Lots of new life coaches want more than anything to get clients. They want to figure out their niche, get out there, and attract people to them who want the value provided by life coaching. They love the whole thing, the listening, the aha moments, the point when clients finally get their own wisdom, move on and achieve their goals instead of sitting back there, feeling stuck forever, wishing they could move forward with their lives.
Then they sit around and try to do things to attract clients, various forms of marketing, facebook groups, advertisements, public speaking, youtube channels, exchanging blog links with coaches, whatever method they think might work best for them. They might even put all day everyday into trying to attract clients and qualify leads, but its just not working, it feels like nothing is working, it would be better to give up now and put the energy elsewhere instead of feeling burned out.
Or maybe they at least have a few people who are somewhat interested, people who are doing the sample sessions, instead in what these people are offering, but when it comes time to pay for the actual coaching, they don’t really feel that it is worth the money.
They buy marketing course after marking course, they hire coaches who don’t really believe they will ever get anywhere, they hire consultants who tell them what to do so they go through the motions and get nowhere. They periodically find a period of frantic work on marketing and sales, followed but a giving up and saying “oh, but this isn’t working, I’m wasting my time and I’m burned out.
Finally, one day they make that blog post with a title like “Is Life Coaching a Scam?” and then a long drawn out wordy post that says “Spoiler alert, yes it is” they retire from it, forget they ever learned it and go do something else, something that has nothing whatever to do with coaching, the horrid scam they permanently retired from and put behind them so they could move forward with their lives.
Spoiler alert on this blog, I know because I am that coach, and I know a good percentage of coaches are in that boat as well. Some of them keep shuffling along, too embarrassed to admit that is where they are. They are still looking for that one right fit coach or consultant that will fix everything. If I just hire the right person or find the right information, they think, I won’t be part of the 90% failures or whatever the rate is for business failures. They sit down and keep going at it, keep looking for the right coach to coach them to success, the right consultant to fix their marketing, or the right “information product” that will tell them everything they are doing wrong to get clients and what they should do instead of that.
The whole problem with this mindset is they are looking outside themselves, and as a good coach knows, the answers are inside. Yes, sure, others sometimes know about things you don’t know about or are not yet aware of, so for instance, if you have never heard of affiliate marketing how can you even try it. Or perhaps you never heard of facebook ads, don’t see how you could use public speaking to boost your business, or facebook groups, or whatever. If you never even heard about webinars on being a six figure coach, how could you even try it as a marketing tactic. But being aware of a given practice and deciding it is the right fit for you are two different things, again, the whole enlarging your circles, engaging with different people who have different skillets than you.
But, then you think, perhaps I should hire a coach, a coach who is also a consultant, that can steer me in the right direction, that has experience with various forums of marketing, that can help me position myself better. But you would most likely be wrong. Most likely what would happen is you would get steered to one or more marketing techniques while someone else coached you towards goals you weren’t even sure you wanted anymore. You would question yourself. Is is this it? Is this why I became a coach in the first place, so I could spent ever more money on my business so people can finally tell me what I need to do to make the money?
Then you have the aha moment, mindset coaching. Wow, something I never heard about before. Everything is mindset and that is why I am struggling so much in my coaching business. You rewrite all your marketing copy to make yourself out to be a mindset coach, mindset coaching is clearly what everyone needs and why they should hire you as a coach. Not only that,but you are very aware of the mindset shift, because you just experienced the mindset shift.
Crickets, nothing, no fish are biting. No one wants mindset coaching. Even other coaches don’t see why they need it, a business coach, maybe a mindset coach sounds like pure woo woo with no substance. As if you you could make something up and market it as a type of coaching that you should buy to get that mythical six figure and beyond income.
Alright, enough about the problem. You have been there already and want out. You want to end it in a way that works. Only two words, shadow work. But shadow work sounds like an overly complex, potentially expensive type of thing, something more suited to therapy, or perhaps just merely time consuming with no end in site.
The question is your life coaching practice, and tarot cards are the answer. To that end, I have developed the life coaching spread. You can do it yourself with your favorite (or lease favorite) deck of tarot cards and read them for yourself, looking up meanings online, and if you haven’t already sunk lots of time into it, hoping you have gotten it right in this instance, you can download one of my programs and compile it on your computer, then run it and, run the “life coaching” spread and then read the cards on your end, and get the answers that you are seeking. Or you can just, for a modest fee, pay a tarot reader to read the spread for you and apply it to your situation, preferably someone familiar with tarot spreads and life coaching who can instantly apply it to your situation in a way that makes sense for you. (such as myself, see my services)
So, without much further ado, here it is, the basic life coaching spread, created by yours truly.
This is a five card spread that will really help you get a grip on your life coaching business and exactly what you need to do to make it a success. This is without giving advice, hour long (or longer) expensive life coaching sessions or contracts, consultants, or worst of all “information products”. Why am I offering this spread to you? Because I want to help you. I don’t want to see life coaches flounder around when they could be doing their souls true purpose in helping others, so I suppose that is entirely a selfish reason, but it is a reason that benefits you.
Regardless of your current income or finances, you can take advantage of this spread. It is truly an awesome work of insight wrapped in an artistic package. And, if merely running the program or working it with a physical deck isn’t providing you with enough information, I would be happy to read the cards for you. You can absolutely breathe a sigh of relief that your troubles are OVER, that a custom tailored solution is waiting for you to abide by and implement right now if you are ready to receive the inner wisdom contained in the tarot.
So, do I mean that, do I really mean that just by reading the tarot your troubles with marketing life coaching are over. Well, the tarot can only provide insight. Putting that insight into practice in your life coaching practice is entirely up to you. However, the tarot allows for insight beyond what a mere human being can offer. The tarot is a window to the universe, and whatever you are searching for that exact moment when you draw those cards is what will show up for you. Don’t keep reading this spread over and over again. Read it once, put it into action, and then wait at least a month before even considering doing this spread again. It is that powerful.
So now let us go over each of the five cards and their relationship to each other.
1. Position one
What do you tell people about your choice to be a life coach, the external.
This position is about what you tell people when they ask why you became a life coach. It could be about your life story, or just how that fits into everything else in your practice.
2. Position two
Why inside is it that your really choose life coaching?
This position is why you really choose to be be life coach. It might fit well with what you tell people, or actually be a completely different reason. Knowing why you are choosing to be a life coach can help you find your ideal clients and work with them, even more so that what you have been telling people about why you choose to be a life coach.
3. Position three
What can you do to gain more visibility as a life coach at this point?
Visibility is one of the two things you need as a life coach, the other one being credibility (that is, your life coaching will actually make a difference. If people don’t know you exist and can’t find you, how are they going to request your services. It is just plain old not going to happen. Visibility is the result of you putting yourself out there where others can see you.
4. Position four
What can you do to gain more credibility as a life coach at this point?
Credibility is the other important thing you need as a life coach. If everyone sees you but no one actually believes you can help them, you won’t get any business either, and if despite all your visibility, no one thinks you can do the life coaching job, guess what, you aren’t going to get any clients either, because why would someone spend money for stuff they don’t think is even going to work. Credibility is what allows people to know that you can help them.
5. Position five
What should you do in your life coach marketing plan?
This is your overall marketing plan. While visibility and credibility address specific parts of your plan, this position shows how it all fits together into a coherent whole. Your marketing plan is probably why you decided to do this reading in the first place, and most spreads have an overall card, and this one nails it for you, and gives you your strategy, not in words, but in pictures.