3 Ways to Scale Your Coaching Practice
Episode Summary:
Today on The Heart Centered Entrepreneur I am sharing a live training that I recently did in our free community. I’m covering the top three ways to scale your coaching business because this question has come up from my audience several different times. I also feel like it's such a useful conversation to have even if you're not at the point of being ready to scale yet because it’s so much easier to get there when you have a roadmap. I’m also taking on why I 100% believe that you should book out your 1:1 before filling up your group coaching program or creating a course. I hope you walk away from this episode with a more strategic plan to grow your business to where you want it!
Discussed in this episode:
Knowing when it’s time to scale your business and the things you should do to prepare for this
Why Anna believes the fastest way to scale your business and make money is by filling your 1:1 practice first
How to build out your course while you’re booking out your 1:1 and overcome mindset blocks at the same time
Why 1:many has been the best thing that has helped Anna scale her business and the best way to stack your offer suite
The importance of systemizing your 1:1 work so that your business feels stress free and is easier to grow
The best way to create detached launch energy and knowing a few launches might need to happen before success hits
How outsourcing will allow you to always focus on the thing that you love – coaching
Knowing what your fully booked number is
What Anna encourages her clients who are still working full time to do in order to keep exhaustion at bay
Respecting your clients buying process and what works best for them in the current season their business and/or life is in
How to decide when to run which programs so that your work and income is balanced
Not being afraid to hold your clients accountable as you foster their transformation
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript.
Anna Rapp (00:32):
Hi. Hi friends. I'm so excited to talk to you today about three ways to scale your coaching business. This question has come up for, from my audience, like several different times from several different people. And so I feel like it's such a useful conversation to have even if you're not at the point of being ready to scale yet, what I was hearing from a lot of these women, right, that weren't making a hundred k yet, so they were kind of still, there's like the building stage of business and then there's the scaling stage of business. You know, and I, I think though it can be useful is what I was hearing them say is, Anna, I know I'm not in the scaling phase yet. I know I'm not ready to hire yet. I know, but if I were to know how I'm going to scale my business, it will give me help and give me hope in the building part of my business so I know I won't be trapped.
Anna Rapp (01:21):
Okay? So I wanna talk about this today. Three really practical ways to scale your coaching business. I wanna let you know like how you know it's time to scale two. But I hope this is helpful for you, especially for you future thinkers, you future planners, and especially if you have a really high value for freedom in your business. Maybe that's the reason you, Hi Nina. Maybe that's the reason you quit your job, right? Is so that you could get freedom or you wanna quit your job so that you have freedom. And so I hear you, I hear you saying that like Anna, if I fully book my coaching practice with one-on-one clients, I kind of have created a day job for myself. I feel trapped. So I wanna know how I can scale, right? So that I can put my head down, do my work, build my business, and get to the point of scaling.
Anna Rapp (02:04):
And I wanna encourage you if you are in that season of like putting your head down and doing the work to get fully booked so that you can scale your business, giving yourself permission. I hear a lot of my clients in this phase being like, Oh, but I really wanna launch a course, but I really wanna launch membership but I wanna launch a pot like all of these dreams. And one of my biggest pieces of advice for you there is creating a Google doc so that you can have this brain dump. So you can have this brainstorm and know all these things are possible for you. Like my favorite saying is like, you can have everything you want, but you can't always have it all at once, right? So I actually took some notes here for you. But I just wanna like engage in this conversation.
Anna Rapp (02:43):
I hope that it's useful for you. If you have follow up questions from this, please let me know because I can always do another training on this. But first I wanna talk through the importance of filling your one-on-one client load first, whether you're a coach or a done you person. Kind of like four reasons why I think this is so important. And it's not really talked about in the online space a lot cause I think it's not very sexy, but I feel like the fastest way to build your income and scale your business for the long run and make lots of money online for the long run is to fill your one-on-one practice first and then move to scaling. So let's talk about that, the four reasons why you should fill your one-on-one practice first, all the way to fully booked, all the way to fully booked, not just like a few clients here and there, right? But getting all the way to fully booked. Let's talk about that. Oh, I just thought of a fifth reason too.
Anna Rapp (03:39):
Okay. And then I wanna talk about three practical ways to scale your coaching business. And I want you to think about even if you're not at the point of scaling yet, which one is most aligned with you? And I bet you're gonna have an instinct and then it's gonna be really fun cuz you're gonna feel like, Ooh, all I have to do is scale my practice all the way to fully book and then I'm gonna do x, y, Z to scale and leverage my time. Right? okay, so four reasons why I think it's so impre so important, right? Let's say you're a coach. Let's say you're a life coach, right? Why it's so important that you get all the way to fully booked before you move to scaling. This is just like my belief overall in business. We start to sabotage when we, what's that book?
Anna Rapp (04:20):
Essentialism, I think it's Essentialism has this beautiful analogy and diagram where it talks about our energy, our energy and our time is finite, right? You're probably a busy teacher, you have a day job or you're a mama and you have kids at home, right? Or like your time is finite. We have this finite amount of energy, right? And in this book, basically what it was showing is like would you rather have like 10 little small arrows like moving an inch or would you rather have one arrow moving 10 inches? I wish I was that disciplined to be honest. I'm more like two arrows moving five inches <laugh>. Cause I can't, I mean I'm okay, don't blame me. But my point being don't have 10 arrows that you're moving one inch, let's have one arrow that's moving 10 inches. Or if you're like me, two arrows that are moving five inches cuz we can't help ourselves, right?
Anna Rapp (05:11):
<Laugh> bonus points were letting me know like how like there's like the ideal and then there's like dealing with the real us and the real real me. I in Engram seven. So hashtag I can't help myself anyway, so the goal is that you are in your business, I believe as an entrepreneur in your lifetime, you may have multiple businesses, multiple revenue streams, right? But the best way to set it up for success is to really focus on streamlining one at a time, right? And so picking one rev, let's say you have multiple revenue streams in your business 10 years from now. Let's say you have one on one. Let's say you have group, let's say you have a membership. Let's say you have an in-person location, I don't care, right? Those are all revenue streams. Same thing with businesses, right? Every business is gonna have multiple revenue streams in it.
