Ep #45: The 3 Stages of Finding Clients on Autopilot
Episode Summary
Jenna shares how she has found clients on autopilot, and how to build your business so that clients find you consistently with ease.
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Show Notes
Finding clients on autopilot is not an overnight process; it takes time, business development, and moments of failure. The entrepreneurial muscles built while developing your perfect offer, handling client calls, and creating programs are integral to forming your dream business.
As entrepreneurs, we identify a need and sell a solution. It is not a taught profession; you have to learn through experience and earn it. The timeline for building your business towards autopilot is unfixed; it is different for everyone, and it could take months or years. This is determined by you and your clarity.
This week, I discuss smart business strategy, tactics, and finding your dream clients. Finding clients on autopilot can feel both mysterious and confusing. Learn the necessary business steps towards achieving autopilot, along with methods for finding new clients.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
What “clients on autopilot” means.
Two stages of business before autopilot.
Why changing your niche won’t solve your problem.
How to get more yes’s.
Two types of traffic drivers.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Ep #41: Really Loving Your Offer with Dr. Georgeanne Freeman
Full Episode Transcript:
Do you dream of a business that's just working? Where clients come steadily and reliably, and you can focus on serving them and on actually living your life? Which, after all, is probably why you got into entrepreneurship in the first place. You're not alone. What that scene is describing is a stage of business that we can call “clients on autopilot”. Today, let's talk about the roadmap to get there.
You're listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the only podcast that helps you unlock your next level in business and life by prioritizing your clarity and your own Uncommon Way. You will learn to maximize your mindset, mission, messaging, and strategy in order to create a true legacy. Here's your host, top-ranked business coach, and reformed over-analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.
Hey, welcome back to The Uncommon Way, everyone. This is Episode 45; can you believe it? And still just scratching the surface of all the things I want to share with you. I'm planning to release a most valuable episode for the first year, and I want to know which episode you'd vote for, which felt the most helpful, so that we can share that one with new listeners that maybe aren't going to go back through our entire library.
You can either leave a quick podcast review, you just go to the show page and then scroll down below the episodes where it says leave a review. Or you can drop me a DM. Whichever is easiest for you. And just let me know.
I must say I have had a great week. If you listened to last week's episode, you'll know I had a cancer scare, which luckily was a false alarm. But if you've ever been there yourself, you know that those are the moments that really put things in perspective for you. And really just helps you feel very, very present and grateful for what you have.
Last weekend, we took my son to his first amusement park, Hershey Park. We live near Hershey, Pennsylvania. Oh, wow, you guys, I was so tuned in to the joy of that lifelong memory and to seeing the delight on his little face. He is such a thrill seeker. He had us go on the biggest roller coaster that he was allowed on, probably five times. And this moment in my life, right now, it just feels like a time when you really want to hit pause. You just want to freeze time, because everything is so good.
Part of that goodness is, of course, my business. I know every coach says the clients right now, they just keep getting better and better. But I've got to say, they're just wonderful and amazing. And the business is just so much fun. I feel myself wanting to communicate with my past self and just be like, “Stick with it. Stick with it, girl.”
All right, before we go into the episode, I have to tell you about this thing that happened to me. I was talking with a friend of mine that follows two of the coaches that I follow. I have hired both of these coaches. One is my pleasure coach, and then the other one is my new business coach. My business coach is doing a launch right now that would really pertain, is a good fit, for this friend that I have.
And of course, the pleasure coach, she'll be doing another round of her program soon, too. And so, my friend was asking me for feedback about the pleasure coach. And I asked her, “But how are you able to resist the business coaching program also?” And she told me, she had sent in a message, “It's just beyond my capability right now.” And so, when we talked, I was just curious, “So what does that mean?”
My brain immediately went to money, which is unusual, because I so often I'm trying to get people out of just thinking about money, right? I noticed my own brain doing it, but that wasn't what she was talking about. She was talking about the time that she was going to spend in something because she's doing some other programs right now. And kind of the energy investment that she would give to that.
She was telling me that right now, doing the pleasure course feels like more of a priority than doing the business course. And I just wanted to pass that on. Because there are so many of you, that if you're selling something intangible, like life coaching, for instance, can get in your head about that. About how it's not as valuable to people or they won't be willing to pay for it. I had this beautiful example just fall into my lap that I just had to share with you.
