Ep #33: What to Calendar When You Don’t Have Clients

Welcome to the Make Money as a Life Coach® podcast where sales expert and master coach Stacey Boehman teaches you how to make your first 2K, 20K, and 200K using her proven formula.

Hey lovies. Welcome to episode 33. We’re moving and grooving. Today we’re going to be talking about what do you put on your calendar when you don’t have clients, you’re not making money, what exactly do you do? I get this question probably the most so I thought I would take an episode to talk to you about it but first, y’all know what time it is. It’s time to celebrate a new life coach making some money.

So my client Alexander said in our 2K group, “Oh my god Stacey, you’re not going to believe this, except you totally will. I’ve been in the 2K program for exactly one week and I’ve already made my money back plus an extra $1000. I’ve been a life coach for one full year and this is the first full pay contract I signed and it was the absolute easiest experience I’ve had. Just applying your 2K for 2K methods.

I have struggled to create clients for the past year. I was struggling to sign people up for four-week long contracts for $50 or $100, which is crazy because I’m an amazing coach. Until I did your program, I didn’t even realize the real problem was that I was secretly not believing I’m a coach. What changed everything for me? Believing that the moment the people I’m meeting hear me say the words I’m a life coach would be the moment their lives changed forever.

I practiced and the second day out telling people, I started getting reactions that left my jaw on the floor. The same words but said with a totally new energy. Had people asking me to go out for coffee and to talk about what coaching could offer them. It is unreal. So here’s what I want to leave you with. I started listening to your podcast and when I bought the 2K for 2K program, I chose one belief, that I would be a success story that you read at the beginning of your podcast.

My goal was to hear my name and my success story one week when I listened to the podcast and that the work I did would inspire every other coach listening to get into action. Join the 2K and make a bigger impact and get paid for it, and it only took a week. Now that the sales are a breeze, I can focus on what I love doing, coaching, and empowering gay men with the tools they need to create the relationships their hearts are yearning for and creating more love on this planet.”

Yes. I had to read that whole thing. It was so good, y’all. This is what I’m talking about. Also, I learned a saying from Alexander from us connecting on Instagram. Are y’all following me on Instagram? @staceyboehman. He said 2K for 2K was twirling his world. I lost it. I am forever using it. It’s so good. That is definitely how I feel about good coaching is it twirls my world. I love it. It just made me so happy.

So congratulations Alexander, and seriously, thank you for being an example of what’s possible. If I can be a small part or a large part of a coach’s success, I’m super happy about it. I get two kinds of clients. I get the die hards that want to do everything with me and I get the clients who already found their mentor and just need help closing some sales.

And I think either helps my mission of creating paid life coaches to go out in the world and help other people. The more people I can help, the more people they help. Such a beautiful thing. I have just loved every second of this post. Had to read it to y’all word for word.

Okay, so today we’re going to talk about again, what you got to do with your calendar, with your time. That’s really what I mean when I say your calendar. We’re not actually going to talk about how to calendar shit today. Don’t spend your time stressed and worried about that. For reals. I never calendared my time in the beginning of my business.

Yes, it does become very important later on, although I do think if you’re totally – your time, the way that you use it is outrageous, keeping a time journal will change your life. You’ll see exactly where all your time goes. So if you don’t seem to know, if you feel confused, you’re like, where’s all my time going? Spend a couple days tracking every single minute of your day.

Track how much time you spend spinning out, track how much time you spend thinking about something, track how much time you’re on Facebook and Instagram, track how much time you’re doing the dishes. Whatever it is. See where your time goes. It’s really fascinating. I did that as part of my master coach training and it changed my life.

But it’s not what I’m going to talk to you about today because when many of you present this question to me, you’re actually asking me what should I be doing? If I don’t have clients, what should I be doing? And that is what we’re going to talk about today.

So first, I think you have to identify – there are actually two problems that happen when you’re thinking I don’t know what I should be doing with my time, or you ask for help about what to do with your time and you’re not really sure, there’s two things that happen. The first problem is you don’t know what to do. You actually don’t know what you should be doing.

But there’s a second one that I think most of you actually have, which is you actually do know what to do but you either don’t want to, like you don’t feel like doing it, or you have drama about doing it, which is very different from not actually knowing what to do. When you’re being all confused about it or thinking it won’t work.

So I do think one of the most important things you can do when you’re not sure what to do with your time or what you should be doing and you’re like, I have 20 hours to devote to my business, now what? Listen up, if you’re like genuinely I have no idea what I should be doing, there are only three types of things that will ever go on your calendar or will ever be considered for use of your time ever when you’re trying to build a coaching business.

