Are you thinking of starting a coaching business or adding coaching services to your existing business? My guest today is Lindsay Maloney. She is an awesome coach. She is actually my coach who has helped me grow my coaching business. She specializes in teaching women how to start and scale their dream coaching businesses with simplicity and confidence. I guarantee you are going to love this episode.
We dive into doubts, fears, qualifications to being a coach, the signs of starting a coaching business and she shares the beginning steps to create coaching services. And of course, she’s going to leave you with some great advice and motivation.
Connect with Lindsay on Instagram, or visit http://www.dreamclientcommunity.com or email her at [email protected]
Full Transcription at the bottom of this blog post.
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Full Transcription:
Are you thinking of starting a coaching business or adding coaching services to your existing business? Well, let me tell you my friend, you want to make sure that you clear all your distractions because you definitely want to listen in to this episode. My guest today is Lindsay Maloney. She is an awesome coach. She is actually my coach who has helped me grow my coaching business. She specializes in teaching women how to start and scale their dream coaching businesses with simplicity and confidence. I guarantee you are going to love this episode. We dive into doubts, fears, qualifications to being a coach, the signs of starting a coaching business. She shares the beginning steps to create coaching services. She’s going to talk about Stand Out Coaching Academy. You’re going to learn about that in a minute. And of course, she’s going to leave you with some great advice and motivation.
Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to the show,
Alison, thank you so much for having me.
I’m excited to have you, and you’re actually a return guest on the show and I love having you because you’re just full of wisdom and greatness and you always show up with your energy and your positivity.
Thank you.
You’re welcome. So today we’re going to tap into coaching. Should you start a coaching business or should someone add coaching services to their existing business? Because just last year I actually made that huge pivot in my business. I dropped my stock photography membership, just totally put the brakes on it. Cause it was just no longer aligning with me. And I was feeling this pull to coaching and I did it. I, I switched over to coaching and you’ve been there and you’ve really helped me grow the coaching side of the business. And I’m still working with you. So give us an insight. When did you start your coaching services?
A long time ago, I started my first coaching business. It has its own. I always say 10 years or pretty soon it’s going to be 11 years. Um, when I had just had one baby and um, I decided to go into the health coaching thing because it seems like it, it seems like that’s all entrepreneurs is it’s like their gateway to getting into having their own businesses, starting out with some kind a company and then going with their, their health coaching. And then you have your, your leader and I really enjoyed it. Um, I had a huge weight loss success story and I had lost 90 pounds after having my first baby. And so I just, I just decided I’m just going to stop eating junk food and actually exercise. And I found what worked for me and everyone seemed to ask me what I was doing.
This was before Instagram was even a thing. So it was basically a lot of people that I knew would see me. I never was like, you know, massively overweight or anything, but people started to notice, you know, I looked different and they wanted to know why, and then I wanted to help them even more. So I got all kinds of different health coach certifications. I was a certified personal trainer. I had a group coaching certification. I had all kinds of stuff and I had it online, but I worked mostly with one-on-one clients at my home when my kids were in school or they were napping. I had clients come and then I had this online business kind of doing stuff online, basically writing a blog so my mom could read it and really never had no idea what I was doing. I did this for probably four or five years, zero clue what I was doing.
And then I took a course to see how I can make my business. Actually legit fell in love with the business side of it, dropped the health coaching and went full in with business coaching. So I’ve been in business coaching for five plus years, um, in, in, in my home, in my small town and in North Dakota, I always thought like, nobody everyone’s going to laugh when they hear him from North. It was the first person everyone ever meets from North Dakota. And I have my kids at home with me and I still work my full-time job. I have a full plate, but I have a multi six figure coaching business and work with women from all over the world. So if I can do it, you can do it too.
That’s awesome. I love that story. And you said something earlier that you got some qualifications to do health coaching. So I want to just tap into that because I know a lot of our listeners who are either just starting coaching, they’re thinking about coaching. I think there’s a lot of fears and doubts that set in and they feel that they need to somehow prove their qualifications to their audience. So what is your take on qualifications and then maybe share some of your initial doubts and fears and how you moved through that.
Yeah. Well, I have a business degree, but I don’t talk about that at all with, I don’t have it listed on my website. I believe that, uh, if you want to be a coach, the most important thing that you need is you need the, you need the background. So you need to have gone through the things that you’re going to be helping people do. I think credentials are useless if you don’t have a history to look back on. So you can relate to people. The reason why I got those credentials back then was they didn’t have any online programs really for me to go and take like there is now. Uh, and I just wanted to learn, I had to be legal to personal train people in, in, in real life. Uh, so that’s those credentials are for that purpose coaches. I had to believe don’t need.
