From 0 to 1 Client: My Best Advice
SUBSCRIBE HERE:
+ Everywhere else you listen to podcasts
Episode Summary:
In this episode, I’m answering a question that I saw on Facebook:
What did your day look like when you were starting out with zero clients? What does it look like now? What mindset got you from zero to 1 client? How do you deal with feeling desperate to sign a client? (When finances are tight or if you’re thinking "Am I even cut out for this?")
Whether you are starting from SCRATCH in your business or you’re scaling or starting a new revenue stream from scratch you’re going to love this episode!
Topics Discussed:
My best advice for going from zero clients to your first client
Building a sustainable business through generosity (with boundaries of course)
Creating stability through recurring income, savings, and strategic business moves
My day-to-day schedule and how to manage your time when starting a business
The importance of mindset and being resilient in entrepreneurship
My favorite affirmation for this era in business
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
-
Anna (00:06):
Welcome to the Heart Centered Entrepreneur podcast. I want you to be rich. Yes, I want abundant financial success for your business, but I don't just care about your business making money. I care about you too. I want you to be rich and happiness and the impact you make in your relationships and in how you give back. I'm Anna. I built my six figure business as a side hustle while I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016. Now I've helped dozens of women do the same. I'm here to help you build a profitable heart-centered, fully booked business with the latest tips on sales and visibility with proven mindset hacks and sneak peeks behind the scenes with what's working right now in the online space and in my business, ready to make more money with heart. Let's go.
Something you might not know about me is I've tried a lot of things in the online space and a lot of them haven't worked or haven't worked well. And I think when I <laugh>, I, I was in a drama class actually this week. My daughter and I have been taking a little local community drama class and I love that the drama teacher Sharon said, we either succeed as we're doing these little improv games or we learn a lesson. And I know I've said other versions of that before, but the way she said that just hit me right There really is no such thing as failure. And for any of us that are in business or doing creative work, we're going to do things that don't work. Like there's literally no way around that. And I think being an entrepreneur has made me a lot more resilient, a lot more willing to fail, which means the more we're willing to hear no to fail, the more faster that we, the faster that we succeed.
So today's episode, I wanted to do something a little unique. I saw this question posted on Facebook and I answered it rather in depth and it was from this woman that has not yet signed her first client. Oh, that's what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, you may not know about me that one of my first group coaching programs was called Zero to One. And it was really this concept that I believe to this day that going from zero clients to one client can be the hardest, longest road. And we tell ourself, oh my goodness, if it's this hard at the beginning of business, is it always gonna be this hard? And just like with anything else, no, it absolutely gets easier. So I wanted to answer back some of these really honest questions that this woman was asking in a little bit of my journey from zero to one.
'Cause I don't think I've talked about this before. And I also wanted to remind you that I have so many case studies of women going from zero clients to one client or zero clients in a new revenue stream in a group coaching revenue stream to getting fully booked. And I really encourage you, I have think I have about like eight case studies now from women that have done getting coach and sign their first clients. And I really encourage you to listen to that because as much as you hear me giving you tips, I feel like sometimes it's stories of us sitting around the proverbial campfire and you really hearing what other women have been through ups and downs. And I feel like that changes our neuro pathways and really helps us see like, oh my gosh, this is possible for me. That woman sat next to me and did it.
And for me, I didn't know a lot of entrepreneurs growing up. I was really shown the traditional work framework, which isn't bad, right? But it just felt so foreign to me. So I hope that these stories are useful for you and I just wanna dive in and answer these questions. Okay, first question. Oh, which, another plug too for the heart-centered entrepreneur community, the Facebook group, if you have questions, I'm regularly in there answering questions, all of that. Okay, first question is what does your day to day look like? My day to day is I work Tuesday through Thursday, three days a week for most of my work activities. When I schedule my group calls, my team calls, my client calls. All of that is happening Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday when I have little work blocks in there for working on my marketing or visibility like recording a podcast, like recording a reel, anything like that.