Anna Rapp (05:59):
But the best give you can give yourself is by focusing on one revenue stream at a time and really streamlining two things. How you market that revenue stream and how you manage that revenue stream. Okay? Two s I want you to, to, to tell me, feel free to email me and tell me like what's the revenue stream that you're focused on selling out right now and really asking yourself, am I really systematizing how I'm marketing that so it feels really easy and unlock, am I really systematizing the delivery of that, right? And even one on one work we can definitely systematize, I can share more about how I systematize my 1 0 1 2. But it's really asking yourself, is my current revenue stream fully stable in both those ways, in the marketing of it and also in the delivery of it. And one way we do that is by getting it all the way fully booked so that we have the clients in the volume to see, right?
Anna Rapp (06:58):
So maybe for you right now fully booked as like eight clients, right? You having eight clients in that program will help, you know, oh, this is how I market that program. This is a messaging that works for that program and it helps, you know, this is how I serve someone in that program. This is how I onboard them, this is how I check in on them, this is how I off board them, right? It's really feeling dialed like a system. And then from there you can add on multiple revenue streams, right? But when you don't go all the way to fully booked and you're like really developing like 19 programs at once, takes one to know when I try to start doing that in sort of my business, right? Nothing is really getting systematized. It's not gonna feel good for you and it sure as heck is not gonna feel good for your clients that are in a system or in a program that feels a little bit haphazard, right?
Anna Rapp (07:43):
So that's almost like a bonus point of why you should fill your one-on-one practice. First is really because you are, you are, you know, I love my beautiful coach Lacey. She uses the word layering, right? You're really layering and stacking strategies in that way. Okay? Ready for reason number two. Let me find my notes. Find my notes, find my notes. <Laugh>. Oh no, here we go. Reason number two so many of you have dreams and visions of being big and famous. I say that in a good way. We need heart centered women to be famous leaders, period, right? But you don't have a big audience yet, right? And I don't think that you need a big audience to make money in your business, but you need a big audience for some of the revenue streams that you guys are talking about. Courses memberships books, right?
Anna Rapp (08:42):
And so the beautiful thing about one on one is you can sell out your one on one with 10 people in your audience with 50 people in your audience because you just don't need the volume for that. And there's a huge misconception in the online space and that that is that cheaper stuff sells easier. And I just wanna say that's like the biggest low to bs. I don't know why that is. I don't know completely, but at the end of the day, I do think that some people need a lower ticket item to get to know you. But I also think that some people don't. And I think that some of the buyers in your audience that has the other effect, they really wanna go all in and get your most transformative result and product first. So I think like it's beautiful over time in your business to build out lower cost products that are cheaper or more affordable.
Anna Rapp (09:26):
But I think not necessarily because it's easier to sell. I want you to say this out loud to yourself right now. It is just as easy if not easier to sell high ticket in my business as it is to sell low cost stuff. Do you believe it? Cuz like I've seen that for my clients to be the absolute truth. I've seen that in my own business to be the absolute truth. It is not easier to sell low ticket than high ticket is just different. It's different, right? A low ticket buyer is looking for something different, right? For me, when I design my like lower ticket sales pages, I include more like deliverable information. Like people that are buying lower ticket often want to know, you know, what worksheets does it include, but like more of the details. And a higher ticket buyer often isn't as worried about that and is more concerned about the outcome doesn't make it wrong.
Anna Rapp (10:15):
And I don't think there is like one person who's a high ticket buyer and a low ticket buyer because I don't know about you, but I'm both, I bought high ticket stuff and I bought low ticket stuff. So it's like I'm not making either wrong, but what I'm saying is I think we have this belief that lo high ticket stuff is harder to sell than lower ticket and it really isn't. And honestly, my experience has been easier. It really is. I think the low ticket stuff is worth it because often when someone buys with you at a low ticket, then they're more likely to buy with you at a high ticket too for that buyer. So I do both in my business, but I do think high ticket isn't harder. We just tell ourselves that story, right? And so giving yourself permission to make money while you're building your audience, right?
Anna Rapp (10:57):
Sign 3 1 0 1 clients while you're building an audience and getting ready to launch that course, right? I think we sabotage in this way. Reason number two is I know <laugh> more like one reason, like number 10, just like, just give 'em all to you because I feel like I wish someone would've sat me down and told me this early, early and then once someone did and it clicked for me, like everything changed. And so like I know you're not hearing this a lot in the online space, but I just feel like it's the truth that you need to hear whether you're starting your business from scratch or whether you are getting ready to do a new offer in your business, right? Okay. Number two, doing one on one work in a deep way is the best way to develop group or course curriculum that actually works with real humans.
Anna Rapp (11:41):
You can even start to record your videos and course worksheets while you are seeing a theme with your one-on-one clients, right? We wanna create, we need to be different. I love an online course. I think that they're great. I love a group program, but we need to be different in this industry. I think the course completion rate in our industry right now is like 3% or something. It's like really sad, right? Which makes me even prouder to be a coach for so many of my clients finish my courses because I integrate this principal right here. And this is what it is, right? We need to not just create a course from theory or from our own lived experience. I fully believe we need to create courses and curriculum, not just from us getting results in our lives, but from our clients getting results. Did I, did she say it?
Anna Rapp (12:28):
She said it. She said it. We need to create course curriculum, group curriculum, not just from the, our own results that we've gotten in our life, but we need to create it from a proven method that we've used to get our clients' results. Okay? So how we do that is we do one on one work with humans and we're open minded as a coach. We bring in our expertise, but we're also really good listeners to see like what's actually working, what's actually resonating. And then here's the funnest thing, right? You can create content, you can create your course content while you're working with your one on one clients is what I've done for all of my courses, right? Because as you're noticing this theme with your one-on-one clients where they're all bringing up the same question to you, you can like record a video and be like, I actually have a video answer on this, so I'll have to repeat myself again, right?