I don’t look for credentials. I look for can do I believe that they can give me, help me get results? Um, do I believe that they can relate to me? So I want a coach who understands what the life of a mother is. I want a coach who understands that I am not going to, or nor do I ever want to sit in my office for 12 hours a day working on my business. No, and I want a coach who, you know, does this, this and this and that is what’s important to me. I don’t really care what abbreviations you have behind your name or what you got below on your Instagram profile. I just want to believe that you are the person for me and trusting the instinct with that. And I think that’s, I think that’s fair. I think that’s really fair. I don’t think that people would hire me because I have a business degree from 2004, like that. Doesn’t nobody cares about that.
You hit a key point when you talked about relate-ability and I think that nailed it is any person out there looking for a coach. They want to make sure that they relate to them. And that’s what drew me to you because I knew that you had kids and you were homeschooling and you built your business coaching. And you know, so I knew that I would relate to you. And like you said, I didn’t care about your past credentials. I just knew that you knew your stuff and you went through it. So now what were the signs that you saw when you decided to go into business, coaching and coach other women’s? Like, how did you know that that was right for you? Was there any telltale signs that you saw or were you getting asked by people?
That is a great question. I think the biggest thing was it was some kind of a switch that flipped in my head when I was learning. Um, that first course, it was a $250 course. And, um, it was a 30 day program. I finished it in two weeks because it just made me feel like, you know what, this is what I wish I would have went to college for. But, you know, God forbid they actually, you know, would have, I would have learned what I wanted to learn in college. That was a waste of money. And I’ve spent way more on my business than I ever did in college. And, um, I just, I loved it. And I found that I was, I could listen to podcasts all day, teaching me all the things I was doing it, I was downloading everything. I could get my hands on and putting it into the binders and just trying everything.
I was so passionate about it almost too passionate. That’s all I did is I just lived and breathed my business. I just wanted to make this happen. And then I was like, I didn’t even have the imposter syndrome come up that much because it was like, you know, I’m helping people start their online business. That’s what I started with. I wasn’t even into the coaching yet. And, uh, I, I started my online, online business. I’ve done it several times. I can help people do that. That was hard too, to put that messaging out there. Cause that’s a very broad niche. But, um, as soon as you start with a niche, you’re going to start fine tuning it as you go. So you really just have to pick something and move. And that’s what happened to me. It was, I was, you know, niche down to online businesses, which is not, not really going to do anything for you. And then, um, I decided one day I thought, well, I used to be a health coach and I consider myself a coach. I started my own coaching business there. I’m going to help people start their coaching businesses. And it just kind of, it actually just flipped on one night when I was up with my daughter. And um, I knew that’s exactly what it is. And it’s been that way ever since.
What is it about those middle of the night revelations? Cause that’s exactly what happened to me. I like shot out of bed and grabbed a handful of Keebler fudge sticks. And that was the moment right.
Yeah. Let’s take, God is waking up like finally, you’re quiet and you’re listening. So I’m just going to tell you something right now.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s powerful. So what are the beginning steps to create a coaching business or adding coaching services? Because I’m sure when someone thinks about it, they don’t even know where to start.
[inaudible] first things that I do with my clients right away as we get there, I help statement done. And there’s a technique to it. There’s a balance, a negative and a positive balance to it. We crafted together. I always try to break our record. We can usually do it within 20 to 30 minutes of that one statement that you’ve been searching for forever. Like who should I help? How should I help them? I love doing that. That is so important because that’s like the vehicle that you’re going to be taking to wherever you’re supposed to go. So one statement might, might be, you know, a car. And so that’s going to take you where you’re going to go. Once they might feel like, you know, this is like a jet plane and we’re going to go this way and you have to get in the right vehicle to go to where your destination is.
And that I think is when you get that wrong or when you don’t, when you know how it is, when you ask somebody what their, what they do and they go on and on for like 10 minutes. And then you’re like, wow, that was a lot of information. Just tell me who you help and how you help them. What are they suffering from? How what’s your special twist on it? That is the catalyst to nailing down your one-on-one sales page, your copy, your freebies, your content, your group program, all of those things that help you start and scale that one thing can change everything. So it’s so important to get it. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t, if it feels weird, just do it and then it will evolve. Maybe, maybe not, but you have to get that right, right away.
So tell us about SOCA because I’m very familiar with SOCA. So kind of, uh, give our listeners to kind of an insight here. Lindsay is actually my business coach and I am a part of her soca program. It’s an awesome, I wish I would’ve started it like two years ago, but take us through what is soca and what are the benefits of what can people get out of it if they want to grow a coaching business?
