3 Steps to Staying Fully Booked

My story.

Flash back to September 2015. I was 3 months into starting a new niche in my online business.6 months pregnant.I made I big goal. I knew I wanted to quit my job and go ALL THE HECK in on my business.Which was hard. I loved being a therapist. I was letting go of something "good". I knew in order to feel really GOOD about quitting it meant getting fully booked in my business. Not just once, but twice. I wanted to finally get fully booked the first time.

--and I wanted a sold out practice to return to after my maternity leave. I wanted to fill my roster with new clients to start in November and with another set of new clients for February. --and I did it. With the help of major decisions. Like finally figuring out a way to feel GOOD about selling in my own way and style (instead of just saying yes to the people who reached out to me)

With the help of a coach, and a baby as my deadline, lots of tears, and of course amazing-amazing clients who made "sales" and the actual "coaching" work so ease-filled. (many of whom I am friends with to this day!)

Maybe you're not about to have a baby.

Maybe you just want to get fully booked once.

Maybe you're fully booked and don't know how to stay there without the feast or famine cycles.

I want to share some of my favorite strategies when it comes to filling your final client spaces, getting fully booked and building a waitlist in your business.

STEP 1 // Take a CEO day and decide what "fully booked" means.

While you're getting clear on the number of spaces you have open and when each of them open up-- give yourself permission to brain dump any fears you around both being fully booked and selling advanced spaces.

Fill in the blank.

Once I have a full load of # of clients I'm afraid ______________________

If I sell out # of spaces in advance for next quarter, what if __________________

Get all of your fears out on paper before attempting to troubleshoot.

One of my biggest fears around selling in advance was wondering if people would "wait" to work with me. I was also nervous to see if my plans would change in the future, I didn't want to let anyone down. I also had never been fully booked yet, so selling in advance seemed out of the picture.I also see many women judge or second guess their true "fully booked" number as they compare it to others. That's why the ideal week exercise can be so powerful when determining the number of spaces you truly desire. We must pick a "full" number that fits the lifestyle and version of success we want or we will continually self sabotage-- because our brain knows we don't really want to get there.

STEP 2 // Choose a Strategy

Here are five strategies that can help you do that fully booked happy dance with more ease:

Strategy 1: Get Even Better at Selling.

The skill set that makes you an amazing health coach, jewelry designer, website designer or owner of a social media agency is really quite different then the skill set of selling your work. Good news is you're already a natural at building genuine relationships (that's feel good sales at it's finest!) and it's time to do the mindset work to feel less -icky about it, find the words to articulate what you do in a genuine but magnetic way and practice pitching and sales conversations till they flows.

Strategy 2: Create an Incentive.

There many people in your community that resonate with your work-- but are waiting for the right timing to work with you. This is why the right incentive can be powerful catalyst to get your dream clients to hop off the fence and experience the transformation you offer. People are busy and it's okay to bump your offer up in their long to do list. For your remaining spaces, are you prices going up? Is there a special bonus you'd like to offer this round? Think of an incentive that will complement and not complicate the offer.

Strategy 3: Waitlist. Finished a big launch? Just got fully booked?

Even though it feels like nobody left in your audience is ready to buy and you're burned out-- WAIT. It's time to capture the people who want to work with you but later or in a different capacity. Crate a simple landing page and collect names. You can also do this before a program officially opens.If you're a service provider and someone inquires personally you can even do a call immediately to build the relationship. "I'd be thrilled to hop on a connection call to get to know you and your business better then I'll put you're name on the waitlist and then you'll be the first to know when my next spot opens".

Strategy 4: Deposit.

If timing is an issue, give your client a chance to lock in your current rates and save an upcoming space in your calendar. Decide the deposit amount and then send over a link. You can even offer an incentive that they will get, like a single session or a tutorial video immediately. In this way your pre-client gets to let go of the mental burden of trying to "find someone" and will often see shifts now that their brain has space to start taking action-- the solution is in sight!

Strategy 5: Next Level Offer.

Even if your current offer is sold out, give them another opportunity to work with you. They may be willing to pay more, or be flexible with a different arrangement if they don't want to wait. For example, if you're a VA with done for your services, your pre-client may hire you for a single strategy session to get them started on their social media strategy.

STEP 3 // Commit to Staying Consistent with Simple Marketing

The further along you are in business the more committed you must be to keeping your marketing simple, courageous and effective.Resist the urge to overcomplicate in the name of automation and scaling.

Remember-- the point of marketing is to connect your powerful work with the humans who need it. END OF STORY.Do you know the 1-3 actions that you need to do daily or weekly to sell in your business and create continuous forward momentum? I call these Momentum Actions.

The point is not to have a huge social following or the perfect website or a flawless funnel. At the start you might have realized this when you signed your first 3 clients without a website, or from a referral, or just by genuinely connecting in a facebook group.t's important to really KNOW what is working in your business and doing more of it. Improving and scale one thing at a time.

I recommend CEO Assessment A if you need help getting clarity around what is working that you can streamline and what most need to shift.

Closing Thoughts:

Really it was my incoming infant that made clarity, strategy and simplicity in filling my practice straight forward. But honestly, it was still a mindset battle!

Decisions and lack of clarity can keep us stuck.I don't want you to make the mistake of not getting FULL to the end and learning to sustaining your client load so that you can move on to growing and scaling other parts of your business.

Even if you don't feel ready yet, create waitlist or deposit strategy to help motivate you to fill your current spaces. It cues your mind to know that you're in it for sustainable success, you're not going to 'squirrel' off onto another idea and you are *certain* that you will get fully booked.

I know it will happen for you too <3