I try my best to fit it between the hours of 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM on Tuesday through Thursday. And you know me, I'm a big fan of the three day work week. I also try to fit everything in three weeks outta the month. So I do the three by three, right? Three days a week and then three weeks outta the month. That way I have that last month. Usually it's, there's like a holiday or something like that. Doesn't always happen with the, the last week of the month, but it's one of the weeks of the month usually towards the end that I block from client calls. That way I can either be present with my kids or go on vacation or take extra self-care for me. Maybe I'm working on a project like writing a book or something fun for my business. But I'm a big fan of that schedule.
Okay, next question was what's your day to day look like in your business when you're starting out with zero clients eventually up to that roster of working busy hours? Okay, so this is really an interesting question. 'cause At the start of your business, you don't have client calls filling your day. Like for me, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, eight 30 to three 30, it's pretty full, right? I have client by client by client or if I have two group calls, I need a little time to decompress in between. But it really is full. When you are just starting out in your business or you are transitioning, you have a lot of free time, which sounds like a good thing, but is actually not often free time can leave us spinning free time can leave us overthinking, overperforming feeling like we're doing a lot, but we're not really, we're just kind of swirling around or researching or overthinking or doing things that aren't actually making us money.
So I really like this question and what worked for me so good at the start of my business was when I figured out that I needed to do as much of what I was gonna do when I was a fully book coach, when I wasn't a fully book coach to help me go faster. What I mean by this is I ensured that at the start of my business, I wasn't just doing marketing, I wasn't just doing selling. I wasn't just doing systems in tech, but I was actually coaching, I was actually coaching. And this is so key doing what you love. 'cause I find a lot of women come to me and they're not really doing what they love. They're stuck on the tech, they're stuck doing Facebook ads, they're stuck on something else and they're not actually designing websites or doing that thing that they're trying to do, make money in in business anyway.
And I'm a big fan of making sure that you do that thing early on. So for me, since I wasn't having paying clients, I saw clients for free for many hours a week, but with boundaries, you guys know I teach and get and coach how to do this with a ton of boundaries and how to make it convert into paying clients. But what this did is I was still doing a little marketing and selling, but I was mostly coaching and I was enjoying it and I was shining my magic. And so I really believe that you should do a lot of free work at the start of your business. But again, with boundaries, with the way that I teach and get and coach with filtering people with only a certain amount of free work per person and pitching them. But I still to this day do a lot of free work.
It just looks different. It might be like a free podcast episode or a free webinar, but I really feel like to market marketing in our business is always gonna cost us something. It's either gonna cost us money, Facebook ads or something, or it's gonna cost us our time, but it always is going to cost to acquire new clients. That's just part of the process. It's like when we complain about taxes, like that's just part of what it costs to do business, right? When we complain that PayPal is collecting a fee, that's just what it takes to sign clients, right? There are expenses and business and client acquisition is an expense, but ideally we're doing actions where client acquisition is kind of fun, right? Okay. I would say now my business actions are a little bit different but not that much different from the beginning again, which is most of your time should be spent doing the work that you love, that you're trying to get paid for even if you're not getting paid for it.
So for me that was one-on-one calls client group calls for me that was some marketing and showing up on social media and connecting some selling. And I would say that's pretty much the same of what I do now. It's just that I have a team to my, to help me, but I'm still doing a lot of my marketing AKA recording, a podcast, but I have team to help me on some of the systems around that, the tech around that, and also of course my team to help me manage client stuff too. Okay? Next question is what kind of mindset keeps you going from zero clients to eventually the first one and then in between before the next client. So again, another shout out for the getting coach method I teach, which is filtering people and really doing high quality free work that's going to a build your portfolio, that's going to b make you feel confident and release the imposter syndrome.
See, that's gonna kill time, honestly. You need something to fill your time at the beginning. That's productive. And where I think people go wrong with free work is they're doing free work. They're not filtering the people they're doing free work for. They're doing too much free work for the same person instead of a limited amount and then pitching them they're not using it to their advantage. And really picking free clients that are really proactive and aggressive and gonna get good results with you, right? I use the word aggressive lightly. And they're not pitching themselves, right? They're not really like any sort of free work we do. Like if we do, I see. So women so often like do a free webinar or something and they're not selling on the webinar, they do a free coaching call and they're not selling on the call, right?
