What is up guys? Happy Tuesday and welcome back to my blog!
My name is Ortal Levitan, aka The Workout Unicorn on all social media platforms. So, I want to let you guys know before we start this blog, it’s going to be a little bit different. I did a poll on my Instagram account and I asked if people wanted more business-oriented blogs on my page, and it was a resounding, yes. So, I listen to the people and I give them what they want.
In today’s blog I’m going to be talking about things that you need and things that you don’t need when you’re launching your coaching business. Now this is obviously applicable to people that have an online coaching business because I know a lot of my followers and a lot of the content that I create is geared towards people that have an online coaching business, whether it is fitness or any other type of coaching or online service.
And so, this blog is for all of you guys because I get asked this question so much. Even though I made a gazillion post on Instagram, I keep having this question slide into my DM, so I figured I would just make a blog and I’d address it here so that I can redirect people and they can read my response instead of me having to type out seven different paragraphs answering this.
Okay, so let’s dive in. What do you not need when you’re launching a coaching business? I know that there is going to be a bunch of business coaches out there and different coaches that’ll be like, “No, I disagree with this.” We all have our opinion. I have been doing this for a while and these are things that I wish someone had told me when I first launched my business, because I invested a bunch of time and money, and frustration unnecessarily on things that I didn’t really need until later on.
So, when you are first launching your coaching business, the main thing that you do not need, listen to me, you do not need a website. Can you hear me? Did you hear me? Good. You don’t need a website. For the love of God, I see so many coaches that are just starting off, you have no clients, no money. You have a very small following. Very few people even know who you are or the fact that you’re launching a business, and you’re about to drop 5k on a website. Why? Nobody’s going to visit this website. No offense, nobody knows who you are. They’re not going to redirect to your website. They don’t care, so you don’t need a website. That is the first thing I want to say.
Now, again, the only caveat to this is if you actually have a product that you’re selling, like an actual tangible product, then you obviously do need a website. You need to have a place where people can purchase from you and where they can go through the whole funnel of purchasing the product, inputting that information on credit card, et cetera. Unless you have a product, you do not need a website.
Now, another little tip guys, if you’re starting a coaching business, please don’t start it off with a $30 e-book, whatever, because in that case you will need a website. Nobody’s going to slide into your DM asking for your e-book. If you’re starting a coaching business, start it off with one on one high-ticket clients, but that’s for a totally other video.
So, the first thing that you do not need is a website. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please do not drop 5k, 3k, 2k, any k or any money on a website that you do not need. Okay? That’s the first thing.
The second thing, and this is going to kind of go against what everybody thinks. You don’t need a very big following to have a successful online business. I know, I know, coming from the person that has a huge following and literally built her business on it, you don’t need it. Okay?
I’m going to be honest with you. Does it help? Heck yeah, of course it helps. It helps when you have 250,000 eyeballs looking at every post versus 500 eyeballs. With that being said, and I’ve talked about this in a different video, so feel free to scroll through my videos, kind of learn more about my philosophy and how I approach social media, but it’s more important to have 500 targeted, loyal followers that support you and care about you and love your content, than 250,000 followers who are not targeted or not from your niche and are random dudes just looking at your page because they hope you have a nice ass pic. I said it, there, I said it.
So, you don’t need a lot, a huge following. You really, really don’t. You can be very, very successful with 500 followers. I have clients that we start off and they make their first six figures off of less than 3,000 followers. So, just going to say that there would.
With that being said, if you guys are looking to grow your following, especially if you are an influencer or a blogger in those cases, yes, you do need a huge following. The bigger the better, honestly. You should check out my Instagram Guru course, it is linked below. It will solve all your problems when it comes to figuring out how to grow an Instagram, what to post, what not to post, how to get the followers and the engagement that you so desperately need to get those paid collaborations.
But, if you’re an online coach, I said it, you don’t need a huge following, you can do just fine with 500 as long as you have the right strategy in place to attract clients into your business and to have them see your content and engage with them.
A big part of that is figuring out your niche and figuring out who your ideal client is. With that being said, another thing you don’t need is a funnel. Y’all, this is the buzzword for me. I’m not even kidding, the word funnel, I can’t even. It gave me so much stress when I first heard it, because first of all, I didn’t know what the heck a funnel was. People kept talking about this damn funnel and I was like, “What’s a funnel? What is … Can someone define what a funnel is?” I had no idea what a funnel was and it pissed me off.
So, that’s a buzzword for me, but now that I know what a funnel is, it is such a hot key word. Everybody’s like, “You need a sales funnel. You need a funnel to attract the clients. You need a marketing funnel. You needed this …” You don’t need any damn funnels. The only funnel you need is in your kitchen or for changing the oil on your car. You don’t need a funnel. Okay? Literally, if you’re just starting your coaching business, please, please, please don’t make this mistake.
