Braco Pobric 0:00
Welcome to Business and happiness podcast. I'm your host Braco Pobric edge. This episode is sponsored by life Success Academy, a place where you recreate your business and personal happiness. Hi, everyone. So today, we will be talking about what else new coaches can do to increase their business and to get new clients. And with that, I have my friend and my colleague, Patrick Howell, who is going to join us now. So, Patrick, welcome to the show, my friend.
Patrick Howell 0:36
Hey, what's going on Braco? What's up?
Braco Pobric 0:39
Good, good, good. So, so I was just saying today, I wanted us to spend a couple of minutes to talk about, there are so many things that coaches can do to increase their business, and especially new coaches really just think about how do I get new clients? How do I get new? How do I get new clients, right? But Darryl, look at the bigger picture. And you and I know there are so many different ways to do this. And one of the ways that you and I have done a lot is basically delivering, you know, value based workshops. Yeah, that's really what I wanted us to talk about today. You know, how can you increase your coaching business with workshops?
Patrick Howell 1:18
And I think one of the things there too, is, people hear workshops, you can either immediately put in your mind that you're doing free workshops or paid workshops, and I think they're right, they both go hand in hand. Do you have a preference on what when we chat about today, offering free value workshops, or paid workshops? Yeah,
Braco Pobric 1:40
I think we can start with the free because new coaches really need to get clients right. And also, when we say workshop, we also mean, live webinars, Zoom meetings, just wanted to say one thing when you and I started this years years ago, right? It was so difficult, you couldn't just there was no event something there was no online thing. You had to like, friends and go to companies and try to have some fliers and make a flyer sir, I
bring it to corporations or to your neighbors. I mean, it was difficult paying for the space.
Patrick Howell 2:16
phonebook.
Braco Pobric 2:17
Right? Put it Yeah, Yellow Pages, right? To date. Anybody you can do this, it doesn't matter what country you in, you have the capabilities of doing workshops, you know, again, webinars Live Meeting. So let's talk about let's start with the free ones. Regardless if it's in person, hopefully the COVID is kind of, you know, going away slowly. But regardless how we do it, let's start with
Patrick Howell 2:41
the free one. You got it? Yeah. Okay.
Braco Pobric 2:45
No, it just why does it bring value to coaches, especially to new coaches?
Patrick Howell 2:49
Yeah, well, I guess the first thing that comes to my mind, and I know this has been your experience as well, is that I'm really trying to run through my my brain here. But I think that there has never, ever in the history of my my career, 20 years or so doing this type of work, that I have offered a value edit workshop free. Where I did not walk away with business. Maybe sometimes it wasn't immediate business, right? But But there's been times that somebody that was in that workshop came to me six months later, either as a coach or maybe even bring me inside their organization, so that there's a lot about it just that's one of my first thoughts. There's a whole lot of value in doing workshops.
Braco Pobric 3:40
Yes, yes. Yes, that's, that's really so true. And I think the key, the key, what you just said is may not be immediate, right? But you creating connections and couple of months later, you know, something will happen, something will happen. And so, okay, so they can start, you know, definitely will increase your business by creating doing some of the workshops, webinars and meetings. How, let's talk about where to bring these, you know, we still call them workshops, but the live webinars or
Patrick Howell 4:13
anything, yeah, I think we're generic term for every see that anything you can do nowadays.
Braco Pobric 4:19
So let's, let's give them some ideas, how and where they can start this because there's a new coach like you like, Okay, how do I get started? Yes, I'd bring these workshops.
Patrick Howell 4:29
Yeah. And I think maybe a great place for people to start is number one to identify what their specialty specialty is in coaching. So if you have a specialty in stress reduction, let's say or maybe you're a public speaking coach, maybe maybe you're a life coach with, you know, a specialty in this specific area. So identify what you're really good at. And then I sort of break these into two different categories. When I look at workshops, I look at ones that are sponsored And I don't mean financially sponsor, because we're talking free here, but sponsored by an organization or a company. Yes. And then what I read, what I referred to, and I think you do to maybe have different terminology is open enrollment workshops, which I, which really just means in the public setting where you you gather and public setting could be a hotel room, it could be somebody's living room, it could be, it could be your living room. So there's a lot of those avenues. So I typically break those into two areas, the organizational sponsored ones, where you identify your specialty, and then you go out to an organization, and you offer a complimentary workshop, maybe it's a lunch and learn, maybe it's a two or three hour session on that topic that might be valuable to the organization with the understanding that, hey, if people walk away from this workshop with a tremendous amount of value, that the organization is open to, you know, exploring further what it is that you have to offer. So that's, that's the first way and then the other way is the open enrollment.