Anna Rapp (13:17):
If you notice you're giving them the same journaling prompt, put that on a Google Doc and give that to all your one-on-one clients at the start, right? Start building out a resource library for your clients worksheets, videos, right? And then you can put them in order and that's your course my loves. And then it's actually a course that's built on real humans, real data and real needs instead of just theory, right? Or own experience. Number three, one on more work is the most flexible thing at the start of your business. And I think passive income courses are really touted as this thing that's like the most flexible. And I feel like for me, the biggest gift for me at the start of my business when I was pregnant, when I was breastfeeding, right, is that I was really able to do calls. I didn't do zoom calls, but I just did calls with my clients and if I had to move or cancel something, my clients were like, no big deal.
Anna Rapp (14:09):
Right? When your work is more leveraged and scaled, it's a little bit more inflexible, right? Which is okay, but I just think it's remembering that there's like pros and cons to courses. There's pros and cons to one on one work and one on one work is not necessarily less flexible than of course, okay? Finally, it is the fastest way, two thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in your business. And here's what I say, if you have like a ton of cash reserves, if you have a ton of time, if you don't really need money right now, maybe you wanna like give yourself, you just wanna build a course on the back end and spend six months building an audience and launch your course, right? I still wouldn't recommend it because the whole one on one client, you know, helping you create your program thing.
Anna Rapp (14:51):
But I also think that like, just remembering that it takes time, a time investment to build an audience to build a course. And how beautiful is it if you did that while you had cash infusion? And when I tell this to people, they're like, Oh no, actually I do want money right now. I do want money yesterday. If you want money yesterday, the fastest way to do that is with a high ticket coaching offer or a mid ticket coaching offer, right? Because you are able to make two sales right now, right? Instead of having to really wait until you build your audience, build the, the course who you are right now is enough. And I think like when we start to face that, when we start to release some of the confidence issues in imposter syndrome, that serves us when we go to sell our course too because it feels like it's easier.
Anna Rapp (15:36):
Like, oh, I'm just selling a course, I'm not selling meat, but our courses sell easiest when we're selling them as us, when we're selling them as our energy, as our thought leadership. So if you can fry some of those mindset, confidence, imposter syndrome, fish with your what on one that's gonna make it so much easier to sell your course. Okay? Okay, that was my pep talk on <laugh>, why you need to fill your one on one first and let's say you're like checkbox and I've already done that. I'm full with ten one on one clients, I've done the work, I'm getting ready to scale. Let's talk about scaling now. Are you ready? My loves. And if you're not fully booked with one on one yet I hope this gives you hope that you're not going to forever have to do one on one if you don't want to, right?
Anna Rapp (16:22):
You're not gonna be trapped in one on one. We get afraid that we're like you know, then I'm just gonna create another job for myself, right? Well in my book it's like, but what if you are creating another job for yourself that pays really well and is super flexible? Like, is that such a bad gig? Number one? Number two, you don't have to stay there, but I think it's like, why is this so bad? Like, I don't know, like there's this like thing in the online space about like, don't trade time for money, right? Like we're all trading time for money. Like whether we are a done for you person or a coach, whether we charge by package or by our, like we're all trading our energy and our time for money, right? And even if you have a business that's more like Facebook ad funnel core situation, like you're trading your time on doing Facebook ads, troubleshooting Facebook ads for money, right?
Anna Rapp (17:11):
So give yourself a little slack there. Okay? So here's three ways to scale your coaching business that I've seen be really effective. And I'm gonna tell you what what mine is and if you wanna do a combo of these two, okay? But pop your questions for me if you have any questions. I'm gonna do q and a at the end. Okay? Option number one. Let's see, what do I wanna talk about first? I would say my favorite way to scale a coaching business that I have done to scale my coaching business is doing one to many. Once you have, like I talked about, really proven, not only does my stuff work for me and my clients, you know, for me but also for my clients, then it can be be so beautiful to do a group program. My favorite two things that I help my clients create for their business when they're ready to scale is a six week program and a six month program.
Anna Rapp (17:59):
Group wise, I have just seen those work like a machine because a few reasons. Number one, you guys know I always talk about in your offers, making sure they don't compete with each other, making sure they're distinct from each other. This is no matter what business you have, right? We don't want our offers to be similar in the outcomes they offer. We don't want them to be similar in the length or format. And ideally our offers stack on each other, right? They compliment each other. So our clients can go from one offer to the next, right? So my, my favorite way is to go from you have a sold out one-on-one practice, you feel super confident, right? That's working like a machine. The marketing is working like a machine. The delivery of that program is working like a machine, right? And what I, when I say a machine, what I mean by that is like your, the way clients book with you, the the way that you upsell people afterwards, the emails that they get the check-ins, right?
Anna Rapp (18:58):
The way you collect payment, the way you notify clients if they miss a payment, right? Like I include all of this in getting coach and this is why because I think so many people, the reason your business doesn't feel good is you haven't systematized your one-on-one work. And we think like, wait, you can systematize your one on one work. One on one isn't scalable, right? But here's the thing, you can systematize your one on one work, <laugh>, you really can. And that's why my business is so enjoyable and so low stress because it's so dialed and systematized, right? Okay. So, and if you don't systemize your one on one, you're like, Oh, I'll just leave my one on one a hot mess. I'll wait to systematize when I scale, I'll wait to systemize When I do a group program, you're gonna be stressed, Afaf launching, right?
Anna Rapp (19:39):
Part of the reason why I'm able to feel so like I'm at the end of a launch right now, by the way, cart close for getting coached tonight. Yay. The reason I'm so not stressed and I've had so much time for personal stuff this week and I have like been able to sell so many spaces and getting coach in such little time is because it's so well systematized the launch, right? I have it really dialed how me and my team launched this program. But here's the thing, the reason I was able to do that so well is because even before I systematized how I launched my leverage stuff, I systematized my one on one, I systematized my 1 0 1, right? And I think it's so important to do so that you're learning that skill of how to do that. How do I automate things? How do I know in my business like what needs to be me, what shouldn't be systematized because it's a human thing and how do I know what things can be automated?
Anna Rapp (20:27):
What things can be structured, right? Okay, where was I going with that? Blah blah. Okay, so, oh, the other reason why my launches are so not stressful is because I really have layered and I have base income. So I think we're, you hear people say like, Oh, launches are so stressful. They're stressful when you're depending on that launch to pay your bills. Let me say it again. Launches are stressful when you are dependent on that launch to pay your bills when you are clenching to that like this needs to happen or else I'm a failure, whatever, right? And the best way to really have detached launch energy with your high ticket masterminds, with your group programs is by having a solid base of your other income, right? That's why we wanna fill up our one on one, have that on lock, not just the marketing of it but the delivery, right?