Activity one, see who’s paying attention. Who knows? It’s meet people. Activity two, tell them what you do. Tell them who you are. You’re a life coach. And activity three, make offers to people. Those are the only things. Other than your coaching calls with your coach, or if you’re doing, for example, 2K, you’re going to do that program. You’re going to come to the live trainings.

Other than that, and other than the time you spend coaching clients, maybe free clients or paid clients or practice clients, whatever it is, other than that, these are the only three things that ever go on your calendar, that ever take up your time, that you should ever be doing.

Notice nowhere in that list is creating content, recording a podcast, working on your program. Y’all, three things. Let’s say them together. You ready? Meet people. Tell them you’re a life coach. Make offers to help them. I’m going to do a seminar and I’m going to have everybody shouting these things for three days straight. Tell them you’re a life coach.

We’re going to do it – I’ve been to seminars like that where they make you do it and every time you do it you get louder and louder. We’re going to be like, meet people, tell them you’re a life coach, make offers to help them. I see it now. I feel the energy of that. We’re going to have thousands of people in the room.

I went to this seminar years and years ago and they had you do that. You had these cards of money beliefs and we would just shout them out. It was actually really fun. I’m not really into those kinds of things now but in the moment it was really fun. I can just see that happening. We’re going to be shouting the three things that you do as a life coach to make money. We’re going to shout them through the rooftops.

Now, this last one, making offers to help them, if this confuses you, use people instead. I say make offers to help them and sometimes people think that what I’m saying is go meet someone at a networking event, tell them you’re a life coach and say can we do a consult. And that’s not directly what I’m always saying.

If it shows up and makes sense, if people are like, oh my god, you’re a life coach, I could use a life coach, you should for sure say yeah, we could set up a time to chat. But if they don’t ask, it will be weird to say hey, do you want to coach with me? Be a normal human. We’ve talked about this before on the podcast. Don’t be weird.

So if you need to say meet people, tell people you’re a life coach, make offers to help people, if that clicks in your head, good. Make offers to help people. Now, within those three things, there are lots of different ways you can do then. There’s different ways you can meet people. You can meet them online, in Facebook groups, on your newsfeed, on their newsfeed, on Instagram, at networking events, at social parties, at seminars, at events.

You can get super creative. As creative as you want. Ask yourself every day how you want to meet people today. Same with telling people you’re a life coach. You can do that on a Facebook Live, you can do that at a networking event, you can do it in a group. You can tell your great-aunt Susan.

There are a billion ways to do that and there are a billion ways to make offers. You can make them through email, through a voice message or a text, through a Facebook Live to a bunch of people. That is the way I loved making my offers. People are always like well, how did you make your offers? I loved doing Facebook Lives. I’d get on, I’d give value, usually through telling a story with a lesson in it, and usually about me, building trust with my audience, and then I would make my offer.

You can make offers in person. You can say the words. I could definitely help with that. Here’s my card, feel free to reach out. Just send me an email or a text. Whatever’s easiest for you. That’s an offer. There you go. Just made one. Try a new way every day. But there are only three things you’re ever doing.

So if you’re really like that person who has to actually calendar, I know there are two different people in the world. I tend to be more of a creative, so calendaring is like, my arch nemesis, although now I’m pretty much killing it right now I have to say. But in the beginning, I don’t want you guys trying to do what I do in my business as a millionaire in your business trying to make 2K. That literally doesn’t make sense.

So that’s why I always say like, don’t get caught up in the podcast or the website, all the shit. Remove every obstacle that’s in your way between you and connecting with someone and making an offer to them. You’ve got to just clear out the clutter. So that’s why I say that these are the only three things you should ever be doing.

But if you’re the type of person who is like, you can’t function without a calendar, this works for you too. It’s just that the only thing you ever put on your calendar is your coaching and these three activities. That is it. You can then write how you’re going to do them or what you’re going to do specifically within that but don’t allow yourself any drama about this. None.

Do you hear me? Y’all in the back row, you paying attention? It’s how I imagine us having this conversation is we’re in the room together. Just making sure everybody’s awake. So you can say in your calendar, this is the time I’m dedicating to meeting people, and how I’m doing that is I’m going to this networking event, or I’m going to jump in a Facebook group, interact with some people.

And then in another hour, you can say this is where I’m going to be telling people I’m a life coach. I’m going to make a Facebook post and then that is what you fill your time with. This will turn into cash if this is what you fill your time with. It will turn into money. You just have to keep doing it until it does. You can’t stop. If you do this a month, two months, it doesn’t matter. You keep going until you have a return on your time investment and you start making money.