People will pay for whatever is a priority to them. And of course, it's your job to show them, if you believe that what you offer is a priority to your ideal people. Which you should, and if not, come work with me. But it's your job to really to show them why it is so worthwhile for them right now.
Last week, we talked about mindset and energy. Today's episode will be all up in the head, smart business strategy. And this is for those of you who are like me, and you want a little of both. I mean, if I'm in the energy or mindset space for too long, it's like, “Okay, okay, but let's talk tactics, because this alone won't get me there.”
But then when I'm in the tactics and strategy space too long, I'm like, “Come on, you know there's more to it than that. This alone won't get me there.” So, I love to straddle those two worlds. And hopefully, you do too. I believe that's really what we do as humans anyway. Right? We have one foot in the spiritual and one in the material plane. Yeah? Yes. Okay, so let's get material.
Let's talk about your roadmap for creating clients on autopilot. Because while the process isn't necessarily the easiest thing you've ever done, if it were everyone would be doing it, that doesn't mean that it's not simple. And I want to help show you how simple it really is. We're going to zoom out. And we're going to talk about the three stages of creating clients on autopilot. Which will help you evaluate where you are now and what you're working on next.
It's also going to normalize the journey. Because there is so much talk and glamorization about clients on autopilot; kind of like passive income, it's one of those things. And it's just something that everybody seems to want and aspire to. But there's also a good share of mystery around it all, and lots of people telling you that there are solutions, the answer to that mystery.
Which can feel really confusing, because you're thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought this other thing was the answer to that mystery?” And especially when you're not experiencing this flow of nonstop clients that you imagined that you would have by now. You start wondering, “Is this going anywhere? Will it always be like this? Maybe this isn't going to work for me.” Which, if you're human, can easily cascade into, “There must be something wrong. There must be something wrong with me.”
So, let's demystify and clarify. Okay, what exactly does autopilot mean anyway? For the way I think about it, means you could do nothing, and clients will still come in. So, no matter what I do, or don't do, clients will continue to find me through Google, and they'll book calls.
It's not passive income, because there's no way to buy directly from my website. And I still show up and have discovery calls. And then of course, I personally deliver the coaching services. But because they're coming regularly, it's as if they're on autopilot.
So, as you see, autopilot doesn't have to mean fancy tech. It doesn't have to be a complicated funnel. I just have a website. And your autopilot system could be even more analog, it could be referrals, for instance. If it's coming consistently, that's autopilot.
Now, I'm about to say something which may seem obvious, but our brains like to forget this. And instead, they want to get all confused when they're not at the autopilot stage. Okay, you ready? Getting there, that doesn't just happen. There are two other stages of business that happen prior to that.
In the beginning, as a service provider, people are definitely not coming to you on auto; nobody knows you exist. You are going out and you're finding the people. All the peoples that might be networking in person or online. It might be posting in groups or on your feed. But your entire business is dependent on your active engagement in that process.
And the good news is that because you have direct contact with the people, you get to respond directly to the needs and desires and the concerns that they're expressing. You can let them know exactly how your offer can help them specifically. It's completely normal at this stage to be testing what works and what doesn't. And figuring out if you do or don't prefer to work with that type of client. And it's normal that you don't always expect people to say yes to your offer. You're building skills and confidence and evaluating everything.
This is a period of validation. You're validating your concept. You're creating proof of concept for your business. And it's meant to be messy, and trial and errorey. It doesn't mean anything has gone wrong. It means everything is going right, because you're either winning or learning.
This is the point though, where a lot of you get really frustrated and think about quitting and maybe switch niches. Ask me how I know? But don't do that. Don't switch niches unless you're working with me, and we've connected your dots, and we've found this offer that's kind of like Cinderella's slipper for you. It's just such a fit, and you can't not do it. But that is very different than changing niches or changing something major, just because things aren't working.
Now, I can imagine some of you saying, “What do you mean ‘just not working’? Not working is a really big deal.” But actually, not working, that's just one problem to solve. Right? How could I make this work? That's the problem. And answering that question is the whole point of this validation phase.