Anna Rapp (21:15):
And then when you go to lunch, your group program, right? Here's the truth about courses in the online space. I love courses, I have courses, DIY courses, I have six week, you know, programs. I have six month programs. You guys know a huge fan of all the things, right? Oh, what was I gonna say? But the reason, oh, oh, but they take time, right? Like I think my mastermind, I'm on like around seven of it with my online courses. I think I'm like, I don't know, 15 rounds in to launch in my online course, right? The first few rounds were challenging, they were rollercoaster, right? But the reason that it, it takes some time for the online world, we think like, oh I'm gonna launch my six week course once and if no one buys it, I'm never gonna launch it again. No, no, no.
Anna Rapp (22:02):
You're gonna go out there, it's gonna be your million dollar course. It just take, might take a time or two to launch it and fill it, right? And having the add attitude and energy is so much easier when you have a solid base of revenue and your course is your second revenue stream, right? Your second source of income, you're able to really show up and be like, awesome for me, my prayer every single round I launched a group or a program, right? I literally pray to God and I literally say, Okay, I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna do my heart, I'm gonna market my heart out, I'm gonna sell my heart out. I'm gonna show up and communicate my value in the most compelling way ever. But I'm really gonna be pretty detached from how many people come in, whether there's five people, whether there's 25 people, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna know those humans are meant to be there for a reason and a purpose and, and not to like get over really spiritual, but I really feel like it's a divine thing where I'm meant to serve those people in this moment of time and history to forever change the trajectory of their life and their money making ability, right?
Anna Rapp (23:03):
And I think the right people are gonna come in at the right time. And so my part is to show up to send a an f ton of emails to do a ton of social posts. And some of you guys need to work on that edge. Like when you launch something, how many emails are you sending? You know what I mean? How many social posts are you doing? How direct are you being? Are you outreaching? Like you've gotta do that part and that's really what lets you relax into the ease and the surrender. Okay? Anyway, that was a side note, all that to say it's so much easier when you have that base income, right? Okay, so back to three is a scale of your coaching business. One to many is a hundred percent my favorite way personally because I'm able to still get <laugh>, this is gonna depend on your personality.
Anna Rapp (23:46):
Some people are like, I like coaching but I really want the business model where I have support coaches under me coaching on my behalf. I really don't have to coach people in my business to be fulfilled and satisfied. That's not me. Like I like to coach. Like if I wasn't coaching in some level in my business, I just wouldn't be happy. And I think this is where sometimes with business we forget, we get so obsessed with scaling that we forget to create a business that we like and that we enjoy and that we're doing the things that we, we want to be doing. And for me, I definitely don't wanna be coaching a lot of hours because I really value the time with my babies outside of my business. You've heard me say like being a mama is my number one priority always in forever.
Anna Rapp (24:27):
And so my business comes second to that, to my role as a mama. But when I'm in my business I like to coach <laugh>, like I enjoy that. That's fulfilling for me and I think it is why I've been able to like really grow my business year after year, make so much money without burning out even in such a time in my life personally because I actually like my work because what I'm actually doing day to day fuels me and lights me up. And so I think that's gonna be different for everyone and that's why for my clients I really help them scale their businesses differently because I ask them, how do you want to be spending your day? How do you wanna be spending your hours? And how do we design a business that does that? Because that's ultimately what's gonna help you scale the fastest is if you're actually enjoying your life in business, right?
Anna Rapp (25:11):
<Laugh>. and it's so funny cuz I think this changes for my clients too. I've had some clients tell me like that are done for you providers. Like I wanna be doing the work, right? I wanna be doing the work. But then they get to a point where they have another baby or and then they're like, actually it changed my mind Anna, you know how you told me to like hire a team under me. I'm ready to do that now. Right? So I think this can change in our different seasons of life too, what we're wanting from our business and that's okay. Let's see. Okay, so one to many and what I would suggest for you, if you're this type of coach where you like coaching but you want to scale your income on part-time hours, that's me. I love coaching but I do not want a 40 hour week job.
Anna Rapp (25:50):
Like I really want a business that's about 15 to 20 hours a week. So the best way if you're a coach who loves the coaching work but you wanna scale your time is group coaching, right? Whether that's through a six week program, right? Whether that's through a six month program. I think those two are such beautiful containers to be able to leverage your time, leverage your income. And I could not recommend it highly enough. I have helped several of my clients launch and sell out high ticket masterminds and they have just crushed it. Their clients have crushed it and it's just a really fulfilling container. I like both of them. I like the six to 12 week container for like a result around a specific area, right? And then I like the six month container to almost be like a replacement of the one on one.
Anna Rapp (26:36):
You guys know I have a mastermind cell with heart and that really is the life blood of my business. That's where clients sign up to work with me for six months at a time as their mentor. And I really hybrided after being like in several masterminds myself, like I really hybrided like what I liked and didn't like in other masterminds. And I really, you know, in some, most of the masterminds that I was in, I didn't really feel like I got advice or support from the coach. Like I just felt like we were all left to our own devices for the most part <laugh>. So I really created a mastermind where you, I'm your mentor, I'm there, I'm giving you direct support and feedback and you have access to me but you also have sisters that get it, right? So with artists for women currently is best for women that are already making between two and $12,000, right?
Anna Rapp (27:20):
So you already have that established business and you're looking to grown scale to six and multi six figures. And in that season I find it can be so useful to have other sisters that are growing alongside you, right? And so I just love the one to mini container for that reason <laugh> because you get the sisterhood support. Anyway, so that's option number one and ways to scale your coaching business one to many, right? Let me know if you have any questions on that. Another way I kind of alluded to you, especially if you're like, I like coaching, but like I don't have to be coaching to be fulfilled in my business. You might decide to have a support coach in your business, right? I also help my clients do this if they go on maternity leave, right? I've definitely had support coaches in my business when I've had to take time off when I went to inpatient therapy.