But most of you don’t have this problem, especially if you listen to this podcast, you know what you need to be doing. You have the problem of knowing what you need to do and having drama about it. That’s the drama of not feeling like it. This one is where you schedule shit on your calendar and you just don’t do it. You just don’t feel like it, you don’t think it will work, you’re unmotivated, you don’t have the energy, something else seems better.

And I think that’s the hardest thing. The discipline of getting shit done because you’re never going to want to do it. Something else will always seem better. I was so excited to make this podcast today. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, but I had to make myself do it because what I really wanted to do is make baby talk to my dog for 10 minutes straight.

I just wanted to sit there and talk to him and like, make the noises at him and then maybe take him for a walk and then I wanted to go down and see what my fiancé was doing in the basement and be like, hey babe, what you doing? What you got going on? And then I probably wanted to go up and have a snack and read a book and all these other – run errands. For sure, I have errands to run.

All these other things that weren’t this podcast. Even though I was excited about the podcast, the other things seemed easier and more fun and there was less likely of a chance to encounter technology issues or having to re-record, or having a rough recording session, whatever it is, it’s just like cooing at the dog sounded definitely better.

Something will always seem better. I actually recently took a few road trips. I’ve told you all about then. We drove to DC in March for the Final Four, which was about 10 hours from where we live with dog stops because we had a dog with us. And then we took a road trip across the country in June and when we were driving, my assistant was like, holy crap, you are so productive on drives.

I would tell her all this giant list of things I was going to do and I would do every single one of them. And I told her, I was thinking about it, I was like, why is that? And I realized it’s because I can’t take the dog on a walk really quick, or go make a latte, or snuggle with Neil for a moment, or run to Starbucks, or make a snack, or finish getting ready, coo with the dog. There’s nothing to do but sit in the car. So it’s either work or stare out the window.

It just made me realize how much I waste my own time. I think my ability to use my time has grown 100% in the last eight, nine months, like 100%. But I still clearly waste a lot of time. I’m onto myself now. I’m onto myself that I’m not that productive in my home life, working in my home office as I am trapped in the car for nine hours straight. There’s a huge difference in my productivity. So it has to be the way I’m using my time.

Now, if you’re honest about that, solving the problem will be so much easier. Now, there is also the other flavor of this, which is knowing what to do but being confused about it. So this looks like you not being sure how to make an offer or exactly what to say to tell people you’re a life coach, or wondering how you meet people when you live in a remote area.

Or what if they aren’t your ideal clients? Or you’re unclear if you should directly make offers to people or let them come to you. You’re confused about what to say in your Facebook post, how much to divulge, how vulnerable should I be or what creating value means. What does that mean? Or you think it is all so complicated because you’re still trying to figure out your niche.

This is all drama. It’s your best excuse not to go out there and figure it out through trial and error, which is really the only way you’ll ever be successful. This is where asking yourself specific questions and answering yourself, trying something, and then evaluating comes in play. This is where it comes in. Should I make a direct offer or allow people to come to me? What’s my answer? In this moment, I get to decide. What if there was no right answer? What if I had the answer for what that should be?

I asked my client that in 2K and she answered. She was like well, I think it depends on the situation. So if you did know, what would the answer be and then go try it and then evaluate it. Because certain things work for some people that work for others. I will tell you, making direct offers to people only worked for me a couple of times when I genuinely really did like, know I could help someone.

Like, I have a client who is part of my coach community and she was making a lot of money as a network marketer and I heard her talk at one of our coach masterminds, and she was talking about how she wanted to be a coach but she hadn’t made any money as a coach. And I had the thought there is zero chance. I can’t help her make money.

If she’s made money as a network marketer, I know how to speak because I worked with network marketers for so long. If she can do that, she can totally network her way to money as a coach and she was totally make money as a coach. And so I sent her a message, I was like, listen, I have a mastermind coming up and 100% I can help you make money. And guess what? I did, which is so fun.

But rarely do I do that because it didn’t resonate for me. Now, I also know clients who take what I have to say to heart. I had one post in 2K the other day, she said I told someone at coffee I was a life coach and she said I want your life, and I said hey, want to work with me? And she said yes. I could not pull that off. But some of you can.

So if you just go try, you can decide. That resonated with me or it didn’t. But you can’t stay on the surface here. You can’t just ride the wave of I don’t know and turn that into money. You have to actually go out and put these three things, meeting people, telling them you’re a life coach, and making offers to help them, you have to put that into play.

And you have to answer your own questions for what exactly that looks like for you. Don’t be confused about it or wait for me to tell you how to do those three things. It will look different for every single person. It will resonate differently. LinkedIn will work for some people, Instagram will work for others, Facebook will work for others.

