Where do I find the people to speak to?
So often I hear the question: ‘Where do I find people to start conversations with?’
Steve Chandler says: Conversations are everywhere.
At first, my reaction was ‘ok, that’s quite obvious BUT where do I find people to serve?!’
Most coaches think they need to build their social media following, invest in ads or marketing experts to figure out where their people are. Most coaches think they need to create an ideal client avatar to understand where their clients might be hanging out in person or online.
This gets in the way of actually helping people now. These avenues take us down the route of marketing to the big anonymous ‘X’ out there in the void. The idea that if I build a beautiful social media platform, they will come.
This is a very passive way to build a coaching business, and it requires you to build marketing skills in order for you to do the thing you love, which is coaching. Coaching becomes secondary and marketing becomes primary which has had so many coaches give up and get jaded by the industry.
I don’t want to do a bunch of my things in my business in order help people. I want to help people NOW.
To add, I want to use social media as a tool, not have it use me 🙂
What if there was a way to have a full calendar of coaching calls without having to extensively market yourself?!
Instead of marketing to all the ‘cold’ connections that you don’t have, why not try your warmest connections. Strike up a conversation with people in your inner network. You will be surprised at how many people you know that would take a phone call from you.
You may have between 200-600 people in your personal network, ranging from old school friends, to work colleagues to gym buddies, maybe a community group you are part of. You name it, everyone counts.
Now, here’s what NOT to do. Don’t call them up and start selling the idea of coaching. Most people, including me once upon a time, hear the above, and immediately jump into: ‘BUT I can’t call those people! What will they think of me?! I don’t want to sell my friends and family, that is so uncomfortable!’
If this is you, I invite you to drop this judgement for a moment, and stay with me.
When you ring, message or meet the people in your network, start by being genuinely INTERESTED in them. The purpose of the call is not to get them as a client and to make a sale. The purpose is to be of service.
Be interested and see if you can help them in any areas of their life after being curious. You can also ask if they know anyone who you could possibly help.
If you know 200-600 people, guess what, they probably have between 200 – 600 people in the warm network. By 3 degrees of separation, you now have access to helping ~1.5m people. I’m not being silly, I really mean this.
There are so many people you could call right now and help. People will feel if you are trying to funnel them into your bank account, and they will feel if you are genuinely curious and wanting to SERVE them.
Instead of trying to get across who you are to people you don’t know, start by HELPING those you do.
‘Coming across’ and actually BEING of service are two very different ways of being. Focus on the latter, just help someone and do it with heart. Your diary will begin to fill up and you won’t need to hire that marketer anymore 😉
Love Rajni 💛