Braco Pobric 6:06
Right. So I think, and I know, You've done this a lot doing we take, you know, inside the corporation, it's really a great way because the chances are, you know, especially chances are that you will get more business, they are not just for the coaching, but yeah, the engagements and so on. And then also, you know, as you mentioned, public venues, and, you know, we talked about, and I know, we've done this years ago, right, now, that library,
Patrick Howell 6:33
oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, years ago, that was,
Braco Pobric 6:37
yeah, so so doing, you know, there are libraries all over the world, you know, they love to have people come into the talk. And, and they you can basically go in and find your audience there. There are a lot of non for profit organizations, where I do we love to have people with the skills and knowledge to come in. And I think the key is that you don't going to sell anything, just always keep that in mind you're not selling,
Patrick Howell 7:02
right, you're adding value.
Braco Pobric 7:06
That's all you're doing. You're adding value, and that any value needs to be on your you know, on top, if you will, yeah, all the time throughout your life. I mean, this is not in the beginning, always.
Patrick Howell 7:20
Yeah. Right. And I would say either to clarify even what what the heck is because that's sort of they become catchphrases in society adding value, right? It's a value add. value add, like, what does that really mean? Yeah, I
Braco Pobric 7:34
can add, you know,
Patrick Howell 7:37
so, so adding value, I would say, even investigating that further and breaking that down. So if you are, say, in a library, and you've gathered 10 People that want you know, to to come, you know, to your workshop, is really thinking about how can I impact this person's these people's lives? Like, what can I give them that's concrete that they can grab ahold of put it in their pocket, when they leave here, and it's going to make a difference. They're going, they're going to be doing something different after they leave or thinking a different way, or putting things in a different context after they leave the workshop. So that's really adding value.
Braco Pobric 8:14
Right? Right. And so I know that now some people will be thinking, well, yes, but I'm not ready. Material, I just want to be coached, or like, I don't know, you, I can just show up in library and do the talk. Of course, we're not gonna be able to cover a lot of that. But, but but there is a lot of preparation for this, you can just show up. So how do you prepare? Of course, it depends where you're doing this. Right. So let's talk about you know, public, let's start from corporate, I know that your favorites, this really will bring a lot of business. And now the question is, how do you find corporate clients in the beginning? Well, write starts from start from your connections through your family connections from your kids, you know, parents, I meet people that we know, neighbors, somebody works somewhere that we should know,
Patrick Howell 9:06
magic, and there's no real magic. I mean, every people know how to get to get business business is about consulting in sales, and consulting and sales only takes place in the beginning. I mean, it is it is what it is. And in the beginning, if you have no context in organizations, then sometimes it requires the cold call requires to drop by, right, you're in one business, you walk to the next business and you say, Hey, um, you know, I was in the area and having a conversation. So there's, and I do think that that happens a lot, right? We get caught up in well, you know, Patrick abbraccio has all this work, and they're not out there knocking on doors. Maybe not. Now, we're not knocking on doors. Right? But there wasn't there's a long history of having to do that. So there's really no shortcuts. I think it is sales. It's consulting in the beginning. You have to sell yourself. You have to sell your work and you have to and the way to do that is to get it in front of people. So I think that's a start is if people, if someone is listening in, they're having in their mind that I don't want to go out and sell my work or consult my work. I think that sometimes it's good to put that off to the side. Because in the beginning until you get going, and then what happens is once you get going, you get it, you get ingrained. And even just in those those organizations, it starts to kind of filter out and ripple out. And next thing, you know, you're in other organizations that are out my friend, or my brother in law works at such and such, they could use you. Right? Yes, that's how it kind of works.
Braco Pobric 10:35
Yes, yes, yes. And it just, you know, always think of this, you know, as you mentioned, beginning, this is a long term, everything is basically business is a long term, we don't start business today, and expect, you know, next month, and people always say, well, but you know, like you said, I don't know, people, I don't have clients, I don't have this, we didn't have anything, nobody has anything in the beginning, nobody has to start with zero. So don't get discouraged. You all start with zero.
Patrick Howell 11:07
I think the libraries is a great start. And then also anyone who is interested in you know, getting in, there's places like called workforce investment boards in there, if you if you're in the United States anyway. And I'm sure that other countries and other locations have similar things. They're basically quasi government funded, places where people who need work come in they up their skills. So I know in the United States, they're in every single county, and in every single state in the United States. And those groups are always looking for people to come in, complimentary into to help train unemployed people. Now, those unemployed people, where do they go, the idea is that they're eventually going to land jobs. And you can make those instant create, you know, connection right there, that then leads to an introduction into whatever organizations they go to. So it is really a grassroots thing.
Braco Pobric 12:03
It really is, this is actually a great segue for folks who, you know, want to quit, focus on leadership and executive coaching, that's a great place to go, alright, because these people will get a job, they'll be in a position then to bring you in.
Patrick Howell 12:19
And those and just say those workforce investment boards, the the, so the people that are coming to the workshop, oftentimes are unemployed or underemployed. But then those workforce investment boards are connected with all the senior executives in the local area, because the senior executives in the local area are the people are the ones who are sponsoring this in a lot of ways, looking for the best candidates to come out of these Workforce Investment Programs. So it's not just that you're just working with unemployed people, they hope they have the money, you're actually demonstrating to the senior executives, the hiring folks in that in that area, that you're making a huge impact in the community.