Anna Rapp (28:07):
I have, you know, hired people to come into my containers and coach on my behalf or my clients, which is really fun. But that's another way to scale your coaching business is by having support coaches coach for you. Third way, and this is kind of like a combo way, is to really make sure that you're fully outsourcing everything in your business that's not coaching. And this can be combined, but I think this one cannot be understated enough. And this is, I've definitely done this one too and this is really asking yourself at the end of the day, what do I actually wanna be doing in my business For me, I'll tell you what it is for me. You guys can let me know what it is for you. For me, at the end of the day, I wanna always be the vision, the creative vision.
Anna Rapp (28:47):
I wanna always have at least some coaching cuz I personally love to coach is very fulfilling for me and creating value based content for my marketing. That's it. And I really feel like I so thankful, you know, to my amazing team, especially hugest, shout out to CEO C o Haley Hatcher, you know that I love you so much <laugh>, it's probably gonna cry, right? But she really has taken on the helm of so many other parts of my business so I can show up and just do the coaching, just do the strategic marketing pieces and really everything from there is taken care of, right? I can show up, I can make the strategic decisions, I can launch and that's it. And we forget how uncon time consuming our business is when we're just doing the parts that we like. And I don't think we give ourself enough permission there.
Anna Rapp (29:37):
So I think that's another super underweight, under underrated way of scaling your coaching practice is just coaching and really trusting your team to handle everything else in your business. Okay? I would love to hear from you which of those most resonate from you? I could do a whole nother one on scaling a done for you practice. Half of my clients and sell with her are done for you babes. Either website designers or accountants or copywriters, right? But I just wanted to like focus on one at a time. And so I'd love to hear from you if you are a coach, which of those three ways most resonates with you when it comes to scaling your business? Is it a combo of these? Is it one of these, again, agency and support coaches, one to mini model where you're doing group programs or outsourcing high high outsourcing or is it a combo of these?
Anna Rapp (30:24):
And I hope this is useful for you even if you're not to, to getting ready to scale yet. I would say like really get yourself to consistent 5K months and once you're there, I don't think it's too early to start these, some of these elements, right? Strategically. but even if you're not to consistent 5K months, number one, I highly recommend my program getting coach, your first client. If you are some, if you're, if you're a coach and you're not yet making consistent 5K months, month over month after month, I think that program can be so useful because it really helps you too. Again, market your business and get the coaching clients, but even more importantly, create that stability and systematize your one on one practice. Systematize it, right? Systematize your onboarding, systematize your client boundaries, systematize your policy, systematize your testimonial process. Like make it so that that feels like easy peasy, right?
Anna Rapp (31:17):
Dialed so that when you go to scale, when you go to hire a team, right? You aren't expecting them to like fix your life for you. You're like, Hey team, here's the email we send. If a client misses a session, hey team, here's the email we send. If a client misses a payment and I literally have all those templates for you, it's like a coaching practice in a box. A lot of my clients that do get in coach two have existing coaching practices but are like, and I wanna learn coaching skills from you too, right? Like, I wanna learn the things. I have a workbook in there too, that's like my top 25 coaching skills that get clients results, right? And so really giving yourself permission to fully lean in there. Okay, let's do q and a because I know that you guys might have questions on any and all of this.
Anna Rapp (32:05):
And as you're, as you give yourself permission to get fully booked in your one on one practice and make that a goal. And I would even encourage you to ask yourself, what is fully booked for me is fully booked five clients? Is it 10 clients? Is it one client? I don't care what it is, right? What is fully booked for you in your coaching practice? And then again, getting clear on do I need to get better at how I systematize my marketing? Am I signing a clients? Do I need to get better at how I I serve and support my clients behind the scenes? Right? and then of course, course here for any questions around the scaling piece too. Those three scaling models. Even if you're not to the point of scaling yet, I wanna hear which most appeals to you. It's so funny cuz I have some this conversation with Sony, my clients that aren't at the scaling point yet, but I find that it's useful for them because they're like, Oh, I feel better about like putting my head down and doing the grunt work knowing again that I'm not gonna be trapped.
Anna Rapp (33:02):
Right? Okay, let me reach, thank you so much ladies for hanging out live, by the way, I love your questions. Okay. Nina says, What's, what I'm finding is I work during the day, beautiful. I get that, I get the side hustle, I did it, I get it. When I come home, I'm exhausted. Yes, this year working is so hard, I want to do weekly or biweekly lies, but how do I do it if I'm exhausted? This is a great question. I really encourage my clients that are doing a day job and a business as a side hustle to get so clear on your work hours, right? Because it can be so tempted to feel like we have to work in our, our business every waking hour that we have outside of our job, but then we really get burned out and then our energy gets inconsistent, us showing up for our business, our visibility gets inconsistent, which means our income's gonna be inconsistent, right?
Anna Rapp (33:57):
So I think it's almost better to like underestimate your business work hours and get strategic in those than overestimate. What I mean by this is, when I was balancing my therapy day job and my business, I told myself I would get to the office from 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM three days a week to work in my coaching business on top of my therapy day job, right? So that's nine hours. And some people might be like, you know, that's not enough time if you wanna build a business, blah, blah, blah. But here's the thing. I was pregnant also had a toddler also, I had friends, you know, like, like please we have life, right? I do feel like I really showed up a little extra in that season, but I didn't tell myself I'm gonna work five to 8:00 AM and then I'm gonna work five to midnight and then every Saturday I'm gonna work 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM Like we go ham and then we burn ourselves out instead of, I'm gonna really devote these hours and when I show up for those hours, I'm gonna show up like it's my full-time job.
Anna Rapp (34:53):
I'm gonna show up with fierceness and with passion and with intention, right? And this can be so, so useful for you even if you don't have a day job. Maybe you have a life of of life that you love, right? Maybe there are certain life priorities that are super important to you. Maybe it's motherhood, right? Whatever it is. I think it's like getting really clear on the amount of time you are willing to devote to your business. And then getting really clear on the actions that you're gonna take during that time. And then when those hours aren't happening, give yourself permission not to work. Like, don't feel like you have to bring yourself out, right? There were times when I was like, Ooh, it's a Saturday and I have two extra hours and I would like put two extra hours in. But I did it from a place of like wanting to and excitement.