Yes. Stand up coaching Academy was created on a camping trip with a notebook and it took me a long time to put it out there. And it’s three years old, um, in February, 2021, it’s three years old. And it basically was something that I wish I had when I started all of my online businesses. Right. It was something that took me from step one and actually just told me how to do something. Instead of just fluffy stuff that made you feel like you were not getting anywhere. And the biggest thing that was so important to me was I am going to be there for my students to support them no matter what, if I have five students, a hundred students, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to be there for them as much as I can. I have never been in a program where I felt fully supported, um, to this day.
I think there’s a lot of talk. And when you join a program, you never hear from the course creator ever again, you ask the question, they have a big team who’s answering for you. And I think that’s baloney because you invested money in somebody, people save up to be in your programs. People are taking money from their family to be in your programs. And I think it’s your responsibility as a course creator or a coach to show up for those people who are there, who made a life, a life, big life change to be a part of your world. So I knew that that was so important to me. And then I’d always will be to be there for my students. So I wanted to create a place where that could always be that way. So I literally never let my students go. So they have full access to my program forever.
They can come onto the group coaching calls forever. They’re twice a month. I do feedback Friday. I give them feedback on any content that they need help with. I’m in the Facebook group every single Friday, except maybe during Christmas and Thanksgiving. Um, and I always present in the Facebook group as much as possible in the mornings I check in, I, I check everything off and I get out. Um, my students are so important to me because I know that they’re either starting from a dream in their head or they’re starting with a disaster and they need help basically clean cleaning the table off, starting over, starting the right way, doing the, exactly the, doing the exact steps that I did to get to where I am. That’s if you want to have a business, like mine sounded coaching Academy is the mirror for that. Okay.
When you said something that is so critical for coaches to really understand is not only are people investing in the program, they’re actually investing in you. And that is what I’ve learned from you. And what’s so cool about your program. It’s almost like Lindsay’s in your brain. You guys, she makes me go through like, you have like three main like modules or three main buckets in there. And it really in the beginning, it’s just a lot of mindset work, a lot of clarity. And then there’s this whole section on like, implementing, like, you’re going to get your sales page out there and you help with the copy. You help with what you said earlier. Your I help. So you’re implementing right. You’re getting clients. And then that next phase is, well, how do you scale it? Right? How do you just make it yours and scale the business? I have never seen a program like this ever. Like you said, you’ve always wanted one. You built it. And we all want that program where it’s more than the why. It’s not only the how, but during the, how you’re supported and the SoCal program is so cool. I just, I absolutely love it. And I hope you get more from today’s episode. Do you want to leave us with any advice on how to be a great coach?
Absolutely. It just goes down. It comes down to be the person that you wish you had. Um, whether that is, you know, a role model in your life, a mentor, a coach, whatever that is, um, think of past a coaches, maybe a course creator that kind of disappointed you, or you felt like that was a waste of money. What can you learn from that? And how can you be better? Everything is brought to you, um, in life, whether it’s good or bad as a lesson. So be that person you wish you had, um, B be somebody who’s generous. I always lead with generosity. You always hear me say that. When people ask me a question, I always do the right thing, lead with generosity and over-deliver, um, make people feel like, make people feel special. Some people are doing this all on their own. They don’t have family who support them.
They don’t have friends who have any idea what they do and they’re across the world and they’re trying to make this happen. They need to feel like you’re the only person in their life when you’re talking to them, whether they’re a client or a student that doesn’t matter, you just need to be that coach for them because they’re there. And sometimes it’s even hard for people to even come on Facebook and ask you a question. You need to recognize that that took a lot for them to show up, even to create a Facebook account, to be in your group. I mean, I’ve seen so much, so it’s like make them feel that their question is great. Cause it is every question is great and make them feel supported and make them feel loved and make them feel like you’re there for them. No matter what,
I love that Lindsay and I know our conversation today was a pretty quick conversation, but it was filled with a lot of juicy information. I know that this episode is going to inspire so many women to take that idea of coaching out of their heads and start their coaching business, implement what they’re learning. So I know a lot of them are going to want to connect with you. So where can they find you on social?
Well, I love hanging out on Instagram so you can go find me there and Lindsay underscore Maloney, and then you can go join my free Facebook group, just type in dream client, community.com. And then, or you can just simply please send me an [email protected]. If you have any questions, thanks Lindsay, for being
On the show. And I will make sure that all of your information is in the show notes. You guys, I highly recommend connecting with Lindsay. She is such an inspiration and she is just down to earth. So honest, she’s a rock star and I promise you’re going to love her. Thanks again.
