Are you a new coach and struggling to find clients? Are you having trouble building your database and getting in front of your ideal audience? Trust me, we have all been there before, but there is a great way to solve this issue both online and offline as a health coach.
In today’s episode, I’m talking about the magic of workshops and how you can use them (both online and offline) to get in front of your ideal clients. Workshops are a versatile tool that can easily be repurposed and help move the needle forward in your business. Tune in now to find out why workshops are your ticket to more hot leads and how to begin putting them on.
Hey there awesome coaches! I wanted to hop in today and talk about workshops and why these are one million percent why I had an easier time building my business.
What does that actually mean? We see all these different things telling us to build in this one way, use this one platform, build this freebie, have a landing page, etc. When you’re brand new getting in front of your ideal audience is the struggle, and I want you to be able to get clients. So let’s actually look at how you can get in front of other people’s audiences.
Workshops are Versatile
In the online space, a workshop can be great to repurpose for a podcast and it can be a pre-recorded video. In the offline space, you could host an in-person workshop. When you look at a workshop, there’s a lot of people saying, “Well, how do you do a workshop offline?” This is exactly what I did right here – when you look at my autoimmune workshop, you’re pretty much looking at a PDF freebie. One thing I’ve learned is to just keep things really simple.
I send the PDF to the participants of the workshop and this can also be done offline. You can ask people to pull up the PDF up on their phones or even advise them to come to the workshop with a table to use. The same can be done if you’re releasing a podcast, or you’re doing an interview, you can of course encourage them to grab the PDF while following along in the episode or interview.
Tips for Presenting Your Workshop
Sometimes presenting your content can feel stressful, especially in front of a live audience. To make it easy, print out the PDF and actually mention at the beginning of the workshop that you have a little fear of public speaking and ask them to bear with you as you read through the workshop. I’ve actually done this myself!
If you’re doing this in a pre-recorded setting, you can always introduce yourself at the beginning, and then actually share the screen without your visual. So just remember, there’s not a right or wrong way, it’s about you being comfortable and having the confidence to show up so that your ideal client sees (or hears) that confidence.
What to Share in Your Workshop to Engage the Audience
What about the contents of your workshop? It’s important that you’re not only teaching, but also explaining how you overcame the issue or how you helped somebody overcome it. For example, in a workshop about autoimmune flares – how do they happen? What do you mean diseases are the result of your body having difficulty identifying that your cells are your own? You can take the opportunity in a workshop to make it interactive and have clients raise their hand if they experience X symptom. You can even do this via Zoom on a webinar. If you’re doing this on a live, you can ask them to drop a specific number correlating to a specific symptom. Really take them through because we have to make the connection for the ideal client.
So you can take them through by asking engaging questions, especially if you’re doing this live. They don’t want us to teach, teach, teach – they have enough of that. They want solutions! Your business isn’t about you – it is about the stories that you share and how you did what you did. Case studies, testimonials, allow your ideal client to build that know, like and trust factor and get hired.
Second, how could I actually use this to further engage this audience? I could encourage them to sign up for the workshop and also receive a five day yoga rest challenge. You could even do this live and have it be its own workshop. You could also give it as a gift.
When I look at workshops, I look at them as content, which means I can use it for social media, I could use it for a live, this could be a script that I use for a pre-recorded video, this could be a social media post, etc. For example, with my Eight Ways to Manifest Wellness workshop, you could do eight days of social media posts. You’re simply copying and pasting this information to make it super easy.
Converting Ideal Clients with The Hero’s Journey
High engaging webinars that convert and get your ideal client to actually buy takes them through a hero’s journey. You’re taking them through that mini transformation. What does that mean? They’re coming to the workshop, webinar or live, because you’re solving a problem. Specifically a problem that they have that you’re addressing in that specific training.
But in order to prequalify them to start that journey, they have to get a taste of what it’s like to work with you. I always suggest giving them something like a journal before the workshop, so if somebody signs up, you immediately send them that, or even the five day yoga challenge. This way, they’re building momentum as they’re doing that homework potentially all the way up to the workshop.
After, give them something else to really position that workshop. This could be a masterclass with handouts that you send for nurturing three days after the workshop. You must actually nurture the clients to retain them through this entire process. For example, day number one, you could give them the autoimmune journal. Day number two, you’re going to follow up with the yoga rest challenge, etc.