You just have to decide. It’s the tedious work of making yourself think. It’s uncomfortable for us, it’s uncomfortable for our clients. Your clients aren’t going to want to do it either, but you’ve got to make yourself answer yourself on what you should be doing without being confused about it. How should I be making offers? What should I be doing to tell people I’m a life coach? How can I be meeting people?

You’ve got to answer that yourself. I think this is where most people get confused and this is where most people don’t take action is they know what to do but they just have so much drama around it instead of just making decisions and moving forward and then evaluating. Being willing to really roll your sleeves up and get dirty and go out and do the thing.

I want you to think about this as one of those flowcharts where you answer yes or no and then depending on your answer, it takes you down one path or another. So do you know what to do? Yes or no. No, do one of these three things. Meet people, tell them you’re a life coach, make offers to help them. Do you know what to do? yes, okay, what’s the issue? Do you feel like not doing it? Yes or no. No, do that shit anyway. Work on your discipline. You’re trading joy now for more joy later.

You do feel like doing it, okay, are you confused about one of the steps? No, great. Go take action. Yes, which step are you confused about? Choose one. Meeting people, telling them you’re a life coach, making offers to help them. Choose one then decide. Meeting people, in person or online. In person, great. Choose one, networking event, social event, seminar.

Now that you’ve chosen one, great. Now are you going to go to one or host one? Great. Choose it and then go do it. Deciding online? No problem. Now choose one. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Facebook, great. Are you going to do a Facebook group? Great, yours or someone else’s? Facebook Live, yours or someone else’s? Newsfeed, yours or someone else’s? Make a post or comment on someone else’s.

Your own post, great. Ask yourself what can I say right now to inspire help or add value to one person right now from a genuine place, then go do it. You’re going to be on someone else’s post, great. Ask yourself how can I genuinely connect to this person right now without being sales-y?

Y’all for real, you just have to make your brain go down the flowchart. You will find the kink, and every time you make it through the flowchart of what you need to be doing and working on, you evaluate and start over. You do this until you sign clients, and after you sign clients to keep signing them. It really is just all the drama.

The art of making money is the art of doing things you don’t feel like doing before you feel confident to do them. Now, when you get people reaching out for consults or taking you up on your offer for one consistently, then your flowchart moves to the next set of actions. You’ll do a consult and you’ll need to do the five steps of selling, and then you’ll need to figure out which step you missed, and you’ll need to coach yourself on what you need to do differently with each step and then you’ll need to try it again.

I teach my clients that in 2K for 2K. But there’s always going to be a path and I find that’s rarely the issue. It’s always the drama about the path. So save this podcast. Every time you say you’re not sure what you should be doing, go back and listen to it. It’s always one of the three things. Meet people, tell them you’re a coach, make offers to help them, and be willing to try new things to find your way that resonates with you of doing those three things.

Now, I actually – when I made this podcast – thought this flowchart idea is pretty fucking brilliant. If people can see that in front of them as a problem solving method for what do I need to be doing with my time right now, so I actually had my designer make this flowchart. I actually made one when I was making this podcast, I rough drew one on some pieces of paper to see how it would actually go and I was like, you know, I’m going to have her make this for real.

So if you’re in 2K for 2K, it’s uploaded in the member portal. You just go to the start here tab of the foundational videos and you will find it there. And you can also join 2K and get access to it. Post this thing on your wall where you can see it every day. Brilliant. I swear, it’s going to change the game for everyone.

And you will also learn in 2K the five steps of how to evaluate each one of your consults. In the consultation code, I actually put a list of three main behaviors a client displays and what you did wrong for them to display those behaviors to help guide you just like this concept of the flowchart. So you just look at okay, this is the behavior, this is what I did wrong.

And so you get the PDF download of that as well when you join 2K for 2K so that you’re never without the math. If you can take care of the math and learn that piece of it, then all you have to do if sift through the drama and sometimes just bringing yourself – almost always bringing yourself to the math will always eliminate the drama. It’s the best way to do it.

And if you need help with the drama, you also get access to the bonus Making Money with the Model course when you join 2K for 2K and you’ll find that in the member portal as well. I created 2K for 2K to flow you right into signing clients. You’ve got this. Alright, I’ll see you next week.

Hey, if you’re loving listening to the podcast, all through the month of August, we are doing a course called Making Money with the Model. It’s five weeks of applying the model to the math of making money. Just go to www.staceyboehman.com/2kfor2k to be a part of Making Money with the Model. We’ll see you inside.