Anna Rapp (35:37):
And that's different than like, Oh, I feel guilty, I better say no to my friends and I better do this Saturday workday or else my business is gonna be successful, right? It was more like, you know what, I can say no to that right now because I really wanna put in these two hours on this project, right? And so I think giving yourself permission to get really clear on your work hours, honoring those and letting that be enough. And when you're not working, giving yourself for full permission to unplug. Right? Okay. So good. Mina says, low ticket gives them the flavor of how coaching works. A hundred percent. I absolutely agree with that. I love low ticket, I love my, you know, my lower priced offers because I do think for some buyers it takes some time to build trust and I think like that's okay, right?
Anna Rapp (36:22):
It's okay if people need to feel out. Someone apologize me the other day, yesterday on a sales call, they were like, I'm so sorry I have all these questions and I'm not just like buying and trusting you. I've been following your podcast forever. I feel like I should just like, I'm like, don't apologize for being like a smart, savvy woman and like wanting to be mindful with your money. Like can we stop apologizing for that? Right? And honoring our buying style, like honoring what feels good to us. And so if it feels good to you to make a lower ticket purchase first so that you can feel out the product so that you can feel out the coach figuring out are they a fit for me? Can I trust them? Do I perform well under their style? Like that is great, right? I would say probably like half of the people in my audience are that way where they're follow me online for like years and years and years.
Anna Rapp (37:14):
And then all of a sudden, like I'll see like this just happened to me this week for getting coach, right? Someone's so followed me online for like four years. I don't think she's ever bought for me. Sweetest, sweetest woman. And then she didn't even like ask me any questions, she just like purchased in full and I was like, I sent her a video cause I sent all my new clients welcome videos, a process, process my love, and I was like, work with you, right? And I think like, I don't know, I just wanna say like, it's okay for you to honor your buy buying style and it's okay for you to honor that your clients are gonna have different buying styles. I think my point was just like not making any of them wrong, right? There are other people that are fine buying high ticket one-on-one off the go and we can honor that too, right?
Anna Rapp (37:57):
I've definitely had that in my business too, where someone's never bought my $27 thing and they've gone right to buying my highest ticket thing, right? My one-on-one coaching is 10 K right now, right? And so I think it's just affirming in your business, it's safe for my audience to buy my 10 k offer. It's safe for them to buy my thousand dollars group program, right? Like neither is wrong, but I think where we start messing ourselves up or is where we say like, it's harder for me to sell high ticket or low ticket. No, no, no. It's just about like what's hard and easy, right? It's more about just honoring what works best for our clients in the season of life or business, business that they're in, right? But I love, I love having entry level stuff. It's my I love it. Hi Natalie.
Anna Rapp (38:43):
Natalie says, this is what I'm doing right now. I'm building out a resource vault for my clients. I love that you called it a resource vault. Exactly right? So if you guys have one-on-one coaching clients right now, I highly recommend if you don't already creating a Google Drive, right? Where you have the resources, where you have the documents, I even want you to ask yourself, how can I add to that? How can I expand on that? Can I record myself doing some videos? What's one thing that I repeat to all my clients? Right? <laugh>. And this helps too because then our coaching sessions can be a little bit more of us listening, us supporting instead of us just like brain dumping information on our clients, right? Which isn't bad, Like I definitely like teach in my sessions, but I think that the more we can get our teaching systematized and automated, not that we shouldn't be willing, like I always tell my clients I'm happy to repeat stuff.
Anna Rapp (39:31):
It doesn't bother me, right? But the more we can have it recorded and prepared and systematized the better. Right? And so really asking yourself, what's one thing that I like, repeat to my clients all the time? Like, what's an exercise you guys didn't even let me know in the chat box. Like, what's the next thing you need to create as a resource for your clients? Is it a worksheet? Is it a video? I'm a big fan of the Google Doc. I love Google Docs. I think it's amazing. And I actually think it's why, you know, in getting coach my course, why people finish to the end of the 12 weeks is because guess what happens every Thursday? Every Thursday you have to submit a worksheet to me, <laugh>, I think we like make ourselves wrong for needing accountability, but like nothing works like a deadline.
Anna Rapp (40:14):
Even to this day, the reason I get my podcast episodes done is my cl my team is like, Anna, I need this done if you want me to do it right? That's why I have no shame in my courses of telling my clients, Hey, write your two weeks of launch content and get it done to me by Thursday. If you don't, that's okay. But if you do, I'm gonna edit it and give you feedback on it, right? How motivating is that? And then magic, you have two weeks of lunch content created. Carla talked about this in her testimonial video, right? She was like, Oh my gosh, this was the easiest launch I've ever done because I actually got all my shoes done ahead of time and then I just had to like show up for the launch because all the work was already done, right?
Anna Rapp (40:49):
Because Anna, you created that deadline. So in my courses, this is another system you can create if you have a course someday. I love having personal feedback, right? So my system is that if you do that week's worksheet, which is this really simple Google doc, then you submit it to me and me or someone on my team will give you personal feedback on that, right? And what was I gonna say? Oh, so you can, I want you to think through what's a worksheet that you need to create a Google off worksheet or a video or a resource right next so that your one-on-one clients can have that, but also in a course you're putting it in a right order and letting your clients pick from that, right? Which is, someone asked me this week, you know, they were joining getting Coach and they were like, Anna, like, you know what's I, I don't, you know, part of getting coach is you create a coaching framework for your clients, you know, and I think there can be a lot of fear around that.
Anna Rapp (41:44):
It's so funny, we're so fast to be like, I wanna make an online course, but then we're like, I don't wanna make a coaching framework. And I'm like, Mm. Right? And I think in getting coach, I teach you two different types of framework models. One is called a flexible framework and one is called a fixed framework. I'm a big fan of once you go to create your courses, having a fixed framework, right? For example, when you do get in coach, it's 12 weeks of like step, step, step. Here's the 12 steps. You don't even have to think your brain can go on autopilot. I get that you're busy, You just follow these 12 steps and by the end you're gonna be shocked and amazed with where you're at in three months, right? I think a fixed framework is best for courses because mo you're not there as much to personalize it, right?