And I think it's so important, yes, that we show up and give so much work for free, but also unashamedly promoting our work that we believe so much. And I was just talking to Shawnee on her client interview episode around this. And when you fully believe in what you do and you've been transformed by what you're teaching and selling and when you've seen clients of yours be transformed, it's so easy to wanna talk about this and say like, Hey, no problem if you don't wanna buy, but if you do, I would love to work with you because this is amazing, right? And really not shying back from that. Okay? Next question is how do you deal with desperation mostly stemming from financial tightness or am I even cut out for this? Okay, I wanna talk about both these things. The question around, and this is a great question, not just if you're going from zero to one client in your first ever business or revenue stream, but as you're transitioning, we go through this all the time when we, maybe you're fully booked with one-on-one clients and you're launching a course revenue stream or a membership or a group program or something like that, right?
Anytime we're dealing with a brand new program, there's that vulnerability. There's that starting at zero. There's that like, is this gonna work? There's this like, I could fail or whatever, right? And so I love that question of like, how do you show up with something brand new in your business and not feel desperate? I'm gonna answer the financial tightness one first and then I'm gonna answer the am I cut out for this second? Because I feel like that's a little different. Okay. So the financial tightness one I wanna talk about. So I really think that we have conditioned ourself or there's this online store in the online space of like, the only way that we can get massive results is we're in this pla when we're in this place of desperation or survival. And sure that can kind of help. What I mean by this is if you have a job you hate and you're working your booty off to start your business to escape your day job, that's not bad, right?
Or oh my gosh, I literally have $0 in my account and I need to start my coaching business so I can feed my kids. That can work for some people. And sure I even admit I had a little bit of this when I was pregnant and I was in not the best personal marriage situation. And so I did have a little bit of that survival energy to get me out. But I would say in general, in my business, I've operated for the most part and going from good to great. What I mean is I really liked my therapy J job. Like there was so many good things about it. My boss was a queen. I really liked my clients. I had a ton of flexibility. I could bring my son on my baby carrier for a lot of our meetings. So I was really letting go of something good for the potential, going to something even greater.
And I really, it's a little bit harder, right? Because you're having to tell yourself like, I'm wor like for me, I was like, what about all the women that have jobs they hate? Like I should just be grateful for what I have, right? Like almost like that survivor's guild of like, why do I deserve something better when I'm already so blessed? And is it worth it to risk and to put myself out there and be a newbie when like this is actually going quite fine, right? But I truly believe that in general that's what we wanna do is we wanna be grounded and we want to go from better from there instead of needing desperation to meet our goals or having to, oh, I see this sometimes with women too. Like they have to like beat themselves up on a way to goal like, oh, I'm so lazy.
I need to work, wake up at 5:00 AM so that I can deserve this. Or just this really being hard on ourselves. Or I have to like, you know, be more organized or be more beautiful or be more something in order to make more money. No, that's usually not it. It's usually something else, right? And so number one, being gracious with yourself. But I am a big fan of building from stability. So what this meant for me is I didn't quit my job cold Turkey and then go build my business. I used my day job as a springboard to build my business. So I had my day job and I worked in the mornings from five to 8:00 AM before I saw my therapy clients. I would do my coaching business for about like 10 hours a week or something like that. And that really was useful for me because I was able to have that safety net, have that transition, and then god forbid, like if it didn't work out, I would've been fine.
'Cause I didn't quit my job. I also used my maternity leave as like a springboard to buy me extra time. And I really told myself, I really wanna sell out my coaching practice, not just for the money, but for the evidence. I always tell people like, what's so powerful about getting your first few clients is not the money, but like knowing you could get a client and create money anytime you need to, like out of thin air. Like what a blessing, right? So for me, the stability that I needed to quit my job was, again, I did have some cash savings, not that much. But for me, what I needed to feel good about quitting was that recurring income and fully booking and having clients on a wait list that I knew that I had recurring income coming in from advance. People think of like memberships or courses as the only type of recurring income, but I really see also one-on-one clients.