Braco Pobric 12:59
Right. Right. So So what's the action? Now we want folks to take? Right, I think the first thing is, you know, find out first thing is define your, you know, what do you really best at and what is it that you sell it because you're not going to go out there to talk about your one on one coaching, right? Or your your executive coaching? You will have as you mentioned, whatever your your skill sets assessors production, is it leadership, is it relationships is it, you know, fine line that hopefully you have it, and once you have that, then and only then you will develop the program. And the program has to be you cannot have one thing and deliver it everywhere. But you could have one thing and adjusted to different audiences, right? Yes, right. So it doesn't have to be new presentation every time. But it needs to be adjusted. So that, you know, in a library, you'll might have a different audience, then if you're going to, you know, help people find a job, you can use the same topic. Just adjust it.
Patrick Howell 14:04
And I would say just to quickly, and if you are, you're just interested in not not getting incorporations then you take your specialty. Let's say you're a life coach who's really freakin good at helping people set life goals. And you're really on the top of your game with that, then start by telling everybody in your neighborhood that you're having a local workshop in your living room or online. Yes. And sometimes you might get three, four people, sometimes you might get 10 people, but if you're really really good at what you do, then being really good is really the elixir of business. If you're really good at what you're doing, you're confident what you do. Business will come pouring in.
Braco Pobric 14:48
Yeah, so I think you know, confidence is in the beginning a key being good in the beginning. They don't know if they're good or not. They will most people think I'm not in the beginning right so you So I think that's a little bit but you know, having the confidence that even if you're not good today, you'll get better. You're okay? Because you already made a decision to do this. So I do mean,
Patrick Howell 15:10
good at what you do like good at helping people to to say set life goals. If you're good at that, then really take, you know, ground, again, a grounding in that and say, I'm really good at this, I might not be the best at doing workshops, that's okay. But you know what, if you come to my workshop, I might fumble over my words, I might be nervous, and you're going to leave that workshop with a plan, you know, moving forward, you're going to have some really concrete goals, where if or if it's stress management, if I'm really good at stress management, I don't care if I'm not great at workshops, because you're going to leave with some real practical tools after my workshop to help manage your stress.
Braco Pobric 15:49
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. And the one thing that, you know, in the I know, in the beginning, I would forget so many times, right. So prepare really well, make sure you have that list. So people can sign in, make sure you leave with that, you know, even if it's three emails, right, but this is how you start building your business little by little. And I know we've done workshops with, you know, hundreds of people up any email, I mean, seriously, that's, that's really
Patrick Howell 16:18
make mistakes. Yes, you make mistakes of not collecting emails and doing those type of things. And it happens, but then you hopefully you correct, you know, the course of the ship.
Braco Pobric 16:28
Right, right. Right. So So we definitely saying this is just a one way, right? A way to increase your coaching business, to think about creating and delivering workshops, that really brings a lot of value to your audience. Yeah, right to
Patrick Howell 16:46
be as bold as to say, it's not just increasing, if you get in the habit of doing workshops, it's probably a 10x of your business. In the beginning, it really, really is. Because your instead of one to one, which is great, let's say you're charging a client 500 $750 for you know, for a one to one session, once you get really, really good at workshops, then you start charging for those workshops. Like once you get the habit of doing this, you're getting more clients, and then you're also starting to charge for your workshops. But instead of one, the one 500 or 750, you're having a three hour workshop where each person is paying 500, and you're filling a room with 30 people or 15 people, whatever it is, you can see the exponential benefit financially, even, and then the impact that you're having.
Braco Pobric 17:31
Right. Right, right, right. No upsell, absolutely agree. So cool. So what's the one thing we want to leave our audience with?
Patrick Howell 17:42
Do some workshops?
Unknown Speaker 17:44
Yes. Go
Patrick Howell 17:47
workshops? No, I would say lay it out. Try it out. See if it's for you workshops. And again, we don't doesn't necessarily mean in person, it could be online, it could be just like this could be on Facebook, or however people are doing most of the time now.
Braco Pobric 18:02
Agree, Agree. So So and I would just leave them to you know, if you think this is something that could bring you a business and we know we know it can then do something today, you know, start working for the organization, start developing that workshop, take a small action like today, today, it will have a long term impact,
Patrick Howell 18:22
even if that action is identifying what your expertise is. That's great that you don't know yet where you're really good at doing at something then maybe identify that today.
Braco Pobric 18:33
There we go. So identify what you're really good at figuring out what do you want to do for the workshops, start looking for organizations? Go and do these workshops. Increase your business guys? Yeah. All right, but she's talking to you. Yeah, we'll be talking next Friday. Right?
Patrick Howell 18:52
Yeah, of course. We will. We're here we're ready to go.
Braco Pobric 18:54
Right. Assume by become the life success academy founding member, go to academy of life success.com and click on founding member to get 60% of full membership.