If you switch niches, you'll lose traction. And you'll take your same problems with you right into your new niche 99.9% of the time. Now, I kind of reserved that .1% for if you are selling something really far-fetched. Like, you've been trying to sell a high price point to homeless people. And so, of course, that was never going to be viable.
But typically, if we haven't figured out how to really understand what our people want, or how to message in a way that gets people to say yes, or how to have an effective sales call, or how to weed out limiting thoughts that are having us call to the wrong type of clients, etc. etc. etc. Those things don't get solved by changing your niche or changing your platform.
I've probably told the story before, but I had a client who came to me once for clarity, and she wanted to figure out what type of coaching she wanted to do. But it turns out, she already had a well-established health coaching business. And when I asked her why she wanted to change, she said it was because of the kinds of clients, and she was just sick of dragging people along to the result that they said they wanted.
So, if you've been with me long enough, maybe you can see what I saw in that statement. That it really wasn't a problem with the niche. It was how she thought about clients and the kind of clients she was calling in. Because there're all sorts of different people, there're an infinitude of people that would want to hire a health coach. And she just needed the call in the ones that were amazing for her to work with.
Once we tweaked her messaging, and got her convinced that actually these people existed, that is when she was able to start seeing that materialize for her, and actually love her business again. But I'm not going to deny that is frustrating, when you're not bringing in the number of clients you want, or you're not bringing in the type of clients you want. Things seem really unpredictable and you're like, “Oh, what's going on?” and you're tearing your hair out. We've all been there, it's okay.
Just know that it's challenging because you've never done it before. Not because selling is especially difficult. But even know it's challenging, that challenge is the very thing that helps you develop some of the best ideas you'll ever come up with. That ‘why isn't this working’ question is what forces your brain to get creative and more creative and more creative. And build those entrepreneurial muscles, which wouldn't be happening if all the clients were just flowing to you on autopilot from day one.
When I talk about connecting the dots, and how people just need to really understand why they're doing this work, that will help them make such clear, intentional decisions about who their people are, and what that right offer is and what that messaging will be. That whole concept came to me on the spot in a sales call when I was at a point in my business where I was thinking, “Why isn't this working?” I was trying to explain this concept to someone and I came up with this idea of ‘connect the dots’. I just downloaded it in that moment and I just said it.
I got off the call and I was like, “That was a pretty damn good way of explaining it.” I don't even remember if that client said yes or no, but I do remember that when I said it that person kind of leaned in and was like, oh, and nodded their head. And I was like ding-ding-ding, right? That is worth holding on to.
And to this day, if I start to talk about that concept, people tend to be like, “Tell me more, tell me more,” and they're interested. That only came through me kind of wrestling with my brain to conceptualize everything that it already knew. And to be able to say it in a digestible way.
This challenge of the ‘why aren't things working’ phase, it also is what builds your resiliency and your determination and your self-concept and your greater understanding of your people, all the things. I knew clarity was important. I knew that aligning your business to yourself was of vast importance. But I never knew it as clearly as when I had a couple clients tell me that that wasn't important. That they really just wanted the steps really quickly of how to make money.
And that was when, obviously at first, felt all the feelings, felt the shame, the questioning, the maybe they're right, maybe I'm a fraud. Oh, boohoo, this is so terrible. And then, when my emotion cycled back into a little bit more fire, I finally realized I would have given my right limb for this, it's that important. I would have given anything. And dammit, I'm going to go find the clients who also desperately want that clarity.
I was talking to a woman the other day, and she was saying that she'll spend now three months or so thinking about how she's going to rearrange her living room, for instance. Obviously, it's happening in her business as well, that's why she came to me. But we were going through and thinking about where else is it in her life. And she was realizing that she'll spend three months of her life and her brain space, thinking about whether or not to make this decision, before actually making this decision.
There are so many people who are just hungry for clarity. They just want to know that all of the pieces connect in their business. And it was my job to go find them. It helped me begin the work of, okay, what was it in my psyche and in my messaging that had called to those people, rather than had called to these other people that I knew were out there. So, this is extremely valuable work. Can I say that again? This is extremely valuable work.
Because what you're doing now sets you up for success for life, if you're building a business for life. And you know what? Even if you're not building a business for life. Because you're building the skills to create whatever business you want. And that is really what takes you out of being an employee and following what everyone tells you to do, and makes you into an entrepreneur.