Anna Rapp (42:29):
When you're in a one one coaching relationship, it can't be a flexible framework. What I mean by that is you're getting clear on like these are the pillars, these are the types of things that we cover in our time together. But based on where you're at, we might cover them in a different order. We might skip some things, right? But I do think at minimum as a coach, you need to have a flexible framework in your business. Because that's what gets our clients' results. And it what helps us to know too, if our clients aren't getting results, how do we change our framework? How do we change our process to get them more results, right? Okay. My loves next question is what works for you and your lifestyle where, where you are in this season? I find that what works for one coach doesn't work for another.
Anna Rapp (43:13):
Oh, I think you're making a comment. I absolutely agree. Nina is saying what works for you in one season of your life in your business may not work for you in another season. What works for one coach in their business may, I mean, it's just a hundred percent true, right? I think I especially saw this when my babies were really small and their nap schedules were always changing. I realized that like I had to redo my ideal week like every four weeks. And I know that sounds really depressing, but it was actually really empowering <laugh>. And so I really want you to ask yourself, when's the last time you redid your schedule? Are you happy with right now I do most of my, most of my coaching calls, whether it's one on one or my group mastermind or my courses on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, right?
Anna Rapp (43:54):
So if your client of mine, you know, like that's when I do my coaching that wasn't always the case for me, but that feels really good right now because that gives me a lot of flexibility if my kids have holiday on Monday, Friday, right? And so I think it's really asking yourself, like Nina saying in every season, what works for you when it comes to your business? Totally agree with that. Okay. Mina said, your sweet, kind, heart centered nature and have that client attracts you to, I really, I mean, not to like make a general statement, but I really do have the best audience. Like you really are the best community. You really, you make it so easy for me to show up in my business and I just thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is why I after and doing a giveaway in the for a free fall drink.
Anna Rapp (44:39):
Did you guys see that? Make sure that you enter if you haven't yet, because what inspired that was at number one, I, there was some shs happening in someone else's business and I was like, I just love the heart center entrepreneur community. Like, there's like no drop, like literally no problems ever. And you guys are just like the highest buy place online. So I just wanted to say thank you. Also what inspired me is it doesn't feel like fall weather yet, but I'm like wanting to fall, so I'm like, can we just talk about fall drinks? And you guys did not disappoint with the hot apple cider, the hot coco, the pumpkin spice latte, and also some other drinks that I've never heard before. So hi sweet Denise. Denise says, It seems like you only have one program at a time. Ooh, great, great. Great question.
Anna Rapp (45:27):
How did you decide which one to run at a time and how long in between and how long before they return? This is a great question. I think what you're saying, Denise, is I really launch one program at a time, but I have multiple programs running behind the scenes simultaneously. Okay. Feel free to ask nuance questions to this. Any of the questions around the scaling, Like, I wanna be fully transparent in how I've been able to scale my coaching practice to multi six figures on super part-time hours, super low stress. Like anything you like, I'm an open book. Ask me all the questions, ask me all the questions again, especially for, I know I talk about three scaling models, but the ones I primarily use are one to many and massive outsourcing. I do massive outsourcing, I do one to many and I do the support coach piece on occasion on occasion, but not too much because I like the coaching <laugh>.
Anna Rapp (46:20):
Now it's, and here's the other thing. In business just cause you can, doesn't mean you should. I tell us to my clients who are scaling all the time, my clients said I'm multi six figure businesses. When they're like, Anna, I don't wanna outsource this thing. I'm like, is it because there's scarcity or is it because you don't wanna outsource it because you like doing it? They're like, and I really like doing it, whatever it is, right? And I'm like, then keep it. It's OK to not be strategic if it's a savvy business mode because at the end of the day then we're just scaling to scale and we're not creating a business we love, right? But a lot of times too, it can be like resistance. Like I'm afraid to let someone else have the login to my social media account because what if they screw things up?
Anna Rapp (46:57):
I'm afraid to let my assistant manage client billing because what if something happens to my client is unhappy, right? That's different. We need to work through the mindset stuff that keeps us from trusting and letting go of our team and letting go of control. Anyone else, <laugh>. But it's okay to not scale in the ways that don't align with you. Right? Okay. So the answer to this question about how, so my just practically, I have a, my main program is with Heart, my Mastermind and that runs all the time. So that runs January through July and then January through June and then July through December, right? So the next round by the way, wait list is gonna be opening soon for the next round of Sell With Heart that's gonna be running in January. And so I'm gonna be marketing that next month, right?
Anna Rapp (47:49):
So that program is always running, but I market it two times a year. I just find that six months, a lot of people do one month, one year masterminds. I don't think that that's bad, but I just think it gives my clients more choice. Like it's long enough to where I really want women that are really into a massive growth sell in their business or life when they're doing so with Heart, right? Like, I'm ready to go all in in this next chapter with you, Anna. And so I find six months is the amount of time that we're able to make traction, right? But then at the six month mark, most of my clients continue in ma the Mastermind again and again. But I like to give them the option. That way they can decide, is this aligned for me in this next chapter, or do I wanna do something else?
Anna Rapp (48:30):
Right? So I think it's like that great compromise between a committed length for results, but also some like freedom and autonomy there, because like we talked about, like things happen change so quickly in business. I think four of the women, or three or four women right now in that program are pregnant or just had babies. So I think it's like a lot of my clients are in seasons of life that are like changing and a lot is developing and growing. And so like I love that, but I also think I really like to give my clients like a lot of like freedom and autonomy in the area, right? So that program is running all the time, right? For my, my courses, right? So if we're getting coach, I run that two times a year, right? That is three months in length.
Anna Rapp (49:17):
And I'm marketing that two times a year. And then in between I market my smaller programs. Like you guys may have purchased phone detox, it's like 27 bucks, right? You guys have may have purchased my sales master class that's $47, right? So I do those things in between. And what I do is in Sell With Heart, we talk about this at the start of every quarter, at the start of every three months, I think it can be so good to look at your calendar and decide what am I, what am I doing for the next three months so that I can kind of be laid out, right? So I do the same thing, but on a bigger scale with my team, we look at the whole year and we say, we plug in the pieces. When is Anna gonna market her masterminds?
