurs, I need you to eliminate those labels that allow you to stay comfortable and safe.

Stop choosing thoughts and options that allow you to remain in your comfort zone.

When you feel the fear and do it anyway. Because, what’s the worst possible outcome?

What ARE the best possible outcomes?

You can’t change your circumstances from doing the same things.

If anything, you’ll either stay stagnant or things will get more frustrating.

Imagine a year going by and you never took any action.

That would be a huge shame because it’s not that things couldn’t work out, but it’s because you chose to not let it work.

For example, one of my recent clients, who literally made a four-figure month in her first month of business after launching her program, had massive resistance towards showing up on social media to tell her audience about her program.

So for three weeks, we worked hard on her mindset and coached her on her fears around selling.

Some of the thoughts we had to work through were, “ What if people who are ahead of me think I’m a fraud for selling a coaching program?”, “What if people judge me and think I’m so full of myself?”, “What if no one buys?” and many more thoughts that simply weren’t serving her.

Without going into the specific details of our coaching, three weeks of coaching later, she introduced her coaching program to the world.

Within the next four weeks, she signed three clients and I think another one or two by the fifth week.

She literally crossed her four-figures mark in just a few weeks and was already in the multiple four-figures soon after.

And you know what I loved most about this client’s story?

As soon as she onboarded her new clients and had their first session, she told me something I’ll never forget. “Cheryl, working with clients is so much more fun than making money. I love coaching. I love helping people. Helping them do something I’m so passionate about. This is even better than the money.”

This.

The impact of your work, hands down, is going to feel way more meaningful than the money you make.

I can guarantee it.

But if it wasn’t for us really coaching her out of the fears she had regarding failure, rejection, and judgement, she wouldn’t be here today.

She wouldn’t be doing the work she loves and making thousands and thousands of dollars while helping a group of people she is so passionate about.

She had the exact same fears so many of you listening also have.

But one thing that separates my client from those who forever stay stuck with no clients is because she was willing to get coached and she was willing to show up and not give up even when things felt scary and hard.

I’m still amazed at the before and after for this client, it’s seriously incredible.

And by the way, I recently checked in and saw that she has doubled her prices.

AMAZING.

You always get to choose your thoughts, no matter the circumstances

I need you to keep this in mind whenever you want to give up because you aren’t signing any clients: What’s more important to you?

Giving up simply because things got hard, or being someone who stays committed to their vision, income and impact that they know they’re meant to make?

Really think about this.

Remember that you can always choose how to perceive the situation.

You always have the choice what to think, no matter what the circumstances are.

Of course, your feelings are valid, but are they serving you? If not, shift them.

Right now, if you’re at a point where you aren’t seeing consistent clients, I want you to stop indulging in the thoughts that simply aren’t conducive for you moving forward.

Do you like the results you get when you’re constantly over thinking, doubting yourself and spinning out?

If not, what do you want to think instead?

Start thinking a different thought, then make the next best move and take the necessary actions to keep going until you see what works.

You can’t just figure out what works by simply strategizing in your head and consuming information, and not taking any action.

Please don’t let your thoughts stop you.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.