My clients sign up to work with me for six months. So that's really recurring income on payment plans that come in and most of my clients continue to work with me after that. And so for me, that's also monthly recurring revenue coming in. And so having that for me, the monthly recurring revenue and the evidence that I could sign clients anytime I needed cash brought me so much stability. So I never felt like I had to sign clients outta desperation because I had money coming in from my day job. And for me that that's where it's at, is setting yourself up so that you're never having to sell from desperation. I get that there are moments like that. And so no shame if that's where you're at, but ideally you are giving yourself a little bit of cushion so that you can sell from regulation because number one, that sells better.
Number two, it, it feels better and you deserve that. You shouldn't have to be in that place. So what this would look like once you're in your business is like when I, later on when I launched my group programs, I did it for my one-on-one revenue stream already being stabilized. So even if a launch didn't go perfect, it didn't really matter because I had one-on-one money coming in. And that's the nice thing about building your one-on-one practice first is it allows you to do a program launch, which is a little bit riskier, a little bit trickier from a place of already having massive cash flow from your one-on-one revenue stream. And that is so beautiful. And so now I have basically three revenue streams that are highly profitable for me, that are functioning really well. My mastermind, my one-on-one, my course, and they're really stable.
I don't plan on launching another one at this point because my product suite feels complete as of now, but if I did, there wouldn't be pressure on it because I have the stability from those revenue streams. Another way you guys know that I create stability in my business. If you've read my book 20 K Freedom Fund, I'm a big fan of having at least $20,000 cash on hand. It can be in a high revenue savings account, so it's making you some money, but ideally you have that money so that you're not dealing with desperation in your business because things go up and down. Maybe a client leaves early or something happens or something with the economy or like, or maybe you get sick and you have to keep off work for a month, right? Like life goes up and down. But when you have a cushion of that recurring revenue and some cash savings, that's what makes it feel non desperate and so good.
And that's what actually makes the money come easier when you have that detachment. And that detachment is very hard to do when you back yourself into a corner. And again, I wanna tell you, you don't have to back yourself into a corner to take action in your business to sign clients. You can make money from money. It's a little bit harder, but I think it's the more stable long-term move, right? You can affirm right now, put your hand on your heart. It's safe to make money from money, right? I don't have to do this feast and famine thing. Like it's safe for me to have happiness, to have stability, and to increase my capacity for more happiness, for more money to take calculated risks for more happiness and more money. Like you deserve that it's safe for you to keep expanding, expanding, expanding. And when we don't deal with this mindset, we have the tendency to wanna burn it down to self-sabotage, to shrink back instead of when we get success leaning in for more success.
I'm not saying that there aren't periods where you can rest, of course you can rest, of course you can renew. But in general, reminding your nervous system, it's safe to keep earning and earning and earning, expanding, expanding, expanding. Again, our energy can rest, but when it comes to receiving money, receiving cashflow, that that can be year round. Okay. Regarding dealing with the, like am I cut out for this thing? I think I've shared with you before. My favorite affirmation to this day in my business is my success is inevitable, right? I would repeat that to myself all the time at the beginning and really believe that like, I'm gonna figure this out kind of like I started this episode. Like there's going to be twists and turns, there will be micro failures, there will be things I launch that don't work. I will make mistakes.
I will have to apologize to my clients. But in the big term, in the big picture, I will be successful. I will make six figures, I will make seven figures. Whatever it is for you, yeah, I will be successful. The reason this is so important is when one little thing happens that's wrong, it doesn't spiral you back, right? You're not like, oh my God, that person said no to me on a sales call. It must mean that I'm a bad coach and I wasn't made to. No, it just means that it's normally here. Nos on the way to yeses, right? I think about it in my lens right now. You guys know I'm dating and I would love to manifest my next partner. And same thing for me. I believe my success is inevitable. And even though I doubt it sometimes deep, deep down, I believe that God has a, a good partner for me in this next chapter of my life.
And even though I have like micro moments of doubt in the big picture, I know that I'll find that I know it's out there for me. I know it's on the other side of action. I know it's on the other side of trust and faith. And so for me, that keeps me out there, right? And when it doesn't, the evidence shows that that's not true. My belief and my faith has to keep me in that positive action. It's that same thing in business, right? Even when it doesn't, when you hear someone say no, or you try something that doesn't work or you put out a reel and it gets no views, right? Like it doesn't mean anything. It just gives us data to be like, okay, something's not working. My business has this problem, I better figure this out, but there's nothing wrong with me and there's nothing wrong with my journey.