And as service providers, it makes us recession proof and industry disruption proof, and just generally very financially secure people. Because what you're doing is learning how to identify a need and sell a solution. Meaning that if you're a coach, and then they invent a ChatGPT for coaching, for instance, and coaches become obsolete; doubtful, but let's just go there, could happen.
Even then, you'd be able to take what you've learned, look around, and just reapply what you already know to something else. You would identify a need, and you would sell a solution. People study for years to be doctors, years to become master electricians, but entrepreneurship is the best career of all. And putting in some of the job training, even if that's two years or five years or 10 years, so what? Given the fulfillment and flexibility and earning potential that it provides. It's okay, you'll be okay.
We're not taught to be entrepreneurs; we have to learn it. And you're not entitled to be an entrepreneur; you have to earn it. I don't care how much you used to make in your day job, or how respected you were, or how valuable you think your offer is, or how much you've invested, or how strongly and emphatically you believe that it should have already happened by now.
Nobody predicts their path in advance with any accuracy. Some move faster than they expected. Some moves slower. But we all have our lessons to learn. As long as you stick with it and you don't give up, you will figure it out. Phew! I’m getting passionate up in here. So good.
Okay, let's move on to the next stage. The next stage, I call “clients on demand”. And that's a trademark term, I believe. I'm not referring to a business building program here, I'm referring to the stage you're in when you're able to get clients when you want them. It means that you have found a specific vehicle that you know will create clients and will create the kind of clients that you want.
You still have to go do the thing, but you know that there's some guarantee there. And invariably, it'll attract a person or a certain number of people who will want your offer. Now, that could be a webinar or a workshop. It might even be one specific post which leads to some sort of little offer or something.
It's basically like a one-on-one webinar, but more conversational. That's what I used to use when I was at that stage. You can listen to an episode called “The Birthday Cake Strategy” to learn more about that.
But it could also be as simple as a conversation with really tight messaging. You all heard Dr. Georgeanne Freeman on the podcast a couple of episodes ago. When she says, “I work with women over 40 who are feeling old and tired, but really don't need to.” When she says that to a woman over 40 who's feeling that way, that woman invariably will be like, “Wait, what? Huh?” And then there's a conversation flow, that makes it a no-brainer for that woman to want to hop on a discovery call to find out more.
Or perhaps you're creating referral business. And you know that if you ask current and past clients to refer you, using a certain type of language or incentive or whatever it is, that results in at least one client. Then that is your client’s on demand system; doesn't have to be fancy.
So, when you've created this ability for yourself, when you know how to accelerate the buyers journey for your right clients, and get them the help they need, sooner rather than later, then it becomes a numbers game. If I get in front of this many of my type of people, then this many tend to be interested. And then this many become clients.
I remember back in the day, when I was booked out and I had a spot opening up, I’d just go out and put out a post in a specific type of group and bring on my next client.
Now, the timeline, y'all might want to know the timeline for developing that type of clarity. It's different for everybody. You guessed it. But it doesn't have to take years and years. It could take months. It's really about how willing are you to assertively test?
Versus how much are you going to try and hold back from doing that and let your brain lead you into easier endeavors that feel less vulnerable for you. Like, just putting out posts all the time, but not actually inviting people to take that next step, so that you can learn from them saying no.
My mentor, Brooke Castillo, has a great way of talking about business that makes it so, so simple. Which is, the number of yeses is equal to the number of offers you make, minus the number of nos you receive. So, if you can increase the number of nos you receive, by making more and more offers, you invariably get more yeses.
That is not how our brain thinks, naturally. Our brain wants to do everything it can to reduce the number of nos. But it doesn't realize that in reducing the number of nos, it is drastically reducing the number of yeses. If it wants more yeses, it needs to increase the number of nos. Brooke has, I think, a $40 million business at this point. And she just says, “I just make a lot more offers than other people do. I'm constantly getting nos everywhere. Putting out new offers, making new offers, and getting a hell of a lot of nos.”
Okay, so when you've created that vehicle, and again, it might be a fancy webinar funnel or it could be a simple conversation; you'll notice I keep going back to the fact that those possibilities there infinite. And I'm doing it because too many entrepreneurs get caught believing that one type of vehicle is inherently better than another, right?
