Have you ever had those moments where a potential new client gushes over the free content you put out, the way you put yourself out there, and the work that you do? They can’t say enough good stuff about how much you’ve already helped them and how they can’t wait to work with you… one day… when they’re ready?

While this compliment might feel great, it’s mostly just confusing because you see so clearly how you could help this person accomplish their goals really easily. You also understand that the idea of being ready… isn’t exactly real. We work with coaches because we don’t know how to move forward, so what does ready even look like, right?

When situations like this happen often, you might get discouraged and wonder “what am I doing wrong? “People say I’m so awesome, and yet nobody wants to hire me.”

If what I just described rings a bell, you’ll love today’s episode.

My guest is Chris Vaglio who is a super dynamic, successful, and smart guy who came into our conversation wondering this very thing.

Chris is a business and personal branding coach who helps creative business owners build a rock star brand to get noticed, feel confident and bring in more clients.

And while Chris didn’t really see it, I noticed something that I see in other Hive members as well. For lack of a better word, let’s call it the intimidation factor. As a coach, you may look like you’ve got it all going on and people just assume that they aren’t ready or don’t have that same special sauce that you do, so the idea of working with you is kind of intimidating.

I had a feeling that the intimidation factor might be the thing standing between Chris and all the clients he dreams of.

So, we dug into how to best approach this odd phenomenon and create a permission structure that allows clients to feel confident about hiring you.

This included two key pieces.

First, simply narrating what’s actually going on in your marketing and your sales conversations.

Second, believe it or not… niching way down to turn the client’s decision from a “that sounds cool for some day down the road” to an “oh! I need to work with you right now.”

Lots of ground to cover in what’s been one of my favorite episodes so far… let’s dive in shall we?