My success is inevitable. I am on the right track. And maybe you needed to listen to this podcast episode just to hear this part right here. Can you say out loud, my success is inevitable? What is it that you want to affirm is inevitable? Is it getting to six figures this year? Is it getting to multi-six? Is it hiring that dream team member that you've been really trying to find and you really feel like you're not able to figure team out? Is it that getting fully booked with clients for the first time and look around, like, I'm not trying to diminish what you're going through, but like other people have done it before too. Like you're not the first woman to scale her business to the million dollar mark. Like I know it seems impossible in your head, but like other women have done it, you're not the first client that has had a little bit of a crisis on the way to getting fully booked with clients.
There are lots of women out there signing clients that is possible for you, but in your head, I can get that when you haven't done it yet personally. It takes faith, it takes belief, it takes that imagination, it takes courage. And so really believing, like if it's possible for her, it's possible for me too. And really look for expanders other women that you resonate with. Maybe it's like me, right? Where I'm a busy mama, but I also make a full-time more than full-time living online, right? Like knowing that if she can do it, I can do it too, right? I can figure this out. My success is inevitable. I'm not gonna shrink back. I'm gonna go out there and get at it. Okay? Hope that this was helpful for you. If you are in the phase of really working to sign your first few clients, I have a few resources for you.
Number one is a super old freebie, but I'm gonna put it in the show notes because I created this right after I got fully booked in my business. It's a little ebook and it's called the First to Full Workbook. And I really like it because it, you can get into my head of some of the big, big challenges. I mean, I just was feeling like things were impossible at the start of my business. So that ebook can be helpful for you. I also made a newer ebook called 12 Profitable Proven Coaching Niches. And this is really nice because, you know, when we go out there to find a job, all the jobs are already existing. When we go start our coaching practice, we forget that there are about 12 established coaching niches that you are likely gonna have the most success with. Don't reinvent the wheel.
Pick one of the coaching niches that I suggest, but that also fits your personality so that you can go after something that people in the marketplace are actually looking for and buying and wanting to hire a coach for. So use that little menu, a 12 profitable proven coaching niches. I think it'll really help you. I wish I had that. And then I also talk through niching blocks and just all the hard things that come with whatever new revenue stream you're creating, like any little blocks you might be facing. And then finally my on demand 20 minute workshop, you, me, and a workshop that took me months to create to make this simple 20 minute video that I am so proud of and it really distills down the simplest, easiest way I know to sign clients online right now in our space. It goes over a lot of the things I talked about today in doing free work with massive boundaries and how I feel like that's the fastest way to fully book you or paid coaching practice.
I outline my exact method in that program, like I hold no secrets back. And then if you listen to that 20 minute workshop, I actually send you $3 coffee money right from my PayPal to give you a little boost because honestly, that phase of business is the hardest, is the worst. But I wanna see more heart-centered coaches get through to actually getting paying clients. So that's my little reward for you and motivation to get your booty once you learn the method in the 20 minute coaching, little what's it called workshop that I did <laugh>. That is your motivation to get your booty out of your house into a coffee shop, to start taking action to sign clients. How often do we get stuck in our house? So take that $3 coffee money. I know it's not much, but it's the motivation to get you outta the house
And start taking action to sign those clients with what I teach you in this little 20 minute workshop. I hope it's so helpful for you. And I'm just sending you the biggest hug, the biggest hug. And thank you for listening to this episode today. I hope that it is useful for you. And as always, thank you for being a part of the Heart-centered entrepreneur community. Whether you've been here for all eight years or you are brand new, know that I don't take it for granted that you get to hang out with me every week on this podcast.
Thanks for hanging out today. Please hit that subscribe button so you can make sure to stay updated anytime a new episode drops. And I would love for you to join me in my free Facebook community. It's called The Heart-Centered Entrepreneur. We discuss the podcast episodes. I regularly go live and do free trainings, and you may even meet your newest biz bestie so you can join at heart-centered community .com is absolutely free, and I cannot wait to see you in there.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.