Not long ago, one of my clients – we’ll call her Tracy – felt completely frustrated because her business income had plateaued and her programs were harder to fill than they used to be. Tracy’s problem was the fact that she focused more on selling her programs than building her list. Sure, she sent out a weekly blog and dabbled in social media, but she had no real process to bring a consistent flow of new subscribers to her list. It wasn’t long ago that I was in Tracy’s shoes, so it was easy to spot the pitfall she’d fallen into. It’s one most coaches make because list building ain’t all that sexy, right? But if you offer online programs, large group courses, or even private coaching, your list growth matters. A lot. Probably more than anything else (except of course your coaching skills). Here’s why:

I’ll be the first to admit that I love bells and whistles. I can’t get enough of learning all about the latest Facebook funnels, webinar strategies, list building techniques, and all the apps, plugins and platforms that go along with them. You name it, I’ve done the training and I LOVE every part of it. But sometimes it’s so easy to get distracted by these bright, shiny objects that I forget the easiest way to bring clients without any high tech, big budget productions. If you want to add two or more new clients to your practice within the week, set aside your plans to invest thousands of dollars in Facebook ads and keep reading…

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane… It was my first discovery session in my brand new coaching business. I had so much success in my first coaching business serving actors that other coaches began reaching out to me for mentorship. Between you and me… I was SO READY to expand beyond the same actor conversations I’d had for 15 years that I leaped at the chance to meet with my first ever lead for business coaching. Her name was Monica and I was stoked. The two of us met at Starbucks on the corner of Westwood and Pico in Los Angeles. I wore a red and white jumpsuit . Monica wore jeans and a crisp white blouse. (See… I told you I remembered all of it!). The discovery session could not have gone better. In fact, I got lucky and didn’t even have to invite Monica to become a client because she beat me to the punch. But here’s where things went sideways…