Anna Rapp (49:57):
When is Anna gonna market her courses and then fill in the other things in between. Let me know if that helps. And so I think there is a distinction between like what happens behind the scenes in your business. Again, that system of how you make things run smoothly behind the scenes, and then how you make the system of your marketing work. And it sounds crazy, but those two things are separate. Those two things are somewhat separate, right? Let me, if that makes sense. Or you're like okay, Denise says, At what point did you, you start hiring help? Okay, my first thing that I outsourced in my business was my laundry <laugh>. Very early on, I don't even think I was making money in my business yet, to be honest, I'm a fan of like, outsourcing as soon as you're financially able, even if you're not making money in your business yet.
Anna Rapp (50:40):
Because I think like as women, our greatest and our greatest resources are time, right? And so for me, I knew that that would start saving me time. And so at the time I worked at a college and so I hired a college student to come over and fold my laundry. Bless her. That was the biggest blessing ever. I still to this day have a laundry. Now I have a laundry service where I leave it at my front door. Did that this morning, it's gonna come back all nicely. Not just washed but folded because who here washes laundry and it just sits, unfolded for who knows how long, right? That's the biggest blessing ever. Like, I don't know how they fold laundry. This company like, it's like military style folding like my clothes out. Like I don't even wanna like use them because the, like the shirts are so beautiful.
Anna Rapp (51:25):
Like the pillowcases are so nicely stacked, right? So I think as women, one of the first things that we can outsource is any sort of mental, emotional labor we're taking on in our house. Whether it's, and again, like the things, what's gonna work for you isn't gonna work for me, right? But like, maybe it's laundry, maybe it's oh, then also for me it was a 10 hour week nanny, right? My babies were really bitty and so it didn't make sense to put them in school yet. I didn't, didn't feel a line for me personally to put them in daycare, though I do, I don't think there's anything wrong with daycare. And so for 10 hours, or she might have even been like six hours a week, honestly, six hours a week. And it felt really weird because I was like, I started my business to be a mom, but I realized that I could be a more patient mom if I was able to really focus during those six hours, right?
Anna Rapp (52:11):
So my first outsourcing was childcare, laundry, and then in my business same thing. I hired a college student part-time to do some like VA admin work. And I always say when you're getting ready to do your first hire, we talk about this all with heart, right? It is so important that you find the right person. I think it's so easy to obsess over like what are they gonna do? But like all you have to know is one thing that you're gonna have them do. Like, let's say it's like schedule your social media post for you, right? If you are in the financial ability to hire someone for two hours a week to schedule social media posts for you, do it right? And then from there you can grow their hours. You can grow what they're doing for you, right? But I think we so hold off from outsourcing and I think we really shouldn't because I think in outsourcing we're able to start releasing that control, you know?
Anna Rapp (53:03):
So let me know if the answers you there. Mia says, I used to outsource emails and blogs and still will give that person my ideas. I hated giving her ideas and then I decided to do it for myself again. And I found in love writing emails. Exactly. You get to decide what parts of your marketing you want support with and what parts you don't. Right? I always encourage you guys too, you know, have visibility to really get clear on like the things that you like the most. Do you like to write? Do you like to hop on video? What comes most natural to you? And how can you lean into that? Right? I love that Mina. And so that now that you know, hey, I actually like writing emails, right? And here's what I find too. Especially if you love doing something in your business, if you try to outsource it, you're gonna be really picky and try to control too much, right?
Anna Rapp (53:52):
So probably like if you love those emails, it's almost like you're gonna have some resentment against someone else doing it. Cause I could never do it as good as you, right? What's just like a whole nother topic. It's okay if our team isn't as good as us, not things right. But so nice to know like this is the marketing thing that maybe it's not efficient, but I don't care because I love writing my emails and that's gonna come through, right? Okay. I love that so much, so, so much. Camita says, My puck says, or editor and strategist holds me accountable for deadlines. It's so true, isn't it? Isn't it so? Oh, that's what I was saying about getting coach. That's the nice thing about getting coach is every Thursday you have to turn in the worksheet to me, right? And I think like there's something powerful about that, about holding that accountability in that space for our clients.
Anna Rapp (54:39):
Like, don't be afraid to hold your clients accountable because even if they, like I said, deadlines for my clients, and if my clients miss a deadline, I'm not like, how dare you? I'm like, okay, well maybe it was a busy week, right? Or I'm like, okay, maybe there's a mindset block or a fear or a question or like, I think as a coach we need to be really a strong leader for our clients. We need to be Seve, we need to hold our clients accountable, but with this really gentle and detached energy of like, if you don't meet the deadline, it doesn't mean anything. We're gonna set this big goal, but if you don't meet that goal, who cares? You know what I mean? Like, and I want you to even ask yourself, do I need to be better at having that structure? When my clients, as we called me ruthless, I was like ruthless.
Anna Rapp (55:21):
But she meant it in a way of like really having that strong leadership, but also being super gracious, super gentle, super non-judgmental, right? You guys know before coaching, I was a therapist in my former life and one of the biggest, biggest things they teach you as a therapist is unconditional positive regard. I included this in my coaching skills workbook, unconditional positive regard. It was developed by a man named Carl Rogers. And this is one of my favorite coaching skills ever. And it's just really this belief of accepting our clients as they are, knowing that they are trying their best at all times. And just really having this unconditional attitude of grace, of love. I really think it's like how God sees me with this heart of like grace and kindness and love. And I think if we can see our clients this way, that they're trying their best, that they're doing their best, that they're amazing humans, that they're withstanding hard things, then we can also be the other piece.
Anna Rapp (56:16):
And we can also expect a lot out of them. We can also hold the bar high. We can also drive them to, to things that they didn't know that they were possible of. We don't have to baby them. We can trust that they can stand up, that they can figure it out, right? I think that duality is important. Okay. So, so good. Okay. So grateful for you ladies, so thankful to be here. And remember, if you are interested in getting Coach Cart closes two night, three months of support with me for your business will not be offered till next year. And if you're interested in my mentorship the cool thing too is if you do getting coach and then move to my mastermind, you get, you may get a small incentive to join the Mastermind too. Okay? My loves have a beautiful rest of your Friday and thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here with me.
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.