And their problem is just that they don't know how to do that specific thing. Rather than understanding that it's the wizard, not the wand that creates the results. That what's really going on, the real problem, the root of the problem, is likely something with your messaging or your confidence or your mindset or energetics.
And of course, I'm also opening up the possibilities because I believe so passionately in the uncommon way. In the fact that you can create your business however you want it. And that we all create a different type of business because we're all different people.
But when you do find that clear path for your buyers, and you know that if I regularly do that thing/say those things, then clients come in. This is when you know you're ready to automate, and you're ready to move yourself into the final stage.
So that stage, that stage of automation, is about you knowing what you're saying to them, that helps them move through their buyer’s journey. If you're on social media and you put out content, and each month X-many buyers tend to come in, but you don't know what specific messaging is helping them book that call or press buy on your cart or whatever it is, then I'm sorry to tell you but you're still probably not ready.
Because trying to automate might just make you want to tear your hair out, because you just don't really know. It could be this part of the post. It could be that part of the post. Maybe it was this post plus this other post plus this other post. There's too much complexity and not enough clarity. We're looking for a simple, repeatable process.
I used to work in fashion, and it's like a fit sample. So, the designer comes up with a design, sends it to the manufacturer, they create a sample, which gets sent back to the design house so that they can test it on a real person.
They can see how it hangs and moves, and maybe take a nip here and a tuck there. And then when it works, that's when they send it back to the manufacturer to have it mass produced. You just keep cutting the fabric in that exact same way, and stitching it in the same way, and you have predictable, consistent results.
So, to bring this back to service businesses, you're ready to create this for yourself. You're ready to create a way for people to receive the information without speaking directly to you. So, like with the fit sample, if I'm going to buy something from my favorite designer, that designer doesn't need to come meet with me and fit the fabric to my body.
The designer has created the prototype that works, and knows that piece of clothing is also going to work for other people with a body more or less like the body that they fit the clothes to in the first place.
Now, in a service business, the vehicle that delivers your message that could be again, a website, an evergreen webinar, ads, your social media bio, maybe a nurture sequence is added into that. But what's important is what are your people need to know and understand. So that when they step into that, they're like, wow, great fit, this works. And they feel a resonance that compels them to take action. Like, this dress was made for me.
And then the automation phase, is where you're driving more eyeballs. Hopefully they're qualified eyeballs. But you're giving more people access to this asset you've created. Maybe you're a guest on other people's podcast, and there you deliver the messaging that's such a great fit for your people. Or maybe you're running Facebook ads too, a webinar. Whatever it is, the good news is that there are only two types of traffic drivers: paid and free. Yeah, it's that simple.
Now, you have more control with the paid methods. That's why they cost so much; that's a difference. Facebook has a very sophisticated algorithm that can find people very similar to the person that showed an interest in your app. And Google has a very, very targeted, warm-lead people looking for exactly what that search sequence is.
And that's more precise than if you're promoting to a friend's audience, for instance. Which would be a free audience driver. But those may or may not be your people.
Okay, last thing, some of you may be thinking, “Jenna, why can't I just skip over the pain of all that stage one and two stuff, and just create some course or passive income product?” I know so many people get into entrepreneurship with that dream. And I want you to know that you can, but I'll tell you what I've seen watching people around me win and lose in that endeavor.
What I've seen is that, A- there really is no such thing as true passive income. There's always work involved. And B- the majority of people who are successful with passive income products have a lot of previous skill that they channel into that business.
I have a client who just created one, but she had a years of experience before that with Facebook ads, with creating copy, and with putting together simple websites that really drive people to take action. She'd really lived the experience herself, helped other women, and had formulated her thoughts before in the form of a book.
And so, just like there's no such thing really and truly passive income, there's really also, not truly an overnight success. Because the two are interrelated. The skills and mindset you have built are really what facilitate the success that you can achieve.
Alright, my friends, I hope that brought some clarity and some insights. And I hope you, if you're listening to this in real time, have a wonderful spring week.
Hey, if you're a coach who wants true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.
Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to TheUncommonWay.com/schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.
Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First Strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit TheUncommonWay.com. See you next time.
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