A fellow life coach (who lives in MA) recently emailed me with this question, and here was my quick reply. Thought I would post it here for whomever it might help. There’s so much more I can write about this subject, but it’s up to you reader to poke me with more questions!

ANSWER:

Yup, tons of advice! In fact, I was thinking of creating a “Get Clients 101″ class as a third in my series, but you caught me in the middle of my “Find Your Passion” class, which is the first in series.

It’s actually a good question, because I’m paying close attention to it right now. What I’ve learned so far, and these are big topics in and of themselves that I can expand on endlessly:

A. You need to have a big website, a big web presence if you want that to be your getting-clients avenue. Coaches and other healers usually have that 4 page website deal, and guess what, no one is attracted to that because the whole website can be read in 10 minutes or less. You need to be able to get a visitor to spend hours on your site, and reason to keep coming back.
[Making a website and being an observer are so different. It may take you a month to make something, and only an hour for the visitor to see it ALL, but always put yourself in their shoes for a realistic check.]

B. SEO is actually very important. Another big topic I can teach you, but very simply, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and once you understand how it works and you fix your website to use it, your searchability on web spikes. Most healers tend to be totally lost in the sense that search engines wouldn’t find them even if you entered their name, and that’s not good at all.

C. You can’t be just a “life coach”. And you can’t be just a “holistic life coach” either. Why? Because there are so many out there, that it’s becoming ridiculous. You may think you have it hard in MA in terms of the population, but actually the ratio “coach to new age client” is the same I’d say.
What I’m getting at is that it really helps if you figure out a title or brand or something for yourself that makes you different and special. Some people say to find your niche market, but I think it’s more about being smart about branding yourself. 

(Additional note: What I really wanted to say here was this: Always create things in your life around yourself, not yourself around other things. It drives me nuts when people say to choose your audience. Don’t. Figure out who you are (this will change all the time) first, then let the right audience choose you. It’s what STARS do!)

D. Use your strengths and your authentic interests. Don’t do anything that isn’t fun for you in order to get clients. It’s so not necessary because LofA will find a way to make it work for YOU in the path of least resistance ie. most joy. This last advice is the most important and totally overrules A-C. My advice is what I have observed and discovered helped me and those careers I try to emulate in some way, but you may have a very different path where, say, you don’t even need a website. Jesus didn’t, haha, so you know… obviously, keep asking yourself how you like to work with people. I tend to like working in my PJs so I’m web-inclined.

E. This goes with D and addresses WHERE to market yourself. What I have discovered with the web, and I’m sure it’s the same in physical settings, is that the free sites I thought would help me a LOT, like Craigslist, really didn’t, but that clients come from the strangest and various places at strange and various times. I believe that the word of mouth is that mysterious and best free way to get clients. The best way to market yourself properly through other websites really requires lots of money, something we healers usually don’t have at the beginning of our careers. But if you do have money, then it’s easy. Google advertising, ads on other popular PD sites, magazines, etc etc. I’m assuming your question was partly financially motivated, in which case you don’t have the thousands of dollars to pay for advertising.
But you know what, I am always on the lookout for those free “unicorn” websites where one would (not could, but would) get tons of clients, so if that comes up, I’ll let you know (and vice versa please!!!).

Added note: I have heard that Gary Craig’s EFT website is one such website if he selects your EFT article. Supposedly after that, people are knocking on your proverbial door in large numbers. But is it true? Haven’t tested it yet. I do believe those “unicorn websites” exist, but they are different for everyone. Follow Your Bliss and you’ll find out what yours are.

I hope this helped you!

Mystical Unicorn