I had one of my clients make this mistake before they started working with me. They went and they paid someone $10,000 to build a sales funnel for them. They had 57 followers, I think. They had no website. They had no structure to their business in place, nothing, but they went and dropped 10k on a sales funnel because this person told them that this would solve all their problems.
So, I’m here to tell you that it will not. You do not need a sales funnel. Okay? You don’t need any sort of funnel, focus on getting the authority that you need within your niche. You build yourself as the authority figure within your niche, within your market, so that people find you to be the expert in your field. Get one on one clients, get high-ticket one on one clients, and that will be the best place to start for your coaching business. Okay.
So, those are three things that you don’t need and I hope that they save you some cash because you really don’t need them when you’re just starting off.
With that being said, what do you actually need? There are two things that you need. One is a necessity, one is a recommendation. So, the first thing that you need, and this is a necessity guys, you need to know how to market yourself.
Now I’m not saying like market yourself in a sleazy way, or get paid for like some sort of funnel or ads, or anything like that. No. I also don’t believe that you need any ads, but I’m not going to get on that rant right now.
So, I don’t mean marketing yourself in that sense, I mean know how to show up online for your audience. So, figure out your ideal audience, figure out your ideal niche, and figure out how you can show up authentically on their page, onto your page, and really share your content, your knowledge, the value that you bring to them authentically. That’s what I mean by market yourself.
I’m not saying that you have to pay for ads or marketing in that sense, which is what everybody thinks about. No, no, I’m talking about marketing yourself in a way that your audience trusts you, and you build that loyalty with them so that later on when you do want your products, they’re already ready to buy from you because they’re like, “Yeah, this girl’s been showing up on my page so much, has given me so much value, I’m dying to work with her.” Okay? So that’s the first thing. You need to know how to market yourself. You need to know how to show up authentically on your page for your audience.
The second thing. Now this is a recommendation, but based on my experience, it is a lifesaver. Y’all need to hire a mentor. If you’re serious about your coaching business, if you’re serious about making this a full-time career and not just something that you tinker with on the side, I would strongly recommend hiring a mentor.
I hired two mentors thus far and they have both been life changing. Obviously my first mentor when I just started off, she helped me kind of figure out what I want to do and my niche, and all that. Then my second mentor, which I’m still working with now, has totally transformed my business and my mindset around business, and also has given me actionable steps.
So, those are things that I really look for when I work with a mentor is first of all the mindset. Do we share a similar mindset and can they help my mindset kind of evolve to where theirs is, so that basically like I’m going to become and I’m going to think like them, which is very effective?
The second thing is actionable steps, because one without the other is just useless. If you have a coach who’s just really good with actionable steps, the mindset’s not there, you guys are not vibing, it’s just not going to work.
I will say that mentors are pretty pricey. My first mentor was 10k, my second mentor was 25k, and I had to take out loans for both of them because like I said, I had just started my business at that point. The first one was a short-term mentor and the second one was more of like a long-term mentorship because that’s what I needed. I had already gone through the first phase of my business and I needed someone to help guide me through the second one.
With that being said, could I have figured this out by myself? Yeah, absolutely, I could have, but it would have cost me a lot more money. It would have cost me a lot more time and frustration. Honestly, a mentor is great because they are where you want to be in a couple of years, and they’re just going to guide you down the easiest path, the least frustrating paths, and the cheapest path to the success that you’re looking for.
So, technically you can figure out funnels, you can figure out ads, you can figure out how to market yourself. You can figure everything out by yourself. You’re not purchasing the knowledge, you’re purchasing the guidance essentially. You’re working with them for the guidance and for them to make your life a lot easier.
I know some people might think it is insane to pay someone 10k or 20k or 60k to help them, guide them down the path to success, but I can assure you it will make your life so much easier and also cheaper.
I know for a fact that my mentors have saved me way, way more than I actually paid them, and that alone made it worth it for me, let alone the fact that there is always someone there to guide you and tell you what to do and what not to do, and what a good idea is, and what a bad idea is. Honestly, like they just saved me so, so much money and so much frustration.
So, I would highly recommend looking into a mentor if you have an online coaching business, and if you’re serious about it. If you really just want to get from point a to point b successfully, easily, quickly, a mentor will make your life a lot easier.
So, I hope this blog helped you guys and I hope you enjoyed it. Of course, if you have any more questions, make sure to drop a comment below or shoot me a DM on workout_unicorn. I always answer my DMs 🙂 I am more than happy to make any other blogs that you guys want to see on my site. Just let me know. I will see you all next week.