So when you’re looking at workshops, look at the myriad of different ways you can use them. They can even be used for those of you who are doing or want to do summit. They help structure what you’re talking about and reading from the workshop is great practice. I always suggest recording and listening to yourself (even if you’re intending to do this offline and in front of people) to get used to saying this in a way that you feel most comfortable so that it comes out naturally.
Getting in Front of Other People’s Audiences
The last thing is, how you actually reach out to people and get in front of their audiences. This is a much easier way of getting clients than just posting on Instagram, doing all these different things, and waiting and hoping that your ideal client stops on your perfect social media image. Social media can be a little overwhelming and exhausting, so this is how we are lessening that exhaustion especially if you’re a new coach and don’t have money for paid ads.
I want you to think about 20 people that already know, like and trust you. Maybe that’s at your gym, your hair salon, your spa. Maybe you have friends who really believe in what you do and they would allow you to do a corporate lunch and learn. I want you to actually write down 20 people or 20 establishments and set a date to reach out to them. Decide what you are presenting to them – I suggest having three signature workshops that help your ideal client to know what is your signature process.
So for example, I’m a gut coach. One of my content pillars, and a big part of my business, was autoimmune flares. A second big part of my signature process, and something I constantly talked about, was food allergies and sensitivities. That was a huge pain point. The third is that I taught a lot about detoxification and so that was a core pillar. These topics are very specific, but if I’m a good coach to just everyone, that’s great, but that’s what had me making $13K my first year and $27K my second year. When I got super clear and realized I have to solve very specific problems, problems that people would pay to have solved, that’s when I had this moment of clarity. Having those structured workshops allows you to reach out to those establishments and say, “I was looking on your site or I went to school and this is what I do. This is what I specialize in. This is how I help people. I was wondering if you would want to collaborate.” That’s the simplest conversation, so don’t over complicate it.
It’s going to feel a little scary to do it, but if you do, you’re going to get even more used to it. That’s the thing guys – no matter what platform you use, no matter what email marketing system, no matter what social media scheduler, at the end of the day it comes down to being willing to take that risk and push through the fear that you’re going to mess up, or that your voice is gonna shake, or that you’re not going to know what to do. That’s our inner critic and perfectionism running the show. Instead, just say screw it and show up because we know that our ideal client is looking for that information that we have – the information of how we overcame, or how we helped this person, or the steps that we know are essential to get our client from A to Z.
Practical Application in My Business
So for me in my business, I offered my core workshops because I knew in order to get your gut better, come out of autoimmune disease, come out of food allergies and sensitivities, you had to be able to detox. I also knew that a fourth content pillar that I always talked about was perfectionism and imposter syndrome. The inner critic, your self worth – I was talking to that person who was like me, an overthinker and Type A personality. So I would always have those workshops that showcased my signature process, you had to detox your body. And if it wasn’t detoxing your body, you had to start with detoxing your mind. You had to let go of those old stories, old narratives, that inner critic. Second was then to really look at how it was showing up. For most people, it was food allergies, intolerances, nausea, bloating, skin issues, sleep issues, low sex drive, etc. There were a lot of different symptoms and problems, but I decided to focus on those areas.
It doesn’t mean that I didn’t have other workshops. I had some I talked about hormones and the detox connection. I had workshops where I talked about skin because my husband had psoriasis and that was such a huge part of our lives (It was actually one of the big reasons that we moved from Philly to Florida). I talked constantly about my kids, heavy metals, and the early intervention I needed to do with them. Was that the main part of my business? No, but I did have workshops on how to detox your children, how to detox the family, how to take simple steps when you’re really busy in corporate. Did I do corporate? No. But I had lunch-and-learns that were geared towards people in corporate who I knew would be my ideal client. Because when you come in and you can solve a problem, and really speak to your ideal client and their specific problems, I’m telling you, you will conquer.
You’ve got to do the work and show up. If you start to establish this, you’re taking the action steps and those action steps have to be followed up with you believing in yourself. That’s the visualization. That’s the inner work that we have to do. That means doing it even if you’re scared, setting a date that I’m going to reach out to this person. I’m going to dedicate, you know, two Saturdays a month to spend three hours going to local businesses, or I’m going to spend three hours reaching out to online influencers or people that I want to get in front of their list. You have to do it. I did it! There’s not another person who didn’t do it (and if they say they didn’t do it, I bet you they’re lying, or they had a shitload of money to do paid ads). It really comes down to that. So, I hope this was helpful. I will see you guys